Soil growers using reservoir with pump for watering

I plan on using a 32 gallon trash can with a submersible pump attached to a watering wand to water plants in soil. I already have a submersible heater and would like to know if I also need a air pump and airstone as well? What type of benefits would adding a airstone really do for me in a non hydro setup?

Are you using moisture probes to tell when to water, or just a timer? Soil should be allowed to dry out betwen waterings, so the top 2 inches are bone dry. If you overwater, the plants roots are deprived of oxygen, and the leaves wilt. A plant will survive a drought better than a flood.
If you're going to do this, you'll need a way to make sure they don't get too much water, presumably by a sensor in each pot linked to a controller, but it's beyond me frankly.

I think you misunderstood, I am not doing an automatic setup. I am going to use a submersible pump and watering wand to water the plants whenever I feel that it is needed. Chlorine will also have time to evaporate by sitting in the trash can reservoir.

will you add nutes to the reservoir? will you use all your water in one watering? I'm told nutes should only be mixed when used even a hydro system gets the water changed very few weeks. Air is a good thing if water is sitting in wait. Or even run your wand back into the res that would mix and airate your water.(with the pump running).

I dont know why people post if they have no useful input.

Anyways, I use soil, and a trash can res, it works perfect. Running your pump through the wand would be great if it wasnt so damn loud.

A small submersible pump for a fish tank would be great to keep a good mix. I wouldnt bother with an air stone, if you run a line from your mixing pump to the top of the trash can, so the water falls a few inches, it will give you the same effect.

I Never, Ever use the same res of mixed nutes for more than a week. It always works out so I get 2 feedings per res, then I clean and change it.

Some of the things you should not overlook when changing res.

Your Wand. Clean it, clean it well. It doesnt matter how well you clean your trash can if theres a small build up of water festering in your wand. ( this happened to me, then I bought a $50 garden wand that I can take apart and clean, its great)

When you change your res every week, put your pump in a bucket of fresh water, and run clean water through your pump, hoses, and wands. Every Week!


Also I would Get some Clearex or Hydrogen Peroxide (H202), use it for a good cleaning at least once a month.




Good luck man, and now that I think about it I have to go change My res.

Yep the air helps alot to keep from stagnant water, unless you intend on filling up the can all the time. Then the water will not stagnate any who.

Must be a hell of a grow to use 30+ gal. of water a week. I've wanted to do something like what your talking about but never figured out how to do the nutes as I only use about 6-8 gal a week.

yep i aggree the airstone will help keep the nasty away make sure its light tight that will help also.. good idea i use to use a 2 gallon water sprayer to spray my outdoor plants ... nice

Thanks for the replies. I haven't figured out exactly what I am going to do about nutes. I have some Botanicare on the way, but will only feed at every other watering. I will not be needing 30 gallons a week. Should I just get a smaller trash can to use for nutes that I can use up in a week?

That was my thoughts. Then run lines to each pot. flip the switch and water. Just as ez to water by hand for me I would still use a air stone for water storage just to keep the water well oxygenated. Since I strarted playing with this bubbler I add air to everything I'm growing. cant add it to the soil so I add it to the water. does it help?? don't know yet.

Kush28 said:

Thanks for the replies. I haven't figured out exactly what I am going to do about nutes. I have some Botanicare on the way, but will only feed at every other watering. I will not be needing 30 gallons a week. Should I just get a smaller trash can to use for nutes that I can use up in a week?

Click to expand...

It wouldnt be a bad idea to use a separate one for Nutes, and use the garbage can as s main res to let water settle and evap the chlorine.

Airstones are a good idea, I think I might grab one.

If your using a culture and enzyme products then you cant use H202 so a airstone would be good to oxygenate water.

what does it help or do to settle the water? understand wanting to get rid of the Cl does it do anything else? I don't have Cl in my water.

Automatic everything, you may miss something that you would see
otherwise.

stumps said:

what does it help or do to settle the water? understand wanting to get rid of the Cl does it do anything else? I don't have Cl in my water.

Click to expand...

Unless you buying water or getting it from a Well chances are there is Chlorine.


Letting the water settle will evap CL, and neutralize the PH. Depending on where you live, this can help a lot because most people overlook this. Using ideal water for your plants will help with uptake of nutrients, which means Bigger, Stronger, Healthier plants.

And you can let the water settle to room temp which is always good.

This isnt necessary for everyone. Where I live we have fucking perfect water right out the tap, I can go from the hose to my plants without any worries. But I really wouldnt recommend this to anyone.

Sorry I misunderstood what you were trying to do. I only grow for myself so it's nothing of a job to hand feed the few plants I grow at a time, but for a large scale op that would have to be the way to go.

what i do to keep the water from going stazgnant is only mix up half a barrel....just enough for 2-3 waterings the system works great, what you do is before you water turn on the pump and spray the wand in the bucket for a minute or so to make sure its all mixed up, then i take a quick ph sample of the water before i put it on, salt buildup will raise the ph of the nutes even if you adjusted it in the bucket so thats a good way to see if your nozzel is getting buildup, i use one of those drop type ph testers for this because their quick and accurate enough for this

fat sam said:

what i do to keep the water from going stazgnant is only mix up half a barrel....just enough for 2-3 waterings the system works great, what you do is before you water turn on the pump and spray the wand in the bucket for a minute or so to make sure its all mixed up, then i take a quick ph sample of the water before i put it on, salt buildup will raise the ph of the nutes even if you adjusted it in the bucket so thats a good way to see if your nozzel is getting buildup, i use one of those drop type ph testers for this because their quick and accurate enough for this

Click to expand...

Thats Exactly what I do. Just dont mix up too much, enough that it will be used up in 7-8 days and you will never have problems.

Hey i use the same technique. Im using roots soil straight out of the bag, and for nutes, cal mag, fish emultion, big bloom. Is there something more I can use in the water or is that good.

That's sure a lot of work compared to having some pot friendly plumber install a water line and maybe a sink where you want it.
(wink wink)

Plumbing is easy though... You could probably do it if you got a plumbing for dummies type book. (not saying you're a dummy, that's the name of a real book)

OregonMeds said:

That's sure a lot of work compared to having some pot friendly plumber install a water line and maybe a sink where you want it.
(wink wink)

Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you think it is a lot of work. I just set the trash can in the room, then fill it up with a water hose. I now have plenty of water that the chlorine has evaporated from and is ready to use.

Also, I can set a submersible pump in there, hook up a watering wand, and easily be able to water plants with plenty of chlorine free water.