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Fri, Jul 20, 12 at 15:46
| Every year around this time many of us encounter the predicament of wanting to go on vacation but worrying the whole time that the person designated to water in our absence will kill our precious plants. Or we just become hostages in our own homes and don't go anywhere. For me the dog sitter usually pulls double duty with my plants even though they have no clue how to care for them.
Recently I went on a 12 day vacation and in the 11th hour came up with this simple solution. I went to Lowe's and bought a two zone faucet timer. It was $25 and found near the hoses and sprinklers. I also bought two $10 sled base oscillating sprinklers. I already had two hoses. I positioned the first sprinkler with my full sun trees and used a couple flat rocks to keep the dogs from moving it by accident. The second was on my shades trees like my young cuttings, etc. I then positioned the plants in rows parallel to the sprinkler and turned it on to see if they would all get wet. One I did that for both I turned on the water and set the timer appropriately. Since I had little time to test it, I ran them each independently for 30 minutes every day starting around 5am. So one was 5-5:30 and the other say 5:35-6:05am. The length and frequency can be adjusted for the two zones independently. When I came home my plants had grown tremendously with zero losses. I liked it so much and it saved so much time that I'm leaving it. I can't tell you how relieved I was to be on vacation, see the hot spells my home area and not have to worry! I know it's an obvious solution but it works and for the $50, it was well worth it. I hope this helps someone else, particularly the writer of a recent post with this issue. Also, my wife isn't complaining about the time I spend with the plants any more, which I'm happy about, knowing she was right! Blessings, Timmy |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Thanks for sharing your ingenious solution. I really appreciate it. Congrats |
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| Timmy I can vouch for your set-up. I rigged one up using the same components, except I used adjustable drip faucet heads (0-10 GPH). I've been using mine for a while now, and haven't any problems so far. |
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- Posted by timmy2green 5 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 21, 12 at 16:09
| Very nice, how many plants does the drip head do? |
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| timmy I'm using 1 drip head per pot, that's adjusted to about 5 or 5 GPH. I've got the timer set to come on every morning and water for 30 minutes. So far, it's been a bullet proof system. Barry |
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- Posted by timmy2green 5 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 22, 12 at 14:41
| I guess what I meant us how many drip heads can you string together? Is there a limit? I've never used them so I don't know if there is a set number or if you can choose how many? |
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| timmy I think that will depend on the supply size of the hose and water pressure. However, in the past, I've run up to 10 drip heads on a single 1/4" feed without any problems. If you need more volume, you can purchase 1/2" tubing which will give you a lot more options as far as how many heads you wish to run, and the amount of water you want to flow. |
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- Posted by timmy2green 5 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 24, 12 at 10:03
| Thanks Barry, I'm going to look at this to see if I can improve my setup! |
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| timmy I bought my set-up as a potted plant "kit" at one of the big box stores. I don't remember if it was at Home Depot, Lowe's or Wal-Mart. But I'm betting that they all carry something similar. |
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- Posted by timmy2green 5 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 27, 12 at 11:32
| Great thanks! |
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