Automated plant-watering systems

Does anyone know if I can get something like this Self-Watering Spike in Munich:



Or if not, perhaps something like this Hydromat.

Note: I don't want anything that requires an electric pump or needs to be connected directly to a water supply.

at any garden center or Baumarkt.

Yeah, should probably have added: I already checked the baumärkte near my place, but all I found were the full-on irrigation systems with computer controlled pumps.

Dehner Garden Center sells them

People, people, people.

This is Germany, a land where it is a very common belief that putting ridiculous coloured baubles on sticks will in some way add some sort of aesthetic value to your garden/balcony/windowsill.
They do sell those spikes here, but as they are often made of glass, they count as garden decorations, and not irrigation aids, so check Ikea maybe, or try the German shopping method of simply walking around millions of nondescript little boutiques in Schwabing and hope for the best.
We have 2 glass ones, my mother in law has them, aunt in law etcetc, so they certainly exist.

Oh, is that what those things are? I thought they were just tacky decorations.

I'm just off out to check another garden shop near the office. Hopefully they'll have something.

Save yourself the cash and just use an upside down pop bottle. Works exactly the same.

Either you live near a real suck full place or you didn't look in the right corner of the market. These things are everywhere.


Even better, saves money, the environment and forces you to be a bit creative. See if you can disguise it so that no one notices that you have an upside down cola bottle in your plants. Hint: attach some fake leaves to it.

Oo, you can buy mine for 500 Euros!

But you might find them cheaper at OBI or Dener (if that's the name). Not sure which one, but we saw something similar in one of those places at Meglinger Str. a couple of weekends ago. I know that's a bit of a hike from you, and if I knew when we were next going I'd say we'd collect some, but I'm afraid I don't know when we might actually get there next. Of course, I guess you could make a day of it and get some fish n chips into the bargain...

Not sure about making them yourself. The key is in the spike, not the "bubble", because the spike contains an adjuster so you can regulate how much water they deliver. Other than that it is doable, we replace ours with large (1.5L) bottles when we go away to make sure the veggies still get watered.

Hey, Malcolm now why not tell us why you really need some Hydroponics gear Need any big bright lights too...

After some long, exhaustingly intensive research (asking the missus) I've discovered that she got hers from Shibo Chibo Tscshcibo, fuck it, one of those shitty shops that follows the Aldi/Lidl model of only getting stock in once a year, for 3 days.
It's another great case of "buy when Aldi is selling".

Yep, I checked Tchibo aswell. They have these ceramic ones but they don't hold enough water.

2 litres, easily delivered from a Coke bottle.

Hi,

Bought the Tschibo ones and was very disappointed.They dont hold water at all as the little water is supposed to last 7 days but the water drips out immediately i insert it. So save ure money and dont buy the ones from Tschibo.Unless someone else had a better experience with them than me.

ZKA

Have you actually done that?

Without something to regulate the flow of water, I'm not sure that just sticking an upturned bottle is going to work very well.


They work fine for houseplants, but not for tomatoes and other fruit plants.

Is that a coke bottle in your plants or...

I used them on my house plants and had this experience.The water seems to drip all out as soon as i fill them. I have also repeatedly refilled and got the same results.

ZKA

Yes, I have actually done it. I stuck a bunch in all my planters when I went away for a week (may have been longer actually) during a hotspell. Came back to lovely green plants.

The spikes are cunningly designed so that you can use normal bottles instead of the usual bulbs, yes.

Yeah, I know. But Showem seems to be saying you can just stick a bottle in the earth and that will work just as well.

Yep, that's what I did and it worked for me. I will point out that the earth was pretty compact and I shoved it in deep. As I didn't hang around to see how it worked, maybe it all did leak out within hours, but I don't think so. As it's more or less a free procedure, why not give it a try?