Waterfarm Pots with Drippers

[Fonda Trichs]

I've started my first coco grow with 8 waterfarm buckets.
• 8 X 2 gal buckets
• canna nutes
• canna coco coir
• 8 sensi star clones in 2" rockwool
• recirculating into a 5 gal resovoir

The drip pump is a maxijet 750, 217gph feeding a 1/2" hose to 8 1/4" lines that connect to the drip rings that come with the waterfarm. The total flow is about 1 gallon per minute, or 1/8 gal per bucket.

I started the drip on a digital timer at 1 mins X 6 per day, but was getting 90-100% runoff. I switched to an interval timer so I could back off to 30 secs X6 per day, but I still got about 50% runoff. I've now backed off to 15 secs. I'd like to get closer to 10% runoff.

You guys talk about dripping 2-5 minutes per drip. Should I replace the drip rings which allow ~1/8 gallon per minute with actual drippers which would restrict the dripper to more like 1/2 gal/hour? I'm not sure this pump has enough pressure to run through real drippers. How much flow in gallons or liters are you guys really getting per dripping?

If I switch to restricted drippers, should I drip directly onto the rockwool? Right now the drip ring drips all around the rockwool, so the rockwool only gets wicked moisture.

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

its a bitch to grow in coco in waterfarms...take it from me i have done it...never again..it retains to much moisture

 

[Fonda Trichs]

too much moisture?

too much moisture?

I'm only using the 2 gal top part of the waterfarm for the coco. I've drilled extra holes in the bottom as the first of 11 mods to the waterfarm. I also put a layer of hydroton on the bottom. The 2 gal bucket drains into the bottom 4 gal bucket, and they all drain into the old controller bucket. So far my problem seems to be watering too much, because I'm still getting much more runoff than I expected. Too much moisture does not seem to be a problem for me.

Were you just using the 2 gal bucket with any drainage mods?

 

[budrezin]

thats exactly what i would like to know. do you have to get a special timer with the interval in seconds (because all the regular timers are 15 min intervals) or do you run with the 15 min interval but use a special pump that can handle the back prerssure of restrictive drippers?

 

[gaiusmarius]

Hey Fonda Trichs

sounds like you have covered your bases.

i assume your plants are still small and not using much water yet? or is it that your drip ring allows a hell of a lot of water at once? but basically it doesn't mater, have your drippers run 3 or 4 times in the light phase and don't worry about how wet the coco looks. when you plant new rw cubes you need to make sure that the dripper is in the cube giving it water. once the roots are fully in the coco you can have the drippers around the cube, although i leave mine in the cube all the way.

i hope you are using coco specific nutes? would be cool to see some pics.

as for the run off, try and reduce it but know that as they grow you will have to increase the time again, if you stick to this watering plan your plants will make hydroponic roots which will take a lot of the air they need directly from the water. you really don't have to worry about over watering with a drip feed setup.

all the best

 

[Guest]

yes drilled holes bigger..the only way i kept from over watering with coco is by turning off the pumps at night...root rot problems and over watering i had with coco..why are you not using hydrotton? it allows more air in the medium = happy roots

 

[Guest]

the waterfarm is set up to run continually with the proper medium...however i have found if i turn the pumps off at lights out the plants are happier in the morning

 

[gaiusmarius]

coco is not made to be watered continiously, that way it sure can get overwatered specially if there is a thick layer of it. even though you are using those waterfarms you should still have the water running like in a dripper setup. ie. 4 times a day for enough time to make some run off. the rest of the time pump should be off, including all night.

 

[Fonda Trichs]

drippers that drip

drippers that drip

Thanks gaius and unicorn!

Gaius, I have to thank you for all your info on coco. It's been most helpful.

Nice plant unicorn! Your mom may be embarrassed to see your unmade bed though.

I switched from waterfarm continuous drip with hydroton for a number of reasons. I hate hydroton. In limited space it's a pain to handle between grows, and I keep finding the little balls in my compost heap. Another reason is noise. That gurgling sound of the waterfarms carried through an uninsulated floor to a living area. Plus heat and root rot are a problem with so much standing water in the growroom. Coco seems to be the ticket.

I changed out my waterfarm drippers because the flow was too much. Almost 100% of the flow would run through the coco immediately. I changed to raindrip pressure compensated drippers, 1 gal/hour. My pump worked fine with them, but I was still getting too much flow. I'm trying to get it down to 10% runoff, so I switched to 1/2 gal/hour drippers, and got no runoff at 2 minutes. I've increased the dripping to 4 minutes every three hours during the 18 hours of daylight. I'll wait a few cycles before I measure the runoff ratio.

I found the drippers you have gaius at plantitearth.com, where they are called dutch dripper stakes. But there are no details about the flow rate. I know you use these stakes directly into your 4" rockwool cubes.

I've been experimenting with where to drip, on the 2" rockwool cube, on the coco, or at the boundary. 5 waterings a day seem like too much for rockwool. I usually don't water rw more than once a day. The water wicks well in rw, but after a day of dripping on the cubes, my babies looked like they were lacking sufficient air. The coco drains much better than RW, but doesn't wick the water as quickly. I'm now just dripping on the edge of the RW, so the RW doesn't get completely soaked.

Meanwhile the babies are up to 7" under 250W MH 18hrs/day. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

Once the roots fil up the hydro bucket i think you can skip the top feeding dripper all together and just run it as dwc if you run a maxima-r air dual outlet air hose to some curtains.

 

[Fonda Trichs]

Coco can be boring

Coco can be boring

Well the babies have passed one week in coco and they're doing great. I've had so little to do, that I find that growing in coco can be boring. It's so easy. All I'm doing now is adjusting the drip times to get the runoff ratio where I want it.



This is the interval timer for the drippers, set to about 10 minutes every three hours during daylight.


A little claw sort of stress in the leaves, but overall blemish free at this point




If the roots overtake the 2 gal top pot, I would probably throw about 2" of growrocks in the bottom bucket, and fill the rest with coco. I did DWC last run and it made too much noise for my situation. I don't think I ever go DWC again in this location.

 

[Guest]

nice balancing act...peace

 

[gaiusmarius]

cool looks good in there, now the plants will get used to their home and start putting out new growth like no bodies business.

one thing you need to do is close your tank. you don't want light reaching your nutrient solution, or you will get algae.

as for the rw cubes, you actually don't need to worry about over watering them either. as they are made to keep enough air inside even when freshly soaked, as long as they can drain freely. but it's all good, your plants are past the stage where they need food directly in the cube.

now let's watch them take off

 

[Fonda Trichs]

off to the races

off to the races

yes, gaius, they're already growing rapidly. they've almost doubled in size in 9 days, from 4-5" to 8". I'm thinking about switching to 12/12 this weekend.

 

[Guest]

Unicorn,

I use the waterfarms as well. You leave the pump off in the dark period? I have been leaving them on 24/7. I am at 12/12 right now and am hesitant to leave the roots sitting in water for 12 hours without being aerated. I have modified it to be recirculating , but still, is it good for the roots to just sit in water. If you added airstones ( not necessary) it would make sense. Looks like it works for you though.
I am just worried about root rot on the roots suspended in the water below.

 

[Guest]

my friend they are set up to run 24..7..i just have found that in flowering when the lights go out if i turn the pumps off they look better when lights come on...no major drooping like over watered looking...the plants just seem over all happier..just my humble opinion from my experience...definitely add a air stone..but there is lots of air in the top half..expanded clay helps with that..

Unicorn,

I use the waterfarms as well. You leave the pump off in the dark period? I have been leaving them on 24/7. I am at 12/12 right now and am hesitant to leave the roots sitting in water for 12 hours without being aerated. I have modified it to be recirculating , but still, is it good for the roots to just sit in water. If you added airstones ( not necessary) it would make sense. Looks like it works for you though.
I am just worried about root rot on the roots suspended in the water below.

 

[gaiusmarius]

waterfarms with lava rock or hydroton can be run the whole time, but waterfarms with coco should have not more the 7 waterings a day. if you mix them its different again. but pure coco doesn't like permanent watering.

 

[Guest]

I have the hydroton. I am still learning and this grow is the best so far . I have been keeping the ppms low ( maxing out at 800 and the Sweet Tooth 1.1 still burned!) and focusing on the PH. I don't mind lowering yield to increase the quality of smoke.

Great thread and input everyone!


*note* looks like what I thought was burning may be a leaf curl trait from the Highland oaxacan in the Blueberry dad of ST1.1.

 

[Fonda Trichs]

started 12/12

started 12/12

It's been a nice weekend. I made up 5 gallons of fresh nutes on Saturday. Runoff still about 40%, but I'm sure that will go down as the plants get larger.

On Sunday 5 out of 8 reached 10" and I've switched to 12/12 with a single 600W HPS to start. As they grow and start to crowd each other, I'll spread them out more and add a second 600W.

I also had to switch out three drippers which clogged and stopped dripping. I'm headed to Home Depot to find a drip filter.

I also did an experiment. I put a pressure gauge on my drip line. I read that these rain drip drippers I have, will deliver 1/2 gph under pressures from 7psi to 50psi. The pressure gauge didn't move at all. ~0psi pressure. So I tried a larger pump, pro pump 500. Still no pressure. So I went back to the smaller maxijet pump. As least the drip is pretty even, but it's not enough pressure to avoid clogs. I was using a pump bag as a filter, but now I'm looking for a 150 mesh drip filter to delay new clogging..

 

[Fonda Trichs]

angled drip stakes

angled drip stakes

Well after I posted I checked on my babies. They are going great, but three more drippers stopped up. Looking closely it looks like salt buildup on the drippers from when the water evaporates from the nutes between waterings. This precipitate would probably even get through drip filters.

So I went out and got some angled drip stakes like GM has that stick directly into the rockwool cubes. They are not pressure compensated or anything, just a small hole that looks big enough not to clog. I tested the flow and got 1 gal in 100secs for all 8 drippers which is about 4.5gph for each dripper. So now my time is adjusted to 20 secs of drip followed by 3 hours of no drip.

In playing around I found some shit that looks like mucous. I had seen that before in DWC, but didn't expect it here. It like bubbled up from the 2" rockwool when I hit it with a stream of water from a little 1/4" tube. Anybody every seen that before? Is it a beneficial bacteria? A water fungus?

Current nutes are canna a+b, rhizotonic, and cannazyme, EC 1.25, ph 6.0

THanks!