Automated Drip Irrigation for home gardens

Prologue

While gardening is a great stress buster, it adds up a lot of stress when one can't be highly disciplined in watering regularly. Laziness is not the only reason why some can't water regularly. Busy schedules, office, home, family etc., comes in the way of regular watering. At some point it becomes a chore that discourages people to quit gardening. While everyone loves gardening, at times the compulsion of sticking on to schedules becomes tough to handle. This brings in the conflict in mind to choose between quitting to garden vs gardening with great difficulty.

Now comes the reality

I am no exception on the above issues of gardening. I get quite excited to start a new concept, enjoy the kick of new hobby but gets bogged up when something ties me down with the routine chores. I started growing vegetables with lot of enthusiasm. Have experimented with lot of container ideas, potting mix, trellis structures etc., Always used to be punctual in watering plants without fail with initial excitement. Then started the second phase. Started missing on the regularity of the watering due to hectic travel for work. Help at home have reduced as its not practical to expect all at home to share the same level of passion. Plants started hating this irregular watering, over watering which is often done with guilt, erratic watering patterns etc., 

Creativity? Solution for Laziness? Thinking out of the box? - You choose the heading :-)

Having habituated to think in standard framework of problem solving which got imbibed with long years of working in IT, I started looking at solutions for my above challenge. 

Automation as a word fascinates me quite a lot. Be it for day to day activities at home or at office or even gardening. 

It didn't took much time for me to realize that there is no alternative but to water plants everyday without fail. Plants can handle delay in anything but not watering as its an essential input. De-weeding, pest control, fertilization etc., can wait for couple of days but not watering.

Drip Irrigation:

With some google online, figured out that its been decades the commercial farming is heavily into drip irrigation. While not many used drip irrigation in the home gardens, found it to be the problem solver for my challenge. Solution that looked quite simple and straight forward, posed lot of challenges during actual implementation. After a lot of experimentation, was able to figure out the drip setup that is good for the home gardens. 

Here are some very important accessories of a home garden drip setup.

Lateral Pipe: Black pipe (12 mm or 16 mm) that takes water all the way close to the plant.

Feeder Pipe: Black piple (6mm) that picks water from the lateral pipe and takes it near the root zone.

PCE (Pressure compensating emitter): Emitter that is attached to the feeder pipe which controls the flow of water and gives out precisely (2L/4L/8L/12L per hour). Its called pressure compensating as it also helps build pressure in the drip line by controlling the flow of water. This pressure compensation is very important to make water reach far end of the garden with limited pressure available in the home water pipes. 

Stake: A plastic stick which can be inserted into the soil and can hold the emitter in a position near the root zone of the plant.  

Connectors: Various connectors that helps with the layout. Its fun and nothing complicated than a lego bricks building. A little of patience, some hard work is expected though. 

Benefits with Drip Irrigation:

• Precision watering: While watering using hose or bucket or mug, we will not be able to provide precise quantity of water on regular basis. With drip irrigation, you can control the amount of water to the plants in much better way as you can control the amount of water flow to the plants.
• Configurable emitters based on size of planters: There may be different sizes of planters withing the same garden which will have different watering volume needs. Based on the size of the planter, you can choose the emitter out of various capacities and provide the necessary volume of water required for that planter.
• Efforts saving: Just by operating a valve for a specific duration, water can supplied to the plants in the drip network.
• Water saving: Drip irrigation is known for its 90% water saving by major studies conducted worldwide. This method is very efficient in using limited amount of water for maximum efficiency by avoiding overflow, evaporation and watering in unnecessary areas.

Drip Irrigation Automation:

Now that I am able to get water to each and every plant at a flick of a valve, thought of the further solution on how to automate the valve operation. Here is the solution after lot of reading on the net and many phone calls and trips to SP Road. 

Though it was very crude method, helped me with the automated solution. Top left is the scheduler which passes electricity at set frequency (when to water) and for set duration (how long to water). 

Bottom right is a solenoid that opens the flow of water when electricity is passed through and closes the flow when the electricity is stopped. 

A combination of this device is the solution for the automation. I have set the timer to pass the electricity at 6 am in the morning all the weekdays for 10 min. When the electricity is passed, water to the drip irrigation system got opened up and my plants received steady flow of water every day without fail. 

Benefits with Automation:

• Scheduled watering: As long as there is water in the tank, electricity in the wires and passion in the heart (this is just for flow :-) ), my plants get water irrespective of anyone available at home or not.

With major aspect of water taken care, I am no more tied up with this activity. I can enjoy vacations, afford to feel lazy at times, feel the control, precision at hand and let my plant enjoy good watering pattern.

Automation products in the market:

Loved this product from RainBird (USA brand) which can be connected to the water tap and operates on the battery. Moved on to this product as there is no worry about power cuts, looks great and very sturdy. RainBird offered 3 yrs replacement guarantee and I am loving it. 

Setting up automated drip irrigation for the garden is a fun DIY project. This exercise, tickles your brain in designing layout, encourages group work with family and friends in setting up the layout, gives good exercise as you have to do lot of squats and gives the immense satisfaction at the end of the day :-).

Service Provider in this space:

Now, for those who can't do it themselves for various reasons, SmartGardens in Bangalore offers this as a service. Smart Gardens details can be found on the fb page. Namratha and Tamilvannan can be contacted for any professional services in this area of drip irrigation automation.

Feel free to contact me for any questions and I will be happy to provide assistance based on my knowledge. 

Happy Gardening.