25 gallon DIY (or bigger/smaller) automatic watering that's changeable/expandable for under $100

Hi all.
I'm sure this has been covered before but figured I'd throw in my 2 cents.

I'm old and my back hurts. So I put this together from Petco and Lowes. Pretty simple. Here ya go...

Pump purchased @ Petco for $23ish. 303gph, so roughly 5gpm. Perfect for my 4'x8' and 4'x4'.


Stuck a nylon 1/2" MIP x 1/4" barbed adapter (from Lowes $5) in the outlet side. Threads matched up, but only a couple caught so I loaded it up with the hot glue gun.

Put it in a Stanley "Tough" 27gal storage container. Roughly $10.


Connected with 3/8" OD X 1/4" ID clear vinyl tubing. About $3 per 10ft @ Lowes. Have a few tees and things in there. I have the barb tees for now, but will be changing all parts to John Guest fittings (ask the plumbing guy @ Lowes) which will enable me to add/remove any lines at any time.

Also picked up a 3 pack wireless outlet combo with key fob. $20 @ Lowes. All you do is hit a button, pump feeds plants, hit button and pump shuts off. You could easily replace this with an automatic timer and not even have to think about watering.


Anyway, that's how I just put mine together and my back doesn't hurt as much so I'm happy.

Hope this can help somebody.

Looks good but do yourself a favor and ditch the clear tubing for black. All kinds of funky stuff will grow inside of those as light exposure gets to it

SCJedi said:

Looks good but do yourself a favor and ditch the clear tubing for black. All kinds of funky stuff will grow inside of those as light exposure gets to it

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Good call and done. Thanks!

Good luck. Can't wait until I'm not hand watering 30 plants.

That is a nice setup on a budget, but you don't want your water source next to the stem, could cause rot.

If you can afford it I would look into Blumats, they really are a game changer.

Midnight Warrior said:

That is a nice setup on a budget, but you don't want your water source next to the stem, could cause rot.

If you can afford it I would look into Blumats, they really are a game changer.

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That's what I use. Tropf Blumats. It takes a little bit of finessing but once you get the hang of them you will wonder why you waited so long

SCJedi said:

That's what I use. Tropf Blumats. It takes a little bit of finessing but once you get the hang of them you will wonder why you waited so long

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I checked that system out, its gravity fed or pump?

Clumpyoyster said:

I checked that system out, its gravity fed or pump?

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I use gravity fed but you can connect a pressure reducer onto a pressurized spigot

Midnight Warrior said:

That is a nice setup on a budget, but you don't want your water source next to the stem, could cause rot.

If you can afford it I would look into Blumats, they really are a game changer.

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Have it there atm due to them being so young. I'm in hempy buckets so the perlite/vermiculite dries out so fast that I had to water directly over the roots until they grew down and hit the water shelf.

Appreciate the advice and will keep an eye out for it.

+1 on the black tubing. Also I'm finding putting a layer or rocks/gravel ontop of the perlite seems to be the most practical way to prevent algae without screweing with covers and tinfoil. Will prevent floating away too for flood n' drain.

ubluntu said:

+1 on the black tubing. Also I'm finding putting a layer or rocks/gravel ontop of the perlite seems to be the most practical way to prevent algae without screweing with covers and tinfoil. Will prevent floating away too for flood n' drain.

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I think my plan is to bury the heads about 1/2 way down the backside of the buckets with a screen cap. That way the top is always dry and hopefully no algae. With the hempy buckets, I'm only really worried about getting the water to the bottom 2".