Bottle Garden Grow Insert

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Edit 1/24/2020: Day Four. See new cover image. Unqualified success! At least for now. If you put a sticker over the top (which you probably should), it makes a little mini greenhouse. But once you see the seed sprout up, pop the top. You wouldn't want to pull your sprout out with the sticker, would you?

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Edit 1/21/2020: This is an experiment. I don't know all the answers, but please feel free to ask questions, and I'll help as I can. I'll try to post more pictures as the sprouting and growing happens (or doesn't happen!) over time.

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This is my first attempt at creating a "vase" in Fusion 360. I think it was a success.

Well, except for the holes.

Should a vase have holes?

Well, this isn't a vase. I mean, it's a vase...with holes. A small vase, like a bud vase.

I can hear you asking: "But...how will it stand up on its own?"

It's not supposed to!

You're supposed to put it inside of a bottle, stuff the inside with some sort of growing medium, fill the bottle with water and nutrients, and then stick a few seeds in the top.

What type of growing medium? First off, don't use "rockwool." Stuff is the opposite of biodegradable, and probably carcinogenic. Try something like coconut coir. That's what I've got on order from Amazon today, so I can try it out:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z9M4VY8/

What nutrients? Well, I think you can look on Amazon and get some fairly generic hydroponic nutrients. This is what I bought, and will be arriving today:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TVK83GP/

What seeds? Heck if I know! Just pick something that grows small, otherwise, it's going to topple your bottle. Or you can go all bonzai, and trim it every day, and that'd be cool.

I bought a bunch of seed packets from Home Depot for my Miracle Gro Twelve system, and used literally 12 seeds (four pods, three seeds max per pod). So I roughly have 1,000 assorted seeds left. I'm sure one of them will work for this experiment.

What type of bottle? Well, in the picture I shared, I'm using a Blenheim Ginger Ale bottle, because I had two in my recycling, and I wanted to test this thing out physically.

DO NOT USE CLEAR GLASS BOTTLES.

Why? Something about the red and green light messing with the water, and doing algae stuff or something. I don't know.

This is my first time. I'm going to throw caution to the wind, and use my two clear bottles, but I don't recommend it.

Drink some beer, in brown or green glass bottles, and then wash the bottle out. Use that. You'll be glad you did.

Now, this is the first iteration. Well, the "first" iteration didn't have holes, and looked like a sex toy. I just wanted to make sure it would fit. In the bottle. Pervert.

Then I added the holes. I made them 2mm, so that the water could get in, but the growing medium would stay where I put it. I made the whole thing around 5" (120mm) because that's what the professional ones out there looked like.

These are all guesses!

If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below. I love improving my design. Keeps my Fusion 360 skills fresh.

Please share makes and remixes. I love seeing comments and likes here.

Oh, right, so the first iteration is around 17mm thick at its "widest" point. The little "cup" is supposed to stay above the top of the bottle, for some reason.

Also, the professional bottle growing people have a clear sticker that goes over the top, which you're supposed to pull after the seed germinates. 2-5 days or so? Just use any clear sticker you have laying around. I think that keeps in greenhouse gases or something. Wait, those are a bad thing, right? Maybe it keeps the heat and humidity inside like a greenhouse. That's not bad, right?

On a side note, I have no idea how PLA reacts to water in the long-term. And I'm sure ABS has some sort of toxic chemicals that will leech into the water. So think about these things before you eat any of the things you grow in this.

Me? I'm going to use it for ornamental stuff at first, but I might graduate to herbs and, with larger bottles (wine? tequilla? gin?) I might even try tomatoes or something.

There is a chance that this might be a 100% fail.

BUT...

That's only on the growing side. On the "things that look like plastic sex toys, with holes" side of things, I've succeeded, regardless of the outcome. Winning!