AusBonsai

My wife and I are going overseas for our honeymoon in a couple of months and it will be the first time I am away from my trees for more than a couple of days.

I am wondering what is the cheapest and most efficient set up for watering keeping in mind we have pretty poor water pressure at my house. Alternatively I can ask a friend however I am not sure they will get watered as needed and may lose a tree or two.

I have had a quick read through this post, but it mentions needing good pressure for sprayers. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19226&start=30&hili ... y+watering

I really don't understand solenoids and controllers so if someone could help break it down into laymens terms that would be great too.

You could try a dripper set up.
I believe they don't need excessive pressure.

Just need the drippers and a timer

Hi Luke,

Find professional Irrigation Shop in your area. Not the dreaded B…! They should if they are any good be able to advise; and when you need more it will all match.

How do you know you have low pressure? There is test you can carry out with a bucket: You time how long it takes the full-on-tap to fill to 9 litres. The shop or someone else on here will be able to tell what the time should be.

I set my up so long ago and now I'm in trouble so I will bookmark your query.

Regards, AnneK.

hi luke..

its a cheap and nasty option, but i was away over christmas for 35 days and i kept both my grow bed and benches alive using 2 of these:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/pope-raised ... t_p3120601

then all you need is a cheap electric tap timer. mine was 35 dollars and lets you choose up to 4 watering times per day, how long you want the watering to last, and on which days you need it.

if using 2 of the kits you will then also need a 'y' joiner for your regular garden hose...

the sprinklers that come in the kit are just the dripper style though, so i placed one of those in each of my largest pots, and any unused connections got swapped out for misting style ones which are interchangeable to the kit, the mist was enough to keep everything smaller alive.

definately only a short term solution but its cheap and easy.

im back to watering by hand now, but i still have the misters set up to go off for 15 minutes in the mornings on work days...



bryce

Water pressure is an issue with solenoids.
Most valves need mains pressure to trigger opening and closing so check before you rely on it.
I have gravity fed system and use battery power latching coil solenoids which operate on low power, low pressure. One of the problems is that the sprays do not perform well on low pressure.

my neighbor friend gets $40 for two weeks of watering every two days, and another $60 if nothing dies

You could run a header tank that fills between waterings and run a pressure pump off that. You could then add fert to the water that way as well.

I would go with Jows option!
Having a water tank that self fills, can then have a pressure pump (from fleabay) to give you all the pressure you need.
I also have stone trays underneath all my trees (thanks to Pup) which he saved me (and my trees) more than I want to admit! Life is very hectic at the moment and doesn't look like it will get any quieter (thank You Lord) so my participation has nearly stalled...


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