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Thread: DIY Automatic Micro Irrigation System

  1. #1

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    Default DIY Automatic Micro Irrigation System

    I'm after some advice on how to rig an automatic watering system. Funds are tight so this needs to be a budget job.

    I'm going on holiday for 10 nights, which is why I intially thought of a self watering system, but thinking about it now I'd quite like to have one set up and watering my plants for me - I'd still check on them every other day as I currently do, but I wouldn't need to spend as much time in the loft as I do at the moment and it would generally make life easier. I do not have a water outlet in my loft so I would have to fill up some sort of resevoir and pump it from the res to my plants.

    My plan so far is as follows;

    Purchase a micro irrigation system from eBay - item number 161978254008 - £5.35 and comes with all the pipes, fittings and drippers etc.



    Hook said irrigation system up to a small submersible fish tank pump similar to - ebay item number 121910288232 - £5.99 - 3w, says it can pump 250 litres of water per hour

    Connect pump to a timer so that it comes on at specific intervals and drips water into my soil for a certain length of time.

    The below picture roughly illustrates how I intend on setting it up.


    My current plant takes roughly 3 litres of water every 2 days(ish), this plant will be done soon and I have another 3 plants in there just about to pop their heads up. Basing my calculations on the current 3litres of water per plant every 2 days, I'm thinking the following;



    • Pump capable of 250 litres per hour............... = 4.2 litres per minute



    • 3 litres per plant x 3 plants.......................... = 9 litres required every 2 days



    • Req water / litres per minute

    .......( 9Litres / 4.2L per minute) ..........................= 2.1 (operational minutes to pump 9 litres)


    Based on the above calculations I would have my pump turn on for 2.1 minutes every 48 hours - alternatively I could have my pump turn on for 1 minute every 24 hours.


    I understand that my new plants mayt not require exactly 3 litres of water every 2 days - I will have to tweak the amount of water they recieve as required - but for ease of understanding I've based this on the 3 litres.


    Anyone set something like this up on a budget?

    Would that pump be strong enough to pump the water along the pipe to my plants - we're talking max 3 metres of pipe in total.

    Would the last dripper release as much water as the first dripper or will the pressure get lower the further along the pipe I go

    Would drippers be my best option, or would I be better getting some of those rings that would encircle the main stem?


    Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers

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  3. #2

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    I have no real idea about these things but it looks viable
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  5. #3

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    Could work but here's some things to consider.
    1. Cheap pumps aren't very reliable.
    2. Have you considered if your running to waste or to recirculate.
    3. Base or trays for your pots after all you don't want to be flooding your attic.
    4. A pipe filter to help your lines from getting blocked since your running dirt.
    Also you may want to get an airpump for your res

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  7. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by mrnice22 View Post
    Could work but here's some things to consider.
    1. Cheap pumps aren't very reliable.
    2. Have you considered if your running to waste or to recirculate.
    3. Base or trays for your pots after all you don't want to be flooding your attic.
    4. A pipe filter to help your lines from getting blocked since your running dirt.
    Also you may want to get an airpump for your res
    To be honest mate those are all aspects I didn't consider - cheers!

    I water my plants with very little run off. I usually let the soul dry out, then give enough water just to saturate the soil. So I'm thinking of maybe having a tray below my pots with a hose that feeds into a small waste bucket to catch the little run off I have - this would be gravity fed.

    I may have to invest in a slightly more expensive pump.

    Filter - I didn't consider - will now.

    Do you think an air pump is necessary? My reasons for setting this up is so my plants get watered while I'm on holiday for 10 nights - would water stagnate in 10 days?

    Cheers

  8. #5

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    Air pumps keep the nutreint flowing although you might be able to achive this with the water pump by creating a water fall but it will need to be on quite often whitch could lead to over satuation of your soil. you could just use a wick maybe ? or go with your origional plan and use plan water insted of nutrients. you may get a couple of defiencies likely nitrogen if your in veg but you can fix that. the reason i say go with plain water is because if you dont use an airpump the nutrients will go abit funny because they are standing for so long whitch could just give you evan more deficiances.

    also get a 7 day digital timer and program it to when you normally water

  9. #6

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    Pressure will be higher in the dripper nearest the pump...unequal watering-I learned this the hard way ;-)

  10. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cockrobin View Post
    Pressure will be higher in the dripper nearest the pump...unequal watering-I learned this the hard way ;-)


    Open question to all. Just read the above and wondered if that is the case if all the dripper lines are the same length? Sure I read someplace that if you have the same length tube going to each dripper then the same volume of water/pressure will be achieved in a given time. Busy putting my own dripper system together so would really like to know.

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  12. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Viz View Post
    Open question to all. Just read the above and wondered if that is the case if all the dripper lines are the same length? Sure I read someplace that if you have the same length tube going to each dripper then the same volume of water/pressure will be achieved in a given time. Busy putting my own dripper system together so would really like to know.
    Yep, equal length drip lines should mean equal pressure throughout.
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  14. #9

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    you will also need a timer that counts in seconds- there is gonna be way to much for a 15 minute slot timer.
    ecotechnics do one, if you're interested, or use a digital one

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