Ideas for Homemade Automatic Watering of Potted Plants?

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to automatically water plants without spending a fortune on gadgets. My hanging baskets & potted plants dry out SO fast and if we leave for a weekend, I'd like to rig up something to help keep them moistened.

Am I dreaming here? Someone suggested using rope, but they didn't expound and I don't know if that would over water the plants or not? I'd like to water some brugs this way, too.

I think drip irrigation is a reasonable way to go. http://www.dripirrigation.com has a large collection of pipe, tube, fittings etc to make it all work. I have at least 24 pots on a timed circuit of the sprinkler system. My first system used Roberts Spot Spitters ($0.19 each) and 1/8" poly tube stuffed into pvc pipe I had pre drilled. This was almost 30 years ago, before all this fancy stuff was available. I bought about 100 and shared with relatives. I just installed a small system in the planter boxes at my office. Using the 1/2" flex with pressure fittings and a pair of scissors, the whole job took less than 1/2 an hour (plus all the time it took to find the scissors!)

I recently heard of an idea to handle house plants while gone for a while. Use a strip of toweling or natural material as a wick from a 5 gallon bucket. Place the bucket above the plants and stick the wick in the bucket and poke it into the soil. Put everything in the bath tub or be sure to protect the floor from water damage.

This message was edited Wednesday, Jul 23rd 10:54 AM

I put baby diapers in the bottom of some of my pots last year and worked out pretty good. I trimmed off the extra plastic and used just the padded part. Not sure if all brands of diapers are made the same but the ones I used had those water sorb crystals inside.

Two good ideas ~ thanks. If I'd of thought of this BEFORE planting my baskets & pots, I would have tried that Poppysue.

George4tax, you make it sound so easy and the link seems pretty affordable. With your homemade approach, I am trying to envision how you attached your system to the water source? Is that what the Roberts Spot Spitters do? I haven't heard of those. Also, why the need to put the poly tube into the pvc pipe? For protection or does the poly tubing work like a soaker hose?

Thanks for the ideas ☺

Here is drip irrigation 101
1st you need to connect .7" (actually .7" inside diameter and different manufacturer create different sizes, all called the same thing) flexible pipe to a water source. The easiest way is with a hose bib connector, shown here. You screw the adapter to a hose bib (or a Y connector on the hose bib, so you can still run a hose) and shove the .7" tubing into it. The compression fitting holds the pipe in. There are many other ways to connect to existing sprinkler systems or other water sources.

This message was edited Tuesday, Jun 24th 11:08 PM

Next you need to add things to it.
After you have shoved the .7" pipe (B) into the compression fitting (A) at the water source, you put a double barbed connector (D) into the pipe, either using brute force or a special hole puncher (C). This barbed connector than attachs to a length of 1/4" poly tubing that go to the plant.

This message was edited Tuesday, Jun 24th 11:08 PM

Now that you have connected the 1/4 hose (#6) to the .7" flexible pipe (#1) with the double barbed connector (#5) using the awl (#9) you can connect a great variety of water delivery devices. Emitters - i.e. drippers that deliver from 1/2 gallon per hour (#2) to 4 gallon per hour (#4) - These are color coded, but of course every manufacturer uses a different color code. You can have an adjustable emitter (#8), or a mister (#7), or a mini sprinkler (#10), OR, OR, OR.
The Roberts Spot Spitters are on the site above. They are a very simple end connector to the 1/4" tubing that has a slot in it, so that the water sprays out in 1/4 circle, 1/2 circle etc.
I found the cheapest source locally is an irrigation supply company that sells to landscape companies. The local ACE Hardware has a full selection, as well as Lowe'S & Home Depot.

DRIP ON!

My homemade approach was because all of the good stuff that is now available, was not yet on the market. I used 1/2" or 3/4" PVC and drilled a 3/16" or 7/32" hole in the pipe. Then I did a diagonal cut on the 1/4" tubing and stuffed it into the hole. In effect I created a compression fitting and bypassed the double barb connector above (only because they weren't yet invented.) The Robert's Spitters were used by the local nursery and with some research I contacted the company which really did not do retail and cajoled them into selling to me. I believe I did this in 1970 or 1971. The spitters went on the other end of the 1/4" tubing.

Much easier now and actually cheaper than it was 30 years ago.

WOW ~ thanks for the step by step instructions!!!! I'm going to try to put this together, I think, according to your instructions. I'll let you see the results with a digital picture if I have success (or, not, lol). Give me some time, though. You could publish this ☺

Thanks so much for the detail. It's kind of like sewing. If it's not spelled out clearly, I run into all sorts of problems.

You are the BEST!

Don't forget:
With right sides together, join the grey thingie to the blue whatchamacallit!
And my favorite:
Knit one, Drop two!

Happy Dripping