Drip Feeding Outdoors

Any knowledge of making a trip line to feed outdoor plants (say 10 to 15)?I am not able to take constant care of my plants after august and am considering building one of these drip systems for this year. my last grow was ruined because a friend forgot to water them while i was away...Grow area info:-somewhat remote forest, small clearing-small creek located about 30 feet away and downhill-have easy daily access until september, from then on I can only visit several times a month.any advice or links to instructional threads is greatly appreciated!

*attached thumbnail is a pic of last years plants (all 3 are female) before I left.

air supply lines work great if gravity is working for you

okay I'll look into that, thanks

u get the 50ft roll of drip tubing by rainbird or drip or whatever, and some barbed connectors, and some drip nozzlesd or sprayere nozzles, or make drip rings....theres so much stuff about irrigation...

depending on size of your reservoir u will have to raise it ( like in a tree ) about 10 feet to get good pressure.

just put the plants in the ground. they roots should be plenty deep.

put down some mulch after a good water, apply the mulch shaped like saucer ,so you put it thick on the edges and thin near the stem otherwise light showers cant get under the mulch. Also when you prepare a hole it should be terraced.

okay i will look into mulch, i havn't used that before, thank ya!

about 10 ft, ok that is helpful, there are many options for trees to hold the reservoir (which is still undecided)
i've been trying to find as much as i can about using drip lines, still having troubles figuring out how to determine and apply appropriate flow...

usually in large grows and with a heavy duty pump and timer (solar). Mulch and terrace the hole so no run off.

Ive had marijuana plants go up to 2 weeks with no rain and still come through. I seen in your picture that your plants are in what 3 gallon pots? possibly 5. You literally have to water plants in pot like every sunny day to stay moist, they heat up amazingly. Simply planting in the ground is the way to go. no raised beds, they dry out faster. mulch is key, anything can be used as mulch, lawn clippings, leaves, rocks, whatever to stop the sun from hitting the soil and drying it out. Hoses and all those do gads are a ton of extra work, especially if you plan on hiding all that equipment. I suggest purchasing some soil additives that will retain water, there's these things called polymer crystals, peat moss helps a lot also. Plants stuck out in full sun will use more water then plants in partial shade, retaining more moisture. Ive heard from another person on here of drilling like a 1/8 hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, fill with water and place ride beside your plant. I can go an entire season without watering my plants once their established in the ground but not giving them much water wont bring them to full potential happy toking

An upstream gravity fed water system into a resevoir is your best bet. http://www.amazon.com/Orbit-91213-One-Dial-Garden-Digital/dp/B001RCTWZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325020838&sr=8-1 25 dollar electronic water timer with rain delay. Either hook up to a drip system or just run hose with punched holes in it around your plants.

the electronic timer is cool , thanks for the link and tip.
I'm trying to keep this operation running without any power though, i'm thinking more about sizes of holes in the main water line, and ways to feed lines off of that main hose?
also, sorry for confusion but the picture was just for interest, I'm aware that it would have been in the plant's best interest to be in the ground, however last year due to certain circumstances the buckets were required.

well I respect the operation without any power, but a couple 12 v batteries aint going to kill ya! Running a standard garden hose for the main flow and resevoir should work fine. My local hardware store has clear pvc tubing in multiple diameters thats on a roll and you can buy however many feet you need. You can run those for individual or additional drip. Drilling holes into your main hose with a drill and then heating with a lighter is a cheap way to attach leak free tubing to your main hose. Hope this made sense ask if you got any more questions.

okay thanks a bunch, that is really helpful information!! melting PVC to drilled garden hose sounds very do-able and exactly what I am looking for!

and yes several batteries would be acceptable, I'm a bit unclear as to the purpose of the device though? does it only allow water through several times a day... or does it simply regulate flow?

The purpose of the device is to control how much water your plants receive so as to not over or under water them. Instead of having the drip running 24/7 or having to romp in the woods everytime you want to turn it on, the timer does it for you. As long as you have the hose hooked up with adequate water pressure you can program the timer to turn on and off for however you long you'd like. So for instance during spring you may only want to run it 1/2 hour a day where as during late summer 2 hours may be more appropriate.

Oh and btw itd probably be in your best interest to invest in some drip emitters for the ends of those pvc tubes, there pretty cheap and well worth the investment. If not you could have certain pvc tubes giving out a lot more water than others due to there location on the hose and amount of water available. This would cause certain plants to receive more water than others and would make dialing in your grow a lot harder.

Also idk what fertilizers you use(i grow organic) but fertilizer siphons can be had for under 20 bucks and can be hooked up directly to the water timer.

i will look into these things, very helpful information, much appreciated! sounds like this would be very do-able as well as cost effective!

I have many years experience growing with drip systems but not without the aid of power, pumps and timers.
The smallest drip emitters I know of are 1/4gph, unless I'm missing something I believe you're going to be over watering your plants.
A 1/4 gph drip will deliver about 6 gal per day,that's a lot of water bro.

I have to agree with the others that putting them into the ground is your best bet, especially if your only 30' from a creek and you can swing the polymer crystals, let them roots do their job..
Just my 02

so even with the smallest drip emitter i shouldn't be leaving it constantly flowing?
the 25 dollar electric device should solve this problem then, if it is able to limit the flow per day, and may be worth the investment.

Overwatering kills plants. They drown, get no oxygen. Smother. Turn yellow. People think they need more nitrogen, then over feed them. Let your top 1-2" of soil dry out between waterings. You will get a greener, bigger, happier, healthier plant that way. Use mulch, as suggested, but keep it pulled back from the stem. Use a timer...battery...they are cheap and work great! Put a filter on the beginning of the hose if the water is not clear from the creek, as it will clog up your emitters. They are cheap and worth it. If you go check your plants every week or so, clean out the filter each time. Good luck. Get some books on this subject and read read read! Arm yourself with knowledge!

chronic coinoisseur said:

well I respect the operation without any power, but a couple 12 v batteries aint going to kill ya! Running a standard garden hose for the main flow and resevoir should work fine. My local hardware store has clear pvc tubing in multiple diameters thats on a roll and you can buy however many feet you need. You can run those for individual or additional drip. Drilling holes into your main hose with a drill and then heating with a lighter is a cheap way to attach leak free tubing to your main hose. Hope this made sense ask if you got any more questions.

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Just a fyi, real drip irrigation system parts are dirt cheap. One of the zones in our sprinkler system is above ground drip irrigation for roses. A 100' of primary hose was about $10, $100 feet of tubing less than that, and the fittings were pennies each. There's even a fitting to join the irrigation line to a garden hose. I think the sizes range from a 1 gal/hr emitter up to maybe 3? There's a little punch tool to perforate the primary hose, the fittings snap in, tube fits snug. I had under $20 into re-doing the entire garden and have many leftover parts and lots of tubing. Good luck!