DIY boskke sky planter

Self made hanging Upside Down Planter
similar to the boskke sky planter

I like to have some of the cool upside down hanging planters like the genial boskke sky planter. But the boskke is very expensive, especially if you like to have lot of them. So i decided to make them by myself. As i use IKEA planters it is some sort of Ikea-Hacking.

This is one of my self made upside down planters. Left is a older original boskke, and right is my self made planter.

Index

Plan

I tried several things, but ended with a Tyvek membran and a water permeable fleece to hold the plant.

Water vapor can pass through Tyvek, but liquid water cannot, so it fulfills the properties of the clay pot of the boskke sky planter.

Requirements

You need a relative high planter, so that you have a bigger water reservoir.

These are from IKEA and cost 2,50 EUR. Additional you need a sheet Tyvek and a sheet of strong water permeable fleece (cost some cent for the area you need), epoxy glue and of cause a plant.

Holes

We start with the three small holes (5mm diameter) for the hanging cord and to pour the plant.

Now we make the pouring hole bigger (8mm diameter, i had nothing bigger)

Attachment

Don't forget to attach the cord (afterwards it is much more difficult)

Membran

Now we need the material for the membran. I tried to use Tyvek alone, but this seems too fragile. Now i use a layer Tyvek and additional a layer of a strong water permeable fleece (used for drainage under a flagging).

Glue

I use two component epoxy glue. The glue sticks much better if you make the surface rough with sand paper.

Glue the first membran

With a strong cylinder you put the glue and the two layers into the planter. This is a little bit tricky. You have to experiment where to put the glue (in the pot or in onto the fleece). The sheet of fleece and Tyvel has to be much bigger for better handling. And the cylinder must have the right diameter, so that it ends in the right depth of the pot. I the beginning is used plastic cylinder, but with the strong fleece i switched to a can.

Test

Wait for an hour (so that the glue is tight enough, but you can still remove it in case you made an error)

Test you construction, if it is water tight.

Cut off the overlapp

If your construction is water tight you can cut of the overlapping edge of the fleece. If it is not tight you can carefully rip the fleece off and try it again or you can try to fill in some glue through the holes and let it flow along the brink of the fleece (i had success with wood glue).

Sequenz of the membran

Don't be confused, i experiment with Tyvek on the upper or the lower side. So i have pictures with both.

water-tyvek-fleece-plant prefered

I think it is better to glue the Tyvek directly to the pot and have the strong fleece to the side of the plant. This way i had better water tight planters. Althrough i had problems to get the glue through the Tyvek and gluing the strong fleece.

water-fleece-tyvek-plant

With the strong fleece to the water side the glue is going much better through the strong fleece and glues the Tyvek very good, but i had problems to get a water tight membran.

You have to test yourself, but for now i think ist is better to have the Tyvek to the water and the strong fleece to the plant side.

Plant and how to fix it

Option 1

Put the fleece directly onto the potting soil and seed directly into it.

Make the edge rough with sand paper, so that the glue holds much better. Put in your potting soil and glue the fleece close to the soil.

Cut the overlapping fleece and make a small hole for the seed.

Option 2

Put in your plant, cut a small hole and a line to the edge in the fleece, put it around your plant and glue it onto the edge of the planter.

This is very tricky handling (you have allways to little hands). But the result is very nice.

Option 3

Build a bayonet fitting similar to the boskke pot.

This was also very much fiddling and i lost always some soil.

Option 4

Buy a boskke sky planter

You can still buy one. 8-P
Especially the ceramic ones are very nice.

Result

Option 2

Option 1

Option 3

Comment

I would appreciate any feedback or comment via email UpsideDownPlanter (a) s2p.de

Unused pictures

I left all unused pictures for reference here, maybe you find something usefull (if you omit _x300.jpg you can view the pictures in a bigger resolution).

-- StephanPietzko - 15 May 2016