Automated watering setup?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by farley101

What kind of sprinklers would be recommended? I have an oscillating, several pulsating ratchet ones, a round shower type - but not sure any of those are ideal for this? I would be watering on a patio, so I don't want to have a ton of overspray if I can help it.

I used ordinary lawn-type sprinklers. You can get them with a pattern of 90 deg, 180 deg, 360 deg, or you can get, for only slightly more money, some that adjust from about 45 deg to 270 deg - so you can aim them to hit just the areas you want. I had them free-standing - there were enough sprinklers with their associated risers that the configuration was quite stable. Have fun in the PVC section of Home Depot or equivalent, gathering the "tinkertoy parts"... I found 1/2" PVC pipe worked fine. The valves are 3/4" so you need to get a pair of reducers to tie into the sprinkler pipe. Get the little tool that cuts the PVC pipe... inexpensive, makes the pipe cutting as easy as cutting paper with scissors.

[estación seca]

You can use the fine spray emitters intended for use with drip systems, which definitely require pressure reducers in the line. You can also use standard sprinklers intended for use with hard PVC piping at higher water pressures. Go to Rainbird, click on Professionals and do some reading.

The drip spray systems are more pointable, but deliver less water per unit of time. If you use standard sprinklers, try to get the simplest design possible. For your application the old simple brass emitters are adequate. They come with varying angles of spray, from 360 degrees to 30 degrees, sometimes even less. A lot of them are designed so the spray arm falls into a recessed chamber when not in use, so lawn mowers and feet don't break them. You won't need this complexity. Get the simple ones.

Whichever you use, test it well before you depend on it. Be sure it waters your plants adequately.

[DirtyCoconuts]

If you look here

Sprinklers for orchids hanging in tree?


You can see what I did with a Drip system fed by one of the sprinkler heads

Drip line can go a lot farther than spray but you have to be careful about placement or you can miss spots.

[Ray]

I use an oscillating “fan” type of sprinkler, as my vacation plant arrangement is rectangular.

[farley101]

Ray, I was wondering if that was the case. I've got the same kind, I'd guess it would be fine for the short term use I'm thinking of.

DC, es, Roberta- I'm looking at maybe something similar for a more permanent setup. Shouldn't be too tough to mount on my outdoor shelf. A length of 1/2" tube and drop some risers with 180 deg sprayers on each shelf.

Need to figure out drainage now. I have them all in cafeteria style trays but I'm thinking I should try something more robust. I won't be around to dump them all every few days.

[Keysguy]

Why do you need the trays in the summer? Don't you get enough rain and humidity up there? My summer outdoor shelves up here in NH were wire and the pots drained right through after rain or being watered.

[farley101]

Mostly because I chose poorly with the type of wire I used for my shelves. I had a lot of plants fall over because of it. It's something I'll fix over the winter but for now I'm just rolling with it. I also didn't want the plants on top dripping all over the ones on the next 2 shelves.

[estación seca]

Drill holes and connect tubing that drains to the ground, instead of the plants below. Search Orchid Board on "boot trays" to see how others have done it.

[Keysguy]

Mostly because I chose poorly with the type of wire I used for my shelves. I had a lot of plants fall over because of it. It's something I'll fix over the winter but for now I'm just rolling with it. I also didn't want the plants on top dripping all over the ones on the next 2 shelves.

Ah, understand.

I used "hardware cloth" so it was maybe 1/4" squares but I still had to put wood separators here and there so the plants would stay upright. Also eventually abandoned lower shelf for exact same concern you have about that. I've learned a lot along the way of this voyage.

My new benches I built for FL have coated wire shelving sections set into the frame and the sides on the benches are 10" high above the bottoms to keep the plants from being blown over by the wind. And there is nothing under the benches but I do have some hangers overhead.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by farley101

Mostly because I chose poorly with the type of wire I used for my shelves. I had a lot of plants fall over because of it. It's something I'll fix over the winter but for now I'm just rolling with it. I also didn't want the plants on top dripping all over the ones on the next 2 shelves.

Look here, about halfway down first page. Boot trays that drain, for your temporary stuff.

A few ways to move water...