[elusiveshame]

I was thinking about how to make watering easier in a larger tent with larger (and more) plants, so I started looking into auto watering options. I don’t want anything too complex or expensive, and then I stumbled upon AC Infinity’s auto watering base.

I saw a video breaking down watering base, and I figured I could build them much cheaper than $15 a piece.

Here’s a link to them: https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Self-Watering-Auto-Irrigation-Greenhouses/

Here it is assembled, though missing 1 part - the absorption wicks:

Here’s what it looks like under the pot holder:

Here’s the links to the materials used:

Pot lifters ($12 per 6): https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09QL167FT


14” pot saucers ($20 per 6): https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B092868LWC

Wick ($7 per 50 ft): https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CLNGBRL

Pipe was $10 for a 10’ piece, which is enough to make 10 or 11 sets for this project.

Total cost: $50

Breakdown per each setup:
1 lifter: $2
1 saucer: $3.33
1 ft of pipe (actually it’s only 10”, but easy math): $1
Wick (2 pieces at 18” each/3 ft worth): $0.50

Total: $7 each

That’s less than 50% of the AC infinity bases.

The only difference is the AC infinity holds 1 gallon, and these saucers hold a little over a half gallon, and these don’t have the “you’re full” meter.

The wicks won’t arrive until Sunday, so I won’t be able to use these as intended just yet, but this should make watering a lot easier.

 

[ezenzyme]

keep us posted!

 

[elusiveshame]

keep us posted!

Of course! :) will hopefully have an update Sunday night, if not Monday morning.

 

[elusiveshame]

The wicks came in yesterday so I put together 5 of them and filled the bases with just water.

A few hours later, only the very bottoms were wet while everything else was try. Turns out, you gotta moisten the soil first. No biggie.

Did that at around 8:30-8:45 PM last night. This morning, in 80F temp, all 5 pots were still moist on top. Seems to be doing the job!

 

[elusiveshame]

Here’s a picture from last night at around 9PM:

I had just gave the pots their first full top watering, but not enough for runoff. I used a soil meter to tell me the wetness all the way down.

Here’s a pic 12 hours later:

Collectively, all 5 bases used about 1.5 gallons through the night, and the soil is still moist as if I just watered it within the hour.

 

[T_Dub]

I’m using the AC Infinity self watering bases and my 9 week old plants currently drink up .75 gallons of liquid per day. If you could find a way to hold more than a gallon, you’d have built a better mousetrap.

I am filling the reservoirs daily. The plants are responding better to this watering technique (No top watering at all) than to my old heavy-handed watering. You may need to ph the reservoirs too as I’ve noticed the ph creeps upward over time.

I’ll follow along….nice creativity,

 

[elusiveshame]

I’m using the AC Infinity self watering bases and my 9 week old plants currently drink up .75 gallons of liquid per day. If you could find a way to hold more than a gallon, you’d have built a better mousetrap.

I am filling the reservoirs daily. The plants are responding better to this watering technique (No top watering at all) than to my old heavy-handed watering. You may need to ph the reservoirs too as I’ve noticed the ph creeps upward over time.

I’ll follow along….nice creativity,

Bigger/taller buckets would do the trick - would just need some longer pipe legs to hold the risers higher up so they aren't settling in the water. My goal for this build was to keep it as cheap as possible, but yeah, I'll definitely need to look for a larger solution than the half gallon trays.

How are you handling your nutrients? Adding liquid nutrients to the base? Are you going full strength or reduced dosages?

 

[T_Dub]

Bigger/taller buckets would do the trick - would just need some longer pipe legs to hold the risers higher up so they aren't settling in the water. My goal for this build was to keep it as cheap as possible, but yeah, I'll definitely need to look for a larger solution than the half gallon trays.

How are you handling your nutrients? Adding liquid nutrients to the base? Are you going full strength or reduced dosages?

Im running full strength nutrients through the wicks. My plants are truly loving this method so much that I’m upgrading to Octopots for my next run (uses a 6 gallon reservoir…but still a bottom-feed system).

Feeding GH Flora Micro at 8ml/g and Bloom at 16ml/g, plus CalMag (3.5 ml/g) and a few other supplements. No problems so far. However, I have 8 weeks of flower to go….a lot can still go wrong.

 

[elusiveshame]

Im running full strength nutrients through the wicks. My plants are truly loving this method so much that I’m upgrading to Octopots for my next run (uses a 6 gallon reservoir…but still a bottom-feed system).

Feeding GH Flora Micro at 8ml/g and Bloom at 16ml/g, plus CalMag (3.5 ml/g) and a few other supplements. No problems so far. However, I have 8 weeks of flower to go….a lot can still go wrong.

Awesome feedback, thanks for sharing your experience with them!

 

[BigBlonde]

Has anyone used this method all the way through to harvest? I'm interested to know how well this works during the flowering stage.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

This is interesting and I love the creativity. How are you connecting the wicks to your fabric pots?

 

[RootsRuler]

DIY Auto Irrigate

Roll of 1/4" drip line
Assorted 1/4" Drip T's, Straights and L's
8 port Drip Distribution head
6" Riser for Distro head
Plastic Barbed male hose connecter 1/2" for riser to pump hose connection
1/2" vinyl hose
Pond Pump
Digital Timer
30 gal Reservoir

The whole system cost under $60 and I can water up to 8 plants at a time. I also have my dehumidifier dumping condensate back into the reservoir so I only need to top off once or twice. I ran this system for 6 weeks without topping off the reservoir and I never had to touch it other than 3 weeks in I had a buddy come over and bump up the PPM in the solution.

The wick system looks interesting but as was mentioned a larger reservoir is needed so that you aren't constantly filling the reservoirs.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

DIY Auto Irrigate

Roll of 1/4" drip line
Assorted 1/4" Drip T's, Straights and L's
8 port Drip Distribution head
6" Riser for Distro head
Plastic Barbed male hose connecter 1/2" for riser to pump hose connection
1/2" vinyl hose
Pond Pump
Digital Timer
30 gal Reservoir

The whole system cost under $60 and I can water up to 8 plants at a time. I also have my dehumidifier dumping condensate back into the reservoir so I only need to top off once or twice. I ran this system for 6 weeks without topping off the reservoir and I never had to touch it other than 3 weeks in I had a buddy come over and bump up the PPM in the solution.

The wick system looks interesting but as was mentioned a larger reservoir is needed so that you aren't constantly filling the reservoirs.

That's a mini version of what I use outside on my garden. I like to nerd on irrigation. My rolling tray is a catalog from Irrigation King lol. Super glossy!

 

[elusiveshame]

This is interesting and I love the creativity. How are you connecting the wicks to your fabric pots?

The pots just sit on top of them. That’s how the ac infinity ones work, so I figured I’d give that a shot first.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

That sounds good. Let us know how it goes.

 

[elusiveshame]

So it’s been 2 months since I’ve started this experiment and here’s the results + a modified, easier setup:

First, I had modified the 4x4’ tent to use a similar, but easier method than using individual risers inside of the buckets (I’ll show the latest iteration of that build shortly).

Now, how have the plants grown?

These have only been feeding from the bottom for the last 2 months.

I started with the fox farm trio nutrients (grow big and big bloom only since I switch before going into flower).

Right before the switch, I changed to Humboldt’s Secret base A and B, and golden tree.

As you can see, bottom watering works, and works pretty darn well.

The revised setup looks like this (this is in my smaller tent, but a similar setup using a wooden frame for support is in the 4x4’

The light grate was $20 and each stone block was $2, so about $26 for the setup, plus the cost of the buckets and wicks.

The plastic pots were changed out when I built this stage to 3 gallon fabric pots. This was done on Thursday, here’s the growth in the last 3 days:

So overall, I think this setup is cheaper and better than individual self watering bases or self watering pots, provided you have the space.

It’s easy to maintain, if you want to clean out the reservoirs, you can just slide them out without having to touch the plants or pots, and you can fill it with at least a gallon of water/feed to let it do its thing for a few days.

 

[PoolMan]

Thanks for the idea! Was looking at ACI pots but thought I could do my own with items around the house, but for the wicking material. So one question, the base I'm going to use is a 15 quart container. Should I keep the water level to one gal or go more? If I go more, would it me a good idea to use an air stone or something to keep the water moving? Thanks for your input.