Self-watering pot gets major support on Kickstarter

Scottish plant-pot company POTR has launched Helix, a self-watering pot designed to grow and adapt alongside the plants it houses, on Kickstarter from June 30th. In just a few days, the original Kickstarter goal of €4,671 has been surpassed by a wide margin, with the campaign currently raising more than €54,000.

According to founder Andrew Flynn, Helix has been created to remove barriers to growing at home, whether that involves cultivating fresh herbs, propagating cuttings or maintaining houseplants. The system is designed to transform alongside a plant’s growth, reducing the guesswork typically associated with home gardening.

In line with POTR’s broader design philosophy, Helix is flat-packed, self-watering and manufactured from recycled polypropylene, repurposing waste plastic into a durable product. The pot has been in development for 18 months and represents a step towards the company’s longer-term aim of providing accessible, adaptable tools that allow people to grow food as well as ornamental plants at home. The company points to figures suggesting that around 45% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK are imported, while approximately 40% go to waste, and says Helix is intended to help address this by making home food-growing more achievable, a theme it plans to develop further in future products.

© Andrew Flynn

“In a world obsessed with the latest AI innovation, we’re proud to be launching something tangible — a product with real-world benefits that helps people connect with nature, designed in Scotland and used around the world,” commented Flynn on LinkedIn.

The modular design allows users to start with a small setup and expand it over time, adapting to different spaces and levels of gardening experience. Because the product ships flat, it has also been designed with gifting and sharing in mind.

Helix was unveiled at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, where it received a positive early response. Flynn credited the achievement to POTR’s team, including Eilidh Cunningham, Joe Doyle, Molly Hanrahan and Nathan Storey, and thanked Scottish Development International, and Lynne Carstairs in particular, for their support in bringing the product to a global launch. The product was designed in Scotland and is intended for use internationally.

The Kickstarter campaign can be viewed here.