holiday watering

freezingcold · Orange Belt Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 289

Hi all

off on holiday soon which has made me consider my watering. One of my neighbors is going to water for me(training session tba and she is a plant lover gardening nut so that's good).

Has anybody used any of these drip feed/auto watering devices off a rain barrel?

I don't not have electricity yet in the back garden but will be purchasing the drill shortly. I have 2 rain barrels chained together with room for another if I wish.

I usually holiday in the UK winter so it not normally a huge issue but thought I would ask.

imholte · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: Re: holiday watering

I use a spinkler system on an timer that waters up to 3 times a day. I have someone check by everyday to see that it is working when I am away.

Might be hard to get a gravity system to work properly off a barrel due that you need the barrel to be quite high to build enough pressure run the lines.

Stymie · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject: Re: holiday watering

When I only had a few little trees I used to dig a trench and plant the whole pot plus a couple of inches of trunk, water them very well all round and leave them to be dug up on my return. This is no longer practical so I don't go away. Rolling Eyes

Keithmart uses a drip system. Ask him when he gets back from Malta how it worked.

AlanM6 · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: Re: holiday watering

I use a sprinkler system its programmable and i set it to water for 2mins every four hours. All of my trees are moved into a shady area and lined up for a test run over a few days before my hol,s
The whole thing runs off 4 AA size batteries.
I still get someone to check every couple of days,(depending on the weather) to be on the safe side.
The timer is made by HoZelock and costs around £30.00 available from any DIY store

Stymie · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: holiday watering

That's cheap Alan. How many trees does that cover?

AlanM6 · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 6:50 am Post subject: Re: holiday watering

Don this isn,t a complete system its just a timer that fits on to a outside tap and then attaches to any garden hose with a sprinkler on the end. The sprinkler can be adjusted to give different spray patterns and cover different areas at a guess I would say that the way its set at the moment it covers an area of 8-10 meters x 2-3 meters.
Its not perfect by any means especially in hot sunny periods but its worked for me in the past.

delboy · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject: Re: holiday watering

freezingcold · Orange Belt Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 289

saw this hozelock timer yesterday not bad if you have an outside tap.. which i don't it may work of the rain barrel I have with the correct fitting. I will investigate further

baz · White Belt Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 7 Location: England

Hi
I have a caravan and spend about 10days away at a time I have one of those Hose lock drip systems and feed it from a water but or Barell I experimented for some time with the head of water and found that if the base of the barel is level with your trees it works OK but make sure that the barrel is big enough to supply your needs at the moment I have 24 dripers connected and its a 50gal Barell

I hope this is of use to anyone

best wishes
Baz
Leicestershire England Z8