This is a lesson I learned the (thankfully not too) hard way this weekend... I think this can be applied to any situation where last minute changes to an existing system are made before being left alone for some time (weekends, holidays, vacation, etc.). At least in this case, the error didn't cause a catastrophe, but it did drive home the point that I shouldn't make changes before leaving home for a few days...
I've collected orchids for nearly 3 years now and my collection has grown to the size where I decided to set up a system that would water my orchids automatically, particularly the ones that require daily watering. My orchids have been living on a steel rack that I'd outfitted with LED grow lights, so it was a relatively simple matter to integrate the water misting system into the rack as well.
I bought a water pump, misting nozzles, and some plastic hose to get the whole system set up. It was a bit tedious but with some time and a lot of zip-ties, I got everything integrated and functional! I used an interval timer to set the watering frequency. I temporarily used a gallon milk jug as my water source which only needed refilling every 2-3 days.
The mistake I made was, just before a long weekend road trip, swapping the gallon jug for a 2-gallon food prep bucket. I hadn't taken time to test it (ideally for at least a day or two) and assumed it would work. Unfortunately, the vibrations from the pump caused the hose to slowly shimmy its way out of the bucket, until the pump was just pumping air... Funny thing is, while on the road to our destination, it crossed my mind that this was a possibility, so I felt really dumb when I came home to find it had happened.. Luckily we were only gone for 4 days, so luckily no plants were damaged. I immediately switched back to my milk jug setup, and ordered a new 5-gallon bucket and some brass fittings to make a much more fool-proof system. I drilled a hole near the bottom of the bucket and hooked up a barbed spigot. Now I have a full 5 gallon reservoir, and no parts are able to wiggle themselves free!
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| Simple, elegant(?), problem solved! |
I'm happy how easy this fix was, and with no trips planned for a while, I'll be able to monitor the bucket and make sure it's functioning properly! Hopefully anyone reading this can learn this lesson from my mistake; never make changes on a Friday!!
Juju
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