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This is the Water Spike, a manual watering tool used to give each plant the same dose of water, slowly dripping…
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updated March 17, 2025

Description

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This is the Water Spike, a manual watering tool used to give each plant the same dose of water, slowly dripping (Version 2.1) or flowing (Version 4) onto the ground next to the plant. This limits the horizontal spread of the water, applies as much as possible directly to the plant and as less as possible to the unwanted weeds nearby.

This is the basic idea, at least. Depending on the structure and clay content of the plant bed's ground it might work more or less well. I would advise to only make a few, test them carefully and then decide what's working for you.

 

Notes: 

PLA should work, PETG is recommended since the ground can get surprisingly hot in the summer sun.

 

Description

 

How to make the Water Spike

The image below shows how the Water Spike is built. It is actually pretty easy:

  • a: Find a small plastic bottle (500ml in my case).
  • b: Remove all labels, etc.; unscrew the cap.
  • c: Cut the bottom of the bottle away. Shorten the bottle according to your needs.
  • d: Screw the 3D-printed spike to the bottle.

 

Different Versions

As shown below the Water Spike can be used in different configurations.

  • Left image: Version 2.1 has four small holes. It can be used as is, which leads to four small water streams comming out the bottom. This is essentially medium discharge rate.
  • Middle image: Version 2.1 can also be filled with small-grained gravel. This makes the water drip out slower and leads to a low discharge rate.
  • Right image: Version 4 has one 5mm (about 1/5th of an inch) diameter hole in the middle. The water will flow out pretty quickly (but still much slower then from a watering can) which makes it hard to clog.

 

Known Issues

Version 2.1 can clog relatively easily when the holes touch the ground itself. This is especially true for clay-rich soil. On the other hand Version 4 let's the water flow out more quickly. It is much harder to clog (still possible by clay-rich soil) but it can lead to a lot of water flowing away if the ground is not level.

Best practice would be to maybe print both and experiment around with them.

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Model origin

The author marked this model as their own original creation. Imported from Thingiverse.

License