hi.

what do you guys think?? any good for compost pots maybe as a standby 4 when i go away or maybe a permanant watering system ?

and it only 15 quid with free postage

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Water your plants automatically

* 7 litre water tank capacity
* Automatic shut-off when tank is empty
* Choose between a 12 or 24 hour delivery cycle
* Ideal for a range of house and conservatory plants
* Complete with 9V power adaptor, 20 metres of hose and 14 watering taps
* For indoor use only
* Finish: Silver/transparent grey.

sounds like a bargain
comes with hose and drippers

what's it called , so you dont have to put a link up
i saw something similar on gardeners world website video, think it was the autopot , it had a base for 2 pots , a lightproof res. but no power supply, and sounded like a lot of fannying around to set up.

its called a Micromark 7Litre Houseplant Watering System MM41425 and i saw it on an auction site

cheers
wonder if it's sealed enough to take an airstone and not leak from the lid
on closer inspection , i don't think so.

it'd probably work on a timer plug to extend the cycle to 48 hrs
i'll bookmark it and ponder

anyone else got any ideas??
....shameless bump!....

this looks really interesting , but because of my spaces position , I worry about any auto watering system, leaks could be disastrous.

If anyone gets it , let us know how it works....
peace

I think i might get me one of these

argh! and I've just spent several weeks researching and sourcing parts for my own DIY system!!

if anyone buys one of these care to report back if its any good?

ah well mine at least has a seven day schedule with to-the-minute timing for true wet/dry cycle... got to make myself feel better somehow!

ello


well the solenoid valve on my DIY system went pop after only a few uses. The ONE part I got from china dammit

so rather than wait around for a replacement just for it to go again I ended up getting one of these bad boys.

What a bargain! I was expecting it to be gravity fed but it actually has a pump on board which has to be said is pretty noisy. Not as noisy as say a food blender, but not far off either.

Set up is a doddle, a switch at the back chooses between 12/24H mode (so activates once or twice a day) and the dial at the front selects how much water is supplied when it activates. Good news: it has a test mode where it'll switch on for 30s, off 30s, on 30s and so on so by leaving it in this mode you can easily add a seven day timer for easy accurate scheduling

the drippers are pretty good too, each is adjustable. The water comes out in jets so best to have them spray into the drip tray of smaller pots or they'll easily overshoot. What does take time is callibrating the system to get each nosle supplying the same amount and working out how long it needs to operate to reliably supply the amount your plant needs. That said it should only need callibrating again if I change the number of drippers. I'm running it in test mode with timer so I don't know how accurately it measures dosages when used normally.

The only questionable aspect is build quality. It seems well put together but that noisy pump worries me...if it'd cost £40 and not £15 I probably wouldn't be so worried!

All round though, perfect for my needs and can't fault value for your wonga.

thanks kidfix...thanks for the great review

i am gonna get 1 in the next couple of weeks now.

what are the most and least amount of water can you feed?

with the drippers..... could you not just aim the drippers down so they dont miss the pot

any pics of the thing actually working?

Looks like i may have to invest in one of them myself as i go away alot and last thing i want is to come back to a dead grow room

Let me know if it will work for a small set up, as in not alot of water maybe twice a day

Cheers
Mad

obviously the more plants you use it for the less time the 7l res will run out
but it comes with 14 drippers/sprayers presumably you dont have to use them all

thats only a half litre per pot but should do for a few days

I wouldn't want to sue it for long - no wet/dry cycle, which is an easy way of getting root-rot.
But for a few days, it'd be dandy if you were away on hols or summat.

Arnie
surely you could use it for a few plants in a wet/dry cycle.
say if you had a 7 day timer, and you already know how long it takes for your pots to dry out and how much water they need to rehydrate...
then you could set the timer to say...every 3rd day then the pump to feed half a litre of water...id say it could be done

In compost - although potting-up and the wet/dry cycle have a long track record of optimal results - in that video where that blonde, long-haired Dutch geezer in the white shirt shows you how to setup a home growroom from scratch using a spare room, they water by giving the plants a certain, fixed amount every two days - 200mm in early veg. IIRC for example.

The way they did their plants, though, was starting with medium-sized clones in what looked like 3" rockwool cubes which they planted straight into Plagron in their final pots which were 10 litres or so IIRC.

Although done differently from potting-up and the wet/dry cycle, it seems to be a valid technique which produced very reasonable results.

This watering system could be used in a similar kind of setup.

weedmonsta the dial goes from 50ml to 1000ml, I think it measures by timing how long the pump is active for so I'm guessing that if you have the drippers on low you'll be getting a lot less than the stated amount so worth running a few tests. The instructions in fact recommend you point the drippers down to avoid overspray, it just they're quite big so with small plants in small pots I think it'll be a struggle

Arnold Layne I'm aiming to use this as a permanent system, anything which reduces the number of times I'm seen skulking off to the garage late at night the better, with the thing in test mode and my 7 day timer I'm confident I can get an accurate wet/dry cycle as good as I could do manually just need to take a bit of time running some tests and callibrating

madness yup you can make the drippers work very slowly


worth pointing out (sorry if I'm telling people something they already know) that normal soil neuts in a water reservoir are a no no you'll quickly get algae build up which'll clog the line/drippers, I've already switched to canna terra designed for growing in soil but also suitable for a reservoir

can you get some pics of the system... the one in my op aint very good at all

Interested in this, my backs are killing me not speaking at size off my growroom its suffering all over when i water my SOG

I just need a system that is not even automatic but just to pump water when i tell him,i would like atleast one grow without touching and moving my plants every 2 days...so i guess water pipe and some plumbing s would do just fine

weedmonsta I'll try and post some pics tomorrow for ya

quick word of warning to anyone thinking of buying, the instructions state the reservoir should be placed at the same level or higher than the drippers. I had mine about four feet above the drippers. At this hight the weight of the water in the line is enough to draw water through so that it doesn't stop dripping until the reservoir is empty. So my plants have just had their first unscheduled swimming lesson no harm done though

moving it around it seems that it has to be no higher than 18 inches than the drippers to ensure it stops, something else to consider/test.

My grow is micro so I might have to mount it outside or come up with something pretty clever

some piccies as promised. I lowered the reservoir to about 2' above the drippers and the dripping has stopped, all good in the hood!

photos aren't the greatest, I was whacked out on coffee and couldn't stop my hands shaking

it lives! I have the dripper on nice and low as you can see, much higher and it sprays out about 4-5 inches

thanks for the pics kidfix......

hhhmmmm might have to get one of these instead of having my sister water my plants when i go on hols . would it be possible to put an air stone in? don't fancy having water thats stood for best part of a week on my plants .

maybe drill the tank and use a gland and sealant where the air tube goes through?

I think drilling a notch at the top of the tank would do, no need to make it air tight. The lid only rests on top and has holes in as it needs to allow air in when the pump is active or a vacuum would build up

with water in the tank for 10 days it is very cloudy even with an anti-algae additive in, would an airstone stop this?

is there a way to extend the tank size or mayb i could just buy about 3 systems
is it fine to use nutes in this could make it light tight and mayb add a air stone.....

Mate, you think it will be safe to add nutrients to that? might corrode/get internally blocked or something no ?

nutes aren't going to corrode anything that water doesn't already. The main problem would be algae build up which is why I've switched to canna terra, its like a hydro nute but designed for soil so ideal for this kind of system. My plants are very young and I've only just started using it so can't say if it's any good, would rather be using something organic if I could.

It depends how you plan to use it, just when you're away for a few days or permanently. I want this to be my permanent system so I've also added an air stone to stop the water stagnating and also use an anit-algae additive.

how about wrapping it in gaffa tape leaving a small window to check water level?