I am going on vacation and i need to get a pump so it will water my crop while im gone. so what type of pump to i need, how many gph, specifics like that. i usually water about 2.5 - 3 fl oz of water once a day (about 85ml). the plant is in flowering stage. please help me out!! and i would also like to know what the cost would be.
Well, you'll need four items to make this possible. You need to get a pump, tubing to fit the pump, a reservoir of some sort and a digital timer. You should be able to get all four items at any of the big retail stores like Home Depot, Walmart, etc. The pump needn't be very powerfull, 100gph or less will do. The reservoir can be anything that can hold water in sufficient quantities like a small Rubbermaid container.
Now, once you have the pump, tubing, timer, and reservoir, fill up the reservoir with water, attach the tubing to your pump and put the pump in the water (assuming it's a submersible pump, most are). Now get a measuring cup of some sort and place the other end of the tube (from the pump) into the measuring cup. Using a timer, watch, or clock, turn on the pump and see how long it takes to fill up the measuring cup with 3 oz of water. Once you have established how long it takes to fill the measuring cup to 3 oz, set your timer to run once a day for this length of time. Bingo, now you've got automated irrigation.
Obviously, before you go you'll need to make sure that you have enough water in the reservoir to last until you return. That's pretty easy to calculate: Say you go with 3oz per day, and you're going for two weeks, well that would be 3oz x 14 days = 42 oz of water. Now you also have to take in account that the pump must be submerged at all times, so you'll need to add the 42 oz of water after you've already submerged the pump and then some (for evaporation).
As for the cost for all this stuff, the pump should cost you no more than $15 or $20, $10 tops for the reservoir, $3 or $4 for the tubing, and $25 dollars for the digital timer (you need digital for precise timing). So that should run you between $50 and $60. That's a small price to pay for the security of knowing that your plant will fine when you get back. Also, if you ever decide to go with hydroponics, your already ahead of the game.
google will know