All you lil drippers out there....

[notjonesinNEmor]

I'm working on getting setup for a small scale dripper/pot setup and I have a question that I have not been able to get answered in the stickies and searches.

What size pump are you small scale guys using?

I am planning on 4-5 3-gallon pots in a 28"x33" cabinet under a 400w mh/hps. I would prefer to use a smaller (hopefully quieter) pump even if it means running longer. I see a ton of pump out there but most of them seem way too big for what I need. I don't need 350gph @100psi with a 6 foot lift (made up numbers, but you get the idea :smile: )

Any pics of your small setups would be great as well. I am thinking out RTW at the moment, I just don't know what to do with the waste yet. Oh well plenty of time to figure it out as I am just about to go into flower with a soil grow. Hopefully last soil and on to coco!

 

[Guest]

You don't need much of a pump...especially if it isn't required to push too far up. I have a 450g/hr unit...but I don't need that much. You can use a multiple outlet maniffold that will pressure compensate so every pot gets the same water pressure no matter how long each line is, or where the lines hook into the feedline.



Check out drip irigation https://www.dripirrigation.com/index.php

It will give you a few ideas also.

Cheers,
SC

 

[dusto2k3]

i have a 500 gph propump
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=56035
thats my deal there, it works well, but youd only need 150 or so. My 500 is overkill.

I also recirculate my drip, so i dont care how long it is on for.

 

[notjonesinNEmor]

At first I was thinking that I could get away with a gravity feed setup, but then reality set in and a big tank of liquid over the light was not a good idea.

I am not opposed to larger pump, I was just wondering how small I could go.

Suburban - thanks for the link. I know exactly jack about irrigation stuff.

Dusto2k3 - I saw your thread. Good lookin setup. I like the idea of recirculating, i am just not decided on the stability yet. I'll be keepin an eye or your results

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't recommend recirculating system with coco, unless you plan on filtering the runoff before it enters back into the rez. Little coco particles will be constantly entering your rez if you don't.

Cheers,
SH

 

[dusto2k3]

Personally, i would let a filter stand in the way of recirculating. And yes i do have little particles, i wrap my pump in a few layers of nylons and viloa, no issues. Little coco never hurt anyone and I have yet to see any ph flux or any issues from it.

notjonesNEmor, my plants are lovin it, i just let them veg too long as this is my first coco grow, so its really thick in there so i don't know how good the results are gonna be. I wasn't ready for them to get this big.

 

[BlueBear]

Hey Dusto, BlueBear from C.Com, glad to here that you are doing a full coco grow. I am still hand watering, but even though it is a little bit of a pain to do it on a daily basis it helps me from geting to lazy. But since I am about to make a move and be very busy I may have to switch over.
Are you dripping into pots or cubes?
Adieu

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't recommend recirculating system with coco, unless you plan on filtering the runoff before it enters back into the rez. Little coco particles will be constantly entering your rez if you don't.

Cheers,
SH

No prob. Slip a sock or a pouch made of cheese cloth over the drain from the tray, let it dip into the rez water so it'll grow some beneficial bacteria, and you're done. If it'll make you feel better, slip a sock over the pump as well.

Peace

 

[NPK]

My thoughts: you can grow some large bushes in 3-gallon pots, but I'm not sure you're gonna get the light penetration you'd need for such large plants with a 400-watter. You could make more efficient use of the light by growing a few more plants in smaller pots--say, nine in one-gallon pots--by keeping 'em to 24 inches or shorter. You'd get better light penetration.

I veg my plants under a 430-watter in a 2x4 tray. I recirculate, and as dusto pointed out, it's no problem at all when you filter the runoff and cover your pump with some panty hose. I was running the pump (310 gph for 10-12 plants at a time) 4-5x per day cycle until the batch I'm vegging now. The growth was just too fast: I couldn't make space in my flowering room (also a drip recirculating setup) in time for the new girls. So now I'm back to hand-watering vegging plants once a day. It's more manageable.

 

[dusto2k3]

Bluebear, good to hear from ya. I have these 8.5x8.5x8 square pots. then i have little rings made of the 1/4" line and a tee which i drilled holes in, around the stalk. I wasn't aware that they have coco cubes. I'm using canna coco and i also plan on reusing it after a cannazyme soak. So we'll see how that goes.

NPK, your right the growth is way crazy. I fudged this up a little and let mine veg too long. I wasn't prepared for the amount of growth i saw. Huge difference from the promix. I water 4 times light on and once in lights off.

 

[yts farmer]

somone iknow usese 2 aqua trays and has 3 plants on coco slabs in each,uses the smallest pump that you get with the nutriculture nft tanks.not at all powerfull but he swears by it.

 

[humble1]

i have three functional pumps. a 1200 gph a 600 and a 100. the 100 is only good for rez recirc. the six hundred is an amazing recirc and is possibly strong enough for my setup (one 6x3 and one 3x3). the 1200 i was using for a vertical rig with about 5 feet of lift and at level could blow the socks off of a drip system. i'm gonna dial it back with a shutoff valve or two and see how she goes. gl!

 

[gaiusmarius]

suburbenhomeboy knows what he's talking about, those drip set ups work awesome well, but they need to be set up correctly, specially when recirculating. if you make a watering set up with tubes, it will not block. but when using drippers you need to have an inline particle filter, otherwise your drippers will soon start getting blocked. when recirculating in coco you need to have a stocking for the run off to go through, as well as a good quality filter, which you need to keep clean. i mention this because its a huge pain when you setup a whole drip set up only to see it block up dripper after dripper within days, just because some dirt got in. recirculating is great, but you do need to set up everything right for it to hold up. i also check my drippers in between every run to make sure that none of them are slowing down or even blocked. you will find even with the stocking filtering the return before it gets to the tank, you still get silt build up in the bottom of the tank after a couple of months, specially if you have chalky watter like we do. i have to give my tank a good scrub down in between every run.

 

[dusto2k3]

well, my setup is i made loops around the stalk using barebed tees, and used a 1/16" drill and drilled like 8 holes around each loop. Anything that can get thru the nylon filter can pass thru the hole i drilled in the 1/4" tubing, so mine can't really get clogged.

Does a small amount of sediment in the rez hurt anything?

 

[Guest]

well, my setup is i made loops around the stalk using barebed tees, and used a 1/16" drill and drilled like 8 holes around each loop. Anything that can get thru the nylon filter can pass thru the hole i drilled in the 1/4" tubing, so mine can't really get clogged.

Does a small amount of sediment in the rez hurt anything?

I always have sediment in my rez....can't avoid it with the crap I throw in there. I have a little filter inside my maverick pressure compensator....and I just wash it off once a day so it does't clog up the little do hickeys that allow the exact pressure to go to each plant.

A week ago I put a 50mesh bag on my pump to help eliminate any sediment getting to the maverick, but I noticed my ppm's were rising over 100 points a day in the rez, and the ph was rising too much also. Last night I took the filter bag off, and todya the ppm's didn't rise, and niether did the ph. Not sure if the filter bag was holding certain things back in the rez or not. I'll know better tonight when I recheck.

I read somewhere else where a guy was having problems, when he found out his filter was collecting salts and toxifying the plants.

Cheers,
SH

 

[dusto2k3]

Good to know SH. I'm just glad my ph is in check and hopefully will remain.

My roots are growing out of the bottoms of the pots into the tray, is this anything to worry, i think eventually, they will grow to be exposed to light.

 

[Guest]

Good to know SH. I'm just glad my ph is in check and hopefully will remain.

My roots are growing out of the bottoms of the pots into the tray, is this anything to worry, i think eventually, they will grow to be exposed to light.

Your roots will be fine. Mine grow out the bottom and then just stop. As long as you don't have water pooling under the pots...the roots won't go any further.

Cheers,
SH

 

[dusto2k3]

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