Bonsai micro irrigation

[Mihai]

Hello dearest nuts and nutettes.
In two and a half years I came to the conclusion that due to my less than reliable schedule my watering habits are crappy at best.
Thus, I am faced with the chore of building something on the lines of an irigation system. Here comes the fun part.
As I live in an apartment, obviously all my trees are on the balcony. Said balcony has no water source and no possibillity of getting one. So container and pump it is. Secondly, I'll have to pass an electric cable through 1.5ft of reinforced concrete for a pump... but hey... you do what you gotta da.
Now this is where I need some advice. Does anyone use micro sprinklers? Something like this:

Are thay any good for bonsai? As most of me trees are in inorganic mix, even coverage is crucial I would immagine.
What pressure should the system be for best results? I've read about 1.5-2 bar. Does that sound right?
Anyone has a submersible pump they can reccomend?
Any tips are welcome, as this is not something I've dabbled in.
I'm thinking of puting everything on a timer controlled by my home automation hub so I cover the holiday watering issue at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

I used them all summer! They saved me, but i also lost sleep because of them.

See especially post 74, 77, and 79 here:

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/my-maples-in-montreal.33315/page-4

Would be happy to answer any of your questions!

 

[barrosinc]

There are a couple of threads on this but these aren't the best to use with non soil substrate as it doesn't wet it all.

I use microjets and c-downsprays.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I have these exact sprayers. They spray two dimensional in 360 degrees direction, like a cartoon sun, so them standing upright like the kit advises means that you have water pouring on just one side of the pot.
To use them well, it's best to mount them above your pots, so that they shower downwards. If you adjust the stream a little, they will produce a nice and even round shower of water. However..
This means you'll have something fixed above your trees. That's a landing place for birds and squirrels. And it takes a lot of testing to set them right. I had to test all 24 nozzles, so I had to run the tap 24 times as well. That was a bit much on the trees in transition soils.
They respond pretty heavily to pressure too. Running the tap at full force could mean it sprays everything but the tree below it.

That's all the advice I have on these things. Good luck!

 

[defra]

I cant tell how well these work mihai
About the presure that should be enough but depends per brand what the minimum workable presure is.

Please do remember the first sprinkler will lower the presure the next one gets just by a little
In my work (plumbing) we sometimes make the piping in a loop so we get lesser loss in presure at the point the furthest away its a minor detail and it will work either way but maybe it will help making the adjusting easier

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I cant tell how well these work mihai
About the presure that should be enough but depends per brand what the minimum workable presure is.

Please do remember the first sprinkler will lower the presure the next one gets just by a little
In my work (plumbing) we sometimes make the piping in a loop so we get lesser loss in presure at the point the furthest away its a minor detail and it will work either way but maybe it will help making the adjusting easier

Can you show an example of such a loop construction Defra? A schematic or quick pen drawing would do just fine. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how it should look.

 

[amatbrewer]

I will start by saying I know this is not ideal but I have a job, family, and according to my wife way too many other interests. So I have to make accommodations regarding balancing my life and the care of my trees.

I have my trees on a automated drip system using standard drip heads (like these https://smile.amazon.com/Raindrip-PC4050B-Pressure-Compensating-Drippers/dp/B0007WOSQI) and I supplement that, especially during the hottest days of the year, with manual overhead watering as needed.
In the winter my less cold hardy plants (and those in need of special care) go into a small greenhouse (heated just to keep it from getting much below freezing for more than a few hours). I have not found a way to run water to it in the winter yet so I have a submersible sump pump (kind of like https://smile.amazon.com/Superior-Pump-91250-Thermoplastic-Submersible/dp/B000X07GMW?th=1) in a trashcan that feeds a drip system (I top off the water about once a week). I found it necessary to use drippers rather than sprayers because to the vertical rise (~6-8' / 2-3m) resulted in too low a flow for the sprayers, and the pump I would need to overcome that costs more than I want to spend right now. The key to my drip system is that I use two, eight port drip manifolds (https://smile.amazon.com/Orbit-67000-Apollo-8-Manifold/dp/B000H9AI9C) with no more than 2-3 drippers per line.
As most of my pots are quite small a single dripper is adequate throughout the winter, but some pots require multiple dripers to avoid uneven watering. This also provides some redundancy should a dripper become clogged.

I would add that this system monitoring it at least every 2-3 days. I learned that the hard way when a failure of my irrigation pump cost me some trees.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[goosewing]

I will start by saying I know this is not ideal but I have a job, family, and according to my wife way too many other interests. So I have to make accommodations regarding balancing my life and the care of my trees.

I have my trees on a automated drip system using standard drip heads (like these https://smile.amazon.com/Raindrip-PC4050B-Pressure-Compensating-Drippers/dp/B0007WOSQI) and I supplement that, especially during the hottest days of the year, with manual overhead watering as needed.
In the winter my less cold hardy plants (and those in need of special care) go into a small greenhouse (heated just to keep it from getting much below freezing for more than a few hours). I have not found a way to run water to it in the winter yet so I have a submersible sump pump (kind of like https://smile.amazon.com/Superior-Pump-91250-Thermoplastic-Submersible/dp/B000X07GMW?th=1) in a trashcan that feeds a drip system (I top off the water about once a week). I found it necessary to use drippers rather than sprayers because to the vertical rise (~6-8' / 2-3m) resulted in too low a flow for the sprayers, and the pump I would need to overcome that costs more than I want to spend right now. The key to my drip system is that I use two, eight port drip manifolds (https://smile.amazon.com/Orbit-67000-Apollo-8-Manifold/dp/B000H9AI9C) with no more than 2-3 drippers per line.
As most of my pots are quite small a single dripper is adequate throughout the winter, but some pots require multiple dripers to avoid uneven watering. This also provides some redundancy should a dripper become clogged.

I would add that this system monitoring it at least every 2-3 days. I learned that the hard way when a failure of my irrigation pump cost me some trees.

I hope this is helpful.

Hi @amatbrewer. Coming to your post a few years on but looking to build a drip irrigation system like the one you described. Thanks for these links! Had not been able to find a pump that could achieve this much vertical height for so cheap. Thanks a ton!

 

[Bnana]

I use these combined with spraying nozzles when I'm away, like on holidays. But I use a tap with a timer. I let this type spray in a horizontal plane and than it works quite well. You can adjust how much and far they spray. By watering heavily that way the whole pot is wetted. With a free draining soil that is no problem for one or two weeks.