Pipe for Sub-Irrigated Planters

Gardening is difficult. I'm someone who has a hard time remembering to give myself water regularly, let alone plants that are easy to forget about.

So after watching Internet Shaquille's fantastic videos on Sub-Irrigated Planters, or SIPs, which hold their own reservoir of water that can last for a long time, I was quite excited – that is, until I found out that one of the most critical parts of the SIP, a 6 inch diameter perforated drain pipe, was nearly impossible to find at the big-box stores near me, unless I wanted to buy a 100' length of pipe for hundreds of dollars. I was immediately deflated, and nearly gave up on the project…

…until I remembered that I can just…make a pipe myself.

This model is designed to fit on the bed of a Prusa MINI+ (~7" cube), and will loosely fit in the bottom of a Home Depot bucket. The hex version is ~100 grams of PETG, takes 11 hours to print on Maker's Muse's “0.3 stupid fast” slicer settings without supports, and is relatively strong given its intended application, but if you don't mind spending extra filament and time for more strength, there's an earlier version as well with rounded-rect holes, and uses ~150 grams over 12 hours.

I won't go into the nitty-gritty details of how to construct a SIP (watch Internet Shaquille's video on the topic for more info), nor am I an expert in SIP construction, but the basics of how I built mine are as follows:

Materials

• Either of the pipe models linked below
• Landscaping fabric, such as this weed-control roll, or any material that will allow water to easily pass through, but not soil
• Potting soil
• Perlite
• Duct tape, or any tape that holds up in wet environments
• Drill w/ ¼-½" bit
• Home Depot bucket (or any 5 gal. bucket, really)
• PVC pipe (or any hollow pipe material that can hold up in wet environments)
• A plant

Construction

1. Print either of the pipe models with the circular face of the cylinder down on the print bed – you shouldn't need support material for either of them.
2. Once printed, wrap the sides and ends of the pipe in landscaping fabric such that the entirety of the pipe is covered, ensuring that water can pass into the pipe, but not soil.
3. Place the wrapped pipe horizontally in the bottom of the bucket.
4. Cut a length of PVC (or similar) pipe to a comfortable length greater than the height of the bucket – this will be your water feed pipe to fill the reservoir. Cut this pipe with an angle at one end so that when it rests on the bottom of the bucket, the hole isn't blocked.
5. Place the cut pipe into the bucket vertically, angled-cut-side down, on one end of the wrapped pipe.
6. At the other end of the wrapped pipe, drill a drain hole ~5" from the bottom of the bucket.
7. Fill the bucket with Perlite until the wrapped pipe is nearly covered. 
8. Fill the rest of the bucket with the potting soil of your choice, and place your desired plant into the soil.
9. Fill the reservoir thru the feed pipe until water begins to drain out of the drain hole you drilled earlier.
10. Water the plant heavily from above until the soil is completely wet.

And you're done! From then on, you'll just need to periodically top off the reservoir. Enjoy your low(er) maintenance garden!