Help switching to an auto water mid run

Dreminen169

Dreminen169

Well-Known Member
I need to go out of town for a about a week, so l need to rig up some sort of watering system for my girls. They are in coco using salts & just getting into flower.

Wondering what would be the best way to go about this? I was thinking maybe setting it up for a constant slow drip? or should I set it up to flood once a day? There will be someone home in case I need to walk them through anything, but other than that they have no experience with plants, so I really don’t want to have to rely on them. I think maybe a super slow drip would be the way to go? If worse comes to worse, it starts to run off and goes into my drain tiles. But I’m definitely interested to hear what has worked for you guys?

Now that I think about I don’t know if what I have on hand could even be set up for drip, can some list what materials I need?

FYI:
  • I have a bottom draw water pump,
  • tubing (not sure what size, but thinking diameter too big, see pic),
  • some T’s,
  • a bit of smaller tubing that fits the other size of the T’s (probably would need to get more tubing this size, anyone know the size to get?
  • A 25gal tank

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Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Well it seems you have the tools. The hardest part is making sure it is tuned in before you leave if you have a pump on a timer, stuff like that!

I used 3/8 clear flexible tubing for supply and 1/4 small rubber tubing for the smaller lines that water comes out of. I got a 500 pack of random elbows and tees in 1/4 size, also the 3/8 size then you can build anything. I tried using pressure regulated dripper ends, but still couldn’t get pressure right because I did not have all tubes same length.

I suggest making a central hub all your drip tubes come out of, because if they aren’t all the same length they will output water at different rates that was my issue anyways. I never got my system to work yet but you may be able to throw one together
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
I grow in coco/perlite and have automated watering. I have a timer that comes on 4 times a day for 15 min. I use a recirculating system with Dutch buckets, they drain into a 27 gallon reservoir. I have a small pump that goes to a circular ring of 1/2“ tubing, and 1/4” tubes off of that to drip emitters or just a small valve that I leave 1/2 open. This is just in case the emitters get clogged when I’m not home which has happened. The ring of 1/2” tube keeps the pressure constant, there is no end tube or last emitter this way. I leave the plants for a week at a time regularly, just make sure you have a big enough reservoir that you only use up 1/2 of the nute/water in the week timeframe. Change res every week, only top with plain water, I use ro water myself, it holds the ph better than our well water. In the pic showing the valve I raised it up so you could see, it usually down on top of the coco.
 

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Dreminen169

Dreminen169

Well-Known Member
Hook Daddy said:
I grow in coco/perlite and have automated watering. I have a timer that comes on 4 times a day for 15 min. I use a recirculating system with Dutch buckets, they drain into a 27 gallon reservoir. I have a small pump that goes to a circular ring of 1/2“ tubing, and 1/4” tubes off of that to drip emitters or just a small valve that I leave 1/2 open. This is just in case the emitters get clogged when I’m not home which has happened. The ring of 1/2” tube keeps the pressure constant, there is no end tube or last emitter this way. I leave the plants for a week at a time regularly, just make sure you have a big enough reservoir that you only use up 1/2 of the nute/water in the week timeframe. Change res every week, only top with plain water, I use ro water myself, it holds the ph better than our well water. In the pic showing the valve I raised it up so you could see, it usually down on top of the coco.
Click to expand...
Hook Daddy said:
I grow in coco/perlite and have automated watering. I have a timer that comes on 4 times a day for 15 min. I use a recirculating system with Dutch buckets, they drain into a 27 gallon reservoir. I have a small pump that goes to a circular ring of 1/2“ tubing, and 1/4” tubes off of that to drip emitters or just a small valve that I leave 1/2 open. This is just in case the emitters get clogged when I’m not home which has happened. The ring of 1/2” tube keeps the pressure constant, there is no end tube or last emitter this way. I leave the plants for a week at a time regularly, just make sure you have a big enough reservoir that you only use up 1/2 of the nute/water in the week timeframe. Change res every week, only top with plain water, I use ro water myself, it holds the ph better than our well water. In the pic showing the valve I raised it up so you could see, it usually down on top of the coco.
Click to expand...
Where did you get your drip emitters from? Got a link?
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
I would also get some 5 gallon paint strainer bags if going this route to put in your planter/bucket as well as put your pump in. It will keep the coco and perlite from clogging things up.
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
You might want to look into the Blumat emitters as well. I don’t have experience with them but have heard good things and plan to check them out in the near future.
 
W

waterproof808

Well-Known Member
I used blumats for a few years, they work decent but you have to troubleshoot more often than a regular pump system. Plus, if your blumats are gravity fed you have to deal with elevating your Rez high enough to keep the pressure high enough to work properly.
 
Dreminen169

Dreminen169

Well-Known Member
Yea I just need to piece something together for while I’m gone. When I get back I plan on resuming hand watering so maybe a recirculating system is overkill, however it may be nice to know that the water is contained in the system (assuming there are no leaks)
 
D

dizzyground

Well-Known Member
Hook Daddy said:
You might want to look into the Blumat emitters as well. I don’t have experience with them but have heard good things and plan to check them out in the near future.
Click to expand...
I have tried blumats. Idea is great but its very sensitive when tuning the blumats. I get little bit of growth in res after a while, and that slime/algae was bad for blumats. I had to clean them every now and then. If you could keep res 100% clean all the time they could work. Can you do that with some specific nute line?
 
D

dizzyground

Well-Known Member
Dreminen169 said:
Yea I just need to piece something together for while I’m gone. When I get back I plan on resuming hand watering so maybe a recirculating system is overkill, however it may be nice to know that the water is contained in the system (assuming there are no leaks)
Click to expand...
drain to waste with drippers is really nice, but it takes some time to get dialed in. There are water specific timers where you can get less than a minute cycle. Or get those 1gal / h emitters and you can run pump for 15min+. Be sure to have big drain res for peace of mind :D
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
dizzyground said:
I have tried blumats. Idea is great but its very sensitive when tuning the blumats. I get little bit of growth in res after a while, and that slime/algae was bad for blumats. I had to clean them every now and then. If you could keep res 100% clean all the time they could work. Can you do that with some specific nute line?
Click to expand...
Good to know about the Blumat issues. I use about 2 cc of H2O2 (3%) per gallon to keep the slime and algae from growing. I had an issue as well at first but with the hydrogen peroxide no problem, the res stays clean and slime free.
 
BobBitchen

BobBitchen

Well-Known Member
this set up works well, easy to regulate

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C-Frame Downspray Assembly

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Rain Bird Drip 9-Port Adjustable Manifold, On/Off by Port MANIFPR9SX - The Home Depot

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