Correct watering of Tomato Plants at each stage in their development is absolutely critical and deep watering is highly recommended once the plants are in the ground. Smart Irrigation Controllers – are designed to simplify this task by implementing timers to operate solenoid valves, allowing water to be sent to the watering spikes in the ground. The more modern systems can be accessed remotely via Smart Phone and the timer settings changed – some even employ water detection with a view to adjusting the timers for optimal watering.
This type of system is all well and good on a Golf Course, but in my experience – in a smaller scale operation such as a residential Garden this type of system often fails due to there being too many variables and the unforeseen. My approach is slightly different:
- I purchased a set of top notch Watering Spikes, employing clay pellets to facilitate progressive release of water, deep into the soil adjacent to the roots. This is much more effective that a plastic bottle or pipe with holes drilled.
- I setup my irrigation tubes to supply water to the Watering Spikes.
- I installed a solenoid valve in the garden hose line which feeds the irrigation tubes.
- Rather than buy an expensive Irrigation Controller I installed a 240v – 24v transformer and a mains powered contactor to switch the 24v supply to the solenoid valve on and off.
- I purchased a Homekit compatible – Fibaro Switch to switch on and off the 240v power to the contactor coil.
The Apple Home App simply switches the Fibaro Switch on >> this supplies 240v power to the contactor >> which switches the 24v power to the solenoid valve >> which turns on the water supply to the watering spikes.
