Automatic watering kits.

[RizzoTheRat]

I've got a 220 litre water butt that sits several feet higher than my greenhouse, and want to rig up an automatic watering system to keep about 15-20 pots and 4 growbags moist while I'm away on holiday. Most of the kits I've seen for use with a water butt rather than mains pressure seem to use soaker hose that would be fine for a bed but presumably not for pots. I'd also need to be able to give some pots different amounts of water than others as the tomatoes will need a lot more water than the aubergines.

Best I can find so far seem to be this (which strangely I can't find on B&Qs website), anyone got any experience of thses, or any better suggestions?

[Flintstone]

A sprinkler (or sprinklers) on a timer. You could rig one in a few minutes with a hose and a few attachments. Not as cheap as the dripping butt (snigger) in your link but also no danger of running dry.

[Tanguero]

Try these people http://www.cityirrigation.co.uk/ - they should have something that will do the job and they are very helpful if you phone them. A lot cheaper than the DIY chains too!

[RizzoTheRat]

Went for a Hozelock system in the end, it has a larger diameter pipe that runs round the area, and then you punch joiners in to the side of the bigger pipe to attach 4mm hose that runs out to the drippers. Not that impressed so far, the connectors from the larger pipe to 4mm nearly all leak, and I left it last night with only 2 drippers running to measure the flow rate and 12 hours later my 220 litre water but was empty with only about a litre out of the two I was measuring. Think I'm going to have to get a timer rather than use a constantly on system as wityh the drippers open only 2 clicks I get virtually nothing out, and at 3 clicks I reckon the flow is a bit too high for what I want.

[FasterFreddy]

RizzoTheRat said:

Went for a Hozelock system in the end, it has a larger diameter pipe that runs round the area, and then you punch joiners in to the side of the bigger pipe to attach 4mm hose that runs out to the drippers. Not that impressed so far, the connectors from the larger pipe to 4mm nearly all leak, and I left it last night with only 2 drippers running to measure the flow rate and 12 hours later my 220 litre water but was empty with only about a litre out of the two I was measuring. Think I'm going to have to get a timer rather than use a constantly on system as wityh the drippers open only 2 clicks I get virtually nothing out, and at 3 clicks I reckon the flow is a bit too high for what I want.

I've used the Hozelock system and it's only really going to work if you use the timer. You just can't get precise enough adjustment on the drippers for a really low flow rate and as you say it leaks where the small tubes join the main tube.

they have a battery powered timer designed to fit to a tap. i'm sure you could adapt this to fit your butt (snigger) and then you can use a relatively high flow rate but only water a couple of times a day for a few minutes at a time. Unless you have a few days to test the whole set up before you go away, you may still find some pots waterlogged and some a bit dry when you get back but it's still probably the best auto watering system for the price.

ETA - Oh and one thing to be careful of is that the timer has a manual override button, which I would sometimes use in very dry weather to manually water everything for a few minutes. One time I used this just before going away for a week and when I got back I realised I'd forgotten to put it back on timer mode. There was quite a lot of water around (my system was attached to the mains).

Edited by FasterFreddy on Saturday 31st July 13:00

[Silver993tt]

Gardena products are superb, all made in Germany (and also alot cheaper there):

http://www.gardena.com/opencms/opencms/UK/en/produ...

[RizzoTheRat]

FasterFreddy said:

they have a battery powered timer designed to fit to a tap. i'm sure you could adapt this to fit your butt (snigger)

That's exactly what I've now done, bought the basic Hozelock timer and connected it to the hosepipe from the butt. 15 minutes with the drippers fully open gives about 2 litres, which should be enough for my tomatoes, and I've closed the drippers up a bit for the less thirsty stuff. Now I've got the timer I might look at rigging up the whole garden with irrigation for next year, at the moment it's just the greenhouse as everything outside can go a couple of days or more without water.