Hey there I've been lurking around for a long while, and I really like the micro grow ideas. In my opinion its a very applicable idea to things other than just weed(ever wanted to grow Tomatoes in winter? or while you were out on the road? haha) Anyway to get to the title of this thread, I've started designing/building a grow box and I think I have most of the kinks worked out on paper, BUT just because it looks good on paper doesn't mean it'll work well in practice. Well one of the things I wanted to add to it was an ability to "seed and leave" so to speak. Lights are easy, just add a timer. Fans are easy, just turn them on(though I still have to workout the exhaust and intake locations). This leaves me with a watering system. I want to make it incredibly simple, and I've seen the aqua globes and such and thought about using an idea something like that. So the big question of this whole spiel is this: "Can I place a reservoir at the top, attach pvc or some form of tubing to it, and stick the end in the soil like you would an Aqua Globe?" Another idea I had was to run a piece of piping diagonal across the bottom of the box with holes in it to allow water to seep out(perhaps a cross in the middle allowing me to reach all 4 corners?) I don't have much experience with planting or gardening or any of that, I just know what I've read and seen and formed ideas from there. As I said I want to come up with something that you can ALMOST plant and forget(who could forget their MJ?), but I still want to try to keep it simple, and as homemade as I can. Any constructive advise or criticism would be much appreciated
I like your idea... just not for my box haha Will have to write that one down and use it later though, but I'm shooting for a little bitty one plant micro grow. To give you an idea of the inner dimensions its 1'x1' and 3' high(I realize that's a tiny area but I plan on using everything in my power to maximize that space), so things are kind of cramped inside the box, which is why I had said something about putting a reservoir up top with a tube coming down. What if I put the reservoir on the side, connected it with some pvc or some kind of piping and ran a wick through there into the soil? I imagine with the wick idea the only things that really have to remain in contact are water to wick to soil, right?
Look into SIPs. Allows your containers to be self watered without having to worry about overwatering.
In the woods, if the plot is way back and it wouldn't be logical to be able to get in every time the plants need water, I use a technique where I run irrigation hose from the nearest running water source to the plant. Gravity runs the water down the hose, and I poke holes for dripping in the hose where my plants are. You could conceivably do the same thing, only on a much smaller scale. Have a reservoir like a 5 gallon bucket sitting on top, run an irrigation hose from the bucket to the cabinet, and poke a hole for it to drip in near the roots. Otherwise, I have also used 2 liter pop bottles with success in plots where I could get back to them once a week or so. Take a 2 liter bottle, poke a small hole in the cap with a heated pin, poke another hole in the bottom for air, and then just turn it over in the pot and bury it down a bit so it stands up right. I don't know, I hope I have given you some ideas.