Content
- DIY irrigation for potted plants to build yourself - ideas and guidance
- DIY watering with bottles and other tools
- The bathtub principle
- Make a drip irrigation for the balcony itself
- Tips
Bottles are ideal as an irrigation system
DIY irrigation for potted plants to build yourself - ideas and guidance
Like all living things, plants depend on a regular and sufficient supply of water. This is especially true for balcony plants and potted plants, as they can not provide themselves with their root system in an emergency. The morning and during the hot summer months often evening casting is therefore essential. An automatic irrigation can support you and take you a lot of work - and you can also safely drive even without helping neighbors or friends once on vacation.
DIY watering with bottles and other tools
The easiest way to do this is to use simple systems where you put the water reservoirs directly into the substrate of the potted plants and gradually release the precious water to the roots. To do this, you can use plain PET or glass bottles with solid walls (important! Bottles with resilient walls do not work!), Fill them with water and then simply place them headfirst into the pre-soaked substrate. To prevent too much water from leaking out, you can leave the lid on the bottle, but of course perforate it. Instead, you can also use screw-on irrigation pots made of clay or plastic, which also reduce the release of water. According to a similar principle working watering balls, which are usually made of glass or clay.
The bathtub principle
If you have a lot of small pots on your balcony that need to be taken care of during a short absence, you can place them without a pot in the thick towels and about five inches high with water filled bathtub. If you do not have a bathtub, a paddling pool or other large enough container will serve the same purpose. Instead of towels you can also put the pots in planting granules (eg Perlite) and moisten them with water. The granules store a lot of water and at the same time have the advantage that the roots of the plants are not directly in the wet. However, be careful not to place the plants directly in the blazing sun. Instead, they should be shaded so that less water is consumed.
Make a drip irrigation for the balcony itself
A permanent solution, however, is a self-built drip irrigation, which works without an extra power and water connection. All you need is a sufficiently large water tank (at least 300 liters capacity), standard garden hoses that can be connected to each other, as well as pase watering cones (such as Blumat). And this is how you build the system:
If the system is running smoothly, all you have to do is top up the water reservoir regularly.
Tips
Submersible pumps not only work with an external power connector. You can also use solar or battery powered variants instead.