The New year is here. The last two weeks of December has been bitterly cold and it looks like January is going to be no different. Time to start thinking about seeds and starting up the seed starting station. I have some new ideas about watering the plants under the grow lights that will automate the process and not require daily watering.
January 8
This is a 72 cell seed tray that I use for starting seeds. Once the seed get started I use bottom watering to keep the plants watered. It's always been a challenge to be sure that there's always water in the tray and the plants don't dry out. This is a very simple but effective plan to help keep the plants watered. The plan is to sacrifice two plant trays which is a total of 12 seed starts to put three bottles of water to maintain the water level in the tray holder. Basically the system is a water bottle turned upside down on a piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe. When the water level goes below the bottom of the opening of the water bottle, an air bubble will gurgle up through the water releasing water into the tray holder. This action will continue until the water level is above the water bottle opening at which time air can not get into the water bottle and the water flow stops. I always like to have about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in the tray holder for bottom wicking to water the plants. Depth of the water can be adjusted by varying the length of the 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe until the desired water depth is achieved. I use a chop saw and shave increments off one end until trial and error gives me the right depth. Unless you have many bottles that are the same, the length of the PVC will vary depending on the length and thickness of the bottle neck.
January 23
https://modernfarmer.com/2013/07/straw-bale-gardening/
January 27
This is gravity watering for the seed starts 2.0. It's a V8 juice bottle with a shorter collar to stand on. I don't know if three of these will fit in the tray but I think they will. Two seed trays will be eliminated at the end of the water tray to allow these watering bottles to keep the water level even. So if I have to go away for a few days or forget to check the water level, the plants will continue to get watered. The trip that concerns me this year is the one in March. It seems that the trips are always at a critical time for gardening. I will have to start all the warm weather plants after I get back from Texas. The next time will be May which is another critical time as the plants need almost daily attention then. Why is it so difficult to plan gardening.
