Automatic Watering For Plants

Automatic Watering For Plants
Plant Watering Even When You're on Vacation

Question: I'm looking for some advice on ways to automatically water my plants. I enjoy my houseplants very much and they look great thanks to many of your tips. However, my family is finally taking a vacation and I hate the thought of all my plants suffering while we're gone for 2 weeks. How can I mix a vacation, watering and plants together? Diane, NJ
Answer: Diane, watering your plants while out of town or on vacation can be a problem. On the market you can find a self watering pot, large and small in size but it can get expensive outfitting all your houseplants for a short time. I happen to like self watering pots especially for those with a busy lifestyle.


Automatic Plant Watering

SmartHome.com offers an "automatic watering system for plants" system. It's called the Deluxe Plant Watering System and is capable of handling the automatic watering for 14 plants over a two-week schedule.

The plant watering system is intended for indoor use only. The system comes equipped with a lightweight 7-liter plastic container to hold water, a 65-foot hose (19 meters approximately) and 14 taps with adjustable nozzles to regulate how much water each plant receives.

The automatic watering tank needs a firm level surface and should sit above or the same height as the plants you plan on watering. Since we're talking about water – potential leaks can always be a problem, DO NOT sit the watering tank on any electrical appliances.
With 65-foot of tubing you have plenty of tubing to spread the plants out, give them good lighting and still water them. Spacing the plants a foot or two apart should be fine.

The back of the watering tank has an outlet connector where you'll connect the first tube after cutting the tube to the desired lengths. The other end of the tube gets placed into it's own "water tap." The tap connects to another tube going to the next plant in a daisy chain pattern. You'll repeat the process until you have all of your houseplants or window planters "ready for automatic watering duty." On the last plant you'll put a stopper in the outgoing tap.

Make Your Own Self Watering System

Each "water tap" has a stem which is pressed into the soil to hold the tap in place, plus each tap can be adjusted so larger plants can receive more water than smaller plants. You may want to double up on larger pots to put more water around the root ball. In fact on oversized houseplants I would recommend using two taps. This is a great way to make your own self watering pot for large or small planters.

Before you set everything up and assume you'll be watering your plants while out of town – test it out. Pour water into the tank but do not overfill. Also do not put in any liquid or soluble plant fertilizer in the water, this will encourage algae growth.
Now, plug in the power adapter, turn the water system to test mode. If everything is set up correctly – it's easy - the water will begin pumping through the tubes and nozzles after a brief delay.

The system gives you the opportunity to adjust the taps or nozzles to get everything right by running at 30-second intervals during the test mode. In fact, the system delivers water in 30-second intervals when watering to give the soil time to absorb the water as it's delivered.

Be prepared for a loud buzzing drone when the watering system is working, pumping and automatically watering your plants. When the water reservoir runs out of water, the machine turns off by itself.

Set it for whole system up for automatic operation, align the control knob at the front of the water tank with the quantity of water you want delivered every 24 hours and your ready to go. Although daily watering I think could be a little much, stay on the low side – don't over water.

It's also not a bad idea to place under each plant a sauce to catch any excess water which could run out the bottom of the pots drain holes.
Now instead of worrying about your plants drying up when on vacation or writing down long detailed instructions for the boy next door on "how-to water your plants." All you need to do is have him make sure the water reservoir is filled.

This technology isn't something that new in concept. Nurseries have used "drip irrigation" for years with great success. Now you can take advantage of this subirrigation technology while traveling.

The Deluxe Plant Watering System from SmartHome.com offers an "automatic plant watering system" is affordable, portable and gives you complete control over how much water each plant receives. Now go enjoy your trip and make the watering – automatic.
Source: www.plant-care.com