The Growtube

The Growtube

I was really pleased to see this as I live in a area where you have to be really careful with the water you use.
I bought two of these and I would not reccoment them. The weight of the bottle often causes the tube to tilt up and so water floods everywhere - the pins that are designed to hold the tube to your stakes do not work which means that often the tube "bows" which means that the water runs off the soil rather than into the soil.
In the end I was better off just sticking the bottle head into the grown bag and having done with it!

The Growtube

I purchased 5 of these systems last year for my greenhouse, it looked like the answer to watering my tomatoes and cucumbers grown in growbags. The plants close to the water bottle were well watered, in fact the water poured out, it didn't get to the end of the run and as a result those plants did not fruit as well. I had to water these separately which defeated the object of the growtubes. I won't use this system again and will look into individual bottle system for each plant. I was very disappointed as every thing else I've purchased from Lakeland has worked very well and done just what it says on the label.

The Growtube

The bottle needs to be supported by a cane otherwise the weight of water makes the bottle tip one way or another. There should be a blanking cap along with the water spikes. If this cap is put in the hole below the bottle then the majority of water will be forced the length of the run. If a watering spike is underneath the bottle end then the force of water will go mainly to the first couple of watering points. Small canes need to be used along the run with the clips provided and everything should stay steady. I have had these for several years and had no problem other than changing bottles.