Need some advice on Drip Setup with soil guys

Hey guys, ok heres what I wanna do......

Hate carrying my watering jug from room to room, so thinking about installing a drip system in my room to make things a little easier.....Heres what I wanna do:

I wanna put tables on top of cinderblocks, elevating them slightly, and causing one side to have a little grade (to steer excess h20 away from sitting in the table as still water for any time period)......I wanna construct a system with spike like drippers, that saturate my plants when they're watered, allowing the excess to run off the table and out to drainage somewhere else.....


*Catch*: The drip system I'm thinking about here isn't automated....(most ive read on drip something like 15 mins, 3 times a day etc etc...automated automated etc. etc....eff that....I personally envision a system where I go to a reservoir, mix what I need to mix and it then waters my plants perfectly without any hassle, draining the excess away and allowing for a lot much easier of a process for me (bad back, mmj patient, growing my own)..........my reservoir should be empty by the time I'm done I would think

I guess, after all the high rambling (lol)....my question is, what is the overall most economical, yet effective way to accomplish this idea? How much (roughly estimated) do you think something like this would cost? I know I'll need 2 diff reservoirs probably, since I have 2 different flowering cycles basically going in the same room (4 weeks apart).......

Ok, I'm done lol......lets see what we can come up with

I have not read around enough to even see if this has been done. I personally haven't seen it.....but this is what I have come up with.

I wouldn't use this system on seedlings or anything that doesn't have a large root system built up yet.

hypothetically let say you flower in 1gal pots/grow bags, and it takes 3 cups of water to get the run off you desire.

I would have 1 reservoir, with pump on a timer, set to run say once every 3 days? (all depends on how your plants need at various times....could make things complicated)

and you'd have to pre test it to see how long it needs to run before you get your desired 3 cups of water.

all in all I think this would be easier to do in coco rather then soil.

you say not automated...but in reality your looking into a somewhat automated system of watering.....unless you say maybe hook up some type of hand pump, and do everything manually, when you see its finally time to water, rather then letting a timer set the intervals.

Going by the way this is worded. I assume you tend to your garden every day yet just do not want to carry water every day. If you are trying to come up with a non-automated system,( no timers etc etc) what I would in-vision is a appropriate capacity reservoir that is set up for gravity feed (off the floor) . The res would have a output pipe that attached to a distribution pipe. ( a pipe that has both ends sealed off yet drilled holes running the length of it where the drip tubes would be inserted. You could put a shut off valve either on the output pipe or go a bit more high tech and have a separate shut off valve for each drip tube. That way you can control every flow differently.
I assume the drip line you would want over sized that way you can walk in to your room, turn on the valve ... let them get watered till you see drainage then shut off the valve. Over sized drip line would speed up the watering process instead of waiting for it to actually "drip" out. Of course this would work better if you had large planters which would eliminate checking on them constantly.
Just building in my head out loud really.....
What ever you do, make sure your nute/water solution res is not large enough to sit a couple days. The fresher the better .

Sunlight supply has the claber oasis self watering system for 96 bucks and change. Has 4 independent watering programs and supports up to 20 plants. I have not read any reviews on it but might be worth checking out as well.

Okay, lol, now that that G13 Labs Pineapple Express has worn off a little (got this pheno thats a complete mindfuck).....

Gonna include a little info to kind of help out a little with confusion.....

Currently Growing:

(4) 600w lumatek hps with hortilux bulbs
5 Gal Buckets with 8 holes drilled (4 bottom, 4 sides (i believe 1/2" drill bit)
House Blend soil from local shop (kicks the pants off FF Ocean blend or Happy Frog imho, tried both)
FF Nutes (grow big, big bloom, tiger bloom) as well as cal mag and super thrive from time to time.....

I water my plants on average of around 2 times a week (usually 3-5 days apart from watering).......I veg from about 8-10 weeks (or until theyre about 3' tall, then flower (usually finishing at around 5-6')

To make it a little more to the point on this idea.....What I am searching for:

Automated watering system utilizing a dripper, plants will be on a slightly slanted table to let gravity catch the run off of the plants (in 5 gal smart pots or buckets, either will work for the space I have (approx 9' x 6.5').......Ultimately what I am after is a system that allows me to mix everything in a res, have the plants get drenched, and the res be empty when the plants are drench thoroughly.....the thought behind this is to mix fresh nutes every other watering and just reg water in between......Ultimate goal here: automated watering but manually started/stopped each time....

Not a fan of coco honestly.....seen the medium used in friends gardens....soil is what I like....thanks for the suggestion though


Checked these out: laber oasis self watering system.....great idea, only thing is my water is not ph balanced.....I balance my water with lemon juice from Costco....wayyy cheaper than ph down and it saves $$ .....anywoo, because its not balanced, I need the reservoir to be completed manually operated.....basically, i mix, it saturates, the excess drips away and then i shut the res off.....



ANYONE GOT AN IDEA ON HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THIS??? Tempted to document this and put it up on how to do it lol, since not even google could produce me a solid answer thus far.. you guys are awesome though with the suggestions thus far i will say

The drip system I made for my 2 liter hempy SOG is of the kind you describe.

Checkout page 6 and 7 of this thread: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/314770-white-poison-2-liter-hempy.html


I have a 20 gal trash can rez that I fill up with fresh nutes. Inside there I have an airstone and a submersible pump /w a filter. The pump comes on once a day when my digital timer tells it to. I run the pump for 8 mins to deliver the nutes through all my drippers and to my hempy pots. Minimal to zero run off. I have individual catch dishes that are there for any excess run off.

I spend 70 bucks on my dripper parts to build the irrigation array, and about 70 dollars on the high psi submersible pump.

Instead of running a timer to turn it on once a day like I do you can fill up the rez with the fresh nutes you want to pump to the plants then turn on the pump and let the feed go through the drip irrigation system.

I would call this a non re-circulating drip system. The nutes are directly fed to the plants by the drippers and the run off is not reused in the system.

You can buy 55 gal food grade barrels for 10 - 20 bucks and put cheap submersible pump attached to 1/2" poly tubing and drippers to your plants. then if they are on tables you can make gutter run off that collects to a another reservoir or pool with a cheap submersible pump that iether pumps to your drain or your outdoor vegtable garden if you so like.

2 326 gph sub pumps - $40

50' 1/2" black poly tubing - $16

Drippers - $8

Gutters - $26

2 55 gallon food grade barrels - $40

Total Cost = $130