Self-Watering Insert for House Plants

prusaprinters

Self-watering pots are great for easily maintaining house plants.  But unfortunately they limit design choices - and at least for me, I have a number of flower pots that are of sentimental value and that I'd prefer not to replace.  This design retrofits those pots to function as a self-watering container.  The reservoir holds water that is then distributed to the soil via wicks. A screen holds the soil above the reservoir, and the ‘snorkel’ allows you to add more water and monitor water level.I printed in PLA; about 3.5 hours on a Prusa Mini+ using input shaper.  The screen uses regular window screen on top of a frame.  The wicks I used were cut up strips of an old t-shirt, but you could use any sort of wicking fiber. I've found in the first two pots that this works almost too well, and I did need to plug the holes in the bottom of the pot so that the wet soil doesn't drip down to the base.There are two sizes of stl here for the first two pots I used, and the fusion 360 file is included as well - use the Fx variable definitions to change as you need.   Note that these STLs include 2 parts - you have to split them into individual objects in your slicer and print the screen frame separate from the main body.