Solar power

If you’re anything like me you’ll need to know your plants are well watered during the warm summer months when you’re out and about or on holiday. It’s not always possible to rely on good neighbours so what should you do ? The answer came in a small box, ordered online, from Irrigatia. As the name might allude, it’s a solar powered irrigation system.

Getting my head around the parts wasn’t difficult, there’s the control box complete with the solar panel, some tubes and some connectors.  Within around half an hour I had it all sussed and rigged up a little experiment to see how much water the system could deliver. Rather than using pots I chose to use clear bottles to get a feel for the volume of water the pump could deliver.  I set the dial to the middle setting and left it for a day, after 24 hours there was some movement but not a great deal, I put this down to the rechargeable batteries which no doubt would require a bit of charge.    Although a little cloudy the next day there was plenty of water in the bottles, Eureka. It’s just a case of finding the right setting for the plants you’re growing . As you might expect being solar powered the pump is more active on a bright sunny day than on a cloudy one and there’s a dial on the side of the unit to slow or speed up activity.

48 hours later – it’s not a particularly even delivery but it’s probably more accurate than me with a watering can.

On the plus side

• No power required so it’s ideal for a greenhouse or a bright environment where power is unavailable.
• It doesn’t require a hose either so it’s being fed from the water barrel that is connected to the greenhouse guttering.
• Can be bought from the comfort of your couch here online.

Here’s how it works :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWUgiGp0hM