A few months ago, I decided to quit exterminate indoor plants and seriously learn the the basics of gardening Let me take care of them. I learned how to take care of houseplants with an iPhone app that piqued my curiosity about this world, and I got spectacular results with patience and following the plan I discovered.
The gardening world I find it fascinating because of how much can be learned, not only by taking care of plants, but also by helping you cultivar patience, to follow the plans, to be rigorous and in many ways it even helped me to release some of stress sometimes – I’m sure many of you have experienced the same if you’re interested.
However, due to the weather of these months, taking care of my plants on the terrace was going to be complicated: not only because the summer heat of this year seems to be hitting harder than ever, but also because we are spending more time than usual away from home. This means that I could not follow my watering habits which I strictly followed during the winter.
HomePod Siri analysis and the best sound are already at home
Automatic watering for iPhone: the Eve Aqua solution
Before using the solution I’m going to tell you about, I tried many other things: from traditional irrigation balloons to the most advanced gel water to hydrate the roots. I couldn’t get either of them to work for me: over or under watering didn’t seem like a very accurate method like the one I needed.
The perfect solution was clear: mount a small drip irrigation on the terrace using the outside tap from the hose, which would allow me to water them comfortably without complications. Despite what it may seem, starting from scratch with this isn’t expensive: there are kits that can be purchased for $29 that include everything you need to do so.
Jodsen garden irrigation system, micro drip irrigation kit
Jodsen garden irrigation system, micro drip irrigation kit
However, the automation problem was still there. There are different programmers that are added to the tap and allow you to time the watering – but if we want to be able to control it with our iPhone, the best solution that currently exists is the Eve Aqua: a product of the famous Eve brand compatible with HomeKit that allows us to do practically everything we need.
The content of the Eve Aqua is the device itself – which is no bigger than any other “normal” timer on the market – an adapter for the tap and two alkaline batteries for keep device connected to red.
Works with virtually any ordinary garden tap (or even interiors, although it depends on the model), and with the adapter it is easier to adjust it to the one we have at home. In my case, I didn’t need an adapter since the ports worked directly for me.
To start using it, it’s as simple as opening the battery compartment and putting them in: don’t worry about how long it lasts, this product uses the low-power Thread network to be able to manage its connection to the network, and it does not need an additional accessory bridge to work – it is also compatible with the rest of the brand’s devices that you have at home (Sean Thread oh no).
I have been using Eve Aqua for almost two months, twice a week, the batteries they haven’t even used up 1% of their charge thanks to the efficient management of the Thread network. It is also resistant to bad weather and of course to rain.
Once the device is set on the faucet and connected to the drip delivery – which must have a termination on each plant you want to water – you can now start controlling it from the full Eve app or from the Apple Home app.
The tricks of drip irrigation, automated
Installation is as easy as adding a new HomeKit device. From the Apple application we can use it, program it and create Siri Shortcuts, but I recommend downloading the Eve application itself, since it contains more settings and information that will be useful to us.
Once installed, we will only have to schedule when we want to water And for how long. It is recommended to water either in the morning or in the afternoon, to prevent the hours of sunshine and the water from “burning” the plants (it depends on what you have of course). I recommend you in the morning, so that the plants absorb water throughout the day, avoiding the cold and possible frost at night in winter.
We can too activate it wherever we are through our iPhone, and has a security system with irrigation calendar. That is, when we press manually, if at that time the Internet turns off and we cannot stop it, we can tell the system how long by default it should water – and it s will automatically stop when this time is up.
The Eve’s application is complete: in drip irrigation, we must adjust each of the irrigation terminals according to the needs of the plant. I recommend that you, to calculate it, put one of these irrigation hydrants in a measuring container to see what flow rate in deciliters of water it uses to irrigate after adjusting it. Calculate it per plant, then add them all up: this will be the flow rate of liters per minute that our irrigation system will have (and which can be monitored from the app
In my case I have a irrigation rate of 3.5 liters per minute, and my watering schedule is Monday and Friday, set to one minute – because my plants don’t need a lot of water. Using Eve Aqua allowed me to provide extra irrigation while away from home in the middle of a heat wave, something that probably would have ended up killing some of them if they hadn’t not had anything like that.
It is also possible use shortcuts to automate tasks which depend, for example, on the weather: if we see that it is going to rain in the city where we have our house, we can suspend irrigation or postpone it indefinitely – something that helps a lot not only with care: we will also save water.
Eve Aqua – Smart irrigation controller for Apple Home App and Siri
Eve Aqua – Smart irrigation controller for Apple Home App and Siri
The price of Eve Aqua is $99.95 (the model used in this analysis) although the brand has recently launched a newer version at $149.95 which has a seemingly safer and quieter magnetic valve. In my model I did not notice any noise or problems with them, so this new version, in addition to being smaller, also seems more comfortable to install – although just as useful.
Eve Aqua – Smart irrigation controller for app and Siri (new generation
Eve Aqua – Smart irrigation controller for app and Siri (new generation
Recommended for those who want to take care of their plants at home, both indoors and outdoors, and do it comfortably from their mobile: installation is simple, from the drip hose to the device itself , it is efficient, it has the connectivity that we need and This will help us to use only the amount of water we need without excess, being also energy efficient as it consumes very little battery. One more step for those of us who have discovered this world!