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Coco/Perlite top drip run to waste House and Garden Van De Zwaan nutrients
- Thread starter pico
- Start date
Gemini
New member
Hey Pico, Sweet grow you have going on here. Much luck with this. I was thinking about going with a drip system in coco. I guess what i can't understand is, how do you get the entire medium wet when you are working with the drip lines? It would seem to me that the drip system will only wet one area of the coco. Do you have to move the drip lines every so often, to get even distribution? If you leave the drip lines in one place, does it soak the whole medium? Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Peace
Peace
cannigrow- Thanks man. I can't say weather the top drip is better than the coco beds yet. They are both top drip of sorts. But I am using different nutrients with both systems, different strains, different numbers of plants, different wattage of lights.......So I just can't compare the two very well. I like both of the systems
ChristianTaylor- I tend to agree with you on ebb and flow. If you are going to switch over to hydro it sure is easy. Hydroton with lucas formula ebb and flow is almost foolproof. I didn't ever even change my pH with that setup.
Cruzin- I haven't done any exact calculations on runoff. I have only been watering once a day at this point. I water until I start seeing some runoff then turn it off. I am going to start watering more often this week.
Gemini- The single drip line seems to be working pretty well. The coco seems to distribute the moisture pretty well. I don't move drippers around. Even the top of the pots gets moist. We will see how this one finished up. Still plenty of things that can go wrong
I will have some pictures up later tonight
ChristianTaylor- I tend to agree with you on ebb and flow. If you are going to switch over to hydro it sure is easy. Hydroton with lucas formula ebb and flow is almost foolproof. I didn't ever even change my pH with that setup.
Cruzin- I haven't done any exact calculations on runoff. I have only been watering once a day at this point. I water until I start seeing some runoff then turn it off. I am going to start watering more often this week.
Gemini- The single drip line seems to be working pretty well. The coco seems to distribute the moisture pretty well. I don't move drippers around. Even the top of the pots gets moist. We will see how this one finished up. Still plenty of things that can go wrong
I will have some pictures up later tonight
G
Guest
Hey Pico,
Man, I can't believe I missed this thread and the other one. I miss be slipping or something. Nice DIY thread and this one. Can't wait to see the results from this setup. All ways nice to watch your threads.
Take care,
BG
Man, I can't believe I missed this thread and the other one. I miss be slipping or something. Nice DIY thread and this one. Can't wait to see the results from this setup. All ways nice to watch your threads.
Take care,
BG
Ok here are the tabbys around 2.5 weeks in to flower. Loving the House and Garden Van De Zwaan Coco nutrients and all the additives.
Here is the back wall where the ballasts, air conditioner, water reservoirs..
I mount the ballasts with the factory mounting points, but I also add some metal strapping as a safety measure.
I forgot to take a picture, but I changed out my homeowner dehumidifiers for a Santa Fe 100 pint dehumidifier. $1200 bucks or so but man that thing kicks ass. keeps my 10x20 sealed room down at 50% humidity. The $200 dehumidifiers can't hold a candle to this unit.
GDW-Your slipping man, your slippin. fortunately this top drip setup is not slipping in the slightest. I love this tabby strain as well. Just explodes out of the gate and flowers crazy fast. Hope you enjoy the show.
Dopest-
Here is the back wall where the ballasts, air conditioner, water reservoirs..
I mount the ballasts with the factory mounting points, but I also add some metal strapping as a safety measure.
I forgot to take a picture, but I changed out my homeowner dehumidifiers for a Santa Fe 100 pint dehumidifier. $1200 bucks or so but man that thing kicks ass. keeps my 10x20 sealed room down at 50% humidity. The $200 dehumidifiers can't hold a candle to this unit.
GDW-Your slipping man, your slippin. fortunately this top drip setup is not slipping in the slightest. I love this tabby strain as well. Just explodes out of the gate and flowers crazy fast. Hope you enjoy the show.
Dopest-
G
Guest
Hey pico,
Man, nice to see this garden. Love the setup and all the nice goodies. Glad to hear you bumped up the dehumidifier. With that room being as big as it is. That was a very smart move. Should keep the room in check for sure. Looks like you got those ballast all nice and safe. Safety straps was a good idea also. I used to place mine on a shelf and i would be so worried about them falling. I think I'll be trying this method later on.
Sure does look like your going to be very busy in the end. Lost of trimming for sure. lolol. Those plants are going to bud up so fat. Hugh fat main cola's for sure. Can't wait to see them. Great job like always.
Take care,
BG
PS, Got another new toy on the way pico. Should have it in about 2 weeks. Wonder if you can guess what it is? It's bigger then a bread box.lolol
Later
Man, nice to see this garden. Love the setup and all the nice goodies. Glad to hear you bumped up the dehumidifier. With that room being as big as it is. That was a very smart move. Should keep the room in check for sure. Looks like you got those ballast all nice and safe. Safety straps was a good idea also. I used to place mine on a shelf and i would be so worried about them falling. I think I'll be trying this method later on.
Sure does look like your going to be very busy in the end. Lost of trimming for sure. lolol. Those plants are going to bud up so fat. Hugh fat main cola's for sure. Can't wait to see them. Great job like always.
Take care,
BG
PS, Got another new toy on the way pico. Should have it in about 2 weeks.
Wonder if you can guess what it is? It's bigger then a bread box.lololLater
G
Guest
pico said:
You wish, lolol. No, got a guy going to be building my main panel for me soon. I'll post the pictures once he's done. Should be a sweet piece of work. Watch out pico. It's getting closer by the day. First main panel will be able to handle 12kW. Next panel will be able to handle 20-30kW., lolol Maybe that unit will be the Isuzu.
G
Guest
Morning pico,
I'll get some pictures once i get my unit. I was thinking about your medium. I've used Ready-Gro in the past and it's a mix kind of like what your using. Do you have any floating issues with your medium and container's? I was using their dry mix, or that's what i think it's called. I would flood my table 6 times a day fro about 10-15 minute cycles. Kind of wild watching the young clones and containers float some. After awhile they tend to keep alittle bit of water and they settle down. Any ways, was wondering if you ran into this with your mix? Well, you take care. All ways love watching and reading your threads. Have a nice weekend and take care.
Later,
BG
I'll get some pictures once i get my unit. I was thinking about your medium. I've used Ready-Gro in the past and it's a mix kind of like what your using. Do you have any floating issues with your medium and container's? I was using their dry mix, or that's what i think it's called. I would flood my table 6 times a day fro about 10-15 minute cycles. Kind of wild watching the young clones and containers float some. After awhile they tend to keep alittle bit of water and they settle down. Any ways, was wondering if you ran into this with your mix? Well, you take care. All ways love watching and reading your threads. Have a nice weekend and take care.
Later,
BG
This is a top drip system here so I don't have that problem. I did try it with ebb and flow and I didn't get floaters, but I didn't like how the coco soaked up the water from just the bottom holes. I think if they are floating they are probably a bit dry and could be watered more often.
I have a bunch of plants in the same medium with coco pots ebb and flow and I don't get any floaters there either. The coco pots are really nice for coco ebb and flow. doesn't let the coco particles get in to the pump and they let water soak in from around the pot instead of just trying to get up through the bottom holes.
Hope your weekend is fantastic as well
-pico
I have a bunch of plants in the same medium with coco pots ebb and flow and I don't get any floaters there either. The coco pots are really nice for coco ebb and flow. doesn't let the coco particles get in to the pump and they let water soak in from around the pot instead of just trying to get up through the bottom holes.
Hope your weekend is fantastic as well
-pico
whataboutbob
Member
Bob to the Big Dripper!
Bob to the Big Dripper!
Hey Pico...........Nice to meet ya and may I say, VERY IMPRESSIVE GROWS INDEED. I recently made the switch from soil to coco. WHAT A DIFFERENCE?
Anyway, got a couple questions for ya, if ya don't mind? I checked out your blow by blow diagram of how to build the drip rig. I understood ALL of it. I, myself, am a hand watering person/ grow in pots but recently have grown tired of staying on the job 24/7 and would like to run a system that would allow me to split every now and again with no hassles. I am totally ignorant to the ways of drip systems and have been reading up on all the info I can and stumbled onto your thread which I found to be very informative. You are SHOWING me how to build the rig, which is what I was looking for.
Question: So...........from the point where the filter is/where the hose gets hooked up..............where does this anti-syphon gizmo get attached........(can you SHOW ME...VIA A PICTURE)? Where can I get one of these filters at? So the hose goes to the 50 gallon drum where the nutrient solution is, correct? OH SHIT..............I guess it would help if you KNEW what I was intending to run? I always run small gardens, never more than 6 plants. So I'll have 6 plants, in 3 gallon pots filled with coco and perlite being fed on a drip system (obviously),scrog style...( Thank you for the wonderful demo on how to build a screen too!) .........ok......so......What size pump would I need for that many plants?........and.........How does the pump attach to the hose?.............Thanks so much Pico! Anything that you think may be of help to me (considering my lack of knowledge on drip systems......Hell(any systems for that matter?) I'M ALL EARS BRO..........A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS TOO! Peace....................Bob
Bob to the Big Dripper!
Hey Pico...........Nice to meet ya and may I say, VERY IMPRESSIVE GROWS INDEED. I recently made the switch from soil to coco. WHAT A DIFFERENCE?
Anyway, got a couple questions for ya, if ya don't mind? I checked out your blow by blow diagram of how to build the drip rig. I understood ALL of it. I, myself, am a hand watering person/ grow in pots but recently have grown tired of staying on the job 24/7 and would like to run a system that would allow me to split every now and again with no hassles. I am totally ignorant to the ways of drip systems and have been reading up on all the info I can and stumbled onto your thread which I found to be very informative. You are SHOWING me how to build the rig, which is what I was looking for.
Question: So...........from the point where the filter is/where the hose gets hooked up..............where does this anti-syphon gizmo get attached........(can you SHOW ME...VIA A PICTURE)? Where can I get one of these filters at? So the hose goes to the 50 gallon drum where the nutrient solution is, correct? OH SHIT..............I guess it would help if you KNEW what I was intending to run? I always run small gardens, never more than 6 plants. So I'll have 6 plants, in 3 gallon pots filled with coco and perlite being fed on a drip system (obviously),scrog style...( Thank you for the wonderful demo on how to build a screen too!) .........ok......so......What size pump would I need for that many plants?........and.........How does the pump attach to the hose?.............Thanks so much Pico! Anything that you think may be of help to me (considering my lack of knowledge on drip systems......Hell(any systems for that matter?) I'M ALL EARS BRO..........A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS TOO! Peace....................Bob
Day 30-ish
Day 30-ish
Ok we are right around day 30. This is the point where you give the plants the house and garden top booster for 3 or 4 days. Top booster is basically just PK 13/14 with some Iron I think.
The plants are amazingly healthy. Following the House and Garden feeding chart exactly. Never before have I had a nutrient work perfectly with suggested feedings. Still never changed pH either. I stopped changing pH 6 months ago and don't plan on going back.
This is why I have been fucking around with different nutes and styles of growing for the last number of years. To find something that works really well and is easy to maintain. Still 4 weeks to go, but looking like a winner so far.
If anyone want to give H&G a try, give the distributer an email and they will send you a box full of samples for free. They sent me about 300 bucks worth of product to try out and now I have purchased a couple grand of their nutes.
Not sure if I mentioned it, but I turned my CO2 back on a couple week ago. I was having humidity problems so I unsealed my room and tried intake/exaust setup. That didn't really fix my humidity problems and some of the plants in other parts of the room (this drip system is only 1/3 of the room) started getting powdery mildew. Sucked PM spores in from outside, even with filters on intake. So like I was saying, I went back to a sealed room with CO2 burner, CO2 monitor controller, Air conditioner, dehumidifier, aircooled hoods.....to fix the humidity problem I upgraded from a couple 50 pint homeowner dehumidifiers to a Santa Fe 100 pint dehumidifier. This thing is amazing and gets my humidity down in the 40s by itself.
Ok, enough mumbo jumbo.
whataboutbob- Thanks for stopping by. Let me see if I can't answer your questions. feel free to ask more if I don't nail them.
this is a picture of a pump connected to a hose. The white piece closest to the pump is an adapter that goes from the pump threads to garden hose threads. the next piece is the black anti siphon valve. The anti siphon valves can be bought with hose connections so no adapters are needed.
EDIT: I just checked the operation of this anti siphon valve. My system has been working fine but my tables are not below the reservoir. I checked to see if I could get a siphon anyways and I did
!!! So this is not the correct way to set up an anti siphon valve. Thinking about it, these are designed so you don't get a siphon back in to your home plumbing (in this case towards the pump) which is the opposit of what we want. We want to make sure we don't get a siphon from the pump to the drip manifold. So I think this would work if we just got some adapters and flipped the anti siphon valve around. If anyone has any info on this let me know.
I ended up changing my hoses out for better quality ones. The cheaper hoses kinked very easy. Still running 25 feet of hose. Then it goes in to the particle filter. you need a female garden hose to female pvc thread adapter to hook up the hose.
here is a better picture of the particle filter and the white adapter to go to the garden hose. You can pick these things up a a hydro store or in your Raindrip section of your hardware store (home depot, lowes...)
As far as your system here are a couple thoughts. I would probably use 2 drip lines per pot since you are using larger pots then me. A 200-300 gallon pump would work.
C_Q- Welcome to the jungle. Hit me with your best shot.
Day 30-ish
Ok we are right around day 30. This is the point where you give the plants the house and garden top booster for 3 or 4 days. Top booster is basically just PK 13/14 with some Iron I think.
The plants are amazingly healthy. Following the House and Garden feeding chart exactly. Never before have I had a nutrient work perfectly with suggested feedings. Still never changed pH either. I stopped changing pH 6 months ago and don't plan on going back.
This is why I have been fucking around with different nutes and styles of growing for the last number of years. To find something that works really well and is easy to maintain. Still 4 weeks to go, but looking like a winner so far.
If anyone want to give H&G a try, give the distributer an email and they will send you a box full of samples for free. They sent me about 300 bucks worth of product to try out and now I have purchased a couple grand of their nutes.
Not sure if I mentioned it, but I turned my CO2 back on a couple week ago. I was having humidity problems so I unsealed my room and tried intake/exaust setup. That didn't really fix my humidity problems and some of the plants in other parts of the room (this drip system is only 1/3 of the room) started getting powdery mildew. Sucked PM spores in from outside, even with filters on intake. So like I was saying, I went back to a sealed room with CO2 burner, CO2 monitor controller, Air conditioner, dehumidifier, aircooled hoods.....to fix the humidity problem I upgraded from a couple 50 pint homeowner dehumidifiers to a Santa Fe 100 pint dehumidifier. This thing is amazing and gets my humidity down in the 40s by itself.
Ok, enough mumbo jumbo.
whataboutbob- Thanks for stopping by. Let me see if I can't answer your questions. feel free to ask more if I don't nail them.
this is a picture of a pump connected to a hose. The white piece closest to the pump is an adapter that goes from the pump threads to garden hose threads. the next piece is the black anti siphon valve. The anti siphon valves can be bought with hose connections so no adapters are needed.
EDIT: I just checked the operation of this anti siphon valve. My system has been working fine but my tables are not below the reservoir. I checked to see if I could get a siphon anyways and I did
!!! So this is not the correct way to set up an anti siphon valve. Thinking about it, these are designed so you don't get a siphon back in to your home plumbing (in this case towards the pump) which is the opposit of what we want. We want to make sure we don't get a siphon from the pump to the drip manifold. So I think this would work if we just got some adapters and flipped the anti siphon valve around. If anyone has any info on this let me know.
I ended up changing my hoses out for better quality ones. The cheaper hoses kinked very easy. Still running 25 feet of hose. Then it goes in to the particle filter. you need a female garden hose to female pvc thread adapter to hook up the hose.
here is a better picture of the particle filter and the white adapter to go to the garden hose. You can pick these things up a a hydro store or in your Raindrip section of your hardware store (home depot, lowes...)
As far as your system here are a couple thoughts. I would probably use 2 drip lines per pot since you are using larger pots then me. A 200-300 gallon pump would work.
C_Q- Welcome to the jungle. Hit me with your best shot.
Looking very nice pico glad you got your room back to the way you like it. and they are looking very happy and big
whataboutbob
Member
Hey Pico!
Hey Pico!
Thanks for the information man.............AND THE PICS WERE AWESOME! It's so much easier to learn when you can actually SEE what someone is explaining to you, ya know?
I understand your point with the anti syphon gizmo...........it should be at the other end, towards the filter, right?
I run totally organic Pico. Earth Juice is my fert of choice. With hand watering I have noticed at the bottom of my 5-gallon mixing buckets there is quite a bit of sediment. Do you see a problem with this (in a drip system)..............or will the filter be able to handle the sediment situation.......(perhaps requiring more cleaning than if using a straight up chemical fert)? OR..............is there a more heavy duty filter that I should be using?
I talked to a guy in California, at a grow store, who was telling me about the House and Garden ferts. He damn near came through the phone he was getting so excited..LOL....I had never heard ANYTHING about them up until that point. I thought,"House and Garden"? That's a phuckin magazine ain't it?...LOL But's it's a chemical fert right? I like my weed to be just as clean as my food so if I lose a little on the yield side of the fence, so be it....................OH.ONE MORE THING............How loud is the pump you suggested I get? Is it OBNOXIOUS LOUD? Thanks bro/peace.....BOB
Hey Pico!
Thanks for the information man.............AND THE PICS WERE AWESOME! It's so much easier to learn when you can actually SEE what someone is explaining to you, ya know?
I understand your point with the anti syphon gizmo...........it should be at the other end, towards the filter, right?
I run totally organic Pico. Earth Juice is my fert of choice. With hand watering I have noticed at the bottom of my 5-gallon mixing buckets there is quite a bit of sediment. Do you see a problem with this (in a drip system)..............or will the filter be able to handle the sediment situation.......(perhaps requiring more cleaning than if using a straight up chemical fert)? OR..............is there a more heavy duty filter that I should be using?
I talked to a guy in California, at a grow store, who was telling me about the House and Garden ferts. He damn near came through the phone he was getting so excited..LOL....I had never heard ANYTHING about them up until that point. I thought,"House and Garden"? That's a phuckin magazine ain't it?...LOL But's it's a chemical fert right? I like my weed to be just as clean as my food so if I lose a little on the yield side of the fence, so be it....................OH.ONE MORE THING............How loud is the pump you suggested I get? Is it OBNOXIOUS LOUD? Thanks bro/peace.....BOB
