RIPE
Active Member
If you grow in soil anywhere and need to water your plants while on vacation try this:
Beats the Tropf-Blumat cone system that runs $90. This system is straight-forward, a pump, a manifold with outlets, green tubing with metal stakes to hold the tube in the soil. It relies on four double "A" batteries (not AAA) but it is easy to connect to an AC wall wart. Instead of a wall wart I used a variable DC power supply, 0-24VDC,1 AMP MAX, 60W MAX @ 120V connected to both ends of the battery compartment and held in place on both ends with one half of a wooden clothes pin. A pencil cut into two pieces would hold the + and - wires in better. The two battery spaces in the middle are empty. Programming is easy and directions are clear. Not enough tubing for what you really need. Amazon sells tubing that will fit, Polyurethane Metric Tubing, 4 mm OD, 2.5 mm ID, 20 m Length. I used two tubes for a five gallon pot and left town for two weeks and the plant was still growing. I used a 21 gallon Rubbermaid plastic storage container for a reservoir. The pump is shallow and goes down about 12-15 inches. It worked for two weeks while I was away. I used RO water and no nutes. There were some dead leaves at the bottom of the plants. I had a 600W MH bulb at 50% so maybe they needed more light in the tent. Or maybe it worked too well and overwatered the plants. Not sure what the pH was when I returned. After adding four gallons of water it was about 6.0 to 6.5 (icky green color in pH test). I paid $31 at Amazon. If you've used one did it work for you?
Beats the Tropf-Blumat cone system that runs $90. This system is straight-forward, a pump, a manifold with outlets, green tubing with metal stakes to hold the tube in the soil. It relies on four double "A" batteries (not AAA) but it is easy to connect to an AC wall wart. Instead of a wall wart I used a variable DC power supply, 0-24VDC,1 AMP MAX, 60W MAX @ 120V connected to both ends of the battery compartment and held in place on both ends with one half of a wooden clothes pin. A pencil cut into two pieces would hold the + and - wires in better. The two battery spaces in the middle are empty. Programming is easy and directions are clear. Not enough tubing for what you really need. Amazon sells tubing that will fit, Polyurethane Metric Tubing, 4 mm OD, 2.5 mm ID, 20 m Length. I used two tubes for a five gallon pot and left town for two weeks and the plant was still growing. I used a 21 gallon Rubbermaid plastic storage container for a reservoir. The pump is shallow and goes down about 12-15 inches. It worked for two weeks while I was away. I used RO water and no nutes. There were some dead leaves at the bottom of the plants. I had a 600W MH bulb at 50% so maybe they needed more light in the tent. Or maybe it worked too well and overwatered the plants. Not sure what the pH was when I returned. After adding four gallons of water it was about 6.0 to 6.5 (icky green color in pH test). I paid $31 at Amazon. If you've used one did it work for you?
