A Few Things I Learned from Using an Automatic Watering Pump
I’ve been trying this automatic watering pump with my houseplants, mostly because I was getting tired of watering every pot one by one and occasionally forgetting the plants in the back.
The setup took a little time at first. I had to cut the tubing, place a dripper in each pot, and run a few tests to make sure every plant was actually getting water. Once everything was adjusted, though, the daily routine became much easier.
One feature I’ve found surprisingly useful is being able to see the next watering time directly on the screen. I don’t have to remember when the last cycle ran or try to work it out myself.
I started with very short watering times because a few of my smaller pots stay wet much longer than the larger ones. For the bigger pots, the Cycle & Soak setting seems to work better because the water has time to absorb instead of collecting on top of the soil.
I also use the delay option whenever the soil still feels damp. It’s nice being able to pause the schedule for a day or two without deleting all the original settings.
It still takes some trial and error, and I wouldn’t leave it unattended until every dripper has been tested. But once it’s set up properly, it takes a lot of the repetitive work out of caring for several houseplants.
My main tip would be to group plants with similar watering needs together and start with less water than you think they need. It’s much easier to increase the watering time later than to deal with an overwatered plant.
Does anyone else use an automatic watering system indoors? How did you arrange the tubing without making it look too messy?
