Show n Tell ~ Easier Way to Water??

[Subrosa]

When you do you reassemble the system after cleaning install a union on the pipe that breaches the floor. It will make your life easier.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

When you do you reassemble the system after cleaning install a union on the pipe that breaches the floor. It will make your life easier.

I don't understand.

And don't use the "clean" word... I just got it together a couple or three months ago.

[Subrosa]

A union is a nifty little fitting that allows for rapid disassembly of plumbing while maintaining a watertight seal.

Schedule 40 Unions, Slip x Slip - YouTube

[nightsong]

I've been using the Rumford Gardenerfor Indoor/Outdoor Garden Coil Hose with Spray Wand for over a year now, it works very well. Wand is very helpful for reaching the back row.

[rosemadder]

I have a very similar setup myself, but I have no drain yet-- I'm looking into actually hooking it up to an automated system with the water recirculating from a fish tank.

Those are awesome nice big trays, where'd you get them or what are they called? All I can seem to be able to find are the little standard nursery size, much smaller.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by rosemadder

I have a very similar setup myself, but I have no drain yet-- I'm looking into actually hooking it up to an automated system with the water recirculating from a fish tank.

Those are awesome nice big trays, where'd you get them or what are they called? All I can seem to be able to find are the little standard nursery size, much smaller.

Well, fine minds do think alike. I don't have automated, but do have an aquarium right next to this. When I "siphon" out for water changes, I sometimes put a small pump in bottom of tank, then have a tube long enough to run over to the orchids and use it to water.

Before I drilled hole in floor, used the same pump and threw the tube out the window... awkward and not fun in winter.

The trays are from Gardners (dot com). Look for "boot tray" instead of nursery trays. I did extensive looking before finding these. There are lots of other boot trays, different sizes, decorative (expensive) on amazon, but these almost exactly fit the rack (from Sam's).

Also available is a rubber grid insert which makes me think hmmmmmm. But if I'm going to be out of town for a weekish, I plug the hole in each tray and fill up the tray. Since all are S/H, it covers just over the hole in pots, and I don't end up with too much dryness by end of week.

Please let me know how your automation goes. I am thinking of the same for a group of phrags next to our indoor pond.

[rosemadder]

Boot trays! I knew there was some magic keyword I was missing, thank you!

I have that same type of shelving as well, it's the brand from Home Depot. The regular nursery trays fit almost perfectly on a smaller shelf, I figured there must be something for the bigger ones.


I have been using aquarium water, sometimes with a little kelp extract thrown in, as my only water/fertilizer for all my houseplants.

As for the automated system-- this is called aquaponics.

Depending on the proportion of fish to plants, you can use the plants to clean the water for the fish, and then instead of draining and wasting the water outside, you can hook it back into the fish tank and just keep circulating it back and forth. Idea is, the growing media and plants pretty much entirely replace the fish filter, and almost never need to be cleaned. And the fish provide everything the plants need, although a little supplementation of iron and potassium may be nice.

Water can be hooked up to flow in and out of the grow beds automatically with either a pump on a timer or a thing called an auto-siphon. If you have an automatic fish feeder, you could leave and the system would take care of itself almost indefinitely.

I started out in koi keeping, then after moving to SF have no room for a pond. (Indoor pond?? I wanna see!) So I switched to planted freshwater tropical tanks with tons of aquatic plants. Then got onto orchids and other houseplants, so I've gone in this weird circle back to really wanting a koi pond to grow tons of plants and vegetables. Now I need a greenhouse! Ack!

[WaterWitchin]

No, the Sam's is not the same as the Home Depot. One holds a couple hundred pounds per shelf, the other not so much. But very similar, and who the heck cares when it's orchids.

RoseMadder, I own a water garden store, and a bait & tackle store... thus, mucho access to water, ponds, pumps, koi, indoor and outdoor water, etc, etc, etc. I love plants. Orchids are my latest passion (for past seven or so years).

Living in your climate, you can do just about any darned thing you wanna do. Me, I grow my veggies in the dirt, outside, and a hella lot of flower beds, outside. I cannot "do" greenhouse here, because it's just too.darned.cold and the bills would be ridiculous.

We just tore out an above-ground swimming pool last fall. Plan was to build an ANSP, but the more I read, the more I think not.

And I must go.... but do know, I understand water... just not orchids so much, other than passion. Water... ummmm, I know how to make it move. Thus the name.

[bethmarie]

Impressed. Envious. And too busy carrying my plants to the kitchen sink to linger