Plastic irrigation bottle hole diameter

[hairyhippy]

I'm not quite sure where to post this, so I'll try here as it pertains to a vegetable bed.

I've got some plastic bottles that I'm going to stick upside down in our new raised bed to keep it moist whilst we are away for five days next week. How many holes and of what size holes do I need to make in the bottles? They range in size fromm 500ml to 1500ml.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[hairyhippy]

[telboy]

Hi hairyhippy,
With all the rain we've been having, I would suggest a mulch would see you through.
A good cover of grass cuttings should do the job?

[hairyhippy]

The bed was finished yesterday  ::) after most of the rain and it still needs some more compost on it. So it's not very wet yet.  ;D

[sweet-pea]

hI Hairyhippy

I planted my squash seedlings yesterday with a bottle each for watering.  I put the bottles in the right way up after making a small pinprick in the bottom.  The smaller the hole the better.  the first one I did as a tester had 3 small pinholes in it and the water drained out really fast.  I think even with a small pinprick the water would drain out to fast to last 5 days, I recon it would only last a day.  I've been trying to think of a way of maybe slowing down the flow, but have yet to experiment.  I wondered if making an equally small pinhole in the cap and screwing it back on would have any effect.

I'm off to Italy for 2 weeks, but luckily I've found a willing babysitter for my seelings :-)

Maybe give the bed a good water and mulch as telboy suggests, unless you can find someone to babysit :-)

[amphibian]

An idea that might work, though I have not tested it. Stick a  bit of gaffer tape on the bottle then prick a hole through the tape and bottle, put a  bit of cotton wool on the gaffer and cover wih two pieces of gaffer running parallel, leaving some of the cotton wool visible. The water should just slowly leach out this way.

[telboy]

More instructions please,
and some of that stuff you're on please!!!!!!!!!!