Advantages of using drip irrigation in the cottage
The main advantages of drip irrigation – it is getting the necessary amount of moisture by the root system, as well as minimal physical effort and material costs. This type of watering is of interest to many gardeners and gardeners, as the drip irrigation system can be left unattended.
Watering beds with plastic bottles has a great advantage – it is almost complete autonomy. So, a person does not need to stand with a hose or carry one after another heavy buckets to water the plants.
Automatic drip irrigation has many advantages. For its effectiveness to be high you need to choose the right drip tape.
Unfortunately, a ready-made drip irrigation system connected to the centralized water supply, is quite expensive. Therefore, dacha owners and gardeners have come up with a good alternative – to use old used plastic bottles. Of course, this option is not fully autonomous, because from time to time in the container will need to refill water.
But it does keep human resources to a minimum so you can devote more time to other activities or relax. Drip irrigation using plastic bottles has the following advantages:
- No need to purchase material. Plastic bottles are something you can find in almost every home one way or another;
- Ease of execution. Following a simple instruction, everything can be done by yourself, even if you have no experience in creating similar systems;
- Economy. Such irrigation allows you to significantly save time and effort, which are spent on traditional types of irrigation;
- Ease of operation. All you need to do is to go around the garden and fill the containers with water;
- Rationality of irrigation. Water flows immediately under the top layer of soil, feeding the root system of plants. Also, the water will not spill over a large area and evaporate because of the high temperature in the summer. Thus, homemade irrigation favors the full development and subsequent strengthening of the root system of the plant;
- The absence of overwatering. During watering from the hose in the wells often forms the so-called “swamp”. Drip irrigation helps to avoid this;
- Reducing the growth of weeds. Also, this system allows you not to moisten unnecessary surface. Thus, it does not create favorable conditions for the growth of all kinds of weeds, and this, in turn, facilitates the care of the land plot.
This method of irrigation will be especially useful for those gardeners who by virtue of circumstances can come to the cottage only once a week. In this case, they just need to fill the container before leaving. That’s enough water so that the plants don’t need all that moisture when they’re away.
Did you know. Drip irrigation from plastic bottles can work on the principle of solar distillation, which is good for sultry summers. For this purpose, half of a 1.5-liter container of water is placed on the pre-mulched soil near the plant, and it is covered with a bottomless five-liter can on top. When heated, the moisture will turn into steam, which will be deposited on the walls in the form of droplets, and then roll down onto the soil. Thus, the hotter the heat, the better the soil will be moistened.
Options for making a drip humidification system
There are quite a few options on how to make such a system yourself. To begin with, you need to consider all the options, and then choose the best one, based on your capabilities and conditions.
Also, do not forget that you need to carefully choose the location of the bottles and the intensity of water supply. Different systems are suitable for different planting patterns, and this should always be kept in mind.
The easiest way to make auto irrigation with your own hands is to poke a small hole in the bottom of the container and place it near the plant. This does not require from you any special preparation, but you need to take into account the following nuances:
- The hole must be microscopic. To do this, you need to pierce the container with a needle. A large hole will lead to a rapid flow of water, which puts a cross on the principles of economy and autonomy;
- a larger number of holes can create a more humidified environment;
- the tank should be placed as close to the stem as possible so that water can flow directly to the root system;
- The container can be slightly buried next to the plant. This will avoid wasting water;
- the container can be suspended directly above the bush, if this option is suitable for the crop;
- a container of 5-10 liters allows you to leave the garden unattended for a whole week, which is especially important for dacha owners who live far from the dacha.
The use of plastic bottles for irrigation occurs in a fairly simple scheme – through direct contact of water with the ground. Water begins to seep in gradually, and the soil, once wet, clogs the holes. When the soil dries out again, the holes will open and water will flow back to the roots of the plants.
This is how the soil’s moisture is naturally regulated. If the soil is saturated, it will simply not take up any extra water. Once the container is empty, all you need to do is refill it with water.
How to do drip irrigation (buried container next to the plant)
In order to do watering with plastic bottles, burying them next to the plant, you need to follow a simple instruction. Put the neck of each bottle down and bury it in a little earth for extra stability.
You should also make a small hole in the bottom of the bottle to make it easier for the water to come out (the air will press on the water and gradually push it out). The lid should be screwed on loosely to allow the water to gradually seep out.
To ensure that the container is not blown away by the wind, it should be buried in the soil to a depth of about 10-15 cm. A good irrigation will contribute to the installation directly near the root. It is worth noting that it is possible to accurately place the bottle only when planting, when the container is buried in the same hole as the seedlings.
If the plants have already grown quite well, then the hole should be placed at a distance of not less than 15 cm from the trunk of the plant. Act extremely carefully so as not to damage the root system of the plant.If, watering tomatoes through plastic bottles is carried out in clay soil, it can easily get clogged inside the holes when moistening.
In order to prevent this, the plug on the outside should be tightened with a simple capron stocking, or the bottom of the hole should be covered with hay or a piece of burlap. The cap is screwed on tightly, and the bottle is placed at an angle with the neck down, and the pit is then covered with earth. The optimal angle of inclination is 30-45°.
There is another way to organize drip irrigation of cucumbers in the open ground. With the help of an awl in the container you need to make a lot of holes. They are made in 5-6 rows, and the distance between the rows should be 2 cm.
A plastic bottle is buried in an upright position with the neck up in the same hole as the seedlings. The main inconvenience is that the container must be filled through the narrow neck. But in this case, the water from the container practically does not evaporate. Due to the fact that the container is almost all under the ground, it will not be able to overturn even a strong wind. And the land itself will look more attractive because of this.
Bottle drip irrigation
To create a suspended drip irrigation of tomatoes in the greenhouse with their own hands will need:
- any plastic bottle;
- an awl or a thin nail;
- knife;
- rope or wire.
Such a variant will be suitable for those plants, near which there is any support. Even if it is absent, it will not be a big problem to install pegs between the plants. To make an overhead drip irrigation, you need to:
- Cut off the bottom, making a cover out of it;
- At a distance of 1-2 cm from the cut bottom on opposite sides of the bottle to make two holes. Through these holes you need to pass a rope or wire, which will be tied to the support. It is necessary to make a small hole in the lid of the bottle. In case the rate of water flow will be too slow, the hole can be widened a little;
- Hang the bottle over the plant.
When watering tomatoes in the greenhouse through plastic bottles, the hanging system has two advantages: ease of fabrication and the ability to fine-tune the intensity of irrigation.
Design with a rod
To make irrigation of plants in the greenhouse using bottles and a rod, you need:
- Take a plastic tube with a small diameter. An ordinary rod from a ballpoint pen, which should be pre-washed with gasoline or solvent, removing all remnants of paste and the writing element itself, will work perfectly;
- Tightly plug one end of the tube. If it is a rod from a pen, a match or a toothpick will do;
- Fix the other end in the neck. You can also cut a hole in the corked lid of the desired diameter and install the tube in it;
- Seal the tube attached to the neck. This can be done with normal plasticine, duct tape and other improvised means;
- Make holes with a needle in the end of the tube. They should be as close as possible to the plug. The number of holes and their diameter should be determined individually, based upon the desired dampening intensity. It will be quite enough if one drop of water flows out for a couple of minutes;
- Cut off the bottom of the bottle and place it in the soil with the neck down;
- Pour water into the bottle.
You can also cut a tube into the wall of the bottle near the bottom. This will avoid cutting the bottle and make it much easier to move it around the plot. Watering in the greenhouse in plastic bottles has the great advantage that due to the length of the tube the bottle can be placed not too close to the plant.
If you put the bottle between several bushes, you can move the tube and water the seedlings one by one.
Drip irrigation with their own hands (buried plastic bottle)
Experienced gardeners recommend trying the variant of drip irrigation, in which the bottle is buried in the ground entirely. In this case, you need to make several holes as close to the bottom as possible. Then the bottle is buried in the ground, and on the surface is only the neck, through which the water will be poured.