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Old 14-03-2012, 02:17 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Ann Lancing Ann Lancing is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
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Default greenhouse watering devices

Hello Dave,

On Mar 14, 10:28 am, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 14/03/2012 08:47, Ann Lancing wrote:

Could someone recommend a watering device for a 10 x 6 greenhouse.
It is only needed when I go on holiday. the time I require is 1
minute
about every 2 days.

That sounds a bit short! Do you have mains water available?

If so I'd recommend one of the standard attach to the tap timed
valves and thin wall drip or spray irrigation systems.

If you have a water sump but no mains water then I have used one of
the solar fountain pumps on a timer to supply presurissed water to a
standard hoselock irrigation system (needs a nylon stocking over the
intake to avoid ajmming the jets with mosquito larvae).

http://www.nezumi.demon.co.uk/garden/water/fountain.htm (towards the
bottom of the page)

Also it needs to be easy to set. I just want a simple one! I have
no-one reliable to water for me.

One thing I would recommend is run the thing as if you *are* away for
at least a fortnight ahead of your trip so that you can tune it to do
what you want. It is very easy to come back and find some plants
under waters and others bone dry if you don't thoroughly test it.

Thanks in advance. Ann

Another trick for spot watering is a lemonade bottle with some black
tape at the top. You adjust the amount of tape to get the watering
rate right. A thin brass pipe curved over at the top through the
screw cap with a blob of aradite or silicone rubber to make a gas
tight seal.

Almost fill with it water and put it so the water drips on your
plant. In sun the air expands and drives water out of the drip feed.

Make sure the sun can't be focussed on anything flammable by the the
bottle! Or wrap it with white paper or diffuser.

A commercial product similar to this by drip feed which uses the
bottle inverted is/was on sale a few years back. It tended to go
wrong and discharge an entire bottle overnight sometimes.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

You don't say what you want to water, is it a tomato crop planted into
the soil, grow bags or a series of pots on slatted bench or pots on
capilary matting?


It is for geraniums I have overwintered, some on the soil base and some on
slatted staging.
Mainly at this time of the year.

Ann