High friends and fellow growers

Ive gotten so many good ideas from IC members, so I wanted to present this device with the hope that it will spark an idea or provide some insight and relief into the issue. Feel free to use and adapt this at your pleasure.

After suffering extreme drought for 2 staight years and loosing 2/3 of my crop, I collaborated with a couple of other local outsiders to find a solution to our watering problems..

We had all concluded that hand watering at the surface isnt effective unless the amount poured on is considerable. Smaller amounts of water poured on bone dry ground doesnt penetrate and has no real value or effectiveness. Two gallons of water, poured on very dry ground at the surface of the plant, penetrates to a depth of 1 1/4 " after 2 hrs. Observations indicate that cannabis roots began to appear at a depth of 3/4". Sixty percentof the water poured on the surface around a plant is absorbed by the soil above root level, soil off to the side that doesnt contain cannabis roots or, the moisture evaporates off and never becomes available to the plant.
The amount of water reaching the plant using this watering method provides enough moisture to keep the plant from wilting and does allow for some vegatatve growth but is not enough for the plant to mature properly. The buds will always be whispy and thin, even if the plant is a branch breaker. We found the condition to be irreversable and once a plant had experienced several wilting periods, regaurdless of how much water was provided after the repeated wilting events, the plants wouldn't finish properly. The hopeful grower under this scenario continues to work and water plants that are never going to mature properly. Ive been there. We observed this failure to mature properly after extended periods of wilt in 11 different strains.

-Nute absorbtion and fertilization are interrupted and problematic where there is no rain to wash ferts in or assimilate them into the grow spot soil. They tend to concentrate and salt up around the plant in the location they're poured out in and then if rain comes, its like a bunch of fertilizer gets released all at once. An alternate feeding approach is needed during long dry spells.


Our agreed solution: To be effective in this enviroment, the water and nutes have to be deliverd directly to the root sytem where it is needed and can be utilized by the plant just as it is with hydro and drip feeds. This basic premise drove our efforts.

After staring at the cats watering bowl and watching the TV ads for "Aqua globes", we developed and tested the following system device we call the " gorilla collar".


The device cost $1. 48 each to construct and can be built at a rate of 15 collars per hour. The 40 i needed cost me around $60 and took me about 4 hrs to complete them with a smoke break or 2 in the mix. A miniscule cost considering that I lost 15lbs of smoke and unknown gallons of gasoline and wasted labor trying to pack water.. It takes approximately 10 minutes extra at planting time to set the collar but watering efforts are reduced by 2/3 if not more.I would contend that this 10 minutes will save the grower 10 hrs of watering time over the course of the season. Once produced, the collars should last forever.

The collar:

It delivers water and when included, nutes directly and immediately to the root system and holds it there for the plants availablity. This approach solved the problem of absorbtion of the moisture by soil which contained no roots and of the problem of evaporation. It was the testing of this device that revealed the amount of water lost by pouring it on the surface. The collar had 4 obvious and repeatable impacts.

1. It reduced the amount of moisture one must carry to the plant dramatically. Two litres of water using the collar supplied the plants need for 3 full days under extremely dry conditions. Surface watering amounts for the same plant would have been 6 gallons - 2 gals. per day. On one plant were a 5 gallon satellite reservoir was used, the 5 gallons of water fed the plant continuously for over 3 weeks.

2. Because of the capacity of the device to hold water nthe root area, the tendency of plants to wilt between waterings is eliminated and the unreversable damage
to the plants flowering procees is eliminated.

3.The amount of ferts needed is reduced by more than half and what is supplied is immediately available to the plant roots. The effects of nutrient applications using the collar can be seen within 4 hrs of application where deficiencies exist.. It also allows for slow, continuous feeding when desired.

4. Unlike surface water that needs to be applied in the evening or early morning so that the water can soak in before evaporation, plants with the collar can be watered anytime without the problems of evaporation..

The collar installed, buried to the neck and loaded with a solution of nutes:
Burying the collar 3" or so, places the tubes in the soil to release their water at root level.





The collar before intallation:





The single pronged collar we tested with a reservoir system. The line from the reservoir was simply inserted in the neck instead of a 2 litre bottle.




Demonstration of a reservoir water line installation instead of the 2litre bottle





The parts list:

The parts are very simple and cheap. Pvc pipe, 3/4 or 1", whatever your preferance. 2 90 degree elbows, 1 Tee, 1 1" adapter as a mouth, and 2 shop towels, newspaper or other absorbant material and unless you want to use something different, a cellulose sponge. Parts for the single prong feeder are simply a piece of platic pipe and one 90 degree elbow and the end of the tube stopped up with sponge.




Holes must be drilled in the bottom side of the pvc so that the water will leach from the water supply, through the tubes and out the holes into the area of the plants roots. The purpose of the paper towels is to prevent mud from filling the leaching holes and to distribute moisture evenly around the pvc tubing. The roots grow right up to this material. The only qualification is that it be absorbant and unoffensive to plant roots.

Ive used pieces of sponge to fill the end of my tubes and I discovered the plant roots grew right into the end of the tubes and into the sponge. This factor should be explored further as one could entice the roots to attach to the tubes using the right material



Here are the towels encircling the tubing.




We didn't take pictures of the original test simply because we thought it was just a trial and we wouldnt take photos until we had created the final product. The device worked so well that we have done nothing to the basic design, but have created numberous adaptations, including the dumping of the end of the tubing into a platic cup drillled with holes and filled with gravel and sponge pieces which creates a situation where the plant roots grow into and fill the rock/sponge filled cup just as the would deveop in a bubbler system. Theoretically, this design would allow a growe to grow in a location where the soil was very poor.

I have more pics and infor I will post if others are interested. This simple device dramatically changes the watering scenario by increasing water efficiency by 300% or more. For every 100 gallons of water delivered to the plant - this device reduced that amount for us to approximately 30 gallons.

My aching back.

I apologize about the thumbnails, I cant seem to get them out.

Ill be back.

[PazVerdeRadical]

good day silverback, this is a very good idea, what worries me is if this water collar can be seen from the sky... specially if the bottle is left there hanging up-side down... plus the pvc pipe needs to be painted in opaque non-shinning paint... if the bottle is to be left there, it should be properly painted too.
k+
much peace

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Looks like a great idea! Guess I may need to build a couple to test myself this summer. I was hoping the device you were talking about would be cost effective, and indeed it is!

Lots of good ideas coming down the "pipe" for this season.

So this thing will soak 5 gallons over 3 weeks? Thats pretty good.

Good job!

P.S. Paz, painting a device that is buried might be kinda pointless? Wrap that bottle in making tape with low glare, and bam! You got stealth.

[PazVerdeRadical]

BC, the pvc pipe sticks out of the soil, a white pvc pipe sticking out in the middle-of-no-where seen from a chopper may spark a lot of interest imo... the bottle has to be camoed if it is going to sit on top of the pipe´s mouth for more than a few minutes for sure...

edit: btw, what sticks out is the mouth-piece so to speak... which cannot be buried i think, or it will get clogged with the surrounding soil, and when that soil dries up inside the pipe, well, you get the picture

peace

[Ganico]

Yeah Paz, I have the same concern as you. That would not be an option for me, and any spots found with that in this area would be automatically be tied together.

I much prefer Silverback's previous idea of burying the drink containers with the holes punched in them underground, with only the cap portion above ground.

[buggsuperstar]

Hey I like the idea SB. I'm confused how the water in the resevoir could be slowly supplied over an extended amount of time though. What is stopping all of the water from leaking out through the holes in the collar once the resvoir is connected, different pressures? Also does a constant water supply cause any problems with over watering or not enough oxegyn for the roots? Thanks for sharing.

Bugg

[mixin]

this is a very cool idea. let me get this right though. say i had the collar set up for a plant. do you just fill up some two liter bottles and back pack them in and quickly water and remove? or do you leave the 2 liter bottle upside down on it and leave?

[NiteTiger]

Sounds like there is no reason to have any of the PVC pipe above ground. Could be buried where the opening is flush to the ground, or could at least be covered.

As far as the bottle is concerned, glue some tattered camo cloth strips to the bottle, leaving them loose.

[mixin]

so do you take a full bottle out with you and just replace the empty one or do you take like 5 bottles out and wait til each drains and then leave the scene?

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Wrapping the bottle and the 2 inches of white pipe sticking from the ground should solve the stealth problem, although it seems to me the choppers would notice the Marijuana plant towering over it long before. Lets not let easy to solve problems distract from the novelty of this device.

Silverback seems to be busy, so I'm going to give a basic description of how this genius device works.

Folks who own a automatic pet watering dish own a device that works on the same principle, also there is a watering device for house plants that is pretty much the same.
Notice that the reservoir is a bottle, a container with only one exit, it is connected to the collar, which is buried several inches below the soil. This creates a potentially airtight situation, when the soil around the collar is wet, no air can infiltrate the collar and the reservoir, and since the reservoir is a bottle(and not a open top container) a vacuum is created and no water can drain from the bottle.
When the soil dries enough, air will filter into the soil around the collar, and will enter the collar and then push up into the bottle, replacing a measure of water in the bottle, allowing the water to drop into the collar and into the soil. As the soil soaks up the water, the exchange of air for water will stop, until the soil dries again.

A great basic, foolproof watering system!