On May 7, 2:08 pm, "JGGS" wrote:
Hi,

I sorry to bother everyone with what is probably a question that has been
asked and answered many times. But the line to "Watering" in the FAQ does
not seem to be working.

My query is simple really. I have twenty pots in my garden containing a
variety of plants all of which require regular watering. They pots range in
diameter from about 9" to 18". I am looking or an automatic watering system
that will do the job while I'm on holidays and maybe even when I at home to
save me the trouble of watering them myself. I have looked at a few
possibilities from a "Hozelock" timed watering "pod" system to a gentle
soaking system called "Blumat" by a company I think called "Tropf" utilizing
a cone inserted into the compost.

Apart from minor problems with mosquito larvae in my bulk rainwater
tank blocking the fine jets (fix is ladies tights over the inlet) I'd
recommend gravity fed or pumped water from a water butt and a timer.
15-30 mins morning and evening is probably enough. Run the system for
at least 2 weeks before you go on holiday to get things right or
expect to come back to plants under water and/or fried to a crisp. I
had some rare lithops submerged under green gungy water once.
Amazingly I got away with it - in their native habitat flash floods
are not completely unknown they still grew happily under water...(not
an experiment I would care to repeat)

I have no experience of any system and would welcome advise from anyone who
has used either of these or other automatic watering systems.

The worry with one attached to mains water is that if something goes
wrong you have a lot of water pressure and an essentially infinite
amount of mains water available on tap. A water butt and gravity feed
or cheap solar pump and panel (approx £30 from Bull electrical ) gives
water only when it is sunny. Mine is Hozelock based. YMMV

Regards,
Martin Brown