Automatic watering system

Well I have now got all the bits, which was very quick having only ordered them on Friday. And have already started putting the system together.

 

My watering system is just about finished and I have learnt a few lessons on the way.

1) There are several manufacturers around. The main one is Hozelock, but there is also Claber, Antelco and others. They are all essentially interchangeable, even though some quote slightly different dimensions – eg 13mm and 14mm fittings.

However avoid the very cheap 71 piece kits sold for £5 to £10 under lots of different own brand names. The feedback on these says that they are Chinese and very poor quality. The drippers all run at different rates, and the plastic pieces tend to break if you try to pull them apart.

2) If I were starting again, I would buy the Hozelock 2700 controller and their pressure reducing valve. However I would shop around, as there is no reason to buy any of the other parts from Hozelock, which are a bit expensive. For instance for 13mm straight connectors – you can get 2 Hozelock ones from Homebase for £4.79, or 25 from Antelco at City Irrigation for £4.62. The quality is identical. Its worth getting the larger packs even if you think you don’t need that many.

I bought from http://www.easywatering.co.uk/acatalog/automatic_watering.html and from http://www.cityirrigation.co.uk/acatalog/Micro-Irrigation-Fittings.html and found them both very good.

3) There is a big difference between watering outside as opposed to inside a conservatory. Watering outside is very easy, you just connect all the bits up, ignore the leaks and overwater every pot relying on the fact that the surplus will run out of the bottom.

4) However watering inside is much more complicated as you don’t want leaks from the pipes and you don’t want to overwater the pots because the surplus will come out of the bottom and flood the floor. You could put the pots in saucers, but then the surplus water would collect in the saucer and the plant would stand with its roots in water, which would do it no good.

So the rest of this post really refers to watering inside a conservatory.

5) Leaks. You don’t want any leaks, and I have experienced plenty. You have a high pressure line from the tap to the controller unit, which is always on. So even a small leak will accumulate. Don’t use the Hozelock type push fit connections – they always leak or blow apart. If you attach the controller directly to the tap you may not have a problem, but in my case the controller was 50 feet from the tap and inside another building. I eventually avoided the high pressure leaks by screwing the supply side of a brass tap into the top of the controller and then attaching a hose to the hose fitting on the other end of the tap with the aid of a jubilee clip. The other end of the hose was attached to a similar fitting on the supply tap itself.

After the controller you must use a pressure reducing valve, which will supply water to your system at a low pressure and prevent the connections blowing apart. None of the 13mm pipe fittings or the 5mm pipe fittings leaked, but almost every connection between the 13mm and 5mm pipes did. Feedback from others says that this always happens – the push in connectors that are provided are rubbish.

The solution is to use the above type of connector. They do exist, but they seem to be pretty well hidden on the different sites. This connector doesn’t leak.

6) Leakage of surplus water. I put saucers under all my individual pots, but I placed 2 pavers (ie small bricks) under the pots inside the saucer. This allows the surplus water to drip into the saucers but keeps the pot clear of the water. I also have 10 grow-bag trays of smaller pots. I lined these trays with capilliary matting and just watered the tray itself, so every pot shares in any surplus.

7) Drippers. There are generally only two sizes of drippers – 2 and 4 litres per hour. The advice is to put the larger ones in all the larger pots and the smaller ones in the other pots. However not all plants need the same amount of water. I have similar sized plants, Ipomea indica and Bougainvillea, in the same size pots but Ipomea wants loads of water and Bougainvillea needs very little. You can put more than one dripper in a pot, but I am now inclined to use the Claber drippers, which can be varied between 0 and 6 litres per minute. Getting and keeping the right dripper rate for each pot is going to be a long job.

Automatic watering. I don’t believe that you can use an automatic watering system over a long period in a conservatory, without some sort of manual intervention at intervals as the watering time needed will vary between hot and cold days. But a system will allow you to go away for 10 days, knowing that the plants will be getting some water. However when you come back you will have to go round by hand, using a moisture meter, and give extra water to the plants that are dry, and remove the excess water from the saucers of those that have been overwatered.