How a Wine Bottle Can Help Your Plants

For the most part, when people are done with their bottle of pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon, they toss the empty wine bottle into the trash or recycling. But if you’ve got a garden or a particularly large houseplant, you might just be able to repurpose that bottle.

As it turns out, you can use an empty wine bottle as a slow watering system for your garden and houseplants.

While you might have visions of needing to drill through glass or cut a bottle in half in order to use this plant watering hack, that’s not the case. All you need to do is fill a wine bottle half to three-fourths of the way full. Then, quickly flip it over and shove the mouth into the soil. Allow a few moments to let the water settle and ensure the bottle stays upright.

Over time, as the soil becomes dry, water will steadily seep from the bottle, keeping your plant water without you doing a single thing. The water’s weight distribution stops the water from flooding the soil. Essentially, it acts as drip irrigation over the course of a few days.

Of course, flipping an empty wine bottle of water upside down seems like a recipe for a mess for some of us. Water could go everywhere if you’re not careful. But if you’re still interested in try this, there are a few options.

First, you can cover the mouth using a plastic bag. Make sure the plastic is flush over the bottle top and secure it with a rubber band. Then, poke a small hole in the plastic. Now, when you flip the bottle upside down to insert it, you won’t have a mess but water will still flow. Second, if you’re not feeling the DIY route, you can purchase watering spikes that will fit right over the bottle.

Whether you often forget to water your plants or will be out of town, this clever plant watering hack using a wine bottle might be the solution to keeping your plant babies happy.