Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there - I'm going away for just over a week and need to devise some sort of drip feed system to keep my tomatoes and chillies well watered inside my greenhouse while I'm away.

I would ask the neighbour, but he's been in a bad mood with us ever since we got a dog in january and I know he wouldn't bother and everything would die.

So I've got a load of 2 litre pop bottles which I could utilise.

My chilli plants are on a gravel tray and I wonder whether to use some capillary matting - but how do you keep it all moist and wet all the time?

I might have time to go to B&Q and buy some extras for the pop bottles if someone could suggest anything I can do with them.

in the past I've treid to use bottles full of water with one hole punched into the top, but they just got clogged with mud and the water never drained.

I'm worried that I will over water in the first few days and then not water at all in the last few days.

Please help!

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I think you will find something from my mate dave
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Gardeners-C...QQftidZ2QQtZkm

He does a lot of things like that

I've got to do something today or tomorrow though so not got time to buy anything from ebay, but thanks for the link.

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Are your tomatoes in the ground, growbags or pots ???

They're in pots. I'm trying something out wiht plastic bottles at the moment. I've cut the bottom off one bottle and inserted a second into that. I've attached a lid with a hole to the first bottle and at first it just poured the water out, so I covered that hole with gaffa tape and used a pin to make a smaller hole and now I'm getting about 5 drips a minute out of this.

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You could try something like this

I am so so sorry for that really really bad picture
basically it is meant to be a bottle at the top with some hose going down to the to plants, if you puncture the hose pipe it SHOULD leak into the pots
If anybody laughs at my pici I will never come back on this site

wow - thanks for taking the time to do that - there's nothing wrong with your picture at all. I was thinking along those lines as I have abit of hose pipe.

I've set up my double bottle and filled it to the top with water and I'm just timing it now to see how far the level goes down in an hour. I stupidly made the hole a little larger though, so it's now dripping at a fater rate. But hey I've got all day to muck about with this so hopefully can devise something that will last for a week.

Maybe by the end of tomorrow I will know how much water I will need to put in to last a day and then know how many bottles I need to add to the tower to accomodate a weeks worth of dripping. Do you think the weight of water would make it drip faster and is that something I should account for?

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i like the fact that you've drawn each plant individually - I wouldhave just copied and pasted and therfore rendered my illustration boring!

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Hi again, The weight of the water may affect how fast it comes out so I would just work out how much it will need and add a little more
Im glad you like the pici

mmm - quite a lot of water came out in an hour, so I've just made the hole smaller and getting approx 20 drips a minutes, so set up the timer again to see how much the water level goes down.

I might have to use 4 bottles if I want it to last for a whole week...mmmm!

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Eskymo, I think 4 large 2 litre bottles will do, Is 20 drips a minute enough or to much ??

How about some airline tubing from an aquarium shop & a water carrier from a camping shop? you can regulat the flow with the tap then. As to how much water they'll need depends on the amount of sun we get

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Hi Eskymo, the last time i went away i filled some 2 gallon buckets, put them up above the plants ( on a high stool ) and put some shoe laces ( long ones from trainers) in the bucket. One end in the bucket and one end buried in the plant pot. The plant will soak up the ammount of water it needs. You need to keep the laces fairly taut or the water will drip. I can assure you it has worked for me several times. You can also use wicks but you may not get any long enough.

hi eskymo tried this myself this summer insert a three feet long cane into your pot tie the bottle to the cane about six inches from soil level bottom end up cut bottom of fill with water and just unscrew cap till you get right water flow kept my pots o k for about four days then my son simply refilled bottles .hope you enjoy hols cheers eddie

Poundsaver are doing a kit for £5....30m of pipe and 20 drip feeders.

HI Eskymo

If your really desperate B+Q have a watering kit at £19 which is suitable for a greenhouse, maybe you could use this and put it on a timer ?? I haven't tested the product out though so don;t know how effective it is. I'll let you know after I do my winter clean out in the greenhouse and install this system

Sorry I can;t be of more help

Laura