I'd like to keep plants watered during a trip, with about 2l of water per 24 hours. I tried making a siphon with a screw-adjusted clamp to let water out at a controlled pace, but while it originally kept the flow at one drop every two seconds, over the next ten hours it had slowed down to one drop every ten seconds, and after a five more it had stopped entirely. The water is coming from a 10l tank that's higher than the siphon's end, so why does the flow die down over time?
And of course, are there any other reliable ways to keep the plants watered over the weekend? I've heard you could just plop a bottle upside down in the dirt, but does that really work that safely? The pot has holes at the bottom of it, so unless the water is absolutely certain to seep out slowly enough I wouldn't dare to leave it unattended for a long time like that.
>so why does the flow die down over time?
weight of water is reduced as it gets used.
duh.
I know, but this siphon is drawing straight from a bottom of a 10 liter tank. Over the 15 hour test run the surface of the water had only gone down by 1cm, from 25cm to 24cm.
If you are putting your water container above the plant pot then why dont you just run the hose out the bottom and gravity feed it instead of messing with a siphon.
Also if you plop a 2l bottle in the soil can you experiment with drilling a tiny hole in the cap so that it seeps out at a controlled rate?
>If you are putting your water container above the plant pot then why dont you just run the hose out the bottom and gravity feed it instead of messing with a siphon.
I intended to put it on some books next to the planter to keep it higher than the dirt. But for the testing, the tank has been on a table with the siphon dripping to the sink below.
>Also if you plop a 2l bottle in the soil can you experiment with drilling a tiny hole in the cap so that it seeps out at a controlled rate?
I tested that with a small bottle, and it did indeed work! I'm surprised how controlled that was, so now I feel confident enough to leave two bottles in the dirt over the weekend.
>give it a good soaking and leave
nothing dies in 4 days..
The surface of the ground dries alarmingly fast. I wonder if that much water can stay in the dirt without spilling out the air holes at the bottom.
>clay is porous product is called an olla works great.
Thanks! That might be worth testing too, but I don't assume it's that different from a single pinprick when it comes to getting clogged?
Plastic pots - soil can be dry at the top and wet at the bottom. Take your plants and put them in the bath tub. Add a half inch of watr. Come back 4 days later and remove from bath tub. That is all
These are similar to Olla and cheap from Ali express. They automatically water, using the clay to wick water fed by gravity.
give it a good soaking and leave
nothing dies in 4 days..
clay is porous product is called an olla works great.
homestead resuce built a large wick garden for fire fighters useing a toilet bell siphon to keep a water tank topped for a wick garden. change wick regularly capillary action slows with algae growth.
organic string in bucket above plant burry twine 10% in from plant crown radius tie weight to string and put in bucket. string connecting plant and bucket full of water. some law about paper towels evenly distributing wetness capillaries something Osmos jones good for a less than two weeks
wash the string before you feed you plant with it
>over the next ten hours it had slowed down
probably minerals accumulating at the bottleneck.
for indoor plants, i used something similar to the thing at the top of the pic.
except i modified it so I could use a 4L bottle, by gluing the top of a 2L bottle to the inside of the 4L.
and i used clamps to surround it and make sure it couldnt fall over.
for outside plants, i got a dollar-store kit similar to the thing at the bottom of the pic.
ran a garden pump inside a 20L bucket on a timer to run water 10 minutes each day.
missing pic.
These things are great. I have a townhouse with a tiny 500 sqft garden in the back. One of these systems from Amazon turned it into a lush rain forest.
how are they called anons?
>probably minerals accumulating at the bottleneck.
highly unlikely
Here you go fren, throw one of these inline and you'll have much steadier flow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariotte%27s_bottle
I saw one of those crafty panda type bullshit life hacks where they used string to go from a vase to their plants. I don't know if it works because it looked like clickbait bullshit, but you could try it if you don't care about your flowers that much.
why siphon?
put the water container higher than the hose.
problem solved.
>Get a bucket.
>Poke a pin hole in bucket.
>Drip drip drip
>Count drips per min
>Min 2 hr
>Hr 2 day
>Modify hole as needed
Also op 2l a day seems like a lot. What sort of houseplants are you growing?
I don't know shit about gravity siphons or fluid mechanics, but generally you're not supposed to keep plants constantly wet. You water them and then let them dry out and then water them again. If you had something dripping water into it constantly it would probably end up with a fungal infection and die.
If you have the leisure to re-pot the plants, you can make sub-irrigated planters. You can adjust them to your needs and can be made from various materials. I have several with a reservoir capacity of 2 liters for each plant. Made the reservoir from several aluminum cans. That set-up typically lasts me for 3-4 days in my jungle shithole climate before it dries out.
>2 liters per 24hrs
That is a lot of water. How many plants are you watering with your current set-up?
The open tube flows too much water too fast. You can actually water with string (replace the tube in pic with string and the bottom cut the plant soil, burry the string just under the dirt). The capilary action will pull the wate up the stirng and down to the plant. This is how I watered some 5 gal containers with corn and tomato plants while I was away for a few days. Something to think about, during the hot days the plants use a lot of water, during the cool nights the plants use a lot less, but the water flowing in the string is the same. Do you have enough water, will there be too much water at night? For me at night the water was too much and it ran flowed from the bottom off my balcony, wasting water. In direct sunlight during the heat of the day the water flow was just right. The soil in the pots would dry out very quickly and be bone dry by 4 pm with out the constant dripping of water. You can also use a small plastic tube and put a drip irrigation tip on the end to slow the flow, I did this too, very easy.
as a marijuana grower i find this entire thread incredibly funny. watching you all overthink such an easily solved problem is very entertaining.
marijuana is illegal.
this whole thread and every thing else on the internet is about marijuana cause im tay-tay and i say so.
anyway, get a frickign fish aquarium pump, and a timer switch durrrr
Ever considered using drip irrigation? Thin vinyl tubes and tees to distribute and a small ball valve to limit the flow.