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I’ve been growing toms in my greenhouse for a number of yrs and generally use grafted plants in big plastic pots. I’m busy and often forget to water them regularly, ie daily. I get a decent supply of toms but do suffer from a lot of blossom end rot from irregular watering. Also if we go away ever again it’s usually the case that anyone who pops in to water the toms isn’t realistically going to do it religiously every day.
Anyone got any experience with self watering systems? I was thinking drillers originally fed from the garden tap on a timer, then saw the solar pumps powering droppers from a water Butt now I’ve googled and seen the oasesbox system. Anyone got any experience? I’m on the south coast so we do have decent hot summers.
We've been using a Quadgrow to grow toms in our living room for a few years now.
https://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/2018-quadgrow-planter-bundle.html/
Not fully automatic, but need filling up once a week when the plants are mature, and much less when they're still growing.
EDIT: I should add that we have pretty good success and no problems with any of the plants so far.
Another vote for the Quadgrow (I use mine for chillies).
Tomatoes eh. Yes officer, tomatoes nudge nudge wink wink. Next recommendations for glow lamps and how to get cheap or free electricity 😀
You need to make sure that the roof is well insulated too.
And the windows 😉
I had some good success with tomatoes and chillis by putting pots on top of decking boards over some large water trays with some matting under the pots hanging into the water.
I never got around to a method of automatically keeping the trays filled but it was easy, cheap and low maintenance
I do it - have some photos I could email you if you PM me an email address.
Basically, I ran a section of square gutter in a Ushape approx 300mm in from the edge around the greenhouse perimeter. This is supported by some 100 x 19mm planks that take the weight of the pots (pots dont sit on the gutter).
The pots have some wicking material around the inside of the pots and through the base that dangles into the water in the guttering. Black Plastic covering the gaps to prevent algae growth.
There is a small ballvalve/float that was designed for auto-filling an aquarium at one end fed from a waterbutt that cathes the rainfall on the greenhouse (Scotland so usually quite full!).
Has worked for the last three years and saves having to water daily at certain times to avoid splitting.
I think it might have come from an idea on here a good while ago so a search might turn something up.
I use one of these...
https://www.hozelock.com/product/sensor-controller/
...with the hose plugged into one of these...
https://www.hozelock.com/product/micro-kit/
Works a treat for my toms, waters at dawn and dusk, never need to touch them unless feeding.
As per Wiganer - we've used that Hozelock kit before - works well and you can set it to come on for various durations a couple of times a day. Loads of accessories around too if you want a "squirty up in the air mist" one rather than the trickle into the pot version.
We've also used the Hozelock growbag waterers ( https://www.hozelock.com/product/growbag-waterer/) the last couple of years which work well, but you need to top them up every 3 days or so. Not great if you're away for a week or more in summer though.
I have a cheap dripper system that originally came from Lidl plumbed into a small water butt that fills from the greenhouse gutters.
If it doesn't rain the water butt needs refilling about once a week in summer.
It's not perfect. Sometimes need to do a bit of extra watering and drippers do dry up and need unblocking (happens to a couple a week towards the end of summer).
The greenhouse does have automatic window openers in the top and from late June to late August I leave the door open to stop it getting too hot.
Similar cheap dripper systems (less than £20) are in general shops or the internet.
Hope this helps.
Tomatoes eh. Yes officer, tomatoes nudge nudge wink wink. Next recommendations for glow lamps and how to get cheap or free electricity
Levity aside it would be an idea to find out what those ahem...growers use to water their ahem...plants, given thats a cash crop and totally dependent on a good watering system.
I was willing to help until I saw this...
we do have decent hot summers
Our whole garden is on a micro-drip system, I just buy the bits off Ebay - 10x cheaper than buying a branded system.
Dripper per shrub (you can buy 0.5, 1, 2, 5 & 10 litre per hour ones).
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/7352/13965793758_3a3d50ec1a.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/7352/13965793758_3a3d50ec1a.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nh7kVy ]Drip feed for each plant[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Timer on the garden tap
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/7349/13965800050_666ff3ec3e.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/7349/13965800050_666ff3ec3e.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nh7nN3 ]Timer[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
And a ridiculously large number of hose pipe splitters / micro gauge adaptors
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/5311/13965793448_4df8128e7b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/5311/13965793448_4df8128e7b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nh7kQd ]1st distribution point[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Must have about 100 drippers installed now.
Drippers are ok but the flow drops considerably after each one so you start with a stream and after a few dripper it becomes a slow drop.
I've used an easy2grow kit from autopot the last 10 years or so. I have about 5 of them now. Basically a 47 litre tank starched to trays the pots sit in with flood valves. Brilliant and good enough for the Eden project!
If you have some plastic bottles you could use them - cut the bottom off, put a small hole in the lid. Put them into the soil of the pot and fill at the cut end and you have a slow release watering system.
Drippers are ok but the flow drops considerably after each one so you start with a stream and after a few dripper it becomes a slow drop.
I get about 10 per line before it slows (does depend on the drip rate). I use 4l for big shrubs and 2l for smaller ones. Most feed lines are driven at both ends which doubles the capacity.