Hey guys, i'm new on this forum. I have about 4 years of experience with outdoor growing and am looking into taking a different approach to watering my outdoor crop this year. When I say crop I am only talking about 10-15 plants. Traditionally I have gone out and watered my plants with a watering can 3-4 times a week depending on the precipitation that week. Now I live in southern Ontario and the majority of the summer can be very dry with very little rain week to week which would always be very exhuasting when it came time to watering. I'd like to take a bit of work off my back this year by setting up some sort of slow release watering system. So far I have seen products like the Aquaspike, Aquarocks, and Treegator bags. But none of those seem to fit what I need. I am hoping to set something up so that I only have to make 2 trips out a week to water my plants. Nothing to elaborate, just something that will feed the kids in the days between. Does anyone have any ideas they can share with me??

thank you

how bout a 5 gallon bucket with a few tiny holes in the bottom, you fill them up and they slowly drain, or you could go high tech with a camo water bladder up in a tree and driplines carrying the water to the plants.

or you could plant closer to water to make you trips shorter, or make your own little mini pond with a tarp and a big ass hole...

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Heres a method I have used with success during dry summers. Dig your hole about 16-20 inches and in the bottom place a dipper. THe brand doesn't matter but the bigger the dipper the better. Adult sizes hold more liquid I think so if your pride isn't a problem I would use those. That dipper will hold an amazing amount of water. Just pour water into one and watch how much it can suck up. If I can recall my experiments I got 240 ML in one without leakage. It should hold enough water to sustain your plant between waterings. GOOD LUCK

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This might be a dumb question, but what exactly is a "dipper".

Oh you mean a baby diaper. So by doing this, when you water your plant heavily, the diaper saturates and as the rest of the soil dries up there will tend to be water left in the diaper and the roots will work their way into it and absorb it?

I wonder how long a diaper would absorb water in the bottom of a hole before it became just garbage.

Hello from a fellow Ontarioan?

First off get some sponges from the dollar store and cut them all up into pieces and put them in the soil at different depths. Second your going to want something water retaining in your soil such as perlite or peat moss. third plant near a river or water source which means less watering. also covering your plants roots and stem with mulch or anything you can find in the area so the sun does not dry up the soil when it gets really hot.

set your watering schedule based on the weather

cheers

Hey I just posted about these guys. i am using them to design my next veggie garden grow. Nothing awe inspiring or new but they have some nice little set-ups/misters/drips/etc. I noticed you mentioned your back, these guys have a simple system to hook your hose faucet up to a drip system, all you have to do is turn on the hose and then remember to turn it off...or they do sell a timer. Lets us know what happens, I always like to learn about other gardening projects...even the veggie/flower gardens....never know what I might learn

Drip Irrigation

good luck

Well my plants can't be hooked up to a real drip irrigation system as they are not anywhere near a hose. But the sponge idea sounds pretty interesting. My only worry is with doing this that I put too many pieces of sponge in the dirt and therefore end up holding too much water within the root system and in turn overwatering them. But as for the soil i'd be using, yes it would have peat moss in it since i'd be using potting soil. I have had really good results from potting soil as I find the roots can breathe even when the soil is saturated, also I find it doesn't compact over the summer over heavy rain days.

I appreciate all the feedback guys

hey guys i am going to try a drip system using gravity.. large 100 liter barrel in a tree or the best on a hillside,run a main trunk or 3 off the barrel,then run 1/8 in hose off it to each plant ... you can fill barrel with pump, or by hand.. you can put ferts right into barrels no need to make paths to your plants(unless prolem)...not sure how much pressure thier would be it will take some partical and find tunning .. you can also hang a pail in near by tree and run small hose to plant.. i think they make bags for that purpose... weezer

My bad on the spelling I've been eating two many brownies and cookies this week. Yah I meant baby diaper. As for you question about it becoming garbage. The jell stuff that absorbs water, its some kind of weird jell, will always absorb and store water no mater how long it is left in the ground and a lot more water than a few cut up sponges. Just wet, saturate, a diaper and than saturate a sponges and see how many it takes to equal the diaper. This summer we experienced the horrible drought as much of the south east united states did and the diapers kept my kids healthy and watered for the two weeks between waterings.

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As with every pathological lier anything I say is a twisted tail of lies that I perpetuate in an attempt to look cool. DIY Automatic Hydro Grow