Who actually takes care of plants when you are away from home or on vacation? If there are no friendly neighbors available, one can fall back on technical solutions. These are available from 30 euros and they work reliably. The market even offers do-it-yourself systems and irrigation systems with solar power.
This article appears in our garden theme world . Here we also give an overview of different irrigation systems for the garden and house , compare the top 4 indoor gardens or show how to use spray misters to cool down the terrace.
basics
For automated irrigation you generally need four components: water, water tank, pump and hoses. The pump comes in a vessel like a bucket and directs the water to the plants through the hoses. If you have a lot of plants, the pump has to be more powerful and the water tank has to be larger. Inexpensive entry-level devices, for example, supply ten plants with water at the same time.
Then the question arises as to whether the irrigation system should only bridge the next holiday or should supply herbs and co. with water in the long term – the demands on the solutions are correspondingly different. If the whole thing is then to be watered at certain times or even to react smartly to rain and humidity, a control unit and, if necessary, sensors must be planned for. In addition, the solutions should be able to prevent flooding. If this is not the case, we recommend purchasing the appropriate sensors that send a message to the smartphone, or building them yourself – more on that later.
From 30 euros
Budget models such as the Royal Gardneer NX-7370 or the identical Blumfeldt Aquanova start at Amazon from 30 euros. That’s enough to supply plants with water on vacation. A water tank is not included; a bucket from the hardware store is sufficient here.
The cheap sets only offer a limited hose length. This is usually ten meters. Accordingly, plants to be watered must be close to the pump.
The rest of the setup is easy. The pump comes in a water container. You then set the watering frequency and duration on the machine. For example, you can activate the pump three times a day for 60 seconds – or only on Wednesdays for two minutes. But be careful: You have to experiment and plan carefully with the settings. Otherwise the plants get too much water or the water supply runs out before you get back from vacation.
In addition, sooner or later the pump will fail in the budget models, because it is powered by AA batteries. According to the manufacturer, this should ensure operation for 30 days. However, we recommend planning a maximum of 14 days with the cheap models; after all, the manufacturers do not indicate the frequency of watering during the term. If you water economical plants, you can get by with a 10-liter bucket and a maximum watering time of 30 seconds per day for about a month.
In terms of quality, the machines from Royal Gardineer & Co. are acceptable. With the supplied hose and the pump, you can tell that these are cheap products. The hose only fits into the openings of the watering unit with a lot of force. The pump will give up the ghost after some time of use – only a very coarse plastic mesh is used as a filter. According to various reviews on Amazon, you can expect a lifespan of two to three years. If the water at the place of use is very calcareous, this leads to faster wear.
But what if it rains or the plants already have enough water? For around five euros more you can easily build an automatic watering device with smart functions. It is then even connected to the power supply with a power supply unit. As an example, the colleagues from Make Magazine (issue 02/2020)designed a variant that prevents flooding even in continuous operation. The water supply is in a flower box directly under the plants. They stand on a plate through which all excess water flows back into the storage tank. Since, even with continuous pumps, the maximum amount of water that flows into the container is the amount that is pumped out, nothing can overflow. This also applies if one of the hoses to the pots leaks, since the leaking point is always above the flower box and the return option in the cover plate. There is no such water recovery in the commercial models. The DIY irrigation determines the right amount of water for each plant individually using soil moisture sensors. The complete handicraft instructions and components can be found onhot online .
From 80 euros
Gardena’s Aquabloom solar irrigation set currently costs 80 euros. It uses a solar-powered pump to provide water to plants. In contrast to the budget model or DIY, Gardena and Kärcher rely on micro-drip technology. Rather than running water at a set time, Micro-Drip hoses provide plants with small amounts of water for longer periods or on a schedule. This is especially important when growing cucumbers and tomatoes, because these plants need permanently moist soil in order to eventually end up crisp on the plate.
The starter set contains 20 meters of hose length, 15 pipe holders and 20 drippers. According to Gardena, this is the maximum number of drippers so that the specified values for watering duration and water consumption are correct. If that’s not enough for you, you can buy various Micro-Drip components; such as a longer hose, valves or additional drippers. But Gardena is more expensive. If you want the hose system cheaply, you can find cheap complete sets from 19 euros at shops like Banggood . Banggood even has a replica of the Gardena Natureup vertical herb garden. While the original costs from 33 euros, you pay from 11 euros in the Chinese online shop .
Aquabloom comes directly to a water bucket and draws the water from there. The integrated solar panel in the control unit supplies power to the three AA batteries supplied. In this way, the system automatically recharges itself. The Gardena solar irrigation system offers a total of 14 irrigation programs. Here you determine how often and how long the plants should be watered. In our test phase in July 2022, the system held out permanently. The solar panel always charged the batteries sufficiently so that the system ran without interruption. Of course, this can vary depending on the positioning of the panel and the hours of sunshine.
If you take the smallest setting, you water every 12 hours for 10 minutes. This corresponds to 0.17 liters per pass. If you use the system with a 10-liter bucket, you can water it 60 times. The bottom line is 30 days.
