greenhouse tomatoes & watering

[salilah]

My greenhouse is about to be erected (yippee) and I plan this year to have a low raised bed along one side for the tomatoes...

I can only water at weekends so need to find a solution - am I better off using a soaker hose or drip irrigation such as Hozelock?

I plan to use the Hozelock on the morrisons buckets for chillis, aubergines, cucumbers etc, so will have a timer - but not sure for the toms as they will be in soil?

any advice much appreciated!
cheers
Salilah

PS any other advice for a newbie greenhouse owner appreciated, especially as regards remote watering!!

[bramble]

I don't want to discourage you but, in my humble opinion I don't think its do able given the rise and fall in temps, not just daily but hourly.
I sincerely hope you prove me wrong, and good luck with it whatever you decide.

[Snadger]

Why can you only water at weekends?

[iggyboy]

if you can only make weekends,you are better off with everything growing in the ground. pots dry out so quickly,its a cert you will lose your plants even with timed irrigation!

[Tomatoking]

Automatic Watering,Garden Water Timers


I think your only solution would be a timer like this, conected to your watering system. As has been said, growing in the soil or rasied beds is the only safe solution if you cannot water as often as you should.
The other idea is that you could place your large pots in a small raised bed, which when the roots grow through the bottom of the pots will give your plants a reserve.

You will just to have one type of watering, either drip or soaker, or you will get uneven watering.

Mr TK

[salilah]

Thanks all!
The greenhouse is near Cambridge but we work and live in London during the week - not the best situation for growing veg!
For the pots, I was thinking the timer and individual drippers - bit of a challenge working out how much is needed!
For the tomatoes, I could either do more drippers for each plant, or a soaker hose which could be on full-time - my outside tomatoes get a soaking once a week, and survive in between on any rain, so I didn't know whether timed intermittent drip was better than continuous drip? (I've got a splitter for the hose so could run 2 systems, but only one on a timer)
cheers!
S

[VJay]

Tomatoe plants grow well in compost bags, left flat, 3 plants to a bag. Once the plants get tall, tie some string to them and attach to the greenhouse roof. This is much better than using canes. A gravity water drip system might work just as well. Place a large water container above the grow bags and run a length of tubing from it to the grow bags. Pierce pin holes wherever needed along the tubing. You could experiment with this set up over a weekend to find out the size of the water cantainer and the pinholes needed for a full weeks watering.

Tomatoes are quite hardy plants, so if there has been a real warm week, you can give them a good water on the weekend if needed.

[Tomatoking]

Tomatoes in the height of the season need about 3 to 4 litres of water a day, if you do let them dry then over water, you could get cracked fruit.
But as they are in the soil you might get away with it if you have good free draining soil.
Depends on what sort of summer we have!

Mr TK

[salilah]

Thanks!
Having got the drip irrigation kit, I think I'll use the faster drippers (40L/H) on the main hose in the tomato bed, and the smaller drippers (4L/H) on the pots (morrisons buckets) - both on the timer of 15mins morning and 15mins afternoon, and see what it looks like after a week!!
cheers & thanks all for ideas
S

[Alison]

I've quite happily gone away for a week in summer (and once for a month) leaving my greenhouse only watered by a drip system on a timer and with the exception of everything going a bit mental and needing tying up properly all was OK. It's a case of getting the watering system set up so that they get the correct amount of water on a daily basis which takes quite a bit of time initially and there is a certain outlay associated with buying the kit. I've set up a load of soaker hose on timers in the polytunnel on the lottie to cope with the days I can't go up and that seems to be working well so far.

[salilah]

Thanks Alison!
I set up a Hozelock system last weekend, with 6 x 40L/hr sprinklers in the tomato bed (17ft long x 2 ft wide, 24 tomatoes) - plus a load of 4L/hr dripping into morrison's buckets with aubergines etc - plus a couple drippers (4L/hr and one leak) into trays with capillary matting linking each to another 3 trays - all on for 15m twice a day! No idea what will happen - my guess is tomatoes will need more water, and trays will need less - will find out on Friday evening!!
cheers
S

[Bigmallly]

There appears to be 2 or 3 threads circulating on similar subject that could maybe benifit from a little merging........

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_48639.html

[Mr P]

I would go for growbags and use trays for them, With raised beds you will get a build up of bacteria over the years, the soil will also become depleted especially growing the same plants in the same location and the soil will need to be replaced.
Fit an automatic vent to the window to try and prevent overheating and best of luck with the water, the water usage is more linked to temperature than time so try and adjust the timer according to the weekly weather forecast and increase a bit more as the plants grow.

[salilah]

An update (warning - long!) in case anyone else is going through the same thought processes:

Set the system on Sunday, and headed off with fingers crossed
Got home Friday night - disaster! The hose had come off the pipe (badly fitted and water was gushing out of the tap, which of course was full on for the watering system. I think (hope) it had only been a day or so :-(

Then on checking the watering system - disaster #2 - my OH had demonstrated the watering to daughter, and hadn't set it back to the right AUTO place (or possibly he set it back to where I had left it, which wasn't AUTO) - so the system hadn't watered at all!!

However (the good news :-) )
- the tomatoes were looking a little sad, but all 24 had survived, so they got a really good soaking, and are doing fine
- the basil in the tomato bed - much the same
- the various Morrisons buckets of aubergines, chilis, peppers and cucumbers had also survived - I've tried using non-peat compost (mainly, with a top layer of peat multi-purpose) and they were all looking happy
- the various module trays of herbs, salad etc were dry but OK
Luckily I think it wasn't a very hot week, so I was fortunate...

Reset the watering - seemed to be going OK - but now time for mini-disaster #3 - checked the Morrisons Buckets today (which have holes in the bottom, then resting in smaller buckets or in buckets lifted up a bit with some polystyrene) - and they were totally waterlogged!! So the 10 mins twice a day is way too much for the buckets. Reset to 5mins twice a day - but I know that won't be enough for the tomatoes...

So - I need 2 controllers - one for the tomato bed, and one for all the buckets. Off back to Garden4less and will set up next weekend, keeping fingers crossed that the tomatoes will survive the week...

All good fun, and a learning experience for definite! (and we've solved the outside tap - the hose was attached (don't know why) straight onto the straight bit of hte tap with a bit of wire - we've now got it fitted properly with a 2-way splitter screwed on, so I can run hose as well as greenhouse...

Keeping fingers crossed that the Auto system at 5mins works this week!
Salilah

[salilah]

Latest update:

the system was still giving too much to the buckets and not enough to the tomatoes, so I now have 2 systems (running on separate timers) - one for all teh buckets going at 3mins twice a day, and one for the tomatoes (and basil) in the ground / raised bed, going for 30mins once a day (9 drippers at 40L/h) - hate to think what the water bill will be like!

Now need to rig up drippers for the 7 cucumbers in buckets - and try to find longer trays than gravel trays, so I can do one dripper for more than one bucket! Off to the garden centre :-)

S