I just rebuilt the manifold for my 3x3 tray and figured i would do a little how to show y'all how I'm running my trays at the Freakshow. I run a recirculating drip system for my coco grow. Here's a basic supplies list to start 1) Since I am running a 3x3 tray, I'll need about 12 feet of 3/4 inch tubing 2) And about 10 feet of 1/4 inch tubing 3) 4 90 degree elbows - 3/4 inch 4) 1/4 inch connectors - number depends on how many plants you'll be running 5) Drip Stakes 6) The tray, of course 7) One 3/4 inch T connector
1) so you take the 3/4 inch tubing and cut it into lengths that will fit the inside length of the tray. 2) one of the lengths, cut in half and then reconnect with the 2 halves with the 3/4 inch T fitting. 3-5) then take another short length of 3/4 inch tubing and work it through the fill fitting of the tray. it's a very tight fit and takes some patience but it will go through, provided you have the right sized grommet. It does help to remove the fitting. 6) connect the remaining lengths of 3/4 inch tubing with the 3/4 inch elbows. You now have a complete circuit for the nute solution to travel through 7) Figure out how many plants you will be running. I think I'm finally going to do a grow where I don't have the tray way over full here. I'm running 9 decent sized plants. 8-10) This is a very nice little tool. The friend at the hydro store gave this to me when i bought my trays. All ya gotta do is poke the point into the tubing and make a tiny hole for the dripper line. This tool makes a very small hole, which in turn makes for a nice tight fit for the 1/4 inch straight connectors.
1) connect a short piece of 1/4 inch tubing to the 1/4 inch connector and insert into the small hole in the 3/4 inch ttubing in the tray 2) connect the dripper to the 1/4 inch tubing 3) insert the dripper into the pot 4) grab your nute solution pump (aquarium/pond). i use 185-250 ghp pumps. As you can see, this pump has gotten some good use 5) place the lid on the reservoir and then place the pump into the reservoir under the tray and connect to the 3/4 inch tubing we ran through the tray fitting. 6-7) I aerate my reservoirs and also use a small pump to keep them stirred. this the the big air stone and pump i will be using for this rez. 8) Lid is on and I'm filling the rez with a mix of RO and tap water. I have found mixing the 2 will help keep the ph stable. I ph my rez to 6.0 9) add nutes and ph, and connect the bigger pump to a timer. I set the timer to run for 10 minutes right after lights on and then again for 10 minutes an hour before lights off. This will provide the pots with a fresh flush of nute solution twice a day so there will be very little salt build up in the pots. 10) if you look closely, you can see the dripper in action. It defuses the solution nicely and soaks the pot. my nute regime is the GH 3 part plus Hygrozyme and Liquid KoolBloom and then Powder KoolBloom at the end of flowering. I will only add call mag if the plants show signs of needing it - the GH nutes seem to have enough Calcium in them. Adding too much call mag will result in calcium build up like you see on the pump and will clog your pumps. I do have Epsom Salts and use that if the plant need extra Mg. I will run the rez until it's very low, then empty and refill with fresh nute solution. I tend not to top off, because it's very easy to over nute the rez and topping off with plain water will weaken the solution, both of which are counter productive. This 40 gallon rez should last the next 2 weeks or so. and that's all there is to it. Any questions?
What kind of pots are those?? I was high last night and thought I came up with a good idea but now I am second guessing it....I got some plants in coco ready to flower, 12 of them. I had an extra flood tray, pump and rez, and I normally run flood tables so I said what the hell...I had an idea that if I put the plants in the containers with holes at the bottom for drainage that I could flood the table 2 or 3 times a day about an inch and a half up the pots and the coco could wick the nute soluton....Any ides or feedback on this...I was thinking about 2-3 floods throughout the day for 3-5 minutes fer flood. Would this even work? What kind of pots are you using? and do you think only beneficial way to do this is through a top feed drip system??? By the way great write up...Shud be a sticky in the coco section....Good job. I will look to you for wisdom in eed with coco if you don't mind.I am a newb with coco and it looks like some interesting stuff... Here is a pic of what I was thinking...
they are called Air Pots. Same idea as Smart Pots. google Air Pot for plants and check them out. they work incredibly well in a drip fed coco systems. I have done F&D in coco and found that you need to flush the pots every so often - every couple weeks or even sooner in order to prevent nute build up. That's why I switched to the top fed drip system because everytime the pump kicks on, the plants are flushed with nutes solution. But, flood and drain does work.
Hi Freakshow! Great setup you have man, I love seeing coco put to use in ways like this, and your plants seem to love it! I've been toying around with a little drip system for my mother plants - they require such frequent watering since they are in small pots. I'd love to setup something on the scale you have here though, I'll be watching you guys in the meantime LOL
High Ed! It's soo good to see a fellow coco grower on these boards. I'm not here very often, but I do want to spread the word on how easy coco can be. thanks for all you do!
Nice setup freakshow, im think about setting up somthing simliar for my coco system but i was thinking of doing drain to waste.
High Luikang i started with a drain to watse set up, hand watering and all. I found that, with allowing for a 10-20% run off when i watered (fed), i was indeed wasting a lot of nutes. with a recirculating system, hardly anything goes to waste. I mix up a 40 gallon rez on saturday or sunday, top with off with RO water about Tuesday or Wednesday, then change out the 10 gallons that's left by saturday or sunday. works pretty well. good luck
ya thats were im at right now good old hand watering drain to waste. Well actully i have a pump with 1/2" tubing hooked up to a wond that i place in a 32 gal burte trash can thats filled with 15 gallons of nutrients mix to water 16 plants in a 4X4 Tray under a 1000 watt HiD light, i have to water every other day. so thats why i wanted to make the dripper manifold for the tray, the way my room is setup right now it would be easier to make a recirculating system than a drain to waste system. the reason for this is cuz i would have to find a spot to get rid of the runoff water, Maybe pipe it to a drain or outside or under the house which all have their negitives. I still have not desided on what method i should try im still going over the PRO's and the CON's on both systems. im Not tryin to turn this thread into a debate on which is better just trying to find whats better for me and my setup with that being said lets go over the Pro's & Con's: CON's Drain to Waste 1) uses 1.5-3 times the amount of nutrients/cost 2) Must find place to drain CON's Recirculating System 1) If 1 plant gets root pathogens all plants can be affected 2) RNC may become unbalanced or toxic if adjusting ppms back up every day 3) salts that are wash off recirulate in next watering getting back into the coco medium PRO's Drain to Waste 1) plants get flushed every time u water 2) RNC will never be unbalanced 3) If 1 plant gets root pathogenswill not speard to other on next watering PRO's Recirculating System 1) cost less in nutrients 2) easier to setup Im Sure theres plenty more for both system these are just ones i could think off the top of my head. im still not sure on which im going to do there are still a few things i need to figure out.
the cons you list for recirculating can be solved very easily. I change my rez every week. I also use Hygrozyme in my rez - helps keep the cruds away. also, i have been running my pump for 12 hours a day while the lights are on. That's one helluva flush. Just want to see how they'll do. i also add tap water to my rez and that truly helps to keep the ph stable
Hey FS! The missus and I were talking about setting up a little drip system and though of ya I hope all is going well, I know those plants of yours are doing good Take care bud, post some harvest pics when it's time!
hey thanks Ed! Good luck setting up your drip system. I can't wait to see what y'all do with it. My harvest is about 3 weeks off yet. I'm hoping to pass that one pound mark. wish me luck
Looking forward to updates. Im running a side by side right now between bubble bucket and coco drain to waste. I love the coco so far amd if i could come up with a system that would allow me to be gone for 3-5 days that would be great. After looking at your setup i was thinking the tuff totes would work great for a res table combo, Also was wondering if a filter of somekind as the drainage goes back to the res,maybe a coffee filter ? Pumping option for small numbers or mother plants I remember from a long time ago 20 plus years we would use air pumps to move water by placing a small hole in a 1/4 line and submerse it in the res and the air would move the water in a nice slow rate. I tried in on one of my one gallon coco plants and it seems to work great and easy to cycle with a cheap timer due to the slow rate . You can feed a few cups in like 4 hours and seems to be working well. I will keep you posted. Just thought most of us have a spare air pump laying around and makes a auto water system fairly easy. I plan to let this run 24 hrs just to measure total amount i can pump of blow howerver you want to look at it . Keep in green !
High medical. i've been posting over at the post your coco grow thread. check it out. i run 450 gph aquarium pumps for my system. something small would work for a rubbermade tub. keep this in mind, the smaller the rez, the more unstable it will be for ph. my 40 gallon rez needs very little during the week. the pump is on a timer, of course. it runs for an hour at lights on and for an hour an hour before lights off. once the plants get bigger, it will run the entire 12 hours the lights are on. The plants Freak out and love it. They do make pump filters - it's basically a bag the pump fits into and they do work well. I'll be investing in a few of these soon, since I've been through a few pumps in the last year. good luck with your build and grow. keep us posted on how it's going
Thanks for the detailed instructions Freakshow. I have a few questions- - Is the air pump mandatory, in order to stir the nutrient water I understand correctly? - Since you wrote this last year, any changes to the system? - Is 1 dripper per larger plant enough? It seems (could be wrong) that with coco water "falls" through it and watering in one area would mean that other parts of the coco would stay dry. Of course there is the whole physics of moisture migration from dry to wet soil/coco. thanks!