Automated watering setup?
 

As I am asking above, I'm looking to set up an automated watering system for my outdoor orchids.

I have 40 or so cattleya, some catasetum, and a few dens, bulbos, vandas.

I've been watering all of them on pretty consistent schedules, every 2-3 days as we haven't gotten much rain this summer. A few like the vandas get almost every day watering, but that is the exception.

I am going to be heading out of town for 2 weeks at the end of the month. I want to set up something so I don't have to make the person feeding my critters responsible for watering the outside plants as well.

I am thinking of using the 1/2" irrigation tubing found at the HI store and adding a some 180 degree sprinklers to it. Let it run for x amount of time every other day in the morning and that should hold them over until I'm back.

Is this a feasible plan? If it rains will I risk over watering? Everything is in bark, dries out pretty quickly even with the high humidity we've had lately.

Any input would be helpful, I'd like to cut back on some of my watering time and this seems like an easy way to do so with the current outdoor plants.

Do you have sprinklers?

Is your water orchid suitable?

No sprinklers yet, I've been using municipal water for the last month or so. I'm planning to get a test done but the plants have been doing well with the water so far.

What you propose will work fine.

I built a PVC spray system with tap water for my sunroom. My irrigation valves are far away, so I connected a sprinkler valve to a nearby outside hose bibb and ran rigid PVC tubing into my sunroom. I ran a cable from my irrigation timer clock to that valve. My orchids get watered automatically. They don't seem to mind my horrible city water as much as they used to mind me working late and forgetting to water them.

Be aware they make programmable electric timers that fit on outdoor hose bibbs. The outlet side also has hose threads, which are different from PVC pipe threads. Your hardware store should have these hose timers. These are not very sun-sturdy so you should cover it with a rag or box. It would last much longer in Minnesota than Phoenix, which is why I didn't use one.

You can use various threaded or cemented PVC plumbing parts to connect a PVC spray system to such a timer. I would recommend you do it with threaded fittings as much as possible so you can take it apart for storage when you don't need it. There are brass fittings with hose threads on one side, and PVC pipe threads on the other. I used one of these between my hose bibb and the valve. Then I used a combination of fittings to attach a pressure reducing valve after the control valve. The pressure reducer has threads on the outlet; I used a thread-slip connector glued to the PVC pipe. Inside the sunroom I connected runs of PVC pipe between sprinklers with slip-thread connectors, so I can take it all apart without cutting the pipe. Use Teflon tape on all threaded connections.

You can do it a lot simpler, too.

Garden hose, battery-powered irrigation timer, ordinary lawn sprinkler.

Set it to “rain” pre-dawn and the plants will have plenty of time to dry out.

For two weeks, even the vandas can tolerate less-that-daily watering, but if you prefer, get a 2-zone timer and another hose and sprinkler, and group the plants accordingly.

Ray is right. I keep forgetting some orchidists are not insane and have few enough orchids they can all be watered with one sprinkler emitter.

In my PA greenhouse, I had an overhead watering option for when I was away, the ground was in too much snow, or I was just lazy. I built a RF remote control hooked to a solenoid valve, so could be in the house and press a button, and the rains would begin. I later added a countdown timer so it would automatically shut off after a set time period.

When I went away on vacation, I unplugged it from the remote control and into a Rain Bird irrigation timer.

Now that I’ve gone from a greenhouse with ~800-1000 plants to a deck with a couple dozen, the sprinkler works fine.

Assuming this is just a temporary set-up for your 2 week absence and the plants are outside, do exactly as Ray said. Get a cheap battery powered timer, a garden hose and a sprinkler and you're done.

In my Keys shade house I have one section for all my hanging vanda's, etc on an automated misting system that runs 2x/day and an overhead sprinkler system that runs every 4 days covers everything else. This set-up has been successfully maintaining my collection from late May- late October totally hands off on my part. But that's waaaaay too much work for what you need. Plus you're in MN!

You don't even have to take your hose bib out of commission for the hose... a "Y" connector (or if you have other things you want to put there too, a 4-way splitter) on the hose bib lets you have it as many ways as you want. In my condo days (before I got my house) I did exactly that... put a "Y" connector on the hose bib, one connection had the hose, the other went to a set of sprinklers (which sat on top of the cement, there was no place to bury them). Actually, I had a second set of sprinklers in a small atrium on the other side of the living room, ran the wire behind the couch, to the controller box. It worked so well that it earned me a nastygram from the Association about the moss growing on my front steps...

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate the input!

Yes it is primarily going to be for my extended absence, but I have been gone a lot lately due to work so was maybe looking for something a little more permanent.

With the "few" plants I have, I think I like the sprinkler idea as it should be easiest to implement in the short term.

What kind of sprinklers would be recommended? I have an oscillating, several pulsating ratchet ones, a round shower type - but not sure any of those are ideal for this? I would be watering on a patio, so I don't want to have a ton of overspray if I can help it.