drip system for soilless

[deepforest]

Hi all

totally new to anything thats not hand-watering... im sick of getting in there and moving my plants around and trying to get my watering wand in the space and knocking plants over with the hose and stuff... also id like to not have to worry about visiting the grow room so much if i want to go away for a week or so.

any advice on how to setup a drip system for say, a hundred 2 gallon pots of promix? what kind of equipment i need? is it really expensive? hard to maintain? prone to leaks or floods or jams? how big of a rez do you think i need for 100 2 gallon plants so i can go a week without filling it up again ? i use simply 3 part GH flora series. also any suggestions on feeding schedule / times?

thanks all

 

[Norrath]

also interested...

there's always tropf blumats..

http://www.rambridge.com/products/irrigat/tropf/tropfbu2.html

and they work too, sunnydog did a 2k vertical tent with them, 4.5 pounds..

though id like to see what else there is, i priced those things out at 6-8$ each..

 

[grow nerd]

Flexible black vinyl tubing, drill bits (or tubing hole punch), needle nose pliers, and 1/4" tubes and fittings is all you need for the most part. I like to throw in a little bit of PVC and pipe thread-to-barb fittings here and there, but you get the picture.

 

[Norrath]

what would your proposed pumping method be, grow nerd?

the first idea in my head would be using a sump pump from a reservoir, or is there a standard method of doing this instead?

 

[liquidcooled420]

A good drip system can be made from materials at Lowes, home depot, or hydro store. They have a section that has all the drip system accesories.
I use a 50 gallon heavy duty plastic barrel with a sump pump that has a garden hose fitting.

1/2 inch black tubing (comes in a roll) is connected to the sump pump using a Raindrip compression fitting that is used for connecting the black tubing to a garden hose(threaded on one side, compression on the other).
Then I use a inline filter to prevent clogs. You can get a cheap one at lowes designed for their garden irrigation system or get a "Y" filter for drip system at a hydro shop.
After the filter the 1/2 tubing is run to a "T" connector. This conncects the supply line to the drip manifold which is just a ring of black tubing going around the perimeter of the drain table, with 1/4 black drip lines going to seperate plants. The tubing is flexible enough to make a circle and reconnect it to the T connection. So the water flows around in a circle and supplies the same pressure to each dripper. You could use several T splitters to make a more complex manifold to fit the grow space if needed.
Also The pressure compensating drippers seem to work the best for larger setups, I use a t connector at the end of each drip line so that two drippers for each plant can be used. This allows the grow medium to be watered evenly.
The best part about the black tubing is that you dont need any tools except scissors and the little hole punching tool for the drip line fittings. The compression fittings eliminate glue and make it easy to take apart and change the setup.

Best thing about a drip system is that it can be setup drain to waste with little actual waste. In a recirc setup i actually was dumping more nutes. Also you dont have to adjust the res all the time. Just once in the beginning and they get a balanced fresh nutrient profile every day. Also, when you want to flush you just fill the res with water and let it go, instead of having to change the res once a day during flushing like in a recir ebb and flow.

 

[grow nerd]

Yes, standard submersible pump from reservoir. Typical options are 55gal drums, 275gal totes, 44gal Brute cans (if drums are not an option for some reason), and the list go on.

Make sure to punch an anti-siphon hole if the highest level in the res will be higher than the drip output level.

 

[solarz]

could someone make a recommendation on the pump size?? Thanks.

solarz

 

[grow nerd]

Depends on number of outlets and all. But in general I say minimum 1000gph although I've done plenty with much less (400gph). Throttle it down using a valve if necessary. Although expensive ($105 compared to $35 of standard 1000gph submersibles), the Little Giant 5-MSP is a powerful sump pump (I think 1200gph rating?) that's excellent at driving a large number of sites.

 

[redspaghetti]

Hi all

totally new to anything thats not hand-watering... im sick of getting in there and moving my plants around and trying to get my watering wand in the space and knocking plants over with the hose and stuff... also id like to not have to worry about visiting the grow room so much if i want to go away for a week or so.

any advice on how to setup a drip system for say, a hundred 2 gallon pots of promix? what kind of equipment i need? is it really expensive? hard to maintain? prone to leaks or floods or jams? how big of a rez do you think i need for 100 2 gallon plants so i can go a week without filling it up again ? i use simply 3 part GH flora series. also any suggestions on feeding schedule / times?

thanks all

Hi deepforest,

I used to hand water my plants with a wand and it get real old so came up with a solution. This can be hand for 30 bucks or a little more at LOWE's

I bought an extention watering wand with a controler , hook it up to 20ft or more hoses and connect a pump in the rez. Everytime you turn on the pump you can water as much and as easy. Hope it helps ya.

And if you want auto watering system i came up with this unit, you can also find it at LOWE's for 15 bucks or less ( they have multiple house up to 10 hoses ) the one in picture show 6.

Cheers,

Red.