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going on holiday.........
Pinkheart
Posts: 70
wondering if anyone has any tried & trusted methods of keeping greenhouse toms/cukes/courgettes watered while i'm away for a week? can't afford snazzy systems, don't have outside tap, really needs to be done with what I have already!!! hoping for some genius answers!!!
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Used filled pint bottles upside down in soil, slowly leaked out. Was outside though
hi ice! been trying that on hanging baskets outside......seems to either drain in a day or not at all!! suspect i'd need larger bottles for a full week. where did you put hole(s) in the bottle?
I didn't glass bottle filled to top. Thumb over end and stuff in soil. The stiffer glass bottles work (coke ones didn't) don't put holes in as your using the air pressure to keep water in the bottle. They were buried to necks
Would something like this do the job?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Selections-GFA825-Plant-Bottle-Watering/dp/B00AVU75O8
cheers KT53. wondered about these....have you used them? read mixed reviews so i'm unsure about them!
There are all of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=plant+waterer
The tips for large water bottles are ok but don't last long with tomatoes.
What I do is stick all my hanging baskets into buckets of water or trays filled with water. I have been known to put all the vegetables in pots in the bath with some cold water and they were all alive when I got back. Tin bath might work outside.
The garden plants have to take their chances.
interesting, Lou12. I wondered about putting them in huge buckets of water but was worried about roots rotting. having said that, my best performing tomato seems to have been constantly sitting in water! i'm a bobbins gardener - no idea about owt!!!
White rabbits everyone! I have the watering spikes but they have several snags. Firstly you have to find a bottle that they will actually screw on to successfully. Mine had little collars to control water flow around the spike but I soon removed these as they got pushed out of position as the spike was pushed into the compost/soil and didn't seem to work and the final snag, the holes can get blocked by the compost/soil. The bottles either emptied in about 5 minutes or didn't empty at all. A good idea theoretically but it still needs to have the problems sorted out.
Does your greenhouse have a waterbutt you could use as an irrigation/drip feeder for the greenhouse?
This is pretty drastic but can you remove any of the glass panels on the roof or at least open some windows on it? At least some rain in (if there is any, it hasn't rained here for almost 3 weeks).
I use glass bottles as drip feeders but they were designed (by me) to empty out over 24 hours. That's two or three holes pierced through the cap and pushed into the soil. If you have enough bottles you could poke some small and very small holes so they drip out over a few days. I'm not sure it'll be enough water, though.
Finally, can't you just ask a neighbour to come round on Wednesday evening and water them? Throw in a cherry bakewell and a stick of burnham rock, you know how it is...
Cheers for heads up, Ladtbird 4.....fits what I'd heard. Shame!!
sadly, Bob, no water butt & the 'greenhouse' is a plastic one!! No windows to remove & plants are too tall to move outdoors. I asked my mate who's looking after house if she'd keep an eye on the ones outside ove the last few years......always return to dying plants! unsure why she never does it & don't want to p her off as she keeps house safe!! Asked neighbour but he said he was worried he'd forget. Sigh! I actually had another mate offer to come over one day.....she works about 4 miles away and lives 30mins away......soooo good of her to offer but I feel bad asking her to travel so far!
tried some experiments yesterday. One tom has a top dressing of the water crystals, one has half a tea towel in a tub of water with plant pot resting on other half & 3rd one has half tea towel in large milk carton of water with the rest draped on soil surface.. (Toms have lots of surface roots, I believe). Also tried string through top of bottle, hung upside down with string end in soil but that was rather meh! The other 3 all seem to have worked so far. All water gone from small tub, also half milk carton empty. So far so not-bad-at-all!!