About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 20 mins

Quick down and dirty Rain Catcher.
Many of our plants cannot handle tap water such as our Nepenthes, a tropical pitcher plant. Distilled water over time is not cheap, and I still cannot fathom shipping water from anywhere. Time to build a rain catcher now that the rainy season is starting in San Francisco.

The basic idea came to me from my time spent sailing on Ladybug and their need to catch drinking water. Essentially, they would use their bimini to catch water, it ran through a tube, and into a container. You probably have most if not all of this laying around the house.

Posted by Matti S. from San Francisco, California, United States • Published 27th April 2010

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Step 1
In your bucket, drill a hole close to the bottom, a little smaller than the outer diameter of your tubing. If you do not have a drill, you can heat up a nail and melt a hole. Be sure to make the hole close to the bottom, but allowing the bucket to sit flat on a surface.
Step 2
Push tube through hole.
Step 3
Hot glue the tube into place. I set the tube 1/4″ through the hole. Hot glue often feels cool, before it is completely set…so after you think it is cool, wait another 2 minutes or run it under cold water. The hot glue not only keeps the tube in place, it also fills in any gaps that may leak.
Step 4
Cut out a piece of mesh. I molded it with my fingers to make a little bubble to allow it to freely cover the tubing.
Step 5
Hot glue mesh into place. If you cooled the hot glue with water, dry the area first.
You are ready to catch water. When catching water, keep the tube inside the bucker. I put a heavy object on it so that it does not flop out such as a rock. After you catch water, you can transfer it by putting your container lower than the hole, and use the tube to transfer. Gravity will do the rest.

NOTES
• Bucket…the larger the opening , the more rain you can catch. I picked up a 21″ plastic bowl in Chinatown for $5
• Tubing…good rule of thumb, if it smell plasticy, your plants probably will not like the water. Again, I picked up 6′ in Chinatown for $3
• All the rest of the materials /tools I had laying around the house.

Thanks. Matti @ Far Out Flora