Botanicare 4x4 Tray Drain Help Needed

[wspcolorado]

I am going to be hand watering plants sitting in 4x4 botanicare trays.

I have drilled a 1/2 hole in each tray and wondering if anyone has ideas on how to drain best. I have been searching and finding no luck.


I was thinking 1/2 elbow and some vynol tubing. Will I need a pump? One issue I see is the tray are sitting on 2x8's and dont have very much clearance, I would say 2 1/2" max. Should I put blocks under the framed 2x8's?

 

[mrred]

get them above ground and use gravity with hose leading to a bucket

 

[wspcolorado]

The problem is my celiling are very low, so I am limited with height.. Maybe a couple more feet up would work for the gravity fed trick

 

[mrred]

the farthest you want a 1000 from those tray are 36inch max

 

[mikeross]

Your issue is the height of the tables your trays are sitting on. One thing you could do is water your plants to the point where you have little to no drainage coming out of the pots.

Another option would be to put the trays under a couple cinder blocks.

 

[Lazyman]

Hmm, I hate handwatering. Check out this thread http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=111046&highlight=tropfand see if you don't find it to your liking. What medium are you going to use? I love the Smartpots, they are my favorite pots now.

 

[wspcolorado]

Lazyman,

Im going to be using coco, should be puting the girls into the room tomorrow and starting a thread.

 

[DonkeyPunch]

Do you at least have a floor drain for the runnoff to go to? If so, as long as the tray is even a little bit above that, the water will runn just fine to it.

 

[Eminem]

Or you could drain into a bin and use a sump pump on a float switch to pump it out. Or a regular pump turned on manually since you are handwatering. Sump pumps pick up from the bottom so they will get alot of water out. Normal hydro pumps like Eco-Plus or Pondmaster pickup from the side and will leave the last 2-4 inches depending on pump (bigger pump leaves more since it sits higher). You can thread an elbow on them and have them pick up from the bottom.

You could have put in a E&F fitting, then used a barbed 90 and would have been around 3"

Or drilled a hole in the side

 

[boroboro]

I would use an ebb and flow fitting also, or another real fitting. The shortest way, though, might be a hose barb elbow cut short on one end and glued into the bottom of the tray. ugly but short.

I like Eminem's sump pump drain idea. I looked into that recently for a similar application. The sump pumps I saw, though, seem to have a pretty deep float switch, 8" or so. Would need to be modified (extend the float arm) to pump down to a low enough level to allow the table to stay that close to the floor.

Of course if you have a floor drain or could drill a hole in the floor you would be all set.

 

[dubwise]

since you're hand watering, don't put any hole or block the existing holes and use a wet/dry vac to get out runoff. Not to mention, if you get your amount each plant needs down, you may have little to no runoff.
Heck if you only used that vac on this application, you could recirulate the water you sucked up.....check the levels and add whatever you need.
Did the trays you picked up come with the metal stand? Mine did and it sits high enough above the resevoir to drain properly.
good luck!

 

[wspcolorado]

Donkey Punch, I have a floor drain but its located about 30 feet away in the next room. I put some extra pieces of wood under the 2x8's and have been able to raise the tables up a bit so I think this will work. Was also thinking about maybe getting some bricks to hold up the 2x8's - anyone have feedback on doing this way?

Eminem, Thanks for the sump pump idea, was looking at some last night at home depot, have used them in hydro setups before but only am planning for 10% runoff with the Coco in smart pots. I think having it drain to a bucket and then pumping out might work or just dump the bucket out.

Dubwise, I dont think Im going to recirculate anything with the Coco nutes. But I love the idea of the wet dry vac, should have thought of that before I drilled holes, DOH...
As for the metal stand, I got jiped, did you buy Botanicare Trays?

 

[Dhude]

I just have std 1/2" drain fittings on my tables, like $2/ea at the hydro shop. DTW coco, short length of hose to a 3gal bucket under each table, dump em by hand once every couple of days.

 

[Lazyman]

Ya know, I like Dubwises idea, but I think you'd have success even if you don't vacuum the runoff out, as long as there isn't a ton of it.

When I handwatered I had the plants in 3gallon grow bags, sitting in 12" plastic trays. I would water every 2-3 days until the overflow tray was full, and it would be gone the next morning. Same principle applies here, just let the plants suck it up and you won't need a drain, except when you need to flush them out but you can maybe do flushes a different way (outside, or bathtub, etc.)

 

[wspcolorado]

Problem solved..

Got these from the grow store, 1 3/4" to 3/4"

I put the frame on cinder blocks, and bought a couple cheap plastic containers to use for runoff.

Hole in the top of the lid

Drains into the container below

And last but not least:

DIY - $80 4 light Controler!! Thanks to all the info on these threads etc, feels like the ole days of OG!!! I just put my girls into the room last night, starting a thread over in the Coco section be sure to follow along.

Lazyman, any idea where you got those trays? Something like this? Or rounder?
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/na...53&pid=_Froogle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=885671

Thanks everyone!!