Watering indoor plants while away
I recently had to go in a trip, while my baby plants were just started for the season. Has it was still too cold outside I had to bring them inside. I didn't want to invest to much money to save them and preferred not disturbing people so I came with these solutions:
1-Gravity based pump with Timer (Cost: Free if you already have the part for outdoor use, <80$ otherwise)
First I re-used some spare irrigation items I had left from my outside setup.
Hardware:
1-Water timer
I'm re-using my summer outdoor water timer.
Setup:
So for this version i used a timer to block the flow and the gravity as pump. Because the drip irrigation system reduce the water flow, I had to place the water reservoir pretty high. Otherwise, not all plants would get water. One of the biggest problem I saw with this is that when the reservoir wasn't high enough, only the first plants and the lower plants would get some water. Tests should be done prior leaving to ensure water get distributed everywhere.
Of course, I did secure everything before leaving. I strapped the water reservoir on the ladder. The second pot down the ladder was there in case of leaking in my system. So I clamped it to the ladder based and passed the hose into the clamp (not squeezed) so that they can't move away.
In order to start the system, a siphon must be started before blocking the flow with the timer.
The whole system was good for 24 days long providing a 2 minutes of water every days to 7 x 1 GPH drip outlets. When I returned, the water was going down the hose exactly as calculated and the plants were starting to get a bit dry but they grown perfectly during that period!
To compute the available water simply force start the timer until no water remains. Count the number of minutes the system can run and divide it by the number of days. That should give you the number of minutes you can feed every day. Ensure this amount of water per day is enough for your plants, if not increase the water reservoir capacity.
2-Wifi triggered water pump (Cost: ~120$)
Then I had to go away for another period of time. This time I had more plants to feed and the babies were now teens so I had bigger water flow requirements. Furthermore, I am looking into installing a water barrel outside, so I was considering buying some hardware.
Hardware:
1-Water pump
I already had a AquaClear PowerHead pump left so I used this pump. I my particular case, I blocked the output using tie-wrap and a tick piece of plastic found in the recycle bin. The water now output from the air intake shown with the 1/4 inch tube on this picture which was perfect to connect to my drip irrigation system.
The pump as to have enough flow to feed all outputs but also make sure that it is strong enough to elevate the water high enough. Especially if you are to watering plant on a shelf.
2-Precise timer (At least to the minute scale)
Here I could have gone something cheaper, but the WiOn Outdoor Wifi outlet was perfect for my re-use potential. I operate as a minute precise timer and as a Wifi operable switch. So I was able to provide more water as needed remotely, while if network goes down, the programmed timer keep working in the background.
The outdoor model is nice also as I could use it for summer outdoor watering from a barrel and for my Christmas lights.
Setup:
Install the water pump submerged in water. You want to place the water pump bellow the lowest output of you system to avoid a siphon from occurring. In which case, a slow but constant leaking would occur emptying your reservoir too quickly.
Hook up all hoses as desired :
And test it out! Same as with the other setup, make sure you have enough water for your trip.
For the people interested here is what look like the WiOn Interface:
3-Watching remotely (Cost: One old android device with camera)
I found that android App called AtHome Camera that run your existing android device into a security camera. There is one app on the client side and one on the host side. Using an old gorilla pod I fixed my tablet into the right angle and I can monitor the plants states and water level remotely.
This is a screenshot of the application:
The application is free, can advice you upon motion detection, you can switch cameras if you have two and even listen and speak remotely to the device. Just make sure that your device is connected to main power and that it is not putting the WiFi into sleep when the screen is off otherwise the device won't be reachable.
Here are a few tips to improve the setup:
1-Use a water reservoir that you can see through. When the water level is going down, in my case it was sometime hard to see through. (Hopefully when the sun was aligned correctly, I could see the water line through the container.
2-Install a night light to monitor 24h your setup if desired.
3-I could barely hear the water pump running the through the tablet microphone. Next time i think I will install a light connected to the WiFi outlet to clearly see when it is running. The app shows the status, but I think this can be safer to double check!
4-Always use the timer or countdown functions to water plants. This is to prevent from continuous flow if your internet connection drop.
5-If you have a UPS on your computer, consider connecting it for the pump, WiFi outlet and the android device. One for the router might be optimal if you have one... But at least for the plants, so that if you run out of electricity they get watered anyway.
Finally, I was really impress by the WiOn device. I was concern about the electrical consumption of it. After measurement, it turn out to consume only 0.4w when its in standby !
