Best way to water in a greenhouse.

[Nicky]

Last year I bought a couple of the big drippa kits to water my greenhouse so I only have to visit the plot once a day and make it ewasier foa nyone watering for me when I went on holiday. They turned out to be a big disapointment either letting too much or not enough water out and the nozel thinies blocked by the end of the season.
I'm loking to do something different this year, perhaps using a seaper hose connected to a water butt ontside the greenhouse.
I'd make big trays for the compost and lay the hose in a big loop round the greenhouse. They say they can be used with water butts and I'd put the butt on blocks to give it a bit more pressure.
Has anyone done something similar? Do you think it would work?

[pigletwillie]

This year I tried 1000L IBC's with special low pressure leaky hose and abandoned the project after a few weeks and went back to a hose or watering can.

[rustylady]

I really do think a greenhouse needs visiting at least once a day, and for this reason I won't have one on the lottie. The one in the back garden takes all my time. I certainly wouldn't leave seedlings in trays or small pots. Probably OK for tomatoes and peppers in growbags or borders where the roots can go deep looking for water.

[Nicky]

I can go down once a day but I wanted to make it easy for anyone that has to look after the greenhouse whilst I'm away on holiday. Much easier to ask someone to keep a water butt topped up than make seure each plant pot has the right amount of water.

[JennieAtkinson]

Nicky - I have up with the drippas as they are hopeless. I did however, at great expense unfortunately, buy a proper greenhouse drippa system which runs on a timer from the tap (you can get them to run off a water butt though). I'll try and find a link for you.

I would agree with RL that you still need to visit every day as it was ok for pots and growbags, although when I went on holiday I put some smaller plants on a tray and had a nozzle dripping water into the tray. My son checked every few days to make sure everything was still going ok.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i'm planning to automate my greenhouse watering this year

i'm going to get a small water butt to go inside the greenhouse - that will have a dripper system attached - i don't want to push the drippers into soil / compost as i don't want them blocked so might tie them above the soil level (it's all about experimenting!)

i already have large water butts outside the house with hosepipe running downhill to the greenhouse - so with a timer, i should be able to refill the small water butt in the greenhouse automatically - and hopefully will have enough water in the big water butt to last a few days without rain

i prefer the idea of drippers to soaker hose as the drippers are more precise and means less wasted water in dry periods
i'll be growing things in pots rather than growbags so any overwatering shouldn't be a problem - pots will sit on big trays

i also have an outside tap and a sprinkler that covers the whole of the outside veggie patch - just need another 100ft of hose and another timer for that

any recommendations for timers?

[JennieAtkinson]

I tried to do a link last night but just managed to crash the putta instead!
It is the Gardena watering system and its bloomin good.

FG - Sewer Rat recommended a very good timer to me last year. I'll have a look at the make the next time I'm in the greenhouse.

[Glasshousevirgin]

Interesting comments. Often looked longingly at big drippa system but no more.
Last year my greenhouse was a watering problem as I work nearby but live not so close so called in regularly but not everyday.
Working in a hospital I thought I could successfully recycle a lot of infusion bags and tubing. It was of limited success I think because the tubing wasn't designed for the purpose and at best I could hang a bag of 2L water and let it run slowly where I had fed the tubes. These often blocked or didn't have the pressure to go too far and sediments from unfiltred water and hard water soon built up.
Overall if I recall my hort school lessons you need certain hydrodynamics to be successful. One big problem is water pressure which we take for granted as we usually live in a property with mains water and can supply the garden/ GH with it.
Another is tubing diameters and over certain distances the pressure needs boosting etc.
Have gone back to trusty watering can mostly but have had great success with capilliary matting on benches for seed raising - has proved more reliable than relief watering by neighbours. All they have to do is top up the reservoirs and the matting sucks it along to all the trays evenly - no more wilting corners and stop start growth.
Its really cheap (£5 for 3M x .50M) and I was knocked over by the simplicity of it.

[workhorse]

One thing that you have to take into consideration is the head of water between your water but adjacent to the greenhouse and the height of the plants you are watering. You must remember that water will not run up hill, so the butt must be higher than the highest point you wish to water.

James