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I was thinking of putting together a auto watering scheme for my plants. Main objective is to just have one place to fill water, and it will disperse to several cups equally. I might have the physics wrong but i remember some force which creates suction with gravity and keeps the containers equally filled. I tried to draw the idea, and i'm wondering if anyone have any feedback on if this is possible?

The idea here is that the gravity will bring the water from the top container which stands taller, and then fills the small containers with water.

Qmechanic
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bogen
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  • There is no reason that the smaller, lower cups will have a fixed amount of water in them. Instead, use the little metering valves for watering systems from you local home store (drip heads). – Jon Custer Jun 23 '16 at 19:10
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    Yessir the concept you are looking for is called a "siphon" Here is a video showing the exact same implementation you describe for watering plants – pentane Jun 23 '16 at 19:13
  • That'll work from a physics standpoint. But it probably won't work from a horticultural standpoint unless you're growing swamp dwellers: your plants'll die of "wet feet" and you'll forever be topping up the tank which will flood the area around your pots. – Selene Routley Jun 24 '16 at 07:35
  • @WetSavannaAnimalakaRodVance if the smaller water tanks are only a reservoir for self-watering pots it will work, the roots won't stand directly in water all the time – bogen Jun 24 '16 at 09:43

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The sketch is of a high reservoir, with multiple level-controlled smaller tanks. So, it implies that the (lower level) tanks are equipped with a valve that shuts off the water when a target level is reached: it's just like the shutoff mechanism in the tank of a toilet. There's a float, which operates the valve. It doesnt equalize gallons per day, though, just level-in-a-tank.

So, you can definitely find items at a hardware store to build such a system. If, on the other hand, you want to partition a water source to multiple destinations based on delivered water volume being equal, the usual approach is to use a timed valve to a pressurized manifold, and use matched emitters (i.e. drip irrigation controlled-flow drip fittings). The physical principle of these emitters is the Bernoulli effect, they are fabricated so that too-fast water flow in the valve pulls the aperture shut (this sounds hard, but it isn't). Over a range of water pressure, the drip rate stays nearly constant. They usually require pump pressure (or water-utility pressure) though, would clog if you just used a few feet of gravity-driven flow.

Whit3rd
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As you have drawn it, this will work too well. The straws will act as syphons and will syphon water out of the reservoir until its water level is the same as the water level in the containers.

As Jon Custer suggested, you could put drip heads in to slow the flow. The one difference between this use of them and the normal use is that instead of the water pressure being 2-3 bar, it will be 50mbar or so. That may alter things.

Martin Kochanski
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