Plant watering
- Thread starter Kage87
- Start date
Kage87
Active Member
Was hoping maybe someone had invented something with moisture sensors you could bury and put in a drain that would take measure of the medium and runoff and transmit that to a pump and rez.. but maybe I smoke too much lol ..so how bout this..I literally use like a drinking cup to water everything...is there something I can use to at least distribute the water/nutes to the medium?..
3rd Monkey
Well-Known Member
Stop using a cup lol. You're compacting your medium.
Kage87
Active Member
I'm in! Lol but what should I be using?
Boatguy
Well-Known Member
Blumats are an autowatering system. I think there are a few here using them.
3rd Monkey
Well-Known Member
I use a juice jug with very small holes drilled into the lid. You can hold it upside down and it trickles out or you can squeeze it to put some pressure behind it. You'll see a lot less compaction that way.
Or you can mulch.
athomegrowing
Well-Known Member
If i didn't just buy dwc materials, i would buy this. Maybe in the future should hydro fail me.
Boatguy
Well-Known Member
I like the idea of watering without the need for pumps, but still dont want to deal with having to set something up for containment in the event that something should go wrong.
Its the only thing that keeps me away from any kind of hydro.
WingAK
Well-Known Member
You can purchase a few tensiometer they tell you exactly when plants need watered all professional farmers use them and they can be wired into a electric pump and it will send water to the plants until the meter is satisfied
you can run sprayers in your pots. they are not uncommon imo most people who run they rum it on a timer. it's basically a resivour with a pump and hooked to a timer with sprayers inside the soil
if you check out CaliGreen on youtube one of his grows shows you his setup on the automatic sprayer. imo if you want to run that you might as well try and invest in a flood table maybe?
if you check out CaliGreen on youtube one of his grows shows you his setup on the automatic sprayer. imo if you want to run that you might as well try and invest in a flood table maybe?
Actuosity
Well-Known Member
In my opinion is a quality thing, your plants with give you as much love (yield) as you give them. You could automate water but then you may run into defciencies or excess due to dilution, adding too many nutes or by forgetting to add more nutes to your water. If you have under 8 plants id just hand water, youll save more time by keeping everything simple and balanced each watering then dealing with all the issues of a “set and forget” system
Boatguy
Well-Known Member
In drain to waste, you wont get any dilution. It's not set and forget, but much less of a hassle than watering each plant one at a time. Especially if running a scrog or something where access is a bitch
Actuosity
Well-Known Member
One cool thing I saw online for scrog watering was a funnel / tube system. Each plant got a food grade bendable plastic tube that attatched to the lowest scrog bracket at the front of the tent. Then when watering they just used a funnel and watered through the tube to the base of the plant. I use an auto watering system for micro greens and it works great but they don’t require nutrients so its just a basic fish tank pump and double tray set up.
i've seen something like this done but only with a watering can. still pretty impressive tbh.
CannaCountry
Well-Known Member
A plastic tote of the appropriate size, a timer, drip line, drip emitters, a fountain pump and an outside pool liner (in the event that something goes wrong)...all for less than $150, and you'll be set. All this being said, just as mentioned above, you'll get out of your garden what you put into it, and while automation makes it possible to see a ball game out of town or visit a friend or simply not do a damn thing for a day, nothing replaces daily checks on your garden and the time you actually invest in it. Good luck friend.
Actuosity
Well-Known Member
This is more or less what I was trying to say, thanks for simplifying it!
Dirtycajun
Member
I'm totally a daily hand water type, however I'm going out of town. Just bought 2 blumat systems to support 2 reveg, 8 adult topped, manifolded veg in 5-7 gallon fabric pots (will flower when I return) and 8 clones topped once repotting to 2.5 gallon square pots. I'll be home next 4 days, gone for 13 days.
Any idea how many gallons I will need foe 13 days? ...My estimate is 3-4 feedings x 12 gallons so about 36-50 gallon reservoir... im thinking two 30 gallon plastic bins each feeding half of each type of plants 1+4+4...
Instead of having each run independent, with a cap at the end, I thought about looping the two ends together essentially with a reservoir on each end ...thoughts, suggestions, issues ??
Any idea how many gallons I will need foe 13 days? ...My estimate is 3-4 feedings x 12 gallons so about 36-50 gallon reservoir... im thinking two 30 gallon plastic bins each feeding half of each type of plants 1+4+4...
Instead of having each run independent, with a cap at the end, I thought about looping the two ends together essentially with a reservoir on each end ...thoughts, suggestions, issues ??
Roger A. Shrubber
Well-Known Member
unless you stick some kind of hose timer on it, blumats feed continuously. you'd have to set it up and see how long it takes to use up x amount of water, then multiply that by how long you're going to be gone. over two weeks worth of time, you'll have to allow for plant growth, add at least 20 percent to your total...and two weeks worth of evaporation, probably another 20%
Dirtycajun
Member
Thanks Roger,
I appreciate the input. So your saying 1.4 x my estimates. So maybe 2 40ish gallon res.
I haven't seen any timers for inline water systems, if it was a pump system then you could just put that on an electric timer - simple.... hmmm
I appreciate the input. So your saying 1.4 x my estimates. So maybe 2 40ish gallon res.
I haven't seen any timers for inline water systems, if it was a pump system then you could just put that on an electric timer - simple.... hmmm