Succulent watering equipment

[habanerocat]

I think I need to upgrade my current system and am interest in finding out what other members use for greenhouse culture. Plenty of photos please.

I'm particularly interested in equipment or systems that use mains water or a storage tank. How you regulate the flow and add fertiliser. Using a pump, anything really.

I find watering takes a lot of time so aids that help to speed up things would be beneficial.

Also, I've been on the lookout for a watering can with a long spout to reach the plants at the back of the staging, but haven't found one locally yet. Any sources?

[Paul D]

Here is how my system works. I have water coming in to the glasshouse near the sink. The pipework is all blue mdpe pipe, easy to cut and put joints, taps, etc. in. The pipe is first teed so that one part goes to the sink, and the other part goes to the rest of the glasshouse. First there is a shut-off valve, together with a pressure regulator (I put this in as I found that mains pressure was a little too strong).
The pipe then goes to the feeding / pesticide station, which is a "minidos" automatic feeder. The minidos takes concentrated stuff from a black plastic loft water tank (on the floor). I put feed or pesticide in this as required, and the minidos puts in a set amount to the water supply as it passes by. There is a bypass pipe with shut-off valves so I can either use the minidos or instead just have clean water going to the benches. After the minidos the pipe splits into several branches, each going to a bench. At each bench there is a small "quick valve" letting water in (see pic), and a drain pipe made from reinforced garden hose, also with a small tap, letting water out. I can fill the benches easily and drain them again quickly.
The benches were supplied by Polybuild, and each contain a single plastic tray capable of holding 2 or 3 inches of water. They each have an adjustable screw-in foot as they need to be level.

[gerald]

I have a 20 litre water tank on a shelf 6 ft up. I fill the tank from a hosepipe coming from a tap. It's easy to mix in fertiliser etc just by pouring it in and it gets mixed when I add the water.

The tank has a tap at the bottom to which is attached a hose. I use the hose to water the plants one by one.

The tank is set up high so gravity can 'pump' the water out at a low pressure. Mains pressure is way too high.

If you have a water tank set on the ground, you will need a pump of some sort.

[brianc]

If you find a watering can with the same size spout you can cut a length of garden hose to jam into the spout.
Cut a short length of hose and carry it around garden centres until you find the same size can. It works fine
upto about 3ft length.

[edds]

If you find a watering can with the same size spout you can cut a length of garden hose to jam into the spout.
Cut a short length of hose and carry it around garden centres until you find the same size can. It works fine
upto about 3ft length.

You can also get short lengths of clear pipe of various different diameters for ponds and aquaria with different sized internal dimensions. You can use those to join and length of rigid pipe onto the end of a watering can if you wished. I tend to get mine from here, https://www.aquariumplumbing.co.uk/list ... rodGrp=116

[Conrad]

I have to water/feed/dose several thousand plants, and now have pump pressurized mains with this on the end (it requires fairly high pressure) allows feeding and dosing of insecticides over many plants extremely quickly. I.e. I can water maybe 8000 6cm pots in about 20 minutes.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2106476462

[ralphrmartin]

Like Paul, I've got a Minidos 2.5
https://hydrosystemsco.com/wp-content/u ... asheet.pdf
in my incoming water supply (after a filter to keep grit out, and a non-return valve). The dilution ratio is adjustable; I have it set to 100:1. I've then got a 20l container, into which goes 1 packet of Ericaceous Miracle Grow, and 20 litres of water, to produce 2000 litres of watering solution.
I also use flood trays to make watering easy (except for winter growers etc).

[habanerocat]

Thanks for all the ideas.

Disaster here at the moment. Nothing open due to the virus. So I'll just have to make plans for now.

[Herts Mike]

And to think I water each plant individually by hand....

[Mike P]

And so do I Mike. Across the five greenhouses ( well, four plus a poly tunnel ) this now takes a while but gives a great opportunity to inspect each plant and adjust the amount of water as required.
As for cans with long spouts Haws are my faves as they are a joy to use and last forever.