Hoosierdaddy's SWC Toob (Smart Valve controlled)

[hoosierdaddy]

Hey, THoc!
Man, sorry I missed your post.

The solution depletes at different rates, depending on what stage the plants are in, conditions, etc... Normally with the plants in full flower, it takes a day or two to deplete the charge.

When the solution depletes, there is a float on the valve that follows the level. When it reaches an empty situation, the float allows the valve to open up and allow in another charge.
If the valve were in a flat bottomed container, it would use up every bit of the solution before allow any more in, However, with the valve sitting in a rounded bottom tube, there is always about another 1/4"-3/8" of solution in the channel just below the valve, in the bottom of the pipe. It never gets completely dry, but close.

When the valve senses the solution is at an empty situation, it opens up and allows the next charge in. There is an additional float on the inside of the valve that flows up with the raising solution level. When the solution is 1" from the bottom of the valve, it stops the flow and waits until empty again.

 

[stink.whistler]

Hoosierdaddy,

You have some very cool stuff going on!

I have a question about the smartvalve. What do you think about using one in say a 2' by 3' tray, with 6 inch soil pots in the tray. Meaning, an organic sea of green, being fed pure water from a reservoir, to the tray.

Is there any way to control how deep the water would fill the tray? If not, how deep would it get? I know it would basically dry out before dumping in new water.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

Thnks, sw.
The valve always allows 1" of water in, no matter the size of tray.
Your method would work fine. I wonder how much nutrition is available in small pots?
I would suggest feeding PBP with the valve to the soil pots. A week or two before chop, water flush from top once, then change the tray and res, and feed plain water with the valve from there on. (you really didn't read this thread, did you)

*EDIT
I wanted to add that I have found that flushing with this type of system is easy and fast.
The pots are already in a place suitable to flush without moving them. And you can flush as long as you want, as long as you keep emptying the tray. Once done, you can easily empty the tray and go to straight water. The way my pots are now, I have a considerable root mass in the medium of the pots, but there are also nice sized tap roots going into the water. Once the medium is flushed out, these taps will soak up plain water fast, and the effects of flushing can be seen about twice as fast as it would be if the plants were in just soil.

 

[CMoon]

good stuff man......nice to see the valve put to use with canna, had many a top crop from 8 pot auto units, which all in all is just a garland tray and 8 x10 litre pots...id advise as does the firm who makes the product to boost the tray with an airstone

bests cmoon

 

[Pimpslapped]

Love it! I'd been considering using a smartvalve for a grow setup myself, though my idea was much less refined than yours. I think I'll have to revisit the idea in the future. I saw your comment on the seedlings in coco...

Any problem using established plants with the valves+coco? I'm curious as to how well the medium takes being watered only from the lower 1", bottom feeding? Now that you've had more time with the system.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

The last grow I had been watering the plant from top side with nutrient solution, and only adding water to the tube. I figured any nutrient run-off would make it to the tube water and it would then be nutrient enriched. Thing is, the plant acted as if it were in nothing but water or weak nutrient solution. The leaves yellowed far faster than they should have, and I am certain I lost a little production, since I had grown the plant at optimum before.

So, this grow I decided to change it up. I will now water some from the top with straight water, and I charge the tube with full on nutes. This is working out very nice now.
I wouldn't really need to water from the top, and I have left some alone just to make sure that I could neglect them, and the tube takes care of them from start to finish (other than you need to water the pot for the first week or two until taps get established)

 

[Pimpslapped]

The last grow I had been watering the plant from top side with nutrient solution, and only adding water to the tube. I figured any nutrient run-off would make it to the tube water and it would then be nutrient enriched. Thing is, the plant acted as if it were in nothing but water or weak nutrient solution. The leaves yellowed far faster than they should have, and I am certain I lost a little production, since I had grown the plant at optimum before.

So, this grow I decided to change it up. I will now water some from the top with straight water, and I charge the tube with full on nutes. This is working out very nice now.
I wouldn't really need to water from the top, and I have left some alone just to make sure that I could neglect them, and the tube takes care of them from start to finish (other than you need to water the pot for the first week or two until taps get established)

Yeah, I figured some watering from the top would be recommended, especially early on in establishing root mass. I'll be curious to see how it plays out in practice. I'm planning to run a mini-sog at some point, using a smartvalve+coco. It should be easy enough to use pot dishes that are taller than 1" to isolate specific plants if they require different nute regimes.

Glad to see your work here, it gives me more to work with.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

Glad it helps you, ps.

The only big problem I was having was the roots not being able to mass out enough. I have changed up the medium a bit and now use hydroton at the very bottom of the tube pot, so I can bore more larger holes for the roots to escape into the hydro. That worked out nicely.
I also started vegging in one pot and when it was time to 12/12, I simply cut the bottom of the pot out, and affixed the pot to the top of another prepared pot that has the tube pot. (follow that?? lol) Anywho, in simple terms my pots are double sized now, and have lots of room for roots in the medium, as well as in the hydro. My plants experience the best of both worlds, and that is why I like this thing.

Some bubblegum in the tube

 

[DaftBud]

You, sir, are a god.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

lol...naw sir, I am a common son of a tinker that likes to burn the best herbs on the rock, and refuses to fund party's for cholos and jihads.
But thanks for the kind words.

BTW...looking at that bg I remember her...nasty little WHL BG that pretty much sucked. Wouldn't flush well, leafy as all get out, the worst to trim, tasted like alfalfa, might have had the wispy hint of the wax of a bubble gum wrapper if that.
My buddy thought "that shit was kill". (lol...shrug)

 

[hoosierdaddy]

BTW, I retired the GrooveToob.
It was too constricting for my tastes.
I am back to my own soil mix in 2gal bags.
Some like cats, others like dogs...

 

[DaftBud]

That's too bad, man. It seemed like such an ingenious little design, but I get the impression hydro is a really, really fickle medium.

BTW, for the record, dogs are way fucking better.

 

[Scrogerman]

However did i miss this, its a work of art, the rig & the thread, loads of great info very easy to understand. Great Work HD! I find soil more hassle than hydro myself, more mess, more everything,apart from yield! but Good Luck!

 

[hoosierdaddy]

Thanks for the kind words!

The toob actually works real well, and is a great way to grow hydro. However, it confines me to feeding the same thing to any plants that are in it. Some of my stuff doesn't like what the others do..you know how kids are...

And I ran it for quite a while and have the thing dialed in so that I can build one of any size or configuration now.