My tomato season starts on Sept 1 but we will be away Sept 23-Oct 2. My plants at that time should be in their 4-6" pots and getting fairly large.

We don't leave our water on in the house while we are away so I will need to water via a reservoir. In the past, I had used a Claber Oasis which worked great the 2 years it worked. Amazon has automated drip systems where you use your reservoir but the reviews for any of them are generally horrible.

We will be gone the month of August so I have 2 weeks now to try something and 3 weeks in September to come up with a solution.

Yesterday, I tested using a submersible pump in a 5 gallon reservoir with 6" drip irrigation tubing. I have tons of wind where I live and considered placing the plants in empty earthboxes and drape the drip line over the plants. What I found was even with the 15 minute timer, it used 3 gallons of water. My largest reservoir that I have is 25 gallons so I would be afraid of the pump running dry and I haven't found a timer less than 15 minutes. I'm going to test this again today using less drip tubing or funnel it back into the reservoir.

Other things I have tried was the blumat watering stakes. I was just testing into an empty container with bone dry potting mix but it didn't seem to deliver enough moisture. These generally get great reviews but I'm not sure that they would work well for tomato plants.

I also have a 4' inside light but would really need to be careful on any overwatering.

I'm open for ideas and suggestions.

Thanks,
Barb

A few years back we were going away for 8 days and I had ~15 peppers in 4" square pots and some early season cool-season crops in 4-pack cells. I took a seed starting tray without holes, took empty 20 oz bottles of Vitamin Water and drilled small holes just a bit up the sides from the bottom, basically at a level you'd want water at in the tray. I filled the bottles and capped them. I then added water to the bottom of the tray to the hole bottoms and water would gradually seep out as it was consumed/evaporated. I tried this before we left as dry runs and it worked great. When we got back the plants were well watered but doing great. It's a nice solution because it is 100% gravity fed and nothing can fail, but for ease of mind, I'd recommend trying it out ahead of time. The plants are wetter than I keep them typically, but I liked the no failure setup (nothing electrical, etc.). You can always do a dry run with just a seed tray, bottles and water--no plants.

I posted some pictures on an old Tomatoville thread that might be useful

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.p ... 854&page=2

Thank you for the link to the old thread. That method looks great and simple to experiment with.

It looks like it would work great for seedlings inside. A/C is always on so that sucks out a lot of moisture.

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I checked out some of those links in your TV thread and once before I did something similar to the capiliary mats but with old T shirts and that worked great. Seedlings were still in the 6 pack cells. I even did it outside. I did that in January so temperatures were a lot different than September.

Sorry Barb, I misunderstood, when you said 4-6" pots I was thinking little square things. It sounds like they'll be in containers and growing outdoors at this point. So yes, a very different animal.

Is there a neighborhood website where you could look for a reliable teen to water for pay?

jmsieglaff wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:35 pm Sorry Barb, I misunderstood, when you said 4-6" pots I was thinking little square things. It sounds like they'll be in containers and growing outdoors at this point. So yes, a very different animal.

Is there a neighborhood website where you could look for a reliable teen to water for pay?

No, you were correct the first time I typically use white 4" square containers. Plants will only be 3+ weeks old while we are away.

Plants grow fast here. In the fall, I try to do the final transplant at the last opportunity (hurricanes).