the idea and the reasoning behind it:
i have a small seed run of four strains that i dont wanna devote a whole lot of time and effort to until they are proven worthy of drowning in watts, time and effort lol. the idea was to come up with a SMALL system that i can devote to running four to six plants in and not take up valuable floor space with possible crap like that has happened far too many times before. i wanted to do this as cheaply and effieciently as possible. i will be using small wattage like a 150 or possibly source two small cheap LED's off ebay. the plants are heavily defoliated and the lower crap is removed. i know the importance of tops only on small wattage setups. no larf whatsoever. i have a lumatek that needs to be sent in for repair or replacement so when that gets back i may just use it on the lowest setting of 300w.
im always trying to find uses for things ive collected throughout the years in this hobby. everything in this sytstem was put together with things i had. i did not buy anything! free is the best haha. i think if you are clever enough all of the items can be sourced locally even if you dont have a hydro shop like in my situation. keep in mind you may not have the same exact materials used here but with a little tinkering you can modify this to suit your needs with little effort.
the list of stuff:
-tough storage container that will hold water as a res. im using a tough box from lowes because the lid is PERFECT for this setup because of the recessed channels in it for draining away the runoff
-small pump for irrigating
-some tubing for your irrigation lines. i used a section of latex tubing i had laying around.
-barbs and dripper line. i used some kent sytem barbs that i had extra from my blumat grows as well as the blumat tubing for the drip line. regular spaghetti tubing from lowes or hydro shop will work fine.
thats the brunt of it. the rest is merely grow supplies that everyone should have in hydro like rockwool, hydroton, nutes etc.. this could also be used with coco as well with some slight mods.
pretty simple setup to build. took me 30 minutes because i had to clean out my tub since it had old coco in it.
first i drill a hole in the upper portion of the sidewall of the tub big enough for the cord and the tubing. i think i used about 1 1/4- 1 1/2. doesnt really matter.
i then fed my tubing and cord through it and layed it aside. now take your lid and drill lots of holes for drainage. im using a tiny pump but i still went overkill with the drainage just so i dont have to worry about running over. the lid is only like an inch deep lol.
from here you are just gonna install the dripper lines in the irrigation tubing and cut them all the same length so they feed equally. this is pretty important otherwise some will get a lot less water.
i did not attatch anything to the lid so i can remove it with the plants on it and just lay the drip manifold aside while i dump the res and do checks on ph and whatnot.
from there you just need to set up a timer and figure out your ideal watering cycles. as far as media goes i am using 4x4 rockwool cubes that i am gonna rest in 1/2 gal pots of growstones. i figure with this setup i can water once or twice a day for a minute or two and thats it. coco can be set to water once a day for longer to suit your needs/pot size.
this system can be run drain to waste or recirculating. for recirculating simply fill the bottom up with nutes and let her rip. if you want to do drain to waste simply put a bucket underneath that you keep your pump inside of with nutes and let the rest be caught in the container. this method will use less water in the long run since you are using a mini res inside the main tub. i think i will try out this method for now since i hate wasting RO water since its so slow to fill and not efficient to make.
any q's feel free to ask. this is a work in progress. i have never done an automated drip system before. just blumats in coco. nutes are veg + bloom and drip clean. thats it. simple, clean, effective.
i hope this helps at least one person so i can feel good about typing all of this haha.
i just ordered 2 90w LED grow lights from ebay. i made sure to go through a US seller that takes returns no questions asked just in case they are crap lol. they are 90w actual use with 45 3w USA made bridgelux chips in each one. this will be my first LED grow lol. fingers crossed for great results. i will update weekly with the results. in the mean time they are goind under a 600w with 6 BUSHY AK's. once the LED's come in the AK's and the hydro system is getting moved off to the corner so my ebb and grow type sytsem can get set up for my big run.
i have a small seed run of four strains that i dont wanna devote a whole lot of time and effort to until they are proven worthy of drowning in watts, time and effort lol. the idea was to come up with a SMALL system that i can devote to running four to six plants in and not take up valuable floor space with possible crap like that has happened far too many times before. i wanted to do this as cheaply and effieciently as possible. i will be using small wattage like a 150 or possibly source two small cheap LED's off ebay. the plants are heavily defoliated and the lower crap is removed. i know the importance of tops only on small wattage setups. no larf whatsoever. i have a lumatek that needs to be sent in for repair or replacement so when that gets back i may just use it on the lowest setting of 300w.
im always trying to find uses for things ive collected throughout the years in this hobby. everything in this sytstem was put together with things i had. i did not buy anything! free is the best haha. i think if you are clever enough all of the items can be sourced locally even if you dont have a hydro shop like in my situation. keep in mind you may not have the same exact materials used here but with a little tinkering you can modify this to suit your needs with little effort.
the list of stuff:
-tough storage container that will hold water as a res. im using a tough box from lowes because the lid is PERFECT for this setup because of the recessed channels in it for draining away the runoff
-small pump for irrigating
-some tubing for your irrigation lines. i used a section of latex tubing i had laying around.
-barbs and dripper line. i used some kent sytem barbs that i had extra from my blumat grows as well as the blumat tubing for the drip line. regular spaghetti tubing from lowes or hydro shop will work fine.
thats the brunt of it. the rest is merely grow supplies that everyone should have in hydro like rockwool, hydroton, nutes etc.. this could also be used with coco as well with some slight mods.
pretty simple setup to build. took me 30 minutes because i had to clean out my tub since it had old coco in it.
first i drill a hole in the upper portion of the sidewall of the tub big enough for the cord and the tubing. i think i used about 1 1/4- 1 1/2. doesnt really matter.
i then fed my tubing and cord through it and layed it aside. now take your lid and drill lots of holes for drainage. im using a tiny pump but i still went overkill with the drainage just so i dont have to worry about running over. the lid is only like an inch deep lol.
from here you are just gonna install the dripper lines in the irrigation tubing and cut them all the same length so they feed equally. this is pretty important otherwise some will get a lot less water.
i did not attatch anything to the lid so i can remove it with the plants on it and just lay the drip manifold aside while i dump the res and do checks on ph and whatnot.
from there you just need to set up a timer and figure out your ideal watering cycles. as far as media goes i am using 4x4 rockwool cubes that i am gonna rest in 1/2 gal pots of growstones. i figure with this setup i can water once or twice a day for a minute or two and thats it. coco can be set to water once a day for longer to suit your needs/pot size.
this system can be run drain to waste or recirculating. for recirculating simply fill the bottom up with nutes and let her rip. if you want to do drain to waste simply put a bucket underneath that you keep your pump inside of with nutes and let the rest be caught in the container. this method will use less water in the long run since you are using a mini res inside the main tub. i think i will try out this method for now since i hate wasting RO water since its so slow to fill and not efficient to make.
any q's feel free to ask. this is a work in progress. i have never done an automated drip system before. just blumats in coco. nutes are veg + bloom and drip clean. thats it. simple, clean, effective.
i hope this helps at least one person so i can feel good about typing all of this haha.
i just ordered 2 90w LED grow lights from ebay. i made sure to go through a US seller that takes returns no questions asked just in case they are crap lol. they are 90w actual use with 45 3w USA made bridgelux chips in each one. this will be my first LED grow lol. fingers crossed for great results. i will update weekly with the results. in the mean time they are goind under a 600w with 6 BUSHY AK's. once the LED's come in the AK's and the hydro system is getting moved off to the corner so my ebb and grow type sytsem can get set up for my big run.
