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Let's talk coco slabs with drippers
- Thread starter gaiusmarius
- Start date
I was wondering if anyone has used bushmaster in coco ? It says on the bottle not to use it in pure coco coir. I am using botanicare ready grow mix 4-6 waterings a day. There are other additives in it so i want to know if i can use it. Other wise does anyone know why humbolt says you can't use it coco coir???
hey everybody, figure i would post up in here. just switched to coco, and i want to set up a drip system. i would like to just use the stuff i can get at lowes/depot. so basically can i use 1/2 tubing from the pump, and then 1/4 inch tubing to the plants? also, they have this pressure equalization valve thing that sets it at 25psi i believe. anyways, is the 1/2" ok to feed off the pump or should it be larger diameter? going to be feeding anywhere from 30-45 1 gallon bags filled with coco. i know im being kind of vague right now, but im too high and cant figure this ish out. haha thanks a lot.
aod
aod
Hey there Gaius,
Waaaay back in this thread you were asked about a light mover, and said you didnt like the one you had used because it made the centre growth higher than the edges., I just want to ask, did your mover have an adjustable time delay pause at each end of the rail? This is supposed to fix that problem.. Im planning a split grow with 2 rooms, one vert for clones and one room flowering out seeds. I thought the mover would be useful on the seed flowering room.
Dffinately using coco in the seed room
Waaaay back in this thread you were asked about a light mover, and said you didnt like the one you had used because it made the centre growth higher than the edges., I just want to ask, did your mover have an adjustable time delay pause at each end of the rail? This is supposed to fix that problem.. Im planning a split grow with 2 rooms, one vert for clones and one room flowering out seeds. I thought the mover would be useful on the seed flowering room.
Dffinately using coco in the seed room
They make plugs for holes. They are dirt cheap, pennies a piece.I bought a pack of 50 for a couple bucks.
Regarding drippers in general. I don't know why people mess with these things. I run open 1/4" line and it works beautifully. No clogs...EVER. Plus you can get by with a less powerful pump because you aren't trying to force water through the tiny little channels inside the drippers. And your pump only has to run about 60 seconds to get runoff.
Spanishwilly
Member
A couple stupid questions here.
First, I have quite a lot of loose Canna Pro coco. Has anyone ever made their own homemade slabs?
Second, is there any reason (with zero veg or virtually zero veg) that I couldn´t put 6x1 metre Aqua Trays/slabs in 1 square metre with 5 plants in each one? I never seem to see anyone using anything other than 4 plants per slab. It seems that a more intensive sea of green would work great with these things.
WAIT, WAIT, waitwaitwait... I just looked at Gaiusmaius´ "what can be done" thread. Sorry, and don´t jump on my stupid ass.
I´d still be interested to know if anyone ever made their own slabs or just put rooted cubes straight onto a coco-filled Aqua Tray.
First, I have quite a lot of loose Canna Pro coco. Has anyone ever made their own homemade slabs?
Second, is there any reason (with zero veg or virtually zero veg) that I couldn´t put 6x1 metre Aqua Trays/slabs in 1 square metre with 5 plants in each one? I never seem to see anyone using anything other than 4 plants per slab. It seems that a more intensive sea of green would work great with these things.
WAIT, WAIT, waitwaitwait... I just looked at Gaiusmaius´ "what can be done" thread. Sorry, and don´t jump on my stupid ass.
I´d still be interested to know if anyone ever made their own slabs or just put rooted cubes straight onto a coco-filled Aqua Tray.
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if i have only 1 hole extra i'll make a second one so i can block both with the U
nope no idea about the bushmaster
well i hope you got it figured out by now, lol. i tend to just use the same equipment to set up my watering systems over and over.
yes indeed i noticed no problems during the veg pase back when i tried the light mover. but no it was a model with no timer, it just went back and forth with no stopping at the ends. i'm sure with the stops at either end you could sort out the alpine canopy.
i like the sound of 1/4 line going to every plant. but when you get into 50 plants or more those wide lines are gonna need quite some output to keep the pressure even on all the lines.
you can fill pots or bags with the lose coco no problem. filling the aqua try with coco would be ok too, just have to put some wire mesh over the 2 return tubes, last thing you want is lose coco blocking the return tubes and flooding the floor. maybe safer to put coco in pots and put the pots on the trays, but either will work.
going with 0 veg time works with most stretchy strains, specially if you give 5 plants per meter. the main thing is that your plants are well pre rooted into the rw cube before you put on the coco with auto watering. with most normal stretchy hybrids i can get away with 3 or 4 days of veg time in the coco slabs. but the really hazy 3 month flowering stuff will not need any veg time in the coco once the clone is well rooted into the rw cube i'm sure.
Spanishwilly
Member
Gaiusmarius, thanks for the quick reply. I´ll be using a stocky afghani, so that´s good. It´ll be 6 aqua trays per m2 with 5 plants in each.
I´ve been using green kitchen scrubbies to cover my drain holes to keep the coco out. They´ve worked great for me.
Are you able to say what sort of yields you got on your 30 plants per m2 project? Those plants look big and solid but it´s hard to tell from pics.
To digress again, (apologies) and regarding the post previous, can you say what sort of pump I´d need to run 60 or 90 of those open drip lines?
Both of these threads have been a fantastic help to me. Regards,
SW
I´ve been using green kitchen scrubbies to cover my drain holes to keep the coco out. They´ve worked great for me.
Are you able to say what sort of yields you got on your 30 plants per m2 project? Those plants look big and solid but it´s hard to tell from pics.
To digress again, (apologies) and regarding the post previous, can you say what sort of pump I´d need to run 60 or 90 of those open drip lines?
Both of these threads have been a fantastic help to me. Regards,
SW
it's actually 600watt over 1.5meter by 1meter (reflector light print) with 30 plants per. and when all goes well i get from 500 to 600g. depends on strain potential some times more.
cool thread
no dtw, no recirc, simple without runoff, every 10 - 14 days plain water flush, during summer one watering a day else every 2nd day watering when lights go on, multiple drips per plant (uptake optimization) some more - some less (strain dependant), same recycled coco since 2004, gets better with every use to that point that short term exeptions, like ph 4,8 to 8,2 or ec values up to 3.2 will get well buffered, if that exeption wont last longer than 2 days, run pure indis next to pure sats on the same drip line, thats the way to do it, get life into coco, keep that life alive, zyms, trichoderma, not more needed, also im a fan of ph drifting to allow better overall uptake availability, and ive didnt see any differences at any range between 5.5 and 6.5, so ... let it drift .. theyll take what they need, that way 30 liters will last 10-14 days on 1m² sog per 600W, and youll do ur pocket a favor and of course ol gaya, works also very well with organic nutes like bio bizz or atamis organic line and sure others as well, tho i like to keep always a 3 part bottle in near sight if some imbalances might occure
no dtw, no recirc, simple without runoff, every 10 - 14 days plain water flush, during summer one watering a day else every 2nd day watering when lights go on, multiple drips per plant (uptake optimization) some more - some less (strain dependant), same recycled coco since 2004, gets better with every use to that point that short term exeptions, like ph 4,8 to 8,2 or ec values up to 3.2 will get well buffered, if that exeption wont last longer than 2 days, run pure indis next to pure sats on the same drip line, thats the way to do it, get life into coco, keep that life alive, zyms, trichoderma, not more needed, also im a fan of ph drifting to allow better overall uptake availability, and ive didnt see any differences at any range between 5.5 and 6.5, so ... let it drift .. theyll take what they need, that way 30 liters will last 10-14 days on 1m² sog per 600W, and youll do ur pocket a favor and of course ol gaya, works also very well with organic nutes like bio bizz or atamis organic line and sure others as well, tho i like to keep always a 3 part bottle in near sight if some imbalances might occure
This thread is GREAT! But I've got a few questions. So I am in the process of building a drip system for 8k (drip to waste) , and debating between 96 or 128 drip sites. Say I went with the 128 drip sites, how big of a pump do you think I will need to run if I went with open lines that will be shaped in circles with holes in the circle (someone did this earlier in this thread)? The first drip site will be about 5 feet from the res and then would run another 16 ft. The lights are arranged in 2 rows of 4. Would I have the 1/2" tubing coming off of the pump go straight down the middle of my set up with a plug at the end and then have all of the 1/4" tubing coming from that into the plants? Or do I have to have the 1/2" tubing coming off the pump go around the set up and eventually connect back into itself (in a loop) to equalize pressure at every drip site? I read that this has to be done in another thread but he used pvc instead of 1/2"? (picos) link:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=62654
If I do just run the line down the middle of the setup with a plug at the end, will pressure be the same (equal watering) at every site down the line?
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=62654
If I do just run the line down the middle of the setup with a plug at the end, will pressure be the same (equal watering) at every site down the line?
depends on the diameter of the drippers, working with 5mm drippers and pe tubes, you can work with a realtive small pump (200 watts will be enough), but if you decide to go with smaller drippers like 0.3 to 1 mm you need more power, id suggest something with at least 800 watts power and the strength for 1,3 bar presure, tho a bigger pump, something with 3 bar pressure and around 1200 watts would be my 1st choice
no plug at the end, draw yout waterline in a circle, and from that circle on use drippers, this way you will have at every dripper the same pressure / amount of nutes, water coming out .... thats not the case when you have a plug in the end of the pe tubes
no plug at the end, draw yout waterline in a circle, and from that circle on use drippers, this way you will have at every dripper the same pressure / amount of nutes, water coming out .... thats not the case when you have a plug in the end of the pe tubes
when it come to watering set ups, there are so many options on the market that it's hard to know what kind of pump you should get till you know exactly which watering system you are using.
what i do to get even pressure on the line is use a one way fitting after the particle filter, this way the ldpe line on the table stays full all the time, so as soon as the pump goes on all the spaghetti lines start dripping together. you also get some drip lines that have a small valve on each one to make sure the water is flowing at the same speed, but those need the 4 bar pumps. your best bet is to ask the place you are buying your drip irrigation set up bits and pieces what kind of pump you need to run said set up. if it's just a few plants you can probably set something up with quite a small pump and those 1/2 inch bendy plastic pipes leading to smaller 1/4 inch ones going to every plant.
what i do to get even pressure on the line is use a one way fitting after the particle filter, this way the ldpe line on the table stays full all the time, so as soon as the pump goes on all the spaghetti lines start dripping together. you also get some drip lines that have a small valve on each one to make sure the water is flowing at the same speed, but those need the 4 bar pumps. your best bet is to ask the place you are buying your drip irrigation set up bits and pieces what kind of pump you need to run said set up. if it's just a few plants you can probably set something up with quite a small pump and those 1/2 inch bendy plastic pipes leading to smaller 1/4 inch ones going to every plant.
This is what I do too mate, some pics...
Make sure that the pipe stays above the water level or you'll get syphoning after the pump shuts off, learned this the hard way
Appreciate the info guys! What I was planning on doing was not using any drippers, but to instead us opened ends (1/4" tubing), but have T's attached to the ends and make little tube circles with holes in the tube for every plant to help the coco get a even distribution of water. So if I have 1/2" vinyl tubing coming off the pump and run it in a loop back to itself to equalize pressure, how would i connect it back to itself? Do they make a good connector that would work? Gaiusmarius, could you post a link to a picture of the one way fitting your are talking about? So if you use this fitting you are saying you can just run the 1/2" tubing and have a plug in the end and not have to loop it back to itself? And if I were to go with 128 drip sites (open ends), I am getting all the supplies from an online store that carries a lot of drip stuff, do you think this 1/4 hp pump would be enough or too much:
1/4 hp pump( it says from 1020-1800 gph)
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
or should I go with a 1/2 hp pump( it says up to 2500 gph):
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...-_-100000054-_-100034817-_-N&locStoreNum=4915
1/4 hp pump( it says from 1020-1800 gph)
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
or should I go with a 1/2 hp pump( it says up to 2500 gph):
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...-_-100000054-_-100034817-_-N&locStoreNum=4915
i have never done it making a loop for each plant, but a t piece will allow you to make a circle for each plant. when it come to making a big loup with the main line i don't think that will work, the pump will end up working against it's self i think, but i'm not sure.
128 open ended 1/4 inch lines adds up to a lot of water to keep it all flowing evenly, there is a formula to help you work out the pump strength you need, but i don't have it on hand. i just use the same stuff as i have ages ago, so don't have to do any calculations. but the people selling you this gear should be able to give you concrete answers. you just have to factor in the height of the table as well as the amount of lines and what rate the water runs through them.
128 open ended 1/4 inch lines adds up to a lot of water to keep it all flowing evenly, there is a formula to help you work out the pump strength you need, but i don't have it on hand. i just use the same stuff as i have ages ago, so don't have to do any calculations. but the people selling you this gear should be able to give you concrete answers. you just have to factor in the height of the table as well as the amount of lines and what rate the water runs through them.
Spanishwilly
Member
I know this must have been addressed already, but it's a big thread, and I can't find it.
Do we use "normal" rockwool hydro nutes here or coco nutes?
Thanks
Do we use "normal" rockwool hydro nutes here or coco nutes?
Thanks
if your main medium will be coco, then use coco a+b for sure. i use it for the rooting phase in rock wool too with no issues to speak of. but you can use hydro ferts for the rockwool phase too if you want and only switch to coco nutes when you plant them on the coco.
