Automatic watering for vacation

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
Hey found a great thread here, this is what your talking about right Chaos? Pretty much a hydroponics drip system, for soil.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=264432
I just need to figure out how much water to give it. It would be easiest to water once a day on a timer if anything. So if I water 2 gallons a week (1 gallon twice a week) would that mean I should water .28 gallons a day (2/7)? So I would run my 120 gph pump for 1 minute per plant (120g/60min=2g/xmin 120 = 120x x=1min)? So for 4 plants, I could set the timer to on for 4 minutes once a day and been good? Or would it not work that way? Lol just trying to calculate how to adjust the water.
Should I add a small amount of nutrients to the resivour while I'm gone? Is there a good ratio for all this where I can just fill the resivour every other week and let it water itself?
 
ChaosHunter

ChaosHunter

Well-Known Member
Diffrent plant stages require diffrent amounts of water, they get bigger and older "flower" they can drink more this is why install valves to each hydro ring. I use a cheap moisture meter to check how offten the plants dry out and need watering. In the beginning it might be every other day or every three days. There is nothing diffrent about the way my setup is and hand watering other than it does it itself. Even if I'm home I do not have to mix and water every other day. My water is wet to dry cycle not constantly moist. I use the KISS method using Maxibloom at 7g per gallon.

Your also going to have to deal with run off too. I use hirise plant saucers so my pots are never sitting in runoff. I can go a couple of days with heavy runoff or adjust to where the runoff evaporates before the next watering.

No matter what type of system you go with you will have to dial it in and get used to it. Even with my system it's only good for 3-4 days. I feed every watering and mix up 4gal in my 5gal Rez.
 
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R

rollyouron

Well-Known Member
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ said:
Anybody have some experience with this? I was wondering what the best system is to automatically water plants for a time period of 7-10 days.
I found a few devices that seemed like they'd do it but I would like to hear others opinions before I buy anything. I don't think some of these will be able to water enough for 10 days unless I added 2 or 3 in one pot.
I don't have access to a faucet, and my tap water has way to high of ppm to use anyway
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Why not Autopot https://www.amazon.com/AutoPot-Watering-Hydroponics-Traditional-Gardening/dp/B00F2QOCYC I've been running them for 3 or 4 years. They work great and the reservoir that comes with it will feed 4 flower plants for 7 to 10 days. Once mine get through the stretch I go days without checking them.
 
O

OneSickBastard

Active Member
Tropf Blumats work great for unattended gardens and can scale to support a lot of plants. There is a giant thread on icmag. It requires some research to use them correctly but they work as advertised. Autopots are probably simpler to set up for a small garden.
 
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
ChaosHunter said:
Diffrent plant stages require diffrent amounts of water, they get bigger and older "flower" they can drink more this is why install valves to each hydro ring. I use a cheap moisture meter to check how offten the plants dry out and need watering. In the beginning it might be every other day or every three days. There is nothing diffrent about the way my setup is and hand watering other than it does it itself. Even if I'm home I do not have to mix and water every other day. My water is wet to dry cycle not constantly moist. I use the KISS method using Maxibloom at 7g per gallon.

Your also going to have to deal with run off too. I use hirise plant saucers so my pots are never sitting in runoff. I can go a couple of days with heavy runoff or adjust to where the runoff evaporates before the next watering.

No matter what type of system you go with you will have to dial it in and get used to it. Even with my system it's only good for 3-4 days. I feed every watering and mix up 4gal in my 5gal Rez.
Click to expand...
So do you just use a timer that can set times on certain days of the week rater than times daily to water twice a week instead of once a day? Then you just adjust the amount of water as the plant needs it?
 
budskey

budskey

Member
algebraist said:
I've been thinking about something like this for an upcoming vacation. But I'm worried about the bubble stone -- I've read that running one continually in the reservoir will significantly impact the pH of the water (raising it, I believe). Anyone with experience there? If that's the case you could put the bubble stone on a timer as well, and just aerate shortly before watering -- the key question being how long does it have to run? (Then it gets more complicated -- if you're gone a week, the water in the reservoir at the end has been aerated more times than at the beginning; how much does that affect the pH? I suppose you could pump into a secondary reservoir, aerate that, and then water from there -- only aerating the water you were going to use right away.)

An alternative possibility is to try to incorporate some sort of waterfall effect into the delivery of the water to the plants, so it's un-aerated in the reservoir, but gets aerated on the way to the plants.

Maybe I'm over-engineering and it's not really a practical issue -- love to hear the thoughts of those with more experience than I have.
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I've got 3 bubblers running in my main and back up Rez I hold 4 5gal pails in my Res's I change water every 4 days even gone 7 from hospital visit
don't have ph swings maybe if it's smaller quantity of water like only 5 gals I've heard the less water the more things can swing??? Not sure but I never have that problem. I run hydro not dirt??
 
algebraist

algebraist

Well-Known Member
Thanks @budskey -- that's very helpful. I've been thinking it could also be a matter of TDS (ppm) of the water -- word on the street is that water with very little minerals -- like reverse osmosis or distilled water -- changes pH very easily, whereas tap water like mine, which comes in at about 400 ppm, changes more slowly. That's in the context of additives like pH-Up and pH-Down -- you need very little with RO and distilled water -- but maybe it's the same with aeration. Just a theory -- anyone more knowledgeable is certainly welcome to chime in...
 
ChaosHunter

ChaosHunter

Well-Known Member
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ said:
So do you just use a timer that can set times on certain days of the week rater than times daily to water twice a week instead of once a day? Then you just adjust the amount of water as the plant needs it?
Click to expand...
I use an Idevices wifi switch for my watering pump. I can set it to water multiple times a day or every other day etc. in the later stages of growth I'm watering every day when the lights come on.
 
T

Theshepheard

Member
algebraist said:
I've been thinking about something like this for an upcoming vacation. But I'm worried about the bubble stone -- I've read that running one continually in the reservoir will significantly impact the pH of the water (raising it, I believe). Anyone with experience there? If that's the case you could put the bubble stone on a timer as well, and just aerate shortly before watering -- the key question being how long does it have to run? (Then it gets more complicated -- if you're gone a week, the water in the reservoir at the end has been aerated more times than at the beginning; how much does that affect the pH? I suppose you could pump into a secondary reservoir, aerate that, and then water from there -- only aerating the water you were going to use right away.)

An alternative possibility is to try to incorporate some sort of waterfall effect into the delivery of the water to the plants, so it's un-aerated in the reservoir, but gets aerated on the way to the plants.

Maybe I'm over-engineering and it's not really a practical issue -- love to hear the thoughts of those with more experience than I have.
Click to expand...
Crazy that you say that....I had a few gallons in milk jugs all mixed up. I also have a 4 hose fish air pump. So I put the hoses in for about 4 days. I had the gallons mixed and ph adjust so I could just use them when I'm ready. Well yesterday I went to use them and I don't know why I checked pH again but it went from 6.4 to 8. I checked all the gallons and sure as shit they were all off. I adjust all my calls pH as soon as I fill them as a rule.
 
greg nr

greg nr

Well-Known Member
Theshepheard said:
Crazy that you say that....I had a few gallons in milk jugs all mixed up. I also have a 4 hose fish air pump. So I put the hoses in for about 4 days. I had the gallons mixed and ph adjust so I could just use them when I'm ready. Well yesterday I went to use them and I don't know why I checked pH again but it went from 6.4 to 8. I checked all the gallons and sure as shit they were all off. I adjust all my calls pH as soon as I fill them as a rule.
Click to expand...
My water does that all on its own; no airstone required. Coming out of the tap it is 5.9. Three days later it will be 7.4. It actually started to cause a slight iron deficiency in my plants (in soil). I now use some ph down when I mix for waterings (still gets additives but no base nutes) or feeding.
 
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
So this is how far I've got, I just can't figure out how to ensure that all the hoses drain an equal amout of water.
Those jugs are "plants" and thats is a pond fountain pump. But Right now it will fill on gallon jug up twice as fast as another20170421_235638.jpg
 
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