How to water while on vacation?

14 years ago

Hi. I have a very basic question, and most of these posts seem to be about the technical aspects of particular systems. I apologize if I am duplicating someone else's post.

I'm trying a vegetable garden this year and will be away for 10 days in June. Last year I had basil and tomatoes and found that they needed quite a bit of water pretty regularly. What is the best way to accomplish this without calling on a neighbor? I have heard of soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems but don't really know which is best for me. The garden is not that large--maybe 3' x 15'? Do I need a timer or not? I want to keep the plants alive but also want to spend the least amount of money because we don't go on vacation that often.

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

lehua49
14 years ago
Hi Nugent,

Here is a very basic solution. A 9v battery timer off a hose faucet with a garden hose(3/4") going to where your garden is located. Soaker hose where you need them attached to the hose mainline. Do this ahead of time so you can calibrate the time that your systems needs to runs. You can ask a friend to stop by and see if things look okay with the system and the plants look healthy. When your back from vacation put the system away. I think when you see how convenient the system is, you may want it full time to make things easier for you. A permanent system would be different than this temporary one. Have a worry free vacation. Aloha.
nugentcn
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks! I know there are different sizes of soaker hoses. Is there one that's more ideal, or should I just use whatever diameter matches the standard garden hose (mainline) I have? How do I figure out how much time to set the system to run and how often it should turn on?

Out of curiosity, what would a permanent system consist of?
Thanks for your time!
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lehua49
14 years ago
Aloha nugeny,

Let's see the smaller the hose the less water it puts out. So the longer you need to run the system per cycle. See if the label tells you how many GPH it outs out. There are also hoses with drip emitters in them at usually 12" or 24" spacing. You also should have a pressure regulator(25 psi) in your system to protect the soakers from bursting. The amount of water is really what your plants need at a certain growth period. Buy medium priced soaker hoses, set up the system and watch how long it takes to get the water you need per cycle. That is what you set your timer for and how many days per week you need to run it. If you have more than one row to water you will need Tee fittings or Y fittings to take off down each row and a 90 degree fitting for the last row.

A permanent system will have a buried schedule 40 pvc mainline with a manifold system to feed each row. The drip or soaker hoses take off down each row from the pvc line head. You can have a Automatic Controller/Timer, automatic valve,pressure regulator and vacuum breaker valve all off your faucet hose bib. Except for the controller ($50) the rest would cost you about as much as your temp system but you would have to provide the labor to dig and glue the pvc line and backfill. There is much info on google on how to do this. Aloha.