Needing growroom coco water drainage help

Room is 16x9. 18 plants in coco... Trying to figure out a simple way to do drainage. Floor is cement but no drains in barn.. Room is wood framing so i dont want to just have it flood right on floor... Was thinking using flood table but cost effective wise, wouldnt make sense... Seems like some awesome people around here. Any help would be amazing.

I have small bins I use , although it sucks ass it does work . The measure roughly 12”w
16 L x 8 high . Found at Walmart , dollar store etc . The plant sits in the bin on 2x2 wood pieces so it can drain . Have to shop vac it out daily or bi daily . I use about 20ft of vac hose per room I have it permanently plumbed it . This works great for big ones that need rotation or need to be moved etc .
Using wood after 60 days sucks it gets dirty. Slimy . I’ll soak wood after in bleach water . Or peroxide . Wood is brand new again . Plastics would be better , wood is easiest to locate

For small plants I will use 4x4 trays instead (much easier ) .

Totes. They are cheap and you can get them in any size.

eebbnflow said:

I have small bins I use , although it sucks ass it does work . The measure roughly 12”w
16 L x 8 high . Found at Walmart , dollar store etc . The plant sits in the bin on 2x2 wood pieces so it can drain . Have to shop vac it out daily or bi daily . I use about 20ft of vac hose per room I have it permanently plumbed it . This works great for big ones that need rotation or need to be moved etc .
Using wood after 60 days sucks it gets dirty. Slimy . I’ll soak wood after in bleach water . Or peroxide . Wood is brand new again . Plastics would be better , wood is easiest to locate

For small plants I will use 4x4 trays instead (much easier ) .

Click to expand...

Pics?

First grow i had pots on saucers with drip holes, and that all was raised from a deep saucer. Id thrn water and then suck up with shop vac. Wasn't hard? But wasnt easy was a decent amount of work and back n fourth... Found a thing using a hot water saucer. They are aluminum and come with a prefit outlet plug and then you connect tubing/drainage from there.. I may try those or make my own.

I would almost certainly drip to waste. Having some sort of catchment area under each, much like the posters before me.

I have found a 12mm drill bit makes a hole that a hosepipe crams into nicely. Using this as a plumbing technique, you can link all the catch tanks together. Then at some point you have a catch tank that's not for a plant, but instead a pump. A pump operated by float switch. That sucks the water out if it gets deeper than say 2". This 2" is all you need raise your plants by to keep them from standing in the water. Which is important, or they will fill the tanks with roots, and block the hose that drains them.

You have no drains, so some sort of waste water storage tank will be needed. Perhaps on wheels. Or perhaps you can pump straight out the barn to a soak-away. If you do, then beware having the hose outlet lower than the 2" mark. The problem is, after the pump stops, you have a siphon. Leaving the pump dry. Few pumps like being dry.

If it must be lower, I have answers.


If this bowl with a pump and float sounds hard, you will be pleased to know you can buy it already done. It's called a condense pump. They are very cheap to buy used. Until I just posted it anyway. I expect they will attract more interest now. I often put a few holes in, to send off a few pipes to sets of catch tanks. This allows the water to enter quicker. Just one hose can be a little slow.

If you balls up the 12mm hole, a cable gland with rubber packing will save you.

4 4x8 Botanicare Low Tide trays will work as saucers, if you're handwatering. I flood and drain so I cut my coco with 80% coarse perlite so it dries out much faster

Oh I see. Yes I would run a table and have the table drain to a tote.

Using a flood and drain table with coco in pots, and draining table to a waste tote.

I use hempys, in a saucer. If the hole is above the top of the saucer they won't suck up the runoff.

Plastic\composite corrugated roof panels of course. Way cheaper than trays. Sloped to drain the runoff to the lower end into a gutter, or tote, res, etc.

PVC is the cheapest but also flimsiest, so you would want to set it on plywood\osb. Polycarbonate or other sturdier panels could be strong enough to span over whatever frame you build, without flexing much with the weight of the watered down plants.


You could keep the roof panels (two 8 ft panels overlapped a few inches could run the whole length of your room, down the center or along the walls) intact for longer sideways runs but would have more of a slant, the non drainage side would be a lot higher to get a decent slant.

Or rip the panels into 2-3 foot sections, overlap them from side to side, and run the gutter/s on the side/s of your 3+ ft isle way in the center of the room. Would need a longer gutter than way, whereas you could just drain into a 2-3 ft wide tote if you use the whole panel.


Many ways to configure the roof panels to work.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKzSqGRCkws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIYf5qWCdwI