Organics and Automated watering system?

Freezy_

Active Member
Whats up guys,

I wanted to pick your brains a bit. I'm new to the form so first off whats up. I've been growing organic for about 2 years and I love it. I keep dialing it in more and more and every grow gets better and better. I'm at the point where I am going to build a whole new room that's going to be 8 x 8. It's going to be a sealed room, running co2, with a 4 x 6 footprint for the plants. I'm only growing 6 plants at a time.

Right now I use roots organic soil as a base and I use the GO line along with a few additives. I know that this is a bit controversial as far as if its "real" organic growing but lets save that for the sake of this thread :). I brew a lot of beneficial bacteria teas as well. I'm toying around with a new super soil that I made up just haven't used it yet, I used subcool's recipe. My question is this: Is there any way that I can use a drip ring type system with a timer to irrigate my plants, and not have to worry about the "organics" going bad in the reservoir? ( I don't think you can leave the GO nutes mixed up in the res for very long until they spoil) If I use the super soil I shouldn't have to add much besides water but I have a feeling I'm still going to use some light amount of additives.

Is there anyone who uses organics and automated indoor irrigation who could chime in? I already have my 30 gallon res which is the same one I've been using. I run a RO filter that fills up the res. I add a bit of Epsom salts for calmag, and then the full line of GO plus some molasses here and there, silica, and some enzymes. I was planning on just putting a pump on a timer inside the res and running the irrigation off of that.

Looking forward to hearing/ seeing some good suggestions.
 

Getgrowingson

Well-Known Member
the go line will clog your lines. Tried it and it clogged in like a week. You can keep GO nutes in a ressy as a matter of fact they say to aerate it if you do. Basically turning it into a tea type deal. If you just use some additives it would probably be alright but i wouldnt bet my crop on it thats for sure. If you run supersoil you shouldnt need anything else imo, maybe some fulvic and silica but those will not clog. Mollasses is a big no no with drippers ect. Will clog 100%. Hope this helps a little. I wouldnt use the fish in the resevoir though that shit stank and will dank up the ressy and not in a good way lol. Good luck!
 

Freezy_

Active Member
hahaha I've run into deficiencies just because I hate the way the fish smells and end up not using enough...I had a feeling it would clog the lines. I have a hard enough time finding people who use the GO line. How are your results with it? Do you use the full line? Do you find you have to feed like almost every watering?

I probably wouldn't try the molasses either. Maybe I can just set one up and use it if I need to go away and just hand water the rest of the time. I would like to stay away from using synthetic nutes
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
Anytime you're trying to pump anything but r/O water through your lines you're gonna eventually run into problems. Using enzyme products can help. But that's another thing you have to drop cash on. If you want to set up drip lines I would recommend just running water through them and top dressing your plants with fertilizer.

I'm not telling you how to run your grow or anything... But I think if you tried a grow where you did top dressings of earthworm castings, kelp, seabird guano, and neem...You'll be a lot happier than your g/o line. And it'll probably be cheaper.
 

Freezy_

Active Member
Anytime you're trying to pump anything but r/O water through your lines you're gonna eventually run into problems. Using enzyme products can help. But that's another thing you have to drop cash on. If you want to set up drip lines I would recommend just running water through them and top dressing your plants with fertilizer.

I'm not telling you how to run your grow or anything... But I think if you tried a grow where you did top dressings of earthworm castings, kelp, seabird guano, and neem...You'll be a lot happier than your g/o line. And it'll probably be cheaper.
Haha no worries man I know you're not telling me how to do anything I'm looking for advice. Thanks for the input. I would def consider giving this a try. I used to fumble around with balancing ph and all that and organic is so much easier. I haven't tried a "full organic" route yet. Maybe I will give it a try.

I wasn't 100% set on using a drip system, I just figured I would pick the brains of those who have tried it. I'm actually in the process of planning out a new room for a new location and I'm dead set on building everything 100% mint so I just wanted some input on the drip system with organics.

Im not familiar with neem? nematodes? Those eat bad bacteria or something right? I have "teaming with microbes" sitting around I should really finish reading it lol
 

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
Google Blumat Troph, a watering system developed in Israel. No timers, pumps, or hoo rah, just works.

Wet
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
Haha no worries man I know you're not telling me how to do anything I'm looking for advice. Thanks for the input. I would def consider giving this a try. I used to fumble around with balancing ph and all that and organic is so much easier. I haven't tried a "full organic" route yet. Maybe I will give it a try.

I wasn't 100% set on using a drip system, I just figured I would pick the brains of those who have tried it. I'm actually in the process of planning out a new room for a new location and I'm dead set on building everything 100% mint so I just wanted some input on the drip system with organics.

Im not familiar with neem? nematodes? Those eat bad bacteria or something right? I have "teaming with microbes" sitting around I should really finish reading it lol
Organics is great you don't gotta worry about ph at all.

The neem I'm referring to is neem cake aka neem seed meal.

It is a must have for organics in my opinion... I got turned onto it by peeps in this forum. It provides slow release nitrogen... Along with every other macro and micro nutrient...and fungus gnats hate the smell of it.
 

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
Looking forward to hearing/ seeing some good suggestions.
Any organic bottled nutrients are going to clog your lines, theyre too thick, Especially tea's..

Running straight water through the lines is only going to work with small pots as drippers arent going to water your root ball as evenly and consistently as you can by hand watering, leaving dry hot spots giving you problems especially if using all the water solubles in subcool's mix.

I use a 4000 gal per hour pump and can water each 15 gallon pot in around 10 seconds. Being you only have 6, id look into getting a small pump.
 
Top