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

When I pot up, I hand water just the centers until the roots are able to dry out the medium evenly.

Even with open ended lines, my 36 site system needed periodic cleaning, some of the lines get build-up or clog and flow less.

The emitter sticks (shrubblers) I used have adjustable caps. I removed all the caps, making them basically open-ended, but on the light drinkers, I added the caps back to the emitter sticks to restrict flow. It was near impossible to dial it in 100% though.
Any time the nutrients have to flow through a small opening like an emitter or valve, it will clog more often.

Having drainage ability and watering all the plants to runoff is the only way to make it "set it and forget it".

I ended up getting lazy and watered til the light drinkers showed runoff in the catch trays, leaving the heavier drinkers dryer, but then I hand watered those ones every few days to even things up. I was able to use the drip system alone for 3-4 days, then drip+hand for the heavy drinkers.

when you grow in coco slabs you never have to worry about over watering. the plants make hydroponic roots if you run till run off 3 times a day. once the plants understands that it's in a hydro style setup it makes roots that take air out of the water. as long as your coco can drain freely extra water running through it is only beneficial as it helps disperse any left over salts too. specially when you run a recirculating system.

when you water multiple times you are basically changing not just the nutrient solution in the root zone but also the co2. plants love it.

Thank you both I now under stand completely everything yall were saying. I am going to go with open ended tubes and water till all have run off. I want set it and forget it not clog.


Gaius or puff or anyone I suppose, I was planning on following Canna with one watering perday at the beginning then upping it to two times 2 hr after lights on 2 hr before light off. Gaius why do you water 3 times a day? Is that to make it hydroponic? Where as if you watered once like I was planning it would be like soilless//?

Im sure this has been posted here before and people are sick of it but here is a quote from Canna Coco InfoPaper:

"Another important instrument is timing. Once the Coco has become too wet, reduce or pause watering until the Coco has dried out and then start normal watering again. Check the moisture content of the Coco by hand or by determining its weight by lifting the pot or slab. A rule of thumb for watering fully-grown plants is 4 to 6 litres per m2 a day. By decreasing the dripping frequency and by increasing the amount of nutrients per watering, the best use is made of available water and nutrients. This will also improve drainage. The frequency of watering depends on the evaporation and the water supply in the Coco. A common rule is that one daily watering is sufficient during the first few weeks under normal circumstances; then increase up to 2 times a day; 2 hours after the lamps have been turned on and 2 hours before they are switched off again."

Gaius it does say number of watering depends on evaporation and water supply, do you water 3 times a day becuase your plants drink fast?

Also Gaius sorry to bombard you here but do you recommend recirculating over to waste? I thought that to waste would make res maintenace a lot simplier with out having to worry about ph drift and filling back up do I use plain phed water do I add nutes back?!? So that is why I am going to run to waste this first time but if you speak highly of recirculating then next run i might look into it

I was always confused by that quote from Canna. I have had it work both ways, but I can now see the benefit to watering more often...

With the ebb/flow system I just switched away from, I was in the habit of allowing plants being transplanted into larger pots to follow Canna's advice regarding watering until I started to see some roots poking out of the Smart pots, then on to flooding every three hours. In the end, I had to bite the bullet and change the reservoir every ten days; which goes against my religion. Looking back, I started with this practice after a recently transplanted batch of cuttings went south for a week or more??? I now realize those plants were sitting directly on a cold garage floor with little fluorescent lighting.

Since switching back to a drip to waste set-up my girls have never been happier. The coco is always watered, but never left soaking in runoff. A fraction of the work to maintain compared to what I was doing the past few months... knock on wood

To make this post really long: Tropf-Blumat drippers are badass!!! I have been using them for the past four weeks and could not be happier. I was at first glance intimidated by the idea, but after researching for a while and seeing others use them here on IC (thanks lazyman) I bit the bullet and clicked "buy-now".
They are so simple it is almost stupid. I followed Lazyman's advice and ran a 1/2" loop from my reservoir(44gal trash can with a bulkhead fitting from my ebb/flow table in the bottom of the can) and then used 3/32" barbed tees and couplings punched into the 1/2" tubing to feed the Blumats in each pot. Same kind of manifold as Pico's except with soft black tubing. No pump or timer or anything. Gravity fed on demand is a beautiful thing, at least for me.

later
H

i have been using canna coco slabs, since before canna even had instructions for them posted up anywhere. people i know actually had a big hand in making canna's coco slabs so well liked among growers. also canna has posted up different instructions over the years is what i'm saying.

the fact of the matter is that there are different ways to grow in coco. the 2 basic categories are hydro style and hybrid hydro/earth style or thirdly; earth style. most of my experience is with the first option. this involves using relatively small amounts of coco per plant and watering at least 2 times a day and up to 5 times a day depending on what you prefer. each watering till some water starts coming back.

then there is the middle way which involves starting slowly with waterings and slowly giving more more often as the plant grows, this system uses rather large amounts of coco, still less then if it was earth. with this system you basically water by hand every few days to begin and then every day as the plant dries it's pot every day.

the third way is imo the least efficient and it involves treating the coco as if it was earth from start to finish, including giving the plants humongous amounts of medium and watering every few days. some people even give pure water every other watering in coco as if it was earth.

the first 2 systems can both be made to work nearly equally well. at that point other factors play a bigger roll, like climate and fert levels, strain etc.

as for running to waste, there is some thing to be said for it, specially for a first time grower in coco with no idea of what plants are saying. running to waste is a fail safe way, but it is rather wasteful. personally i have found that your system should be set up to be able to run it both ways. in the beginning of a cycle its a great waste to run the nutrient solution to waste, after the first 2 weeks of 12/12 it's probably a good idea. although i must say, it's not essential, with a bit of an eye on things you can recirculate the whole run till you need to flush, at which point you need to be able to run to waste so your returning nutes don't increase the fresh flushing water tank ec level. this info about watering assumes you are using a good quality coco specif nutrient.


edited to add: as i have to refill my tank after running a week, it means they get a complete fresh batch of nutrient solution every week, so recirculating is really no big deal, specially if you are using good quality coco specific nutes. the ph gets very steady with time, it's only with new coco that it can drift a bit till it settles.

Looks like I found this about a year too late. Next time just PM me and tell me to come look at the thread. I don't bite

How did it work out?

Good to see ya around pico. I built a little pvc manifold after reading your thread, thanks!
Also bought a couple SS2's after reading your reflector thread, thanks again!
Oh yeah, looks like it was your thread that got me to build a 2x4/pond liner floor for my room. Hope you realize how influential your work is to some us.

Thanks man, always nice to hear my ramblings are helping people.

Hi guys,

i used topsin manifold dripper, 3 in a line so 36dripper. but the problem i was having more volume from one driper to another one, even the manufacturer of theses topsin say it is regulated flow it isn't !!!

i had to put a netafim regulator(regulator that will give the same flow from 0,5bar to 4bar, it's build for those long line used in the greenhouse) on each line and remove the regulator inside the topspin, since then no problem 4L/H everywhere !

here is a few pictures:


and here the modification:

Guys they sell 8 way manifolds at lowes with dials on each outlet to set it perfect.
Im goin to pick em up later today I will post pics.

StoneyK said:

Guys they sell 8 way manifolds at lowes with dials on each outlet to set it perfect.
Im goin to pick em up later today I will post pics.

Click to expand...

Just got some myself, sorry to bring back old thread but how did they make out?

puff adder said:

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.

Click to expand...

If you need to dial in a particular plant you can install a ball valve switch on each line and you can open or partially close a line if you have plants that aren't drinking as much