Self-Watering Probes - Package of 5

Fill with water. Make sure the lid is on tight. Push your probe near plants you want to keep moist. Dip your hose in a large tank of some sort. Put weight on the tip in water to be sure it stays down, I use solder coiled around the end. The coiled up hose will tend to rise up and stop the flow if it is not kept below the water line. You can also keep the tip on the bottom with a flat rock. Make sure you don't pinch the hose too hard with your rock. And depending on how large your tank is, you should easily be able to keep garden plants alive for many days with just the siphon action through the sieve to the roots. Be sure to put more than one self watering probe in a large pot as the moisture will only spread out a finite distance which depends on your soil.

UPDATED July 2019: After years of use the soil around probe may become attached ball, cementitous, and not transfer water. This has happened after several years use with normal house tap water. Water is slightly hard (calcium) so not unexpected. Have note removed to see if can be cleaned; not worth the effort in general. Replace spike. ALSO the small diameter tubing that is submerged in the tap water container tends to become stiff, brittle; may also clog internally (expect also Calcium caused).Otherwise MY experience is GOOD given a positive Siphon water supply over many months in large plant containers (approx. 3 gallon soil containers with large, dry-environment plants 5 feet tall). I do not expect the Probes to suction water through the green tubing by Capillary action as advertised. In my setup, each Probe (three in one container, and one in another) is feed water by siphon effect from a one gallon plastic Milk container of water located at higher elevation than ceramic Probe (about 6 to 12 inch elevation difference). Green tubing supplied is routed from bottom water supply container and out over the container top, then down to the lower elevation Probe in the planter soil. I purposely create a continuous water siphon through the tubing from higher water elevation down to Probe lower elevation . In this way positive water supply is constantly fed to the Probe. The Probe then allows water to diffuse through its ceramic tip and into the soil. From my year-long experience very little water actually diffuses through the ceramic tips. I remove the Probe caps occasionally to make sure wtaer is filled inside Probes. Sometimes the narrow plastic tubing becomes clogged, or even some organic slime inside/outside the probes must be removed. But the water never saturates the soil; seems opposite is true, only minimum moisture is maintained in soil/plant container. I only add water to the Milk containers every one or two months. I can leave plants unattended for a month or more. NOTE: when I first setup these probes and elevated water, the soil became moist quickly. But after a year or less use the probes do not transmit water as fast. IF needed you can remove the probes and wash them inside and out; the outside of ceramic tip appears prone to surface clogging. WARNING: if your plant requires moist soil, these probes and my Probe setup may not be enough (maybe slightly loosen Probe Cap so extra water can overflow Probe directly into soil). I have Three (3) Probes in one container, and yet the deep soil on a Moisture Meter (scale 1-10) is at 1 (dry soil).

These watering p[robes are great! They make keeping my potted plants perfectly watered so simple you literally don't have to think about them. This was a second order after getting more pots. After several months of use or a full season you should pull them out and wash out the gunk that can accumulate. Looks like most of it is probably bacterial after a summer sitting in the sun but it comes of just fine. Make sure to keep these in constant water source or they will dry out and your plants will definitely die. I give these only 4/5 stars because of two issues, one of which may be inevitable due to the physics of water flow. First, the tubes on these that go to the water source could be at least double the length imo. It would make reaching a single water source versus multiple much easier and aesthetically pleasing. Second is that the "range" of these spikes is not as far as I would hope it to be. One spike can handle about 6" diameter of watering before you chance compromising the growth of the plant. For that reason I put at least 2 spikes for a 10" pot if not 3 for thirsty plant types. I would be hesitant to use these for vegetables or other fruiting plants which need more water than the average flower. If you want a set-and-forget system for those, just stick with a soaker hose system on a water diverting timer.

I bought 4 packs of these (20 spikes) for two planters and two pots while I was on a short 3 day vacation out of town. I live in AZ and temperatures were around 105 degrees each day. All my plants are in full sun meaning 6 plus hours of sun every day. I didn't want to let $200 worth of plants die so I was determined to do everything I could to make sure they didn't. I filled 6 one gallon jugs full of water and used cable ties to hold them up on my balcony railing. I took suggestions from other reviews and tied fishing string through fishing weights and tied them on the bottom of the green tube. After putting water in the top of each spike I sucked water through the tube and dropped the green tube down the water jug making sure the bottom of the green tube where the fishing weight was fell bellow my plants. After 3 days I came back and my plants were still alive! I was actually surprised. All 6 gallons of water were gone so I knew it worked although I should have maybe used more jugs of water. My plants only looked like they could have been out of water for 1 day. I watered them the day I got home and they looked fine by that night. I refilled all the water jugs and the spikes again since they worked so well. Sometimes watering once a day in the middle of an Arizona summer just isn't enough so I expect this will help out. Definitely recommend these!!!