$35 Drip System tutorial :)

[Amon]

One thing I'd be concerned with is always keeping the base of the root system wet. Try moving your outlet port so it feeds off to the side instead of squirting or dripping right to the base of the plant. Also, try switching your soil to Coco. It dries out much much quicker and is actually designed to be used with a drip setup. It will be my next step to make my life easier. I love to hand feed/water, but health is making it harder to keep up. so thanks for the tutorial bro. With a few modifications here and there, your growing could really take off. best of luck to ya

 

[ShroomDr]

i use an oil pan (click for bigger images)





timer ($10), oil pan ($6), aquarium pump ($25) Fittings ($4)

 

[MrMcBean]

What size pump would I need to feed 45 - 1GPH emitters?


Stinky

I would look for a 50 GPH pump. That shouldnt be expensive either.

another question. Do you think its necessary to have a mother and a seperate clone room? I am going to be using 1 tent for mothers and clones and not sure if i could seperate it... (im assuming different lighting purposes?) I plan to run 3 26w cfls in that veg tent.... do you know if this is okay?

No, your clones will do just fine in the mother room as long as there is enough room and they get enough light. Its improtant to keep the clones isolated using a small platic greenhouse lid or see-through platic cups to keep the humidity very high.



I like the oil-pan as a catcher. Thats very nifty

peace

 

[Thundurkel]

Nice tutorial bro! This is exactly what I have been looking for! Hopefully I can get a drip system set up in my 400w grow with my air pots I'm getting!

 

[cracker420]

 

[Some1uKnoOf]

I use the same concept for the last couple years in my veg box, except I don't have a pump. I use a hose timer that opens every couple days and lets gravity feed pressure to the drippers.

My pressure is really low because I only have about 2 feet of drop. I use a siphon to pull water from gallon milk jugs and then onto the plants. I put ferts into the water so I feed and water at the same time.

I found that over time, my drippers will clog with fert salts that accumulate. I would recommend changing the drippers about every 3 to 5 grows. They are cheap.

It would be better to have more pressure. I only have about 2 PSI and an air bubble in the line can sometimes block the flow. The small diameter tubing allows bubbles to really become a problem. I don't think you get that with a pump.

I found that it is really easy to over fertilize the plants. This kind of creeps up on you over time and you go from really good looking plants to something wrong and you can't figure out why. I would recommend about 1/16 teaspoon per gallon of water. I use an old bag of 20-20-20 fertilizer and it lasts for years.

The timer came from home depot. It is battery powered. I have some various pieces of tubing to reduce from the hose size down to the 1/4" dripper line. The timer makes noise when it opens and closes, kind of like a whirr-whirr-whirr noise. It isn't perfectly stealthly at those times but I set it to open at 3AM so most people are asleep

I use a hard tube at the start of the line. It is about 5" taller than a milk jug and is stiff, so it will pull directly from the bottom of the jug. If you try to put dripper line into a milk jug, it will just coil up and you miss about half the jug.

I also use the 2 liter bottles for pots. They are cheap. I drill holes in the bottom so they drain if too much water goes in. I also wrap thick black plastic (also from Home Depot) around the base of the pots so that light doesn't get to the roots. You also get algae growing in the pots of there is light on the dirt. Keep the light off the dirt. I cut the top off a second 2-liter soda bottle and stick it on the bottom as a boot to collect any runoff. This makes for really tall pots, so make sure you have vertical room if you do this. The whole box is inside a big steriLite tub to catch any leaks so I don't flood outside the box. Double protection of containers-inside-containers is good with water to avoid floods. I never put in more water than the outer container can hold so it can never run over the top.


This works well for veg boxes. The flower box didn't work so well because the amount of water varies wildly at different stages of the grow. It is really easy to drown the plants or to underwater and have them die.

-SomeoneYouKnow

 

[whadeezlrg]

clone in beer cups of coco and you wont need a dome, set it in a low light area and just give it a little bit of plain RO water ph 5.8 a week later it'll be goin nuts... a lot less work then cloning with domes...its the only way to go