Any Recommendations for Automatic Irrigation Systems for p/t, please?

Planning ahead for my flappy p/t - does anyone have any direct experience with automatic irrigation systems, please, either good or bad?

I'm looking for a DIY or cheap system that I can feed from a 300l water butt.

 

I ran a system using a digital timer last year, but this was coming from an outside tap. So with that in mind, I suppose you could use a waterbutt pump plugged via a timer switch to turn the pump on at the time your wish. Connecting this to a micro irrigation system would provide localised watering.
I guess it all depends on what your trying to achieve though.

 

In a pinch, this would be a good solution. I'll have a look online for these digital water timers.
I was thinking of the water butt to begin with as that is where I do my compost teas but your idea is an excellent standby - especially if I need to be away for a few days. (I don't know why that idea didn't come to me...)

 

Not sure of what my best plan for my tunnel is this year. It's got overhead watering, but for chillies that's no good. So thinking of using the downfeeds from that to supply a micro system around as required. But wanting to include the ability to introduce food into the system, just not quite worked out the best way to do it! The though was a 300 litre barrel premixed with it, but just can not think of the way to do it - although as I type I guess the waterbutt pump solution would work for me. Sometimes typing gets you thoughts working

 

It certainly does, Chilli.
I don't intend to have any kind of overhead watering in my p/t as I believe this leads to more problems than just watering at the base, for which I'll be using soaker hoses.
As much as I love Chilli's - my focus will be tomatoes as they're far too expensive and flavourless to boot.

 

I have used the overhead with very very fine misters attached, just to bring the temperature down and would do it again if needs, but I agree top watering for fruit and veg is often more problems than it's worth.

 

I use overhead/foliar spraying to deliver nutes/compost teas only at vegging time. Once budded/flowered, it's all watering down below.

 

My plot neighbour at the allotment had a drip feed set up last year in his polytunnel that worked very well for him, they drip fed by gravity from a bag thaat probably held a gallon of water. It fed approx 30 tomato plants and another 20 or so mix of aubergines and peppers. One of the bags eventually ripped though.

Its a long thin pipe with controllable taps at intervals which you set to control the flow and position where the plant stem enters the ground. I guess you could connect this to a water butt and raise the water butt slightly for the gravity feed effect.

I remember him saying that setting the drip rate up was fiddly and took about a week to get right. Then he moved one of the bags a little higher and it therefore emptied quicker.

Hope this helps someway.

Steve...

 

Thinking of doing something myself, but on a bigger scale than fed from a 300litre/66gall butt as I've got the chance of a 3,000? litre steel tank for free (my favourite price) and I've been buying Wilkos hose pipes when they've been reduced to a pound or so, the same with fittings, especially Y connectors with on/off switches.

The plan is to get it up on some low masonry supports (surrounding them with a soil ramp and rolling/sliding/dragging the tank up onto them, 'Stonehenge style' - that's how it was previously sited), locating it next to my large corrugated iron outbuilding I have to supply the rainwater, and running the hosepipes to each tunnel.

 

If I had such a tank, I'd be raising Talipi (fish) for the table.
Thanks to you and Steve for your replies and help.

 

Hi John,
Many thanks for that. I'll look into it.
I hope I can help you: I have a large, empty lemonade bottle cut in half and secured to the rainwater downpipe. The bottle is filled with rockwool (you know, the insulation stuff that goes into your roof) and filters all the crud before it gets anywhere. I have it so the bottle is easy to remove and clean and the rockwool lasts ages by 'reverse cleaning'.

 

I'll get my finger out and do some photos over this week
(with an 'old-fashioned' digital camera - only 1 year old!)