Greenhouse Automatic Watering

I'm one of those people who likes new. I have spent a lot of money on my toys and don't regret one penny gone. Some things didn't work out so I simply took them to the dump or offered them at no cost to friends. These purchases taught me a great deal about what not to do and I had fun getting there!

Because I choose this style, my modus operandi is not how to save money but how to earn more to get what I want.

Don't get me wrong, I would not turn down something on special if I need it. I am just too impetuous to wait for everything to go on offer.

life's too short for that, I think....

So, if my responses seem commercial, that's just who I am...

 

To be fair our friend watered inside our greenhouse with the hose set to 'shower' whilst we were away for 8 days in late July and although it wouldn't be my choice it didn't do any harm. My tomatoes and everything else have remained blight and mildew free. The greenhouse door was left open all day every day and the window has an automatic (albeit slightly broken) opener.

 

This looks like what I have been searching for! Thanks very much, a great idea.

Jeff

 

Hi Jeff,
Do you have a greenhouse?

 

It is a greenhouse of sorts yes, I am working on getting it up and running but I am not quite there yet. Keen to learn the tricks and tips that the experts on here seem to have!

Jeff

 

Like CanadianLori, I bought a 10W solar panel and charge controller (£25),a small fountain pump and timer (£5), golf buggy battery (£20) and a micro-bore drip watering system from Home Bargains (£4). Connect it up using some spare electrical cable, connect to water reservoir/butt. Set programmable timer and hey presto an automatic watering system. Used it this year for 12 tomato plants and 10 chilli plants, Worked a treat.

 

Okay, now I've been shamed into redoing mine. Well,I used my water pump for the bird bath ....


So, I do have a second pump. Maybe I'll try to make it work with a gravity fed system. Pump water from rain barrel to container on top of rail which in turn flows through low flow irrigation... yup, more fun projects in the spring -

Thanks for the inspiration doddery!

 

Hi Relaxed,
I used to be relaxed before I tried to find a simple, cheap, irrigation system to suit my Insulated, Concrete floored, 10' x 10'. To my disgust I have tried to buy a simple gravity fed system that would take water from my internally installed Water butt to feed my plants while on holiday. I have been down the "Helpful neighbour/relative route like you and after many internet searches I am now no longer as relaxed as before! Is it really beyond the horticultural suppliers to commission some one to make a simple gravity system based on something like a surgical drip set, rather than those currently available. My experience is that they all have the same problem. Namely ,they all have a useless dripper head. Not to mention a far too expensive battery powered timer. They are also often do not have interchangeable pipe diameter sizes. So it is easy to spend a lot of money finding the problems out. Having also been down this route. You can easily guess that I am less than "relaxed" after all that.
I would love to find some solutions to the above and hope they can put me out of my misery before my holidays. Can anyone help?

 

Try a wicking system. they can be as easy or complicated as you want, does not need electricity or other devices. Can be a simple bucket in bucket system.
I use quadgrows which work on the same system.
I found with my trial last year the roots had grown down into the water/nutriant reservoir.
I had a bumper crop of very tasty tomatoes and I had no blossom end rot with this system.
I had loads of BER on plants grown in greenhouse border.
There are loads of instructions on net just look up. tomato growing wicking systems Some sites say that wicking systems not suitable for large plants this is not true.
Regards Alex

 

@JWK this is good to know as I have been puzzling as to how to control the flow when I get my rainwater secondary container raised. At least I'm hoping to get this done this year... so many great plans, so little time..

 

This thread looks to have died, but as a newbie, I'd like to throw my 2d (yep, old money) in. Got my lifetime awaited greenhouse last year, late spring & tried to rush everything in & cope with the awful weather. I had same problem of asking others to water, whilst away on hols. Weather turned, virtually all the tomatoes got blight; would have been better if they hadnt watered!!!! Anyway, what I learnt was, shade the greenhouse (cut up bulk sand bags - free) and not crowd too many tomato plants in & keep well ventilated.

Have to say, I admire your frugality. I'm on a bit of a mission to spend ZERO on the greenhouse. Have just built propagator from polycarbonate off-cuts, pallet timber & just installed a Freecycle electric blanket. Currently running at about 20 degrees !

Good luck.

 

First off, welcome to the forums. You will find a lot of useful advice on here from the members, I know I certainly have. I like your idea of zero spend on your greenhouse, I don't have a zero spend but try to keep things as cheap as possible. I too have a home made propagator but made from one of those under-bed clear storage boxes which are about £5 from poundstretchers. I use cheap Chinese vivarium mats as a heat source, about £2 to buy but 5 weeks to arrive. I think I would be wary of using an electric blanket however if you are near water . How do you manage to avoid water getting to the blanket when watering your plants and not get electrocuted ?

 

One of the main reasons for joining this website forum was to find opinions about the electric blanket myth. Ideally, I would have liked to have bought the soil warming cable & temperature probe/thermostat, but why? It is no more than a MAINS resistive cable, as far as I can see.....unless someone can correct me....??? And surely, an electric blanket used in a bed is far more dangerous potentially, if elderly or incontinent person wets the bed? I've yet to strip the wire out of the fabric (I managed to get three blankets) to see what the joint between the flex and the resistive wire actually is, but if it looks a risk, I'll pot it with mastic to be sure. Embedded at the moment in fabric, keeps even spread of the wire & mounted on lightweight bench, I didnt want to load the bottom tray with the suggested wet sand that is in recommendations for soil heating cable. Obviously, take off from the mains is RCD protected as any garden appliance is. But if someone can illustrate the risk, I'm happy to take it on board. At the moment, the plan is to get sheet of polystyrene or loft insulation under it and gravel trays sit on top, so its not getting wet anyway.
Additions coming from china are a remote sense temperature and humidity circuit (ok, that has cost me about £8) and that will report via wifi/internet, to my mobile, then reverse command to switch off heating and/or switch on old pc fan to ventilate it and avoid mould/mildew from the steamy atmosphere in there.
The summer greenhouse watering plan is pump some rain butt water to old heating system expansion tank on shed roof & use trickle dribble feed (very cheap on Ebay at the mo) to eliminate neighbour watering problems. If my remote wifi works, I'll use the humidity meter to monitor the greenhouse and switch on/off the solar panel powered pump, topping up the header tank.
See how my Freecycle accumulation of necessary parts goes........

 

I started my greenhouse experience using a lot of less expensive items found at the pound store or whatever. Such as using boot trays as plant trays because they were only a $1. It worked out okay but since then, I have replaced nearly all of my cheapie solutions. I still use the small mesh baskets from the $1 store as they are the perfect size for soil blocks however I now have the proper 10 20 trays and seedling mats meant for the purpose plus I got temperature controls so that are incorporated to automatically shut off the heat mat power when it reaches my preset temperature. I have watering systems but as yet, haven't put in automatic timers.

I found that the most important thing in the greenhouse is, as you say @RobinS , is air circulation to handle the humidity. I have many dc powered fans that I run using my solar panels and 12 volt batteries.

I have been toying with the idea of using pumps to raise water from the rain barrel up to a receptacle that would in turn release it to my watering lines but this would be something I only used when at home. I cannot imagine depending on rain to keep the barrel full when I am away. I picture a pump burning out from trying to draw water from an empty barrel.

I envy everyone I hear talking about actually working with water outside at this time of year since we must wait at least another month before worries of freezing are past.