Plants are not only in need of light and nutrients, but also of a proper solution for water supply. In many cases (particularly in rather small boxes) there are problems with humidity concerning the ballast. To be on the safe side, we would recommend to use a boxed ballast if possible.
Common Irrigation Setups
An usual irrigation system consist of at least the follwing equipment:
- a tank for water / nutrient solution
- hoses with suitable diameter
- capillaries for forwarding the water to the pots
- a pump with suitable capacity.
common irrigation kit
What kind of pump do i need?
The choice of the pump mainly depends on the size (depth) of your tank and the quantity of water you want to transport. The first parameter you have to take attention for is the value of discharge head. Many pumps are made for do their work in e.g wells, which means a rather high valued discharge head. In most cases, nutrient tanks do not have more depth than about half a meter and there would be no need for a wide discharge head.
Water quantity widely depends on how many plants you want to supply with water and the frequency you want to do this. The parameter that indicates the "power" of the pump is given with the water/hour values.
Last, but not least, it is worth to have an eye on the power input of the pump. Some do the work with only 5-10 Watt, but there are also pumps which consumes 40 Watt or more and you would have to pay for.
You have both: an all-day-job and plants you have to care for? Or just friends or family? Want to go to holiday for more than a few hours?
Growing is sometimes a kind of full-time job and plants are in need of constant watering. If you want to be a free person nonetheless, it worth a shot to test some automatically systems.
This can be done by a controller unit, which routes your pump or by an full all-in-one kit. The later are really recommendable for e.g growing in boxes.
Here a promotion video for the Nutriculture Systems.