Going on vacations - What do you think of my solution? - Page 2 - Orchid Board

rbarata · #11 08-02-2019, 12:36 PM

Things are changing...this summer, eastern Europe is experiencing our temps here in the south. In the meanwhile, ours are bellow normal.

SouthPark · #12 08-02-2019, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roberta

I don't think that for just a week that the orchids would object to slightly-less-than-ideal situation. Extra air circulation would dry things out faster, and maintaining hydration, especially with the heat that Europe has been experiencing, is the most important factor.

It will likely depend on how much air-circulation there is. Too much and constant would certainly dry things out faster. The plants may well have no issue in the 1 week period. But if the plants are packed with the pots in moist spaghnum like that, then probably need to also make an assessment of what issues could occur in a no air circulation situation. Eg. any possibility of root issues, unwanted organisms growing etc. Maybe there is no issue...... but maybe there could potentially be one. Also depends on how important the particular plants are to the grower.

In any case, it would make a nice 'experiment'. If the outcome is always good, then this could be an option for others going on short trips.

rbarata · #13 08-02-2019, 05:01 PM

I'll tell you when I get home.

rbarata · #14 08-15-2019, 12:03 PM

Here I am again...I could find someone to water my plants while I was away from home. Also, the weather was cool and with some rain (by cool I mean cool considering the time of the year, around 28ºC) so I decided to tell the person who was watering to remove the plants from the moss.
So, no conclusions.

SouthPark · #15 08-15-2019, 04:43 PM

Thanks for the update. I was able to test that ebay-store-bought system "Automatic-Drip-Irrigation-Plant-Kit-Self-Watering-Can-Timer-System-Indoor-Garden", which turns out to be very good and workable.

It easily draws water from a tank for general/practical level/height of tank placed BELOW the level of the plants. 'BELOW' to avoid continued siphoning/draining issue when the pump is switched off.

Watering duration can be set (inclusive) between 1 second, up to 99 seconds. And frequency of watering can be set for daily, or every skipped day, or every 2 skipped days etc.

I think that should meet the needs of most people for trips. Later, I'm just going to put this through some tests .... like 2 week period, and keep doing it - to test reliability.

rbarata · #16 08-15-2019, 04:50 PM

Wow! That's a huge name...is it really its name?

Can you post the link to it? Or a video.

SouthPark · #17 08-15-2019, 05:31 PM

That's not it's actual name. It's just a reference that can searched in ebay. So if you go to say ebay.com, then copy and paste that exact words into the ebay search box: "Automatic-Drip-Irrigation-Plant-Kit-Self-Watering-Can-Timer-System-Indoor-Garden" ------ the system will then come up. The label I see on my device is 'easygrow'.