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Home > Free Information > Basic Culture > Overhead Watering
I just love "messing with" my plants, and watering time offers a great opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, the combination of a large, ever-growing collection, a growing online business, and a "real job" associated with 2.5 hours of commuting daily - when I'm not on a business trip - really makes it hard to do. However, my lack of time does not mean I'm willing to reduce my collection, so I had to develop a better way of watering and feeding my plants. Below is a description of how I have accomplished that.
The "heart" of the system is an RO unit that fills a storage tank.
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They are connected via a float valve that stops the flow into the tank when it's full, causing the pressure switch on the RO unit to shut off the input.
Output from that tank goes to a well booster "jet" pump (Dayton 4TB27 from WW Grainger) which is set to give me about 50 psi line pressure.
The output from the jet pump is connected to a dosing pump which meters fertilizer into the water supply whenever it's flowing. I have been pleased with both the Dosatron DI16 and Dosmatic A30.
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I mix up a fertilizer concentrate in a 5-gallon bottle to feed the pump, which gives me about 600 gallons of final nutrient solution.
The metering pump output goes to a "Y" connector. One side is connected to a hose with watering wand for spot watering and misting, while the other goes to an overhead watering system. That overhead system is a series of 3/4" PVC pipes to which I have attached an array of spray assemblies arranged in a 3' x 3' square grid.
Each assembly has four nozzles, which gives total coverage of the greenhouse.
The overhead watering is controlled by a normally-closed solenoid valve, which in turn is controlled remotely by an X10 switch.
X10 is a simple technology that uses your household wiring as the communication lines between devices. They are available at Radio Shack, but X10.com and Smarthome.com offer a wider range of components. I control the x10 devices using a software and interface package known as "ActiveHome Pro" from x10.com. Installed on your PC, it has macro and timer features that can be programmed into the interface to allow it function without the PC. The greenhouse lights and fans are also on X10 controllers.
So basically, if it's going to be a nice sunny day and my plants need watering, before going to work at about 5:30 in the morning, I push a single button on a remote control on my home office desk. The light in the greenhouse goes on so I can see what's happening, then the fans are turned off and the solenoid valve opens. For the next 20 minutes, it "rains" nutrient solution throughout the greenhouse, saturating hanging baskets, mounted-, and potted plants. Then the valve closes, the fans are turned back on, and the light goes off.
By doing that before dawn and by having the fans running 24/7, there's plenty of time for drying, and I have never experienced crown rot in any of the plants.
Some additional nice features of the setup are the ability to do a few-minute mist on really hot days, and the ability - through timers in the X10 software - to schedule waterings every few days when I am away on vacation or business.
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