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Hanging plant watering system with level sensor

All > Home > Landscaping > Hanging plant watering system with level sensor by codiy

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OK, so this isn't exactly landscaping, but I figure it's close enough (and the prospect of being the first to publish in the category was neat!)
My wife and I enjoy hanging out on our covered patio for meals, or just on nice days to read, etc. One of the things that makes the space nice (and, coincidentally, obscures the view of our neighbor's yellow house and RV) is hanging plants. Unfortunately, neither of us is what one would call a green thumb, and we travel a lot, so the poor plants that we'd put out there would eventually dry out and die in a sad, sad way.
My wife, therefore, asked me to figure out how we could have plants and not have to worry about watering them...
The solution I came up with was to use the Blumat watering system and devise a way to supply water to it. This is the story of the water supply.

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The Tropf Blumat watering system seemed the ideal way to provide just the right amount of water to the plants. The system works by using a water filled terra cotta type cone to control a diaphram. (More details are available at this website: http://www.rambridge.com/products/irrigat/tropf/tropfbu2.html ). Unfortunately, we didn't have a faucet anywhere close to the patio. But, as you can see the tubing for the plant comes right out of the soffit.

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On the upside, the system also works with gravity fed water. In talking to the company, I learned (a bit erroneously) that two 12" pots would probably use about 15 gallons of water a week. I figured that we are generally not gone for more than about 2-1/2 weeks at a time, so 30 gallons should tide the plants over during any travels. Thus I found a 30 gallon Rubbermaid tub to act as a reservoir. The next issue was location.

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As fate was smiling on the project, we had access to attic space above our covered patio by way of the garage. Placing the reservoir in the attic space gave about 12" of head, which was less than the recommended 24", so I ended up constructing a little platform for the reservior to sit on. (this picture also shows the plumbing unions for the fill and drain, the overflow plumbing was added later.

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Now, being that the reservior was located in the attic, and the attic (at that time) did not have stairs to access it, I decided that lugging a hose up to the attic to fill the reservior would not be ideal. (And if I ever wanted my wife to fill the reservoir, then this would never do!) The solution was a simple one... plumb in filling pipes to the reservoir. At the same time, I put in drainage piping as well for end of season draining and overflow.

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Then came the fun part. How does one know when to refill the reservoir? Again, I had no wish to climb into the attic each time I wanted to find out if it needed refilling, so I developed an electric level sensor. The main components of this handy little thing are simplicity itself. A conductor immersed in the water connected to a power source (in this case, 18VAC) and a set of wires at different levels connected to LEDs to indicate how much water was in the tank. (the circuit boards and the screws in the PVC pipe set to the different levels are visible here.) When water reaches the level of the wires, it closes that branch of the circuit and illuminates the corresponding LED.

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I mounted the level indicator LEDs in a soap dish that I bought the container store and attached it to the wall in the garage, running the rainbow cable inside the wall to the attic.

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Another view of the indicator. As it turned out, the 30 gallons (or about 28 gallons, as the overflow piping had to be somewhat lower than the rim of the tub) lasts more like 6 weeks rather than the 2 weeks I was told by the company. I tend to check the water level on my way into the house from the garage every couple of days or so, but it takes quite a while for the level to descend to the next lower LED. As yet (not including the first two week set up period mentioned below) we have not managed to completely drain the reservoir before refilling it. Usually we refill it before a trip even if it is above half way, just in case.

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Other little details include valves in each of the patio bays. Right now we only have two plants up, but it is set up for one connection in each of the four bays. I set the fill plumbing up with a quick connect that attaches to the same type we use for our back yard hose, which makes filling a snap.

In all, this little project has worked out very well. The initial set up of the Blumats took about two weeks of tweaking the setting so that it didn't over water the plants and end up with a big puddle on the patio, but once set, they work very well. I used to measure the soil with a moisture meter to be sure that the plants were actually getting water, but now I am confident that things are working well.

One issue that I haven't resolved (and probably won't bother to) is that when filling the reservoir, it is possible to over fill it even with the drain plumbing in place. Just like a bathtub, the forced water will flow faster than the drained water, so eventually the tub will overflow. The high water indicator LED on my setup gives plenty of warning, and once water starts coming out of the overflow drain, there are still a bit of time to go before the tub overflows. As it is, we have only had it overflow once, and that was before I put in the overflow plumbing and the high water LED malfunctioned due to a loose wire. Moral of the story, don't leave the thing unattended while filling.

If anyone wants more information, I'd be happy to provide it. I just wanted to post something for all those out there who hate to water their plants. The one stumbling block that you may find in trying to make this yourself is being able to buy the Blumats. A few places sell them online, but I was lucky enough to get the last of the stock from a local gardening place nearby.

Thanks for taking a look :)

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