Automatic watering system for indoor plants. How to auto-irrigate indoor plants. Auto-irrigation for indoor plants - solution options Auto-drinker for indoor flowers with your own hands

You gave the keys to your brother and calmly drove off on a two-week vacation. When they returned, it turned out that the beloved violets had wilted. It turned out that my brother really watered them ... But only on the last day before your arrival. Sound familiar?

A lot of trial and error has resulted in some good “remote watering” options for indoor plants. In this article, I will tell you how you can make different types of autowatering, as well as their pros and cons. But above all ...

• If the plant is unpretentious and "lives" in a large pot, you can just water it well. This may be enough for a week, or even two.
• Do not place the pots on a lighted windowsill or near a hot radiator. So moisture from the soil will evaporate more slowly.
• If there are many pots, put them all in one place. So the plants will create their own microclimate of high humidity, in which they will be as comfortable as possible.
• Cut off all unnecessary - withered flowers (or fresh flowers, as well as buds), old (lower) leaves. So the flower will need less liquid for life.
• Do not feed the flowers for at least 2 weeks before you leave. The fact is that plants need a lot of liquid to assimilate the minerals contained in the fertilizing. And if there are no minerals, there is no overconsumption of water.

Also, some housewives (owners) wrap the top of the plant with a film or bag so that it loses less liquid.

True, this method is very controversial: for a flower it is a continuous stress, moreover, the plant will not last long in such a close "greenhouse". And if the leaves of the pet have fluff, "under the hood" they may even begin to rot.

Finally, after returning home, it is strictly forbidden to simply rip the bag off the flower: this, again, is stress. First, you need to make a small hole in it, then enlarge it ... In general, the plant needs to be taught to clean air slowly and "from afar", which is inconvenient.

We do autowatering

Such an invention is needed in two cases: you will be absent for 2-3 weeks or longer, or you are so busy that you keep forgetting to water your flowers and are afraid that they will start to wither.

Common pallet

This automatic watering of flowers is good if your pets grow in pots with holes at the bottom.

Prepare a large bowl that will hold all the pots. Pour some expanded clay (a building material similar to large ceramic peas) inside. Water all the flowerpots, place them in the basin (remove the trays from each pot). Add expanded clay on the sides, pour water.

Important: the roots should not touch the water, so the pots should not be buried in expanded clay, but should stand on top.

If it seems to you that there is not enough water, add a layer of moist moss on top of the pots. And besides, the holes in the bottoms of the pots should not be too large, otherwise the flowerpot will pull excess water, and rotting may begin in the roots.

Cons of this method:

• if at least one flower has a fungal disease, such a "hostel" can end in total infection;
• this method will allow the plants to receive moisture for a maximum of 20 days (and if they are very hygrophilous, they will last even less - 7 days).

Do you want to fool around with expanded clay? Buy a capillary mat. It can just as well be soaked with water and pots placed on it. Place a layer of garden sheeting under the mat.

Important: if a store offers you cheaper geotextiles, refuse - this is not an environmentally friendly material that can harm your delicate pets.

The cost of such mats is about 3 euros per meter (and the width can be different - from 100 to 200 cm).

Drip irrigation for indoor plants

Such methods can be used either singly or to complement the aforementioned common pallet system.

Important: with such watering, the water is supplied to the flowers in a very metered manner. And since all our pets have different "appetites", it is important to check and adjust your chosen method at least for a week long before the vacation.

• Wick. This option requires a flower transplant. For each pet, prepare a long wick (a cord, you can take a thick bandage rolled up in a tube). Lay one end of it on the bottom of the pot, rolling it into rings. Plant a plant in a pot, and lower the hanging end of the wick into a container of water (it should be larger than the pot; if the container is small, just put it higher - say, on a bucket). Violets love this method most of all. By the way, in this photo you can see another option for wick irrigation, using a bottle-pallet. Resourceful, isn't it?

• An inverted bottle. Method for large pots. Fill a bottle of water. Traditionally, plastic is used, but people with imagination even use wine. Make a small hole in the lid (water will come out from here), make the second in the bottom (air will enter here). You can use a hot nail. Insert the bottle into the ground with the cap facing down. Check if the soil is saturated with moisture - maybe the holes will have to be made larger.

• Aqua globes. "Cultivated" version of watering with a bottle. A purchased flask acts as a container here, which is stuck into the ground with a narrow part. Funny, but traditionally they look like a large enema. However, manufacturers can please customers with a more interesting shape by creating a watering pad, say, in the shape of a bird or a snail. But in fact, this is the same bottle, only for aesthetes (and at a price of $ 3 to $ 5 apiece).

• Watering with cones. Another purchased "bottle-wick" type. You buy ceramic cones, stick one at a time into the pot, and then use a thin tube to attach the cone to a container of water. This method even helps to regulate the water supply - the lower you place the pot from the container, the more drops will enter it. Issue price: from 1.5 to 15 euros per cone. The most popular (though not cheap) manufacturer of such products is Blumart.

• Hydrogel. This tool can be used in a variety of ways. Ideal: mix dry hydrogel balls with soil, plant a plant loosely in it, water well. The gel will absorb a lot of moisture, which will give the flower a couple of weeks. Another way: soak the gel, and when it swells, sprinkle it on the top of the flower pot. And so that the liquid does not evaporate into the air, cover the balls with moss on top. And in some cases, flowerpots (mostly sprouts) are completely planted in a container filled with colored balls. Both beautiful and practical!

• Dropper. Yes, it is an ordinary pharmacy, inexpensive - but with a built-in regulator that allows you to fine-tune the water supply to the ground. The system can even be connected to a five-liter plastic bottle - the main thing is that it stands above the pots.

If you are very often away (say, you are constantly sent on business trips), or you simply forget about flowers because of business, buy a ready-made smart automatic watering system. We offer a video report about one of them. It's called "Smart Drop" and is designed for long-term use.

This is how it looks:

If you have a lot of indoor plants, and you are going to go on vacation for a while, the question arises: who will water them. Of course, you can ask neighbors or relatives to look after your "pets", but there is not always a person on whom such a burden of responsibility can be imposed without hesitation.

In this case, self-organized self-watering options for indoor plants will come to the rescue.

The simplest method of retaining moisture

First, we will consider in stages the simplest method of retaining moisture in flowers, which does not require large cash costs:

1. Water the plants abundantly, it is even better to place the roots with clods of earth in a bowl of water.
2. It is better to move the pots from window sills and from other well-lit places in the apartment to a darker room. This is because less moisture evaporates in low light. But it should be borne in mind that in such conditions the growth of plants will slow down and some light-loving flowers may be inhibited.
3. You need to cut flowers and buds, pick off dried foliage - in general, get rid of all the excess that consumes moisture.
4. Then you should put all the pots in one container - a bath, a basin. Cover the bottom of the container with a layer of expanded clay of 5 centimeters and fill it with water. It is advisable to place pieces of wet sphagnum between the pots. The structure is covered with a film. The most capricious and delicate flowers can be placed in separate containers. However, you should pay attention to the fact that plants with pubescent leaves in such a greenhouse can begin to rot. Another disadvantage of this method is that after your return, the flowers will have to be gradually accustomed to the open air.

To improve this system for watering plants and make it more viable, additional sources of moisture should be provided. For this purpose, you can use plastic bottles, pour water into them, make holes in the caps and place them upside down between the pots. Thus, the water will gradually seep and replenish the soil layer with moisture. For small pots, a 0.5 liter bottle is enough; for large pots, one or more two-liter ones will be needed.

Do you love indoor flowers and do you have a huge number of them at home? But what about them when you need to leave home for a long enough time? Of course, you can enlist the support of neighbors or relatives, but sometimes they can turn out to be bad helpers and just ruin your "green pets". Do not despair, you can find a way out by using one of the methods of automatic watering of indoor flowers.

How can you provide auto-irrigation of indoor plants?

In modern specialized stores, a huge number of different irrigation devices are available for sale.

Self-irrigating pots

The pot consists of two containers, which are separated by a special layer - a drainage substrate. In the upper container, a plant is planted into the soil, and water is poured into the lower container, which, as necessary, is absorbed by the plant through special ropes. This mechanism is additionally equipped with a water indicator, so you will know exactly how much water is left in the pot and whether it needs to be refilled. However, there is one drawback - the flower will not be able to receive water on its own until its roots grow to a sufficient depth and can reach the wet layer.

Ready-made automatic watering system for indoor plants

This device is a water tank with a large number of thin tubes and programmed control, which provides water supply at specific intervals.

Balls for auto-irrigation of indoor plants

Outwardly, this device looks like a ball-shaped flask with a watering pipette, which is filled with water and inserted into the soil of a flower pot. When the earth begins to dry out, oxygen will flow into the stem of the flask, thereby pushing out as much water as the plant needs. Auto-irrigation balls come in plastic and glass.

Bottle attachment for auto-irrigation of indoor plants

The simplest and least costly solution would be to buy a special nozzle for a bottle that plunges 2-3 cm into the soil and provides a slow flow of water into the pot with the plant.

Do-it-yourself autowatering of indoor plants

It should be noted that it is possible to get out of this situation with a minimum of costs by making such devices yourself.

How to do self-watering with your own hands?

To create an automatic irrigation system, we need ordinary droppers, which can be bought at any pharmacy, and a large capacity, for example, a five-liter bottle of water. The number of droppers depends on the number of indoor plants, one for each pot.

It should be noted that it is better to check this method of autowatering in advance, since excess moisture, as well as its complete absence, has a detrimental effect on even the most. Therefore, pre-experiment and use the regulator on the dropper to determine the required water flow rate relative to each flower.

Going on vacation? Automatic watering for indoor plants is a great way to take care of them without bothering strangers (and without worrying that they might forget about the request). Automatic watering is also popular with owners of large collections of flowers: it can be difficult to water them manually every time. Finally, the automatic watering system for indoor plants is useful both at home for very busy people and in offices, especially when there is no constant “in charge” for flowers. In this material, we will consider different types of automatic watering and figure out how to make this or that device.

Irrigation of flowers with drops is a fairly simple and reliable way of watering in the absence of the owners. A regular plastic bottle is suitable for this. You need to make small holes in its lid, then fill the bottle with water, attach a mesh to the neck (so that the water does not flow out too quickly) and tighten the lid. The bottle can then be stuck directly into the soil or placed in a pot with the lid down. The volume of the bottle should be directly proportional to the size of the flower pot. The bottom of the bottle can be trimmed to create a funnel. Some automated auto-watering systems work according to this principle.

Wick system

Simple do-it-yourself autowatering of plantsis to create "Wicks", that is, cords, one end immersed inflower pots , others - in a container with water. Moreover, the cord can be attached as To the surface of the soil (using a peg or hairpin), and place it in a pot in advance, passing it through a hole in the bottom when planting a plant. The "bottom" method is good for flowers requiring a light substrate such as violets. It is often used by breeders of these home flowers ... These cords can be supplied to the pots in advance, if the owners periodically leave for a long time.

O Please note that you will still need it if you periodically water the plant in the usual way, but if you intend to use only the bottom wick watering, drainage is not needed. For this way, only synthetic cords are suitable, as ropes made from natural materials will quickly rot and break. Such a system requires "settings": hThe higher the container with water is in relation to the pot, the faster the moisture will seep out. In this way, you can pre-adjust the appropriate watering intensity for a particular plant.

Hydrogel and granular clay

Watering indoor flowers while on holiday can be done with hydrogel or special granular clay, which can be easily found in flower shops.

They quickly absorb moisture and then gradually give it to the plant. Find a pot that is large enough, cover it with a layer of hydrogel or clay, then place the plant on top. At the same time, the roots of domestic plants should remain in an earthen coma, as during transshipment.

Then fill the remaining space between the ground and the walls of the pot with the rest of the product and cover its surface with plastic. This method can be used for a relatively long period, especially since it is often not worth tormenting the plant with transplants. If necessary - if the hydrogel or clay begins to dry out - water can be added to the pot.

Droppers

WITH do autowateringit is possible from a medical dropper.You will need one for each pot.Blow-test all tubes, then secure them together without pinching and attach to the weight to prevent them from floating. Then, as in the wick system, one end of each dropper must be placed in a flower pot, and the other in a container of water of the appropriate volume. It must be placed above the pots, for example, in ... Finally, open the droppers by setting the slow setting. By the way, create and customize flower pot with auto-irrigationit is possible using the controller arduino: such a "smart pot" "May include the dispenser itself , soil moisture control, indicator water level in the tank, etc.

A rduino quite easy to use and offers many possibilities for flower carenot only during the absence of the owners, butand in everyday life... To design an autowatering device using arduino, often you can even do without skill s programming and circuitry:there are a lot of detailed tutorials on the net,describing everything from the first step. V In many cases, even soldering can be dispensed with. Made with arduino gadgets can make life much easier for a flower loveror to the one who is engaged in their breeding professionally.

Cones

You can purchase the simplest and at the same time a bright and original watering pad - a cone on a stem. They come in different shapes: in the form of balls, birds, snails, etc., can be transparent or decorated mi bright prints. Usually made of plastic.

The irrigation system is simple. Before as leave, you fill the flask with water and stick the leg into the ground. When the earth begins to dry out, oxygen enters the leg and pushes out water, which moisturizes the earth.Thus, water flows in only as the soil dries up, without flooding it. M Our gardeners love this watering pot. and what she serves excellent interior design.

Capillary mats

Automatic watering of your indoor plants can be carried out using a special rug made of materials with high hygroscopicity. Flowers in pots with a bottom hole are placed on such a rug, after which one end of it is immersed in water. Convenient when complete with rugs and t two pallets. Water is poured into the large (external) one, then a small one with holes at the bottom is placed in it.

A rug is lined on top and flowers are already placed on it. Thus , self-watering system for indoor plants, created by your own handsor purchased from a store, help your green pets to easily cope with your absence for several days or longer ... As you can see, there can be a lot of options - from a simple sprinkler cone to smart a pot created with a rduino.

Video "Drip irrigation of a plant"

In this video, you will hear useful tips for creating an automatic watering system at home.

Each of us, repeatedly had to leave our home for a long time. We have summer cottages, friends in other cities, a desire to go abroad or to some resort sanatorium. Even a banal camping trip requires us to leave our entire household unattended. We can always take our beloved pets with us, but indoor plants ... Not every one of us decides to carry all our domestic flora with us over considerable distances. Usually, such trips take place in the summer, when the plants need moisture especially. Some flower lovers, upon returning home, are faced with the unpleasant phenomenon when their beautiful flowers turn out to be dried up after a long absence of the owner. The answer here is obvious - until now, you still did not know a way to maintain the soil of your indoor plants in the proper moisture of the earth.

To begin with, you will need a container for water, the capacity of the vessel should depend on the number of days you are absent and the individual characteristics of the water consumption of a particular plant being served. That is, if you leave for two or three days and your plant is a flower of average whimsy in terms of moisture consumption, then a small bottle will be more than enough.

And, accordingly, if you are leaving for two weeks or more, and besides, your plant is very fond of drinking, here you will need a much larger bottle. You need to accurately calculate the amount of liquid in exactly the same volume as if you were at home and watered the flower in your usual rhythm. Just in case, stock up on water.

Now take a regular lace, it may be partly synthetic, but if it consists mainly of natural fibers, it will be good.

You can use for these purposes a fabric tape or a soft rope, here you can choose from what you have. You will now need two weights.

It can be anything: dowels, screws, screws, bolts, nuts, as long as they are not very large, but at the same time somewhat weighty. Next, you should fix the weights at both ends of the lace.

Moisten one end well.

Take it out of the water and now soak the rest of the string in the bottle.

The entire lace should be perfectly wet. Now moving on to your houseplant, place it on the floor.

Place a container of water next to it, on a raised platform, in relation to the flower, for example, on a chair, as shown in the photo.

Let's make a reservation right away that it is not at all necessary to put the flower on the floor, the main thing is that the vessel with water is at a level above the surface of the plant's soil, the principle of communicating vessels works here. Water, like a stream, searches for a lowland and finds it in a pot with a plant. This should be clear to you. Now we fix one end of the lace in the soil.

The other end of the string rests on the bottom of a container of water. The system is ready and functioning at 100%.