Why do you need to automate plant watering?
You have some nice plants at home or even a whole garden in your backyard?
But what happens when you need to go on vacation? Do you let your plants die?
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Let’s face it, everyone needs some time off from time to time! Pets? it’s easy, you probably have some friends or neighbor that can pet sit them or there are plenty or pet boarding house or website that will take care of them for you.
It’s harder to ask friends to help with watering your highly prized plants. True that there are some plants that can go for a long time without water, but most will require weekly or even daily watering. You need to make sure that if you leave for a significant amount of time for a trip, let’s say, that your plants receive the proper attention.
I will present some nice “automated” way to water your plant. These concepts can be applied to both interior plants as well as outside ones, from a small pot to a large garden. However, I will use the Plant’s pot term more often.
My favorite and the one I will try to implement, at least in my garden, is the last one.
The Wine drinking plants
A long glass bottle with a narrow neck, like a wine bottle, holds enough water for approximately 5 square feet (approx. 0.45 square meter) of soil for up to 3 days, it can be fittingly transformed into a plant watering automation device!
How does it work?
- Fill the bottle, up to where the neck start, with water and, if required, any liquid fertilizer;
- Plug the bottle with your thumb;
- Turn the bottle upside down and position it close to your plant;
- Push the bottle, while removing your thumb, in the soil to be watered. Make sure that the neck is inserted a few inches below the soil level. It need to be secure, even if it’s leaning a little. The soil will retain the water in the bottle, only letting is seep slowly in the ground.
Next time you drink a bottle of wine, don’t forget that it could be used to automate plant watering and save your plants! (Or save you time)
The straw sipping plants
Another simple way to automate plant watering is simply to use a cotton string to water your plant. It might seems weird, but it works!
The physical concept is called capillarity. The water will be sucked in by the cotton and will be transferred to the soil. You need to make sure that your string fabric is 100% water absorbent! Otherwise, it might fail miserably and you might end up with dead plants.
Also, make sure that your wick (string) touches the bottom of the water container. The other consideration is the water container size.
It needs to be sufficient to contain the water your plants needs for the amount of time you will be gone.
The wick (string) will keep on transferring water to the plant for as long as there is water.
Tips
Make a test before you leave, to make sure you have enough water.
Diapering your plants
Diapers are made to hold a great amount of water.
Why not use them?
It will require you to re pot the plant to put the diaper under the soil, but once it’s there, it can stay there for a while. You just need to water the plant until the diaper is filled completely. The diaper will keep your soil moist and the plant will draw the water from it.
Water Bottle Drip Irrigation.
Drip irrigation is a simple concept that says that you slowly irrigate the roots of your plants, one drop at a time. This will reduce the amount of required water.
By planting a bottle with holes inside your plant pot or near your plant’s root in a garden, you can use it as a water container that will drip slowly it’s water content into the soil around, close to your plant’s root system.
Thus it will automate plant watering!
How to do it?
Simple
- Select a water bottle sized appropriately for your plant (2 liters for a large plant, 500 ml for a smaller plant);
- Puncture 2 small holes on the bottle’s bottom, using a very small nail;
- Puncture 3 to 5 small holes on the sides of the bottle, preferably towards your plant’s roots;
- Dig a hole big and deep enough to cover your bottle up to the neck;
- Insert bottle into hole and pat lightly the soil around it; and
- Fill bottle to the neck, add liquid fertilizer if required.
Tips
Make sure that the soil is already damp when you fill your bottle. Otherwise, the soil will absorb all the water from the bottle very rapidly and will not water your plants for long. Make sure not to get any soil inside the bottle. It might clog the holes.
Your plants might be reading the news paper
In the series of “Damp something to water your plant”, our next guest is: The damped News Paper.
Surprisingly, a single news paper can hold a fair share amount of water. If you cover your plant’s pot with it, the soil will slowly drain the water in to irrigate your plants. Indeed, it’s a strange way to automate plant watering, but it works!
Tips
This works great for bigger pots or for a large surface. Use used News paper preferably, take the time to read the articles in the stuff you buy, otherwise Go Here, I have some ideas for you.
Throw the Towel.
The next one in the “Damp something to water your plant”, The Towel.
This one is very straight forward. Use a damp towel and put it under the drainage hole of the pot. Make sure that the soil or roots are actually touching the towel.
Otherwise, the capillarity effect will not work and your plants wont get any water.
Rocky Riverbed.
This one is simple, a very simple way to water your plants automatically. However, it can only be used for short trips, no more then a few days.
And it will be hard to apply to a garden.
How does it work?
You need a shallow tray, which can be reused for other purpose afterward, or you could use it all the time to water your plant. You will also need some small rocks, preferably something like river rocks. You just need to pour the rocks into the tray and install the plant’s pot on top of the rocks.
The drainage holes need to be in contact with the rocks!
Pour some water into the tray, up to the pot’s bottom, the rocks need to be drowned (underwater).
Plantsiter
Another good solution to automate plant watering, that doesn’t use any extra material and doesn’t need to modify your plant’s setting, is simply to ask some friends, family or even your neighbor to plantsit for you.
They will take care of your plants like you would. Don’t forget to give them all the details if some of your plants have special needs!
Tips
Only give your keys to someone you trust!
Some plantsiting service might exist in your area. This could be more expensive, depending on your friends/family/neighbor costs, but if you have a large collection/garden that is very important for you, it might be something to consider.
Home Automation, at your Service!
This is the most complete, autonomous but expensive solution to the automation of plant watering, specially if you are not going the DIY way.
However, this will give you more control then you could ever get with the other solutions enumerated here. The concept is that you have a “brain” that control some kind of valve/pump to water your plants, more often then not based on drip irrigation concept.
The brain can be a home automation system, some kind of application on your smartphone or simply a timer.
Ready to use kits, exist for those who don’t want to try themselves at microelectronic.
- A kit for indoor potted plant with a timer
- A drip irrigation kit for outdoor potted plants and a timer
If you want to do it all by yourself, it takes more time to set up everything and to program your micro controllers.
I would start by looking at OpenHab on a raspberry pi for your Home automation brain.
Then I would look into some ESP8266 micro controlers, development board are easier to use then only the microchip. The micro controller would control some valves or a small pump using some Relays .
It sounds complex, but it’s a very fun project that I am currently completing to automate plant watering in my garden.
Tips
Do your homework before buying the relays, small pumps work on 12V while bigger pump and irrigation valves are on 24V.
Conclusion
Your plant don’t need to suffer anymore from you leaving your place to go out for a well deserved vacation.
There are plenty of solution for you to automate plant watering to save your plants!
You can also use the same solution to help you lower the amount of time you spend on watering your plants!
And you?
How do you water your plants when your away from your cozy place?
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