Caring for the summer resident of their plants - automatic watering of the beds

There is always plenty of work at the summer cottage. Especially a lot of time is taken by the three main concerns of the summer resident - watering, loosening and weeding. Installing an automatic irrigation system for the garden will significantly reduce labor costs, save energy and allocate time for more important activities - transplanting, pruning, harvesting and conservation.

Advantages and disadvantages of automatic watering

Installing such a system will not be difficult, and the gardener, in addition to saving time and effort, receives many more advantages. Automatic watering of the garden allows:

1. Carry out regular watering in your absence. The owner of the site can always be absent for a long time and not worry that the plantings will dry out.
2. Apply moisture directly to the plant roots. This saves water and does not disturb the topsoil, as after regular watering with a watering can, therefore, you will have to loosen the garden less often.
3. Add dissolved fertilizers.
4. Do not worry about uneven watering, when parts of the plantings lack moisture, and some are flooded.
5. Water in the dark. This is extremely convenient for those crops for which sprinkler irrigation is preferable, but it is not recommended to do this in the sun to avoid burns on the leaves.

Any automation has its drawbacks, which must be taken into account when planning an automatic irrigation system for beds:

• with a long absence, it is difficult to establish a suitable auto-irrigation schedule, because periods of drought can be replaced by prolonged rains, and the weather forecast is far from always correct;
• in case of an unscheduled power outage, the automation stops working;
• installation of automatic irrigation of beds will cost more if water is taken from an open reservoir, or the working pressure in the water supply does not match the parameters of the automatic irrigation system.

In the latter case, you will have to install purification filters or additional equipment that regulates the water pressure.

Types of autowatering systems

You can set up automatic watering for any plantation, whether it be beds, greenhouse, lawn or houseplants in pots. Only the scale of work and the methods of water supply differ. There are three main autowatering systems.

Sprinklers

Through special devices, water is sprayed over the surface, irrigating a specific area. Such systems are usually installed on lawns.

Drip irrigation

In this case, moisture is supplied to the roots of plants and is not consumed over the entire area of ​​the garden or greenhouse. This method has four big advantages:

• water is saved;
• the top layer of the soil is not disturbed, and it is necessary to loosen much less often;
• weed growth is significantly reduced;
• the air remains dry.

Drip irrigation is necessary for greenhouses, as high humidity contributes to the spread of diseases in greenhouses.

Underground automatic irrigation

Such systems are installed where it is necessary to irrigate large areas, but sprinkling is difficult or impossible. Summer residents rarely use underground irrigation because of the complex installation and expensive equipment.

Automatic watering of the lawn by sprinkling

Such systems are most often installed by owners of large lawns. With their help, a lot of time and effort are saved, and the installation of the sprinkler system is the lowest cost and does not require fine tuning.Lawn grass easily tolerates a slight excess or lack of moisture and high humidity. The minimum set of accessories for installing such a system includes only hoses, taps and sprinklers. When you open a tap in the water supply system, water is supplied through hoses to the sprinklers, and after some time it is turned off. This method is semi-automatic, as it works only in the presence of the owner. To exercise watering the lawn without human intervention, the installation is supplemented with the following components:

• a pumping station that provides constant pressure;
• water filters that clean the water from foreign inclusions that can clog the sprinkler holes;
• solenoid valves that regulate the water supply to individual sprinklers;
• controllers that control the entire system according to a given algorithm.

If the lawn is only planned, it is better to lay the hoses underground, leaving only the sprinklers on the surface.

A preliminary drawing is made, onto which all elements of the system are transferred to a scale with reference to the terrain. Such a detailed drawing will allow you to quickly find a problem or lay additional underground utilities without affecting the existing automatic irrigation system for the garden.

All components of the sprinkler system can be purchased ready-made in specialized stores or assembled from individual spare parts yourself. The firms “Gardena”, “Hunter”, “Rain Bird” are famous for their convenient and inexpensive sprinkler installations.

Drip irrigation device for beds

Drip irrigation used wherever sprinkling is undesirable. Most garden crops cannot tolerate high air humidity. So, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, onions, many flowers can get sick with fungal diseases. Therefore, the device of the drip irrigation system is preferable for them. The difficulty lies in the fact that almost all of these plants need to be watered only with warm water, which means that you will need a container of the appropriate volume. The barrel is installed at a height of at least 1 meter to create the required pressure. The simplest drip irrigation system consists of:

• capacity;
• crane;
• water filter;
• start connector;
• ordinary hose;
• drip hose;
• end cap.

Start connectors are needed to adjust the water supply to individual sections of the drip hose. With their help, you can increase or decrease the watering time of individual beds without shutting off the common tap.

The system of automatic drip irrigation of the beds can be supplemented with a pump that will pump water into the barrel and controllers that control the water supply in automatic mode.

Automatic watering of the greenhouse with minimal water pressure - video