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Gravity Fed Drip Irrigation System

I have a vacation planned this summer that'll put me away from the plants for about 7-10 days and the one person I thought I would be able to rely on (and trust) to water the plants isn't going to be willing to do so...

I've considered letting the plants sit in some water and hope that they make it a week but I have too many pots and trays and I'm not willing to take that large of a gamble with some of the plants I have. Yes it's better to have more water than not enough but I won't be able to leave enough water for them to sit in for 10 days anyways, not even 8.

This is all indoors and there is no enclosure so I can't setup a misting system but here's what I had in mind; of course tailored to my use and conditions. Since I need to water every other day, I figured making something like this would be perfect. Does anyone have any experience with a make shift system like this or similar? Thanks for the help!
image004.jpg
 
looks good! i dont see why that wouldnt work? just watch out with over-flowing the tubs or whatever their in since its indoors as you mentioned.

~billy
 
Are you going to sit the pots in a water tray so any excess drains through, if so then best to make sure that the tray has a larger capacity than the reservoir just in case your timer goes wrong. You might want to consider dual redundancy on you timer/valve too, because if there's only one and it fails then your plants will suffer.
 
One issue I can see with this:

Gravity fed irrigation systems tend to have HUGE reservoirs. The reason behind this is as the water level drops in the reservoir, so does the pressure to the irrigation line. So they make them huge and never let them drop below a certian water level so the pressure doesn't drop below a specific level. This may not be an issue if your reservoir is very large, or if you don't mind the amount of watering to drop throughout the 8-10 days.
 
Hi guys, thanks for your answers.

Those are all points that have crossed my mind which is why I'd really like and hope that someone has tried this before.

The container would be a 50 gallon container, more than enough water for 10 days as I use about 3 gallons every 2 days. Any excess would be to keep the pressure up as Frilleon brough up.

Mobile, you brought up my main concern. What IF something goes wrong and the timer/valve fails? Either the plants go dry or I flood the room... Again those are issues I hope someone has tackled in the past.

Another aspect I'd like to get more clarification on is how the timer would trip the valve, and even then, how I could trip it for only a few minutes. Lastly, tweeking the dripping will be a challenge as well. Essentially I want my drip rate to equal my evaporation rate. That way I don't flood the room and the plants dont go dry...

Still hoping! If I can't find anyone that has dealt with this I'll pioneer this trail for the next few months in the hopes to get things in working order before the trip comes around.
Thanks for the inputs!
 
You need a zero pressure timer.

Low Pressure Battery Timer New!
This new water timer is the only battery water timer that can run a drip system from a ground level water barrel. It runs a zero pressure and is rain sensor ready (see TLPRS below). Easy to set 4 button programming with digital readout. There is a manual override and a low battery indicator. Start Times: Up to 9 per day. Every day up to 7 days
Duration: 1 minute to 4 hours and 25 minutes
Pressure Range: 0 to 80 PSI
Flow Rate: 0.5 to 5.2 GPM @30 PSI
Batteries: Two AA Alkaline (not incl.)
Warranty: 2 year (Dripworks)
Mfg. Part #: GRCHI

TLP Low Pressure Timer $39.95 Qty:



Taken from this web site page.


http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/btimers.php#TLP


Hotrod30
 
whoops. suggestion has be suggested already. *edit
that timer sounds great hot rod : )
 
I think that I would go for a pumped system, rather than gravity fed. That way you don't need to worry about head and risk of flooding from a sticky valve - providing the head level is below that of the pots. A submersible aquarium pump in a reservoir should suffice. This could be hooked up to a suitable plug-in digital timer - I don't know what's available in the US but these types of timers are common and cheap here in the UK. Aquarium pumps are also easier to obtain than valves.
 
Mobile: I had though about using a submersible pump but was afraid that due to the number of splits I would need to water all the plants, I'd need a pricey pump. I do like that idea though as it'd save me the trouble of rigging up a whole in a container and fitting a faucet end to it to attach my timer. Has it been your experience that the pump is able to distribute pressure evenly through all the outlets?

Hotrod: Thanks for the link. I found that timer as well and thought it was perfect until I read the part where it says up to 7 days. Don't know why they make something that you have to reset every week. Most of the other timers require no less than 10 psi, I'm wondering if that's attainable once the water level starts to get low? That's 0 pressure one would have been perfect...
 
  • #10
I think what they're indicating is that you can have different settings for each of 7 days (every day of the week). Sort of like how my thermostat can be set for different temperatures on different days of the week. I think at the end of the 7 days it would just start the cycle over. Sounds like it would work. You might want to check with the supplier to be sure though.
 
  • #11
I've only ever rigged up a small drip system with an aquarium pump so I don't know how big a pump you would need. In my case it was a very small one, such as those used for small indoor ornamental water features. Remember that a drip system is low pressure, as the ends are open and you don't need a high flow rate so you might not need a very big pump.
 
  • #12
I think what they're indicating is that you can have different settings for each of 7 days (every day of the week).

This is the part where I go DUUUUUUHHHHHH :-D Thanks for clearing that up!

If I were to go with a submersible pump I think this one would be pretty nice seeing as it comes with some tubing.
http://www.amazon.com/Submersible-F...Fountain-Pumps/dp/B000RI2IJG/ref=pd_sim_ol_20

Still looking for a timer though that let's me regulate seconds or minutes at a time.
 
  • #13
Hotrod: Thanks for the link. I found that timer as well and thought it was perfect until I read the part where it says up to 7 days. Don't know why they make something that you have to reset every week. Most of the other timers require no less than 10 psi, I'm wondering if that's attainable once the water level starts to get low? That's 0 pressure one would have been perfect...


No, 7 days means that you can program each day of the week different. Up to 9 times a day. You can't program one Sunday different than the next Sunday, but each day of the week can be either none or up to 9 times a day. Every Monday will be the same. Every Tuesday will be the same; and so on.

Hotrod30
 
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