Beckenbach,Joseph R wrote:
Valerie, the best watering system is a system of knowledgeable friends.
If you are not yet a member of a local bonsai club, join one. The
advice and help and comradery is even more important than the watering.
If your bonsai are small and relatively young as you say, you can even
"board" them out to you bonsai buddies.

Automatic watering systems are subject to failure and I for one would
not recommend one to anyone over the internet. On the other hand,
gaining new friends who share an interest with you and can help is a
no-brainer.


On the OTHER hand ;-) . . .

If you have more than 20 trees, and if some of them happen
to be GOOD trees, that's a lot of responsibility to lay on a
"friend." And, if that friend has a family emergency, or
something else diverts his/her attention while you're gone,
you can lose a lovely friendship.

Better, I think, is a watering system AND a friend who can
go over every couple of days to see if everything's all
right -- which you may have done in any event these days
with crooks seeming to know when anyone goes away.

Watering systems are reliable enough if you put fresh
batteries in a few days before you leave (assuming, of
course, that your entire house-and-yard/well/city system
keeps going -- no guarantee, as I found out last summer! No
"friend" could have bailed me out of that!).

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only
where people have learned to appreciate and cherish the
landscape and its living cover will they treat it with the
care and respect it should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Kevin Bailey++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++