Summer irrigation

[Laura Hillier]

Hi all,

We are putting together the July issue of Grow Your Own, so have summer in mind! For this issue, we'd love to know how you keep on top of irrigation over the summer months, particularly if you will be away on holiday

Laura

[mic]

self watering bottom fed system of course! got the GH some time in March, cut 2 drums in half piped em all together leading to a tub with a ballcock plumbed up to the main water butt. although i confess i havent actually done that part yet because i never seem to finish anything i start LOL but im sure ill have it done by holiday time. topping up the tub with ballcock manually doesnt take long.

already have cucumbers flowering and peppers growing although im thinking the plants are maybe too small for that just yet. anyway. here it is from last week




And here it is today

[ESBkevin]

I've given over a large area to 'no dig' and over the recent weeks of no rain here in the east it has remained moist under the cardboard and mulch. Other than last nights substantial rain we have been watering the plot for weeks other than the no dig. I'm expecting the heavy mulch to survive without much attention this summer.

[Penellype]

My setup is not designed for going away, but as I don't "do" holidays that doesn't really matter. However as most of my veg is grown in containers I do need to be able to keep on top of the watering. I've invested in a number of self-watering pots including quadgrow/chiligrow/saladgrow, Hozelock planters and Stewart balconnieres, and all work well providing they are on a reasonably flat surface and you top them up regularly.

For smaller plants and seedlings and my indoor plants I use self watering trays which are basically a drip tray with a platform covered with capillary matting. These work well providing the pots have holes in the bottom which are in contact with the matting - I find some older types of pots have little ridges which unhelpfully hold the pot above the matting allowing it to dry out, so you have to be aware of this. They also don't work with rootrainers which are held above the matting by their "cage". The length of time they last before needing topping up depends crucially on the size of the plants. My big tomato plants on windowsill watering trays need topping up every day.

I tried a drip feed system in the greenhouse from a tank and with a timer, but found it unreliable so I converted the greenhouse pots to the water reservoir type.

My garden is no dig and like ESBkevin I have found it holds the moisture well, and when planting out some flowers the other day after the prolonged dry spell I was quite surprised how damp the soil felt under the mulch. The only exception is the area near the leylandii hedge, which becomes very dry very quickly. This area and the plants that are not in self-watering pots, like my buckets of potatoes, need watering every day with a watering can as I don't have an outside tap for a hose.

[Jay-ell]

I'm just about to do the annual overhaul of the greenhouse irrigation.

Two 100liter water butts stand on a pile of paving slabs, bricks and water butt stands to get a bit of height and a small amount of head. The taps ate connected together so they both drain evenly. There's a timer connected to the taps which then leads to the hose around the GH with dripper lines attached. Drippers are variable so I can turn down the amount of water to any individual plants.

200 liters will last a good while - easily enough for me to get a break - now all I need is tomatoes that remove their own suckers.


For small pots which would get flooded with the minimum dripper settings I use a capillary dripper - this is a ceramic cone with an airtight cap connected to a tube. The cone goes into the soil and the end of the tube weighted in a bucket of water. As the soil dries out it culls water from the cone which then pulls water up the tube from the bucket.

Outside I have raised beds. In the Jungle plot they're only raised 6" high so the soil underneath can act as a reservoir (that soil is clay). The soil in these beds has loads of organic matter mixed into it to help it hold onto the moisture. I prefer a deep watering less often rather than watering every day as the roots then start hunting out their own water.

The New Territories also has raised beds, but these are quite a bid higher. They also dry out quicker as they don't have as much good organic matter in them. At the moment I'm granularity replacing the tall beds with 6" high beds and improving the soil as and when I can.

I'm trying to improve my mulching, especially in the New Territories as using a dust mulch here doesn’t help. I'm also using a lithic mulch in the pea wigwams to keep down the weeds and conserve water (paving stones in the centre stop the soil drying out and direct the rain to the peas planted around the outside. Chop and dropping weeds helps with but once all the weeds have gone (dream on) ...

[bario1]

I have a soaker hose on a timer in my polytunnel that's connected to a 50 gallon water tank. The water pressure from the tank isn't really strong enough though, so I'm thinking of trying a dripper system this year instead.

[vixylix]

I use my FIL