IKEA Self Watering Plant Pot Hack / Flood Rescue

IKEA Self Watering Plant Pot Hack / Flood Rescue

Posted by on Jun 09, 2006 in Simplify your life

I am at the beginning of my Terrace dressup project. Bought a few IKEA PS FEJÖ self watering plant pot. The color scheme works nicely with the rest of the terrace. Planted our Clementine Mandarin orange tree in one of them. Then came the heavy rain. Because the pot is self watering, meaning there is a water reservior in the bottom, there is no drain hole. With a few days of non stop rain, the pot of soil turned into slush.

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What to do? Physics to the rescue. I bought four feet of aquarium PVC flexible tubing / air hose from a pet store. Filling it with water first (or you can suck the water into it after insertion), I dug down into the mush/soil and inserted the tube under the top plate of the water reservior. As long as you keep the outside end of the tube below the pot, gravity from the outside end of the tube will draw the water out. You can see it draining here:

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About 30 minutes later, the soil in the pot is (almost) back to just very very wet.
I will keep the hose there now and next time it gets flooded, a little (careful) sucking and I can siphon out water again.

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6 Comments

  • Karin on Jun 23, 2009

    I tried to drill holes in Ikea pots with a drill bit made especailly for ceramics,concrete etc. ..It did not make a dent or scratch even. It must have been fired at a high cone.

  • John on Apr 19, 2009

    Also, using plastic or some sort of Earthbox-like water-repellent material over the soil will keep the rain out, keep water from evaporating too fast, and keep out the weeds. It also keeps water off of the fertilizer strip if you’re growing vegetables. I just bought one today. I think I’m going to try carrots inside the pot.

  • pk on Jun 13, 2006

    That’s an interesting idea. Have you tried this? I wonder if the holes are too small the water is not going to drain out, and too large the soil will come out with it. Perhaps drill it at an upward angle? I wonder if I can drill the hole right at where the plate is, because I think the water/soil contact is actually made in the lower center portion of the plate, and not at the top of the plate.

  • Heather in Washington State, USA on Jun 13, 2006

    Another solution would be to drill several small drain holes in the side of the pot just below the top plate of the reservoir. This way the water will drain out when it reaches that level.

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