Auto Watering Plant Nursery

 This is a cheap and great way to grow a bunch of seedling in a small space.
I use a "windowed in" porch.
  You will need
Tubing/garden Hoses
Sub-Pump  (i used a 500 watt made for dirty water)
Shelving
Outlet Timer
Plastic Bottle Caps
Hot Glue Gun lost of glue sticks
A awe on any sharp pointed thing you can use to poke holes in.
Scissors Sharp enough to cut garden hose.
A plastic barrel the size depending on how much tubing your going to need
trays as big as the shelves if they are not solid to catch water
Seeds
Seed starting containers
Potting soil

Step 1 Step One: Arrange Your Shelving

 I used a couple of different kinds of shelving there was 2 cheap plastic ones that came apart, and put them out in front of the window,  Then took a metal 3 tiered shelf and put it in the adjacent window.
   The plastic shelves i drilled a hole into, and at the bottom they are linked with a drainage tube, into a smaller bucket.
     Under the metals shelving i put a big plastic tray, i got  these from a pizza shop that was going to throw them away.
     MAKE SURE THE SHELFS HAVE ENOUGH SUNLIGHT, the place i set this up at has a lot of sun, So i did not set up any addition lighting here.

Comments

[BlackSmoke]

not to be a jargon nazi, but the little vertical pump you show is probably a sump pump, for pumping out basements. i would add that they are easily available at most hardware stores as well.

[MadMan.inc]

yes you are a jargon nazi
sub is short for submersible pump thats what this is, this is not a sump pump,

[atlantica]

Just to join in the reich then...
its an Awl, not an awe. I think most can figure out what you meant but it might help the ones who get lost at that point.

[lucek]

gives me an idea.
I've go a water timer I picked up for $20 last year. if I attach that to a spicket on a 55 gallon drum I could have this system gravity fed.

or if someone was really inclined a hose valve a servo and a moister probe and wire the thing in to a computer.

[eecharlie]

There are actually very simple mechanical valve systems that implement your last idea, using the evaporation of the last bit of water in the tray to set the timing. For example,

futuregarden.com/hydroponics/smartvalve.html

Note that that product doesn't take care of pumping water back up. But since it gives the plants just enough water, a single gravity-fed supply should be rationed out with no runoff.

Someone should totally do an instructable on a DIY version of that valve which is more customizable.