Automatic Watering - Soil

Bottom water your plant. Forget that gizmo. Bottom watering is superior because it resembles real world situations (plants drawing water from the ground water table) Plants need water when THEY need it, not when you feel they should have it. That's why bottom watering is so successful. Autopots are a perfect example of a bottom water system. Everyone I've spoken to about them have raved at their success. The soil will be evenly watered with no dry pockets and the perfect amount of moisture to air ratio in the soil. Every 2 or 3 weeks give it a top water just to flush the surface layer. There are single Autopot setups, or just bottom reservoir pots you can buy. They are gaining popularity and can even be found in Walmart now. I bottom water all of my mother plants and have for years. They are supremely healthy.

Could also try a passive watering method if your only gone for a bit like drip adapters on 2L pop bottles. Google "2L pop bottle watering spikes" they have a few options, some are plastic some are terracotta/clay, I also believe if you bury a cloth and place half of it outside the pot and in a bucket of water it will wick in the extra water and water the plants.

a nutrient solution will probably clog that thing up in no time... but if you top dress and fertilize through other methods and only run water through it, that would probably be the best way to use it. hydrolock has a good setup, but i'm not a fan of any emitter that requires cosntant maintenance. small pin holes relying on pressure will clog up with nutrient water. It's SUPER hard water after you dissolve fertilizers into it, just remember that. E.g bluemats probably better with water-only vs fertilized water. i've got teh little emitters that are mini-sprinklers... 8 little jets of water go out 2-4" from the emitter. i put 2 per pot. Get an RV pump if you want to use a wider arrange of drippers and for them to function as advertised. e.g. the 2gal/min type emitters you can see a graph of actual output requires a range of PSI that most aquarium pumps can't do. the hydrolock systems can help you size the pump to number of pots/emitters you want to run, but i'd DIY this (make it yourself) and probably save a lot of money. something like the "floracaps" would work well too, but floraflex rapes people with their pricing. can find cheap knockoffs on alibabba for 1/10th the cost

growdiaries.com/diaries/187437-grow-journal-by-hashy/week/1113831 I have a video of mine running. Bucket, water pump from Hydro store, relevant pipe work and drippers, Timer plug.