How to make a self-watering fruit planter

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🪴 Using the amazing power of capillary action, we're going to make a biodegradable fruit planter, and the best bit is... it waters itself! 💦

Image of an orange peel plant pot filled with soil and sat in a jar of water, on a cartoon background of flowers.

You will need

An orange, lemon or other citrus fruit.
A pencil
20cm of string
A clean jar or container
Water
Seeds
Soil

Image of multiple objects including an orange, a cutlery knife, a chopping board, a pouch of seeds, soil and jam jars.

How to make your self-watering biodegradable plant pot 🪴

Step 1

With a grown up's help, cut your fruit in half and scoop out the insides. This could be an orange, a lemon, a lime... Anything really!

Pop your fruit pieces to one side for a tasty snack later! 🍊

Place something soft beneath your fruit to protect your table, such as a chopping board, or a folded tea towel. Pierce a small hole in the bottom of the fruit, you can use a pencil or similar object to do this. Please be careful and ask a grown up to help, if you need to 😇

Image of an orange cut in half with a hole pierced with a pencil.

Step 2

Take your piece of string, about 20cm in length, and thread it through the hole you just made. Tie a knot to secure the string in place.

Fill your clean jar with water until it's about three quarters full.

Place your fruit on top of the jam jar with the string dangling down into the water below.

An image an orange peel with a piece of string tied through it.

Step 3

It's time to get planting! ✨

Get your gardening gloves on and spoon some damp soil into your fruit. Fill it all the way to the top!

Poke a small hole in the soil with your finger or a pencil. Pop in a seed and cover it with some more soil.

We used sunflower seeds in ours, like the ones you'll be able to get for a limited time if you send in a badge application! 🌻

Make sure you wash your hands after working with soil.

Find out how to get free seeds with your Blue Peter badge application.

Image of an image of the orange with a string through it sat on top of a jar of water, and a final image of the orange filled with soil.

Step 4

Give it some time and wait for your results! 🌱

Leave your lovely self-watering biodegradable plant pot in a nice sunny place such as a windowsill, balcony or in a greenhouse. It should start to grow and after a week, you'll get a beautiful seedling!

Image of a small sprout growing from a plant pot made out of a hollowed out lime.

Here's one we made earlier! We experimented with using a smaller jar and a lime, as well as lots of other citrus fruits and jars of various sizes. Get creative and use whatever you have to hand, even half of an egg shell will do the trick! 🥚

Will you be giving this a go?

We can't wait to see your seedlings grow into something amazing with this fantastic, scientific plant pot! 🪴

Send in your progress pictures by clicking the 'Send your stuff' button below. Once you've grown your seedling, where will you position your growing plant? Make sure to let us know when you send your photos or video.

🌱 What will you grow? Perhaps you just applied for a Blue Peter badge and received your Let It Grow sunflower seeds along with it? Or maybe you'd like to try and grow something tasty and edible like tomatoes or sweet peas? Whatever you choose, we're so excited to see it grow! 🌱

Are you ready to send your stuff?

Send your stuff

Find out more ways you can Let It Grow with Blue Peter

This spring, Blue Peter are teaming up with Radio 2, asking you to “Let It Grow”!

Here you’ll find lots of amazing things to do, like our brand new Let It Grow game, super green quizzes, eco-friendly makes and loads of top tips to inspire you to look after the environment and protect the incredible nature around you!