Watering while gone for a week

[Finnicki]

Last August we left for a week. Used fabric
to pull water into plastic pot for plant. I drowned it. So now I have FF soil and fabric bags. Drains better. Too guud. Had to water two days apart this week as blueberry leaves started drooping.
I have poured water onto tent floor to humidify it. This time I thought of dripping water from a suspended container thru air pump tubing into each bag, close to plant stem. I need to control the drip rate however. The water would flow into each bag, continuing thru bag to tent floor. I have no way to put drip system on a timer. What might ya’ll think of this setup? Thanks for looking.

 

[Finnicki]

Just thought of using a submersible pump on a timer. Once a day. 30 minute run time. Small tubing. Eh?

 

[Buds Buddy]

Next year you should look into an Auto Pot system. Great for feeding while gone. There should be several posts in the DIY section on drip systems to help you out.

 

[Buds Buddy]

That would work. Use a 12 gallon trash can filled 1/2 - 3/4 way. My Auto Pot Res. is 12 gal. & this is the way I use it. Run your pump with some "T"s in your hose if more than 1 plant. Set your timer & try it out. Sounds good. Why don't you set your pots on wire racks that sit on oil drain pans so you don't end up with root rot. I'll try to post a pic of what I mean. These are in 5 gal. bags.

 

[Finnicki]

I have FF soil which drains quickly. I have an auto fem in a gallon bag. Other two are in 3 gallon bags. As I mentioned, I drowned last summers clone last August, our first plant. Won’t happen again. Seems to me that watering every 2nd or 3rd day is too much. But the bag being dry on bottom tells me it’s time. Roots aren’t down that far. The top inches should be checked daily as well. The oscillating fan I now shut off overnight. That helps. I found a three way splitter online. Each line has a flow adjustment knob. Thanks for the ideas. Stay inside, avoid others during these trying days ahead. Take care, the Finn.

 

[Finnicki]

If someone knows who makes a timer that can be set to every OTHER day, that would be great. Otherwise, it’s every day watering at 30 minutes being the shortest
watering time.

 

[SmokingWings]

If you are looking for a time to run a small water pump you can find some digital timers that will work. They are set to be on for whatever amount of time wanted down to 10 seconds and then set to stay off for what ever amount of time the user wants up to 99 hours. They are a lot different than the analog and digital timers that work on a standard 24 hour cycle.

I found mine by walking into a hydro shop and asking for a timer that would allow me to set the time on and time off for a bucket cloning system.

Good luck.

 

[Weaselcracker]

All the digital timers I have around are programmable to within one minute, and have room for a large number of on//off programs.
(I’m not actually sure how many as I’ve never run out). Each on/off program also factors in whatever day or days of the week you want to use. These are just regular cheap timers you can find anywhere I’m sure. I like using the power-bar version which looks like this

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• Weaselcracker
• Mar 31, 2020

Attach a small electric pump to the timer and put it in a barrel of water. The pump usually outputs to a regular garden hose size. To split this into smaller lines you need a watering manifold. This gives you a bunch of small lines (usually 1/4”) to run to your pots.


I use rainwater so draw from cisterns, but you can also buy a timer that hooks directly to a tap.

This is the sort of setup I use when on vacation, or when growing in small containers or coco which needs daily watering.

 

[Finnicki]

I put a 18 gal tote in the tent. Barely fit. Will
put 15 gallons in it. I hope to get it set up to run 30 mins at a flow to soak the bag top to bottom. Every other day. May have to remove the humidifier from the tent as it only holds a gallon. That is gone in a day. The 18 gal tote might evaporate some into the air inside.

 

[Weaselcracker]

30 minutes of watering at a time seems like an awful lot but I suppose it depends how much is pumping out. Try running the lines into a container and you’ll see how much you pump per minute.
For small pots I usually did one minute. Larger pots like ten gallons 5-7 minutes. This is using a 185 gph pump and 1/4” open lines.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

I move the light as far up as possible when I'm gonna be gone for time.

 

[Finnicki]

1/2 hour is the shortest run time if I use a timer I have here. Also looking for a small pond pump. I see 80 gallons per minute ( I think). A 20-30 gph would be wonderful. I have time to search the web. That or yahd work...

 

[Spitz]

T he submersible pumps work great. You can put ball valves to control flow rate as well. I heavily suggest you practice. I wouldn’t just set a pump and leave for a week. Well, I would... but I wouldn’t be upset with flooded or desert dry plants. Fml

Option 2 is to pot up into 5-7 gal pots. Water good and leave an inch or so in the tray.

Good luck!

 

[Finnicki]

Hey thanks. Will practice fer shure. Now Michiganders have to quarantine at their camp if you drive north of US-10 or 55. 14 day stay. Not happening with us. Five nights at the 60 year old camp and we have had it. Plants would dry up beyond the first week. Thank you for all the info.

 

[SmokingWings]

Without knowing how big the pots are or knowing what the "soil mix" is most of can only guess as to whether the 30 minutes is to much or not enough. But, ya, 30 minutes of watering run time does seem like a lot.

 

[BooMtoLate]

You flood your tent floor? Does it leak?

 

[Fastass419]

If you set that up I would put the drip hose closer to the outside of the pot not the stem you want your roots chancing the water if you water at the stem you are going to keep all your roots tight and might cause root rot IMO

 

[Finnicki]

I sprinkle some water on tent floor to evaporate. My tent has two floors. One removable with a 2-3” collar to keep water in. Tent has a floor sewn in.
Not sure when we can leave to go nordth with this virus. By June, the deer, elk, turkeys and Sasquatch will be carrying some bug that will quarantine us up there and then the 18 gallon tote will be dried up

Auto flower plant I use a gallon size. Blueberry I have in a 3 gallon bag. I have Fox Farms soil. I drains well. I have learned not to blow fan directly on plants. Dries soil too quickly. And I shut off fan overnight. We have a Vivosun 3x3x6 tent. Our first. Maybe getting a smaller tent to grow my salvia next winter. I have a small 1gallon humidifier in our tent now. It uses a round filter. Has anyone used a filter-free humidifier in their tent/ room? I wondered if it could produce enough moisture for their situation. Thanks.

 

[thinkbetter12]

If you are looking for a time to run a small water pump you can find some digital timers that will work. They are set to be on for whatever amount of time wanted down to 10 seconds and then set to stay off for what ever amount of time the user wants up to 99 hours. They are a lot different than the analog and digital timers that work on a standard 24 hour cycle.

I found mine by walking into a hydro shop and asking for a timer that would allow me to set the time on and time off for a bucket cloning system.

Good luck.

Like he said. I have some I found in the rain forest. Work great, many combinations of days and times available.

I'm using them now while separated form my garden due to the pandemic. I'm here today looking for some comfort to not worry that I've been gone away way longer than I anticipated. I think most of my plants are still alive but I can't be sure. I don't think my res was large enough. Other than this kind of predicament, I have the drip feed on timers down now finally. I have traveled for work in some years as well as pleasure so I would be away for a few days to a week, maybe 2 once or twice. There is some trial an error involved. But skip over any short cut ideas (like I tried) - go direct to large res, multi option digital timer, drippers, a manifold if you've got a bunch of plants, and try it out -can't stress this enough- many days before you go away. I never had time to get that last part down as I was always upgrading my system - my travel departure date acting as a deadline . Now I've got the system down working really well and I've shorted the gals on the res - I think..... Fingers crossed they can live another week or two. But if it's me or the girls, I can always regrow and it won't be a total loss.

Also - there are various overflow and spill prevention techniques you'll want to figure out over time and depending on how you set up the system. You don't want to flood your plants - or your living space.

Goodluck!

 

[Finnicki]

Here is a critical auto. So the pkging said. It was a freebie from my supplier. Already wider than the gallon bag. Does it look like an auto? It doesn’t look like the picture of
the critical auto on their site. I moved it to a gal bag from a 3 gal bag. Thought the auto’s would stay smaller.