Top Drip in soil?

So I decided to try running a top drip setup. My back was tired of the old watering can. I was going to go with a small 300 or 400 gph pump but the guy at the hydro store said it won't nearly have the flow or pressure to run a drip system. He suggested I buy a Eco 1500 elite pump that puts out 1500 gph and 20 ft of head pressure or roughly 8.6 psi. He said when I get sick of the damn drip system not working right I can use it with a hose and a spray wand. Which sounded great because I was thinking of that before I went drip. I ran .710 in tubing all the way around the garden. I then ran 1/4 tubing to each plant. I the capped them with 2 gph DIG pressure compensating emitters they claim to run between 10 psi and 45 psi. Put the pump in a big garbage can and voila. Watered 2 times no problem. And now there is no way I want to use a wand. The drip system was so easy. Took about 15 minutes and my plants all got watered nice and even looking. They all had about the same amount of runoff in there trays. So tonight I went to feed nutes through the system and the dang pump wouldn't even create enough pressure to start the drippers. I then tried to run it with plain water and had the same issue. So it seems that even though I had great luck with the emitters at first they really won't run on the low pump pressure. Any suggestions on lower pressure emitters? Or any other suggestions on making this work with this pump? Can't belive I dropped $120 on this damn pump and it won't work.

Are the end of the drip lines clogged? Seems weird they worked 2 times then quit..

It doesn't seem like the are clogged. I even took one off and had troubles getting the pump to prime. Then some would flow for a minute then stop. Maybe the pump is just a lemon. I hooked it up to my hose and hand nozzle and finished the watering and it did fine.

I did however find some drip emitters that show they will flow all the way down to 5 psi of water pressure at dripdepot. Ceta cleanable pressure regulating drippers. I ordered a few to try out. I figured I would need some anyway in case I had clogging issues in the future with my non cleanable ones.

20 something years ago I worked in a nursery. At the time most of the watering was done through a wand by hand. Although drip systems sound great and we had them on all plants overhead in the greenhouses. They all eventually clog. Everything will be fine and you'll be happy. Then suddenly you'll notice ones not getting enough. Usually by the time you've noticed some damage has been done. When working you'll need more than 1 dripper per pot. They need to be spread out so they receive water evenly from the top to the bottom of the soil. I've watched to many plants die this way to use it in my garden.

Thanks for the input goldberg. My plan is to run them like hand watering. So instead of a little everyday or at intervals daily I plan on just using them to water every 2 to 6 days depending on what part of the grow I'm in. So just like hand watering but without the damn can. Just turn on the drippers until I get about 20% overflow in the saucer. That way they are all getting good enough water for sure.

TAGrows said:

Thanks for the input goldberg. My plan is to run them like hand watering. So instead of a little everyday or at intervals daily I plan on just using them to water every 2 to 6 days depending on what part of the grow I'm in. So just like hand watering but without the damn can. Just turn on the drippers until I get about 20% overflow in the saucer. That way they are all getting good enough water for sure.

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That's how they should be ran and that's how we used them. We still found the problem by what was once a large fern in 12 inch pots that was as brown as a pile of crap. So dried out when you went to remove the dead plant most of the leaves would fall off. The other problem arises when certain plants are larger or get more sunlight and need water more often then those that are smaller or receive less light in a corner. Ultimately you'll have to choose to water when the larger need it and the smaller don't. Or only use the drippers when the smaller plants need it and hand water the larger in between by hand. Even if growing cuttings off the same mother all pots/plants will not want water at the same time. Good luck. It will help in some ways and create small issues elsewhere.

I due gravity drip system at my gardens in the hills ....but my garden that's not set up for gravity I would have to water by hand ......and my back would be fucked by the time I was done .......so what I did was just grabbed a pump at harbor freight and dropped it I to my tank .....connected the hose from the pump to a long wand so I could stand up straight and reach between the pots to water .....made a world of difference and I've been using this set up for a while now ......if nothing else give it a try .....I like my gravity tank with omitters on my large grows but the system I mentioned above is easy on the back ......GL

HAPPY GROWING

Indacouch said:

I due gravity drip system at my gardens in the hills ....but my garden that's not set up for gravity I would have to water by hand ......and my back would be fucked by the time I was done .......so what I did was just grabbed a pump at harbor freight and dropped it I to my tank .....connected the hose from the pump to a long wand so I could stand up straight and reach between the pots to water .....made a world of difference and I've been using this set up for a while now ......if nothing else give it a try .....I like my gravity tank with omitters on my large grows but the system I mentioned above is easy on the back ......GL

HAPPY GROWING

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I'm running a submersible sump pump in my 32 gallon HD plastic trash can. The pumps are either 1/3 or 1/6 horse power. Regular garden hose connected to the top of the pump. At the other end of the hose I have a cut off valve then a wand. I hand water from it. When mixing nutes I take the wand off and use the cut off valve to mix my next batch of nutes. I've got the same set up in another trash can with a floating cut off valve and RO water that continually stay full!

goldberg71b said:

I'm running a submersible sump pump in my 32 gallon HD plastic trash can. The pumps are either 1/3 or 1/6 horse power. Regular garden hose connected to the top of the pump. At the other end of the hose I have a cut off valve then a wand. I hand water from it. When mixing nutes I take the wand off and use the cut off valve to mix my next batch of nutes. I've got the same set up in another trash can with a floating cut off valve and RO water that continually stay full!

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It's amazing what a long wand and a pump will do for the back .....I got my gravity drip set up for my big gardens on a float system that work/fill off the well ........my little garden is only 18 plants or so ....that's the one I do by hand with the pump and wand method ......I like it ....and in that particular garden it's usually full of new strains ....so I like to get up close and personal ......I'm using a smaller hose and pump than you though ......may have to upgrade now

Indacouch said:

It's amazing what a long wand and a pump will do for the back .....I got my gravity drip set up for my big gardens on a float system that work/fill off the well ........my little garden is only 18 plants or so ....that's the one I do by hand with the pump and wand method ......I like it ....and in that particular garden it's usually full of new strains ....so I like to get up close and personal ......I'm using a smaller hose and pump than you though ......may have to upgrade now

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What wand you have makes a huge difference. The first one I had had crappy water flow. When that crapped out the new one I got let's so much through I can't let it flow. Mostly because it fills the pot to fast. But early on it can disturb the roots to much.