CALLING FOR PICO!! OR OTHERS WHO HAVE USED HIS DRIP MANIFOLD

playboy420 · Jun 22, 2010

Hello Pico, can you hear me? I dont feel comforatable PMing you..

If you are there, do you get even pressure when using your style of manifold?

I was reading through an old journal by clowntown and he used a circle with a line through it and said it worked well..

what confused me is in one post he stated that
"On my first around, I made a single ring using a length of hose and a compression tee; with 32 outlets and a 396gph submersible, this resulted in quite uneven output. For DTW, this could mean a good amount of nutes wasted because of "over"-watering on the higher-output end. So now I modified the feed ring so that it now incorporates a 4-way "+" compression connector, resulting in the feed loop looking like two half-circles (a straight piece of tube running down the center of the loop). This resulted in an almost perfect output pressure, and I highly recommend it. The linear format was the worst of all in my experience, resulting in a harp-like output."

I wish I could ask him what he meant by linear format? Does anyone know (or if you are there Pico do you know?)??

I would like to do a drip manifold like so with a 500 gph mag drive pump where I have 4x4 table, 36 pots, the blue is the drip manifold and the black lines are the drip tubes. Will this have even pressure assuming perfect construction? I am not asking if I can build a perfect one I am asking Pico if this shape is okay as it is like his but with one more length of pvc. Please PICO :jump:

Thank you all

inreplyavalon · Jun 22, 2010

That shape will work fine. I have built about four of these and as long as you have a decent enough pump i have never noticed a difference in flow from the farthest away from the pump to the closest. Don't read too much into it, it is a fine design.

gaiusmarius · Jun 22, 2010

that should work np, use a one way valve to keep the irrigation lines on the table full all the time, that way when the pump turns on all the drippers start with in seconds.

playboy420 · Jun 22, 2010

hey thanks inreply, may I ask what size your manifolds are/were and what size pump you are/were using? I have also bought 1/4" valves for individual control of flow which I hope will help.

Still would like to hear from Pico baby

playboy420 · Jun 22, 2010

gaiusmarius said:
that should work np, use a one way valve to keep the irrigation lines on the table full all the time, that way when the pump turns on all the drippers start with in seconds.

Is that kind of like a backdraft damper you would install in your ducting? Lets water flow one way and not the other? Is that called anti siphon?

Thank you for the reply Gaius!! :tiphat:

inreplyavalon · Jun 23, 2010

Right now i have two 4x4 square manifolds with a 264 gph pump. Because of the thickness of the pvc, and having the drippers on top, a one-way valve is not necessary because none of the drippers will drip until the pvc is filled. then they will all start within a few seconds of each other. Unless you did not want to wait for the 5 seconds or so it takes to fill the pvc.

I also have 3x6 manifold with the same size pump. I have used bigger pumps on the 3x6 before and don't notice any difference except i just dial the timer down so i dont have too much runoff.
Hope that helped

puff adder · Jun 23, 2010

Here's a system I built that waters 36 plants over an 8'x8' area.

Looped tubing, and bubblers on risers helps keep the pressure equal throughout.

Unless you have a pump that can reach Tap pressure, I would use open ended spagetti lines. I tried emitters and shrubblers with my small pump and it worked better with just the open lines.

playboy420 · Jun 23, 2010

Thanks puff and inreply!

Hey Puff by bubblers what did you mean? And I assume that by risers you meant those 4 posts in the corners?

If I do not use drippers do I stick the open tubing into the coco or it looks like you have some sort of tube holder..? I have not seen those at my hydro store if that is what they are where did you get them?

EDIT: IS THIS THEM PUFF http://www.amazon.com/RAINBIRD-Drip-Tubing-Stake-Cap/dp/B002YPWNP4 ?
EDIT #2: If I had a powerful enough pump like 500 gph could I use the drippers instead of the open tubing?

Thank again

puff adder · Jun 23, 2010

The risers are the vertical tubes, and the bubblers or manifolds are the round things on top with the lines coming out. These particular ones have 9 out-lines each, x4 for 36 plants. They sell bubblers/manifolds in varying numbers, I've seen 3 out, 4 out,6 out, 8 out, and 9 out. They also sell some that automatically restrict flow, and others that are free flowing, you need to check when buying. The free flowing ones are the ones I used.

When I built the system, I bought those emitter stakes. In the picture on the bags, they made a cute perfect little shower, I think people call them "shrubblers" but they only make the shower at tap pressure. The caps thread on and are adjustable. With my little pump they all just oozed, so I removed all the caps so they were free-flowing.

My next system will probably use those stakes you linked to, if they are simply holders for the spagetti lines. That's what I would recomend.

If you are watering with nutes, actual emitters clogged very quickly for me, so I just go with open ended lines.

Teeg420 · Jun 23, 2010

where did you get those manifolds or bubblers?

playboy420 · Jun 23, 2010

thanks puff do you have an air pump going into your res at all?

Centrum · Jun 23, 2010

I built pico's system i had to run it a few seconds, about 15 secs before all the hoses would get equal pressure.
With a 396 GPH pump running 25 sites, i would get about 50 ml of water per hose the first 30 seconds, thats including the time it took to build pressure.

So with your results im sure you could manage to use the gap in pressure and add so many seconds to make up for it till enough pressure is built for an evenflow.
Recycle timer to xx seconds and mesaure how much water you want to give each cycle.

playboy420 · Jun 23, 2010

Teeg420 said:
where did you get those manifolds or bubblers?

I have seen them in the hydro store and online also home depot or lowes in the drip irrigation department

puff adder · Jun 23, 2010

I got mine at Home Depot. I've also seen them at landscape supply stores, easy to find.

The room that this system works in is FTW in catch trays, no runoff. I mix nutes and water out. I found that using an airstone messed with my PH so I don't use one, the nutes might sit overnight in the res, that's it.
This drip system ended up being "supplementary". Because I had no runoff, and some plants drank more, others less, it was impossible to dial the drip system in 100%. I watered just to runoff on the light drinkers, and the heavy drinkers were hand fed once a week or as needed. It allowed me to do multiple small waterings, and cut my work level by a lot.

IF you have drainage ability or recirculating, then these drip systems really shine.

bdomina · Jun 24, 2010

has anyone ever used an adjustable pressure regulator on their manifold? Have my eye one one and think it could be key for these systems. Especialliy if you have a large pump. (1320 gph)

playboy420 · Jun 24, 2010

hey bdomina, as far as pressure regulators go the only thing I can think of is to have 1/4" valves on every dripper so you can evenly distribute the water, or in a situation like puffs where some require more water than other you can open the values up a little on the heavy drinkers so they recieve more water than the others. This is what I was planning on doing even tho it will take hella long to dial in.

Another simpler option would be to place a two way valve right above your pump with one line going to the drip manifold and the other line going back into the res. The more water you let back into the res the less water goes to the manifold. You can control flow this way.

After having typed all that I realized that you were asking about pressure and not volume or flow. So maybe this post was useless.

Can you elaborate more on the pressure reducer and why it would be key in this type of set up please?

Thank you

bdomina · Jun 25, 2010

http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?t=prod&sku=R450CP&AC=1

this is what I'm talking about. You would put it between the pump and the manifold. It should regulate the pressure and flow of the entire manifold. So if you weren't getting enough within the timed watering you could open it up a little. Or vise versa. Btw I got my submersible at harbour frieght for like $30. Although I have not used the regulator and can't vouch for its durability, it should (in my mind) eliminate the need for any drippers bubblers ect. Thus helping eliminate clogs and such. More or less I think you could dial a system in w ease w this thing. Someone plz correct me if I'm wrong

playboy420 · Jun 25, 2010

that pressure regulator thing is cool but I have a question

How do you solve the above mentioned problem of the plants needing differnet amount of water with that single device?

If you were not going to be concered with that then ya that thing would be ultra awesome and should make it easy

gaiusmarius · Jun 25, 2010

thats the thing in coco it doesn't matter if every single plant get s the same amount of water. as you say some will use more and some on the edges will use less. this makes no difference, you just have to make sure you run the pump long enough that you get at least a bit of run off from each plant. the plants will get used to the water level they are getting and make their roots make the best of things.

playboy420 · Jun 25, 2010

gaiusmarius said:
thats the thing in coco it doesn't matter if every single plant get s the same amount of water. as you say some will use more and some on the edges will use less. this makes no difference, you just have to make sure you run the pump long enough that you get at least a bit of run off from each plant. the plants will get used to the water level they are getting and make their roots make the best of things.

By waiting until you have runoff from every plant that means that you are waiting on the plant or plants that use the most water to start giving run off, meanwhile the plant or plants that dont use as much water are just being soaked and at some point just let the water go right through.

The only time I could see this being a problem is when you just transplant and there is or at least I like to think there is, a 1-2 week window where you can overwater plants in coco. Once the plants are rooted well in their final pots then I think what you have said will work gaius

I still like the idea of individual 1/4" valves controlling everying plants flo. Start with the valve half way open and open it up as you notice that the plant needs more water...hmm will that create un-even pressure in the manifold then if you have one valve say 1/2 open and one valve almost fully open? The tubes would be the same lenght and the spacing would be even in the manifold..hmm anyone know?

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