Watering whilst on holiday.... how do u do it?

[Smiledmb]

Iive got tomatoes (bush and grafted) in a plastic greenhouse, and 2 1m sq rasied beds with carrots, onions, corgette, and a few containers with beans and peas etc in.
Im trying to work out how to organise the watering etc whilst on holiday.... cheaply.
I dont have family or freinds that could pop in every single day, the friend that would is coming with us!! Were away for 2 weeks so Im now getting worried what to do.

Ive googled watering and there are a few expensive options, but surely theres a simpler one?

I have an outside hosepipe and a waterbut.

How do you water yours???

Thanks

[richardbees]

Take your tomatoes out of the greenhouse and put them in the shade, along with your containers, standing on old carpet which you can keep watered with a 'leaky hose' from your water butt.

The raised beds will just have to fend for themselves!

I'll be interested to see the next replies!

Richard

[VirginVegGrower]

Iive got tomatoes (bush and grafted) in a plastic greenhouse, and 2 1m sq rasied beds with carrots, onions, corgette, and a few containers with beans and peas etc in.
Im trying to work out how to organise the watering etc whilst on holiday.... cheaply.
I dont have family or freinds that could pop in every single day, the friend that would is coming with us!! Were away for 2 weeks so Im now getting worried what to do.

Ive googled watering and there are a few expensive options, but surely theres a simpler one?

I have an outside hosepipe and a waterbut.

How do you water yours???

Thanks

We set up a drip watering system last year hooked up to an outside hosepipe. For our greenhouse it was the only way. We swapped watering duty with a fellow allotmenteer - he looked after ours so when he went away we watered his.

[JamesM]

I'm trying to track down some big 10L bottle to hook up a homemade irrigation system advised by Colin (potsandustbins). If you search the forum for the thread 'mulch' then you find a description of how he did it and some pictures. Very cheap too, have a look!

[Potstubsdustbins]

James,

Got mine from a laundry in an old peoples home gave them a good clean and away we go.

Colin

[JamesM]

James,

Got mine from a laundry in an old peoples home gave them a good clean and away we go.

Colin

thanks again for the help. I'm on half-term now and have the tubing so i'll have a good hunt round this week. I really want to get cracking with it now so i have a chance to make any adjustments i need to

[Anna Stox]

aldi had cheap drip irrigation hose sets in a few weeks ago - think they were 5.99 and said for watering 10 plants, though think number of drippers would do more . I bought 2 sets to go with the timer i got from freecycle. When i went in this week they still had lots in, and lots of other new watering paraphenalia. Think they also had timers with two separate controllers for 19.99.

[Gwyndy]

How do you water yours???

Thanks

A friendly, well trained neighbour who gets a share of the crops!

[singleseeder]

I think that this could be a good option if you could find a neighbour to refill it. Perhaps, you could link a few boxes together to give a greater storage option, or could you have a continual refill system by leaving your hose dripping in the box? I suppose it could be used to keep capilary matting wet too. My mind is running amok now!

YouTube - ‪Drip Irrigation System for less than 10 bucks‬‏

This is one of the easiest option I've seen for several plants; I think I am going to give it a try.

[Hillwalker]

After reading this thread and what Anna had said about Aldi's irrigation system I had a look in our local store this morning, when I went in looking for the acer trees they'd advertised. No acers, but plenty of flexible 20m irrigation hoses and battery powered dual timers ALDI - Thursday Special Buys 26th May 2011. I was sorely tempted myself, until I remembered....we don't go anywhere.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I like the link posted by Single Seeder might try to adapt my home made drip feeder see if makes an improvement.

Colin

[singleseeder]

I like the link posted by Single Seeder might try to adapt my home made drip feeder see if makes an improvement.

Colin

I found this on utube after I tried (and failed) a search on here for your system. So please share the credit for it.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Well that did not take long, I have just nipped to the shed sealed a piece of air line tube at one end, and made a hole in it with a standard needle. Pushed this on to my 10ltr tank and it is now dripping into a measured bottle so that we can check the flow rate. Because the flow rate is effected by the height of the container I have kept to just 3" above the drip nozzle.

If this works we will be able to make a drip feeder for pennies 32p per metre of airline tube, 18p for a straight connector and if you need more than one outlet the tee's are also 18p.

SS I have reposted a pic to give you an idea what we are on about.

Colin

[Potstubsdustbins]

That I think can be classed as a success, 100mls in 5 hours or close to half a litre a day equal to 20 days with my 10 ltr tank.

My fear was the water flow would be uncontrolable as slowing down the flow would be difficult where as speeding it up is just a case of lifting the supply tank or more pinholes.

I have now lifted the tank to bench height and will see what tomorrow brings, then I will measure the unrestricted flow rate to give an idea how many drip heads the 6mm pipe is capable of supporting.

What would be really handy now is for someone in the know to let us know if 1/2ltr would be enough for good growth not just survival.

Colin

[Potstubsdustbins]

Todays result with the plastic tank lifted to 2 ft above the drip nozzle the flow rate increased rather dramatically to 1.3 ltrs over a 12 hour period to much me thinks.

I haven't had time to measure the unrestricted flow rate yet as a mate called me to the pub but will do this tomorrow.

Colin