HelpfulGardener.com

Has anyone ever had one? or even better anyone that has built one?

soil,

When I was working for / with my brother, we tried different overhead sprinklers, misters in his greenhouse.

We suspended a 2x4 over the flats. The 1/2" mainline ran across the top of the 2x4. Drilled 5/16" holes through the 3 1/2" of wood to thread the spaghetti tubing through. On the end of the tubing we tried various emitters, sprinklers and misters.

Even coverage, overwatering are things to be worked out.

You need a irrigation timer that runs for seconds or short minutes, several times a day. Misting timers.

We have the Dig 6 station misting timer TDIGGR6
https://www.dripworksusa.com/store/controlers.php?lnk=ind160

Tornado misters and anti-drip parts
https://www.dripworksusa.com/store/grnhse.php?lnk=left

Eric

cool thanks for the info, will be trying to build one on the cheap soon for spring cuttings.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Eric

so I set one of these up, and from my test runs today it works GREAT. made it a lot cheaper than the instructions found online too(most were quoted around 150$+). the hardest part is the timer, which I'm still working on perfecting. but have one that works good enough for now.

for tubing I went to lowes and got 1/2 inch irrigation tubing. 100' roll was 10$. enough to do many many sets of what I'm about to explain. I will be building more so I got extra. I used only about 10ft for the actual mist system.

next I have my shelf in the propagation greenhouse. I suspended a bamboo pole about 12" above the shelf. to this I went across the bottom with the 1/2 tubing. an elbow on one end to take the water down to my water source outside. and a removeable cap on the other end to drain the system when needed.

for the mist part, I used raindrip tornado misters. about 3.50$ for 5. I used 10 for an 8 ft stretch spaced about 8-10 inches apart.

right now I have a simple 20$ timer that runs every 45 minutes for 30 seconds.

this would even work well for above seed starting trays, I would just run it for about 60-90 seconds instead. which there's a chance I will be doing that soon.

so for about 50$ I made a intermittent mist propagation system. which can produce hundreds of cuttings/seedlings at once.

eric, if you like the sweat chamber you made. youll love this.

today I got 20 free 6"x6"x24" pots. I put these under the mist table and filled it with a loose propagation mix which was

1 part diatomatious earth ( non powdered )
1 part sand
1 part horticultural charcoal
1 part sifted pumice (1/4 inch)

cuttings of various kinds have already been put in. mostly soft wood stuff that has recently been growing( lots of herbs)

the system is working great. I recommend building one to anyone who likes to propagate, and anyone who needs a lot of plants but hates buying tons of them. Buy one and turn it into 100 easily.

I also found another timer that goes on every 30 minutes for 30 seconds which makes it a little better.

soil, I want to set up a similar misting setup, sounds like you got a good thing going. Which timer did you get that allows the programming you wanted? Is it set up on your hose or a separate unit? I was hoping to get a battery operated unit for inexpensive.

Thanks

thanks for the interest, I have not gotten the ideal timer. but I have got one that works. eventually id like to set up a real timer, but I'm not so good with electronics and such. for what I did get was a 16 session digital timer from the hardware store. I run it for a minute every 45 minutes. this soaks the medium well and keeps the cuttings moist as well above the medium. it was about 20$. so overall I built the whole thing for about 40$ maybe a little less.

well worth it, because ive already made well over 200$ worth of rooted cuttings.

sounds very cool, can you post pics, I'm such a visual learner

sorry I don't have a camera, if a friend comes by with one and I remember ill ask them to snap a picture.

How about this for a horrible picture. You get the idea.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DDF%20-%20Helpful%20Gardener%20Misc/SoilsPropagationshelf.jpg[/img]

Eric

Thanks DoubleDogFarm. That does help

I don't see anything eric.

soil wrote:I don't see anything eric.

You don't see my crappy drawing?

Eric

I see it now, and thanks again for illustrating my crazy posts. the only thing is on the left where the table ends and the hose runs off the picture, I put a elbow so the hose goes down, and then another at the floor so there is no way the hose can kink and stop the water, resulting in dead cuttings. which I have had happen before with the poly tubing.