LiquidLumen
Active Member
I've come up with a simple, 3 step plan to completely automate your soil watering cycle:
1) Fill a reservoir with your desired nutrient or water solution and insert a submersible pump(s) that feeds a line to each plant, making sure each line is securely anchored. (You can provide multiple outlets from a single pump via a series of T-connections)
2) Once this is all set up, do multiple tests to determine how long you have to run your pump to deliver the desired amount of water to each plant. From what I've read you need about 200 mL per plant about every two days. This is the most important step, and the more precise you are with your calculations the better the system will work.
3.) Once you have determined the amount of time needed to supply your plants with their required amount of water/nutrient, simply program a timer to come on every two days for that specified amount of time, and you're good to go.
Now this assumes that you a) are accurately able to determine how much water your pump will put out in a given amount of time, b) that your pump is reliable and consistent enough to produce approximately the same amount of fluid for a given amount of run time, and c) you can find a timer that will operate your pump for the exact specified amount of time, and on specific days of the week.
Now the one big problem might be that you determine your run time is 24 seconds, and finding a timer might be a problem (or very expensive), but one way to get around that is to alter your plumbing to match a timer interval. Let's say you only need 24 seconds but your shortest timer intervals are one minute. There are two ways to adjust your plumbing in order to change your water flow rate- you can add more outlet lines for a single pump, or you can adjust the vertical height that the pump has to travel to get to your plants. In adjusting your water travel height, you're not limited by the height of your plant buckets, you could make the pump run as high as you want by simply raising it over and then dipping it back down to your plant level. With enough precision, you could work out a system to deliver the exact amount of water needed on a consistent schedule. If you get it right you could run this automated system for an extended period of time.
1) Fill a reservoir with your desired nutrient or water solution and insert a submersible pump(s) that feeds a line to each plant, making sure each line is securely anchored. (You can provide multiple outlets from a single pump via a series of T-connections)
2) Once this is all set up, do multiple tests to determine how long you have to run your pump to deliver the desired amount of water to each plant. From what I've read you need about 200 mL per plant about every two days. This is the most important step, and the more precise you are with your calculations the better the system will work.
3.) Once you have determined the amount of time needed to supply your plants with their required amount of water/nutrient, simply program a timer to come on every two days for that specified amount of time, and you're good to go.
Now this assumes that you a) are accurately able to determine how much water your pump will put out in a given amount of time, b) that your pump is reliable and consistent enough to produce approximately the same amount of fluid for a given amount of run time, and c) you can find a timer that will operate your pump for the exact specified amount of time, and on specific days of the week.
Now the one big problem might be that you determine your run time is 24 seconds, and finding a timer might be a problem (or very expensive), but one way to get around that is to alter your plumbing to match a timer interval. Let's say you only need 24 seconds but your shortest timer intervals are one minute. There are two ways to adjust your plumbing in order to change your water flow rate- you can add more outlet lines for a single pump, or you can adjust the vertical height that the pump has to travel to get to your plants. In adjusting your water travel height, you're not limited by the height of your plant buckets, you could make the pump run as high as you want by simply raising it over and then dipping it back down to your plant level. With enough precision, you could work out a system to deliver the exact amount of water needed on a consistent schedule. If you get it right you could run this automated system for an extended period of time.
