Automatic plant watering

[Timothy Murphy]

Anyone have experience of systems for automatically watering garden tubs (and window-boxes), please?

[Slider]

Wife

[Andy Hall]

Watering, Ironing, F***ing, Etc. ?

[T i m]

Yup,

Hozelock AC+, seems to work very well.

's currently looking after 3 small beds of mixed veg with one micro-perforated hose, plus 3 planters and a couple of small window sill type boxes via drippers an Aquapod.

It only applies what I would describe as a sustaining level of water, I top that up either with extra manual runs (override the timer) or via a watering can from the butts.

2/3 of the beds are covered with the black membrane to minimize weeds and to retain moisture.

All the best ..

T i m

[Alan]

In message , Timothy Murphy wrote

They can be expensive but they do work.

I've used Hozelock and one purchased from Aldi for around 5/6 years. I use one system for two hanging baskets, two long window troughs and three large pots at the front of my house. I haven't bothered with any additional watering via a watering can this year.

The problem that I encountered with the cheap Aldi system was the quality of the black plastic tubing. When it got hot during the day in the sun it became soft. When the water turned on the pressure was then enough to force one of the connections apart (it happened on more than one occasion)

The Hozelock tubing and fittings are a much better plastic. The connections to the fittings are much harder to assemble but they are unlikely to come apart easily. Assembly can be aided by putting the end of the tubing in boiling water before trying to fit the 'drip' components.

Rather than using the simple drip connectors use the adjustable fittings that allow you to balance the system easily.

The Hozelock water timers are much more intuitive to set-up. I currently have the AC1+ featured:

've had one of the cheaper Hozelock timer fail with water getting into the electronics and with the battery terminal corroding away.

Don't use rechargeable batteries in the timers (self discharge problems). Don't fit pound shop batteries - they will fail on the hottest days when you are away for the weekend :( Use a good quality alkaline battery and it will last for longer than a year.

Duracel Procell are a good performance/price compromise for this type of application.

The system needs adjusting for on/off times and watering duration around

2 or 3 times a year as the seasons change. It's too easy to over water at the beginning of the season when we get just a few hot days. Set up one time for ,say, 5am when the soil is cool and the water will not evaporate quickly - the plants then have at least 2/4 hours to take up the water.

[stuart noble]

Interesting that a combination of sharp sand and general purpose compost (1:3) retains more water than the compost alone. Go figure.

[Alan]

For hanging baskets I use soil based John Innes composts which contains sharp sand for hanging baskets.

[Mike Barnes]

Additional advice to what's already been offered...

I use Hozelock and currently have four installed. There's a whole range but I don't see any point in going for the more complicated ones - the AC1 has everything I need. I use new alkalines every season, it's not worth taking risks with anything less. I find that the timers only last a few years so I'm never surprised when one of them won't wake up after winter.

I also have a clockwork timer that is set manually for up to two hours watering and it that suits your needs it will be a lot simpler, cheaper, and more reliable.

I thought the pressure reducer might be optional but it isn't. We have quite low mains pressure here but it blows the joints apart.