What do you guys do for watering your soil garden?

Hey guys, I'm new to growing and i have a quick question...
What do you guys do for keeping the water/nutriend blends for your soil gardens?
I'm growing 4 lovely females right now, and i've been filling up individual 2 liters for watering so far. However, today i picked up some FoxFarms nutrients to mix with my water. I know that i should make my water all at once for all plants in one container, but how should i go about doing this? I was thinking about getting a giant storage bin from walmart and an air pump for a fish tank, measuring out my nutes and water and just have the pump going in the water to keep the nutrients well mixed and aerate the water too. I was also thinking about getting those big 5 gallon water containers from a water store and doing it that way and just shaking for aeration.
What do you do for your water/mixes? Will this work? Is there a cheaper/more efficient way to do this that i don't know about?

I do it a gallon at a time, but I never have any more than 4 plants at once. It's a pain in the ass, if you find a better way please let us know. I'm also looking for a better way to get that water into the pots without having to take my plants out of the tent and into the bathtub.

They make auto watering setups. Basically just a watering ring around each pot...a reservoir...kind of like a hydro setup but with soil.

I have a leaky tap in the back that I have dripping into a 30 gal bin. The water gets a chance to sit a bit before I use it. I put 1 drop of super-thrive per gallon(eyeballing it) directly into res bin. Then I use 1- 3 liter bottle to water each plant, adding general hydro bloom ($12) according to the particular plant's needs.

Simple, cheap and effective...but not automatic, going to take daily maintenance

With just 4 plants a 5 gallon bucket should do. No pump or airstone needed. Each time you need to feed put the appropriate amount of water in the bucket. Measure and add you nutes and stir. Then feed. I pour from the bucket into a gallon tupperware pitcher to water the individual plants.

I like to fill two gallon milk jugs with water. Mix up my nutes in one and keep plain water in the other, then water-water-feed throughout the week. This has worked well for me in both soil and hydro.

Ok i drew up (in paint lol) what i'm thinking would be a possible solution.

In the first pic, you have a storage bin filled with water/nute blend. The pum just sits in there and lets air flow through the water. This would probably cost no more than $15-$20 to set up.

The second would be a 2 bin system, for more water. I would imagine using a y joint type of tube, and then having two separate tube endings. A would go into the second bin and get air in that, while B would stay in the original bin.

It's basically just like a hydro grow bin, but without the ability to really grow plants, just circulate water.

You could use whatever size bins and get a couple per air pump.

To me this seems like it would be easier than refilling and premixing a bunch of separate gallons of water/nutrient blends. You could even measure out your individual gallons to fill it or know what size bin you're using.

I think filling watering cans or something would be the best way to water your plants, although I'm pretty sure you could set this system up (and i plan on trying this in the future) to auto-water your plants every so often too with the addition of some small water pumps.

Let me know what you all think or if you have any other solutions for water/nutrient blend holding.

eoddom said:

They make auto watering setups. Basically just a watering ring around each pot...a reservoir...kind of like a hydro setup but with soil.

Click to expand...

You got links for that?

wbd said:

You got links for that?

Click to expand...

I'll dig around. I do alot of window shopping so let me try to find it. It would probably be cheaper to build something yourself.

Set up a res with water and nutes...a pump to recirculate the water....and a pump to feed the plants. Basically set it on a timer for maybe a slow 5 minute watering like twice a day. That would also make life easier for those doing ccob or sog grows where its hard to get down into the pot without getting water and nutes all over your plants.

eoddom said:

I'll dig around. I do alot of window shopping so let me try to find it. It would probably be cheaper to build something yourself.

Set up a res with water and nutes...a pump to recirculate the water....and a pump to feed the plants. Basically set it on a timer for maybe a slow 5 minute watering like twice a day. That would also make life easier for those doing ccob or sog grows where its hard to get down into the pot without getting water and nutes all over your plants.

Click to expand...

I don't think it would be prudent to have an ongoing watering system like that, but to mix the water in a res and then have it saturate all the pots automatically would be a big win for me I think... I'll look around too. Thanks for the advice!