What type of drip setup for automating a water-only soil run

N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
Getting tired of the hand-water routine and about to go for it on just setting up a timer-based drip rig. Something very simplistic - i.e. pump, strainer/filter and some type of anti-siphon setup that then runs to some drip stakes via however I plumb it all.

Some initial questions I was thinking through started with how much should I water and at what rate? When hand watering, I can take a standard pitcher and when I give that I get some run-off in my catch trays (need to deal with that aspect too / could lead to humidity issues I fear). So I know with my soil/aeration it's not taking a lot - or more specifically it can't take that much all at once in these smart-pots. Right now it's 7 gals but I may use 10 gals next time so I'd design for that target if it alters anything.

The actual drippers/stakes and gear I was looking at was that Floraflex stuff but I'm also guessing it's a lot of marketing hype and the other stuff is just fine (?) - not sure of any true advantage their stuff offers. I do like that they have the 'substrate' stakes and 'rocket' drippers in short/long form. I was considering using 2 outlets on the bubbler/manifold per set of drippers and 2 or 3 drippers per loop.

[outlet]--------[drip1]-----[drip2]-------[outlet]

Thinking being if one side clogged the other side may provide a feed for it. Optionally with a 3rd in between.

Then I thought each container would get 2 of these loops (further redundancy as a benefit).... 1 loop with the short stakes, the other with the long stakes. That means each plant takes up 1/2 of an 8-port bubbler head/manifold.

https://floraflex.com/product/60-long-rocket-drippers-6-pack/
https://floraflex.com/product/short-rocket-drippers-12-pack/
https://floraflex.com/product/quick-disconnect-pipe-system/

Optionally instead of those drippers there's these 'substrate' deals I was curious about too: https://floraflex.com/product/dart-dripper-100-pack/

I'm sure other sites like dripdepot and the likes could put something together with parts that don't carry the 'hydro' markup price tag penalty, but in general I like the offering/thinking of these.


So most folks in the DTW crowd are oriented towards heavy/frequent feedings of coco/coco mixes but here with soil I'm thinking it's a different game. Very similar, but tweaked a bit for our feeding needs/goals.

What do you folks think?
 
Thegermling

Thegermling

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Getting tired of the hand-water routine and about to go for it on just setting up a timer-based drip rig. Something very simplistic - i.e. pump, strainer/filter and some type of anti-siphon setup that then runs to some drip stakes via however I plumb it all.

Some initial questions I was thinking through started with how much should I water and at what rate? When hand watering, I can take a standard pitcher and when I give that I get some run-off in my catch trays (need to deal with that aspect too / could lead to humidity issues I fear). So I know with my soil/aeration it's not taking a lot - or more specifically it can't take that much all at once in these smart-pots. Right now it's 7 gals but I may use 10 gals next time so I'd design for that target if it alters anything.

The actual drippers/stakes and gear I was looking at was that Floraflex stuff but I'm also guessing it's a lot of marketing hype and the other stuff is just fine (?) - not sure of any true advantage their stuff offers. I do like that they have the 'substrate' stakes and 'rocket' drippers in short/long form. I was considering using 2 outlets on the bubbler/manifold per set of drippers and 2 or 3 drippers per loop.

[outlet]--------[drip1]-----[drip2]-------[outlet]

Thinking being if one side clogged the other side may provide a feed for it. Optionally with a 3rd in between.

Then I thought each container would get 2 of these loops (further redundancy as a benefit).... 1 loop with the short stakes, the other with the long stakes. That means each plant takes up 1/2 of an 8-port bubbler head/manifold.

https://floraflex.com/product/60-long-rocket-drippers-6-pack/
https://floraflex.com/product/short-rocket-drippers-12-pack/
https://floraflex.com/product/quick-disconnect-pipe-system/

Optionally instead of those drippers there's these 'substrate' deals I was curious about too: https://floraflex.com/product/dart-dripper-100-pack/

I'm sure other sites like dripdepot and the likes could put something together with parts that don't carry the 'hydro' markup price tag penalty, but in general I like the offering/thinking of these.


So most folks in the DTW crowd are oriented towards heavy/frequent feedings of coco/coco mixes but here with soil I'm thinking it's a different game. Very similar, but tweaked a bit for our feeding needs/goals.

What do you folks think?
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I have the floraflex bubbler and quick disconnect in a 33 gallon roughneck trashcan as a rez. I use megacrop which has some particulates in it. I havent had any lines clog up yet. The bubblers either. I also put in the gph colored thingies and still no clogs inside the bubbler. I have the green tubing flora flex has with no drippers at the end. I didnt even put in a anti-siphon hole in my pvc pipe riser and my rez has never emptied out. Probably pushes the pump harder but oh well those are cheap for me to replace.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I'm on the anti-siphon bandwagon this time around since I think that is what happened to me. I have a diy manifold with 6 outlets, splits to 2 then uses a 4-way to give 3 outputs per, one of the bus bin tubs I use for a tray was sitting with several inches in it while the others had none... So I figure it's science, others have had it happen and I think I had a close call - too cheap of an option to forego it.

So do you think the Floralex products are 'beter' than say some no-name brand found online (ebay, amazon, dripdepot, etc) or something from the big box stores nearby (rainbird, toro, etc). I was hoping they had a superior product in some manner - need to do a good price comparison to see if there's really that big of a gap but I'm assuming there is.
 
Thegermling

Thegermling

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
I'm on the anti-siphon bandwagon this time around since I think that is what happened to me. I have a diy manifold with 6 outlets, splits to 2 then uses a 4-way to give 3 outputs per, one of the bus bin tubs I use for a tray was sitting with several inches in it while the others had none... So I figure it's science, others have had it happen and I think I had a close call - too cheap of an option to forego it.

So do you think the Floralex products are 'beter' than say some no-name brand found online (ebay, amazon, dripdepot, etc) or something from the big box stores nearby (rainbird, toro, etc). I was hoping they had a superior product in some manner - need to do a good price comparison to see if there's really that big of a gap but I'm assuming there is.
Click to expand...
Bro to be honest flora flex is the only bubbler Ive ever used since I too got tired of watering my coco. Ive been running my trashcan rez and flora flex bubbler with no anti-siphon for months now and Ive never had to worry about 33 gallons of solution over my floors LOL. If it would have happened it would have already.
If youre skeptical try it out on a small scale and see how it goes. For a bigger scale even I would put more measures, id probably add some kind of antisiphon for bigger ops, I wouldnt fuck around with bigger ops.
 
ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
blumats work great once you get them dialed in :) there is a little learning curve but they're awesome.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
When I started looking into getting out of hand watering... I started at this kind of thing but ended at Sub Irrigated Planters or SIP's. I will never go back!
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I've been eyeballing those SIPs myself. Very tempting, but some cheap setup for current run would still be the goal. For the SIPs I've got 3 of the 14 gallon Brute totes and matching 20 gallon Brute totes for the res. Was going to make those flood & drain setups initially and have been sitting on them for a couple years now. Once I caught wind of the SIPs I thought hell yeah I've got some good tuff tubs for that. Maybe next run...
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I've heard Blumats need a lot of fussing with/dialing in and they pose the siphoning risk even worse from what I understand (they're passive setups and can siphon where with a pump and active system once you deal with anti-siphon valve you should be safe). At least that's the current thinking on my part.
 
ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
ChronicWonders. said:
Currently looking into Blumats, can you explain more please?
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they're just a water filled carrot with a terra cotta tip that allows the flow of water into or out of the carrot which controls the release of water via a pressure piston. so the soil is watered as needed rather than by a timer when it may not need watering. it's a really neat technology and it works. sometimes they can be tricky to get dialed in but usually once you get it, you don't touch it the rest of the grow. you can run them off a reservoir or right from the faucet. if you're running a whole bunch of plants they would be a little costly to set up compared to an automated electronic system (i'm speculating, i actually can't say that with certainty). but if you're running like <30 plants it's not that bad. just nice because it's a passive system that requires no electricity.
 
ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
I've heard Blumats need a lot of fussing with/dialing in and they pose the siphoning risk even worse from what I understand (they're passive setups and can siphon where with a pump and active system once you deal with anti-siphon valve you should be safe). At least that's the current thinking on my part.
Click to expand...
they can be fussy, but if you pay a lot of attention to them the first few days they work fine.
 
ChronicWonders.

ChronicWonders.

Well-Known Member
ShLUbY said:
they're just a water filled carrot with a terra cotta tip that allows the flow of water into or out of the carrot which controls the release of water via a pressure piston. so the soil is watered as needed rather than by a timer when it may not need watering. it's a really neat technology and it works. sometimes they can be tricky to get dialed in but usually once you get it, you don't touch it the rest of the grow. you can run them off a reservoir or right from the faucet. if you're running a whole bunch of plants they would be a little costly to set up compared to an automated electronic system (i'm speculating, i actually can't say that with certainty). but if you're running like <30 plants it's not that bad. just nice because it's a passive system that requires no electricity.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I’d start small and go with the 12 piece set to start. Long term maybe connect them to a rain reservoir or a large water tank my Oma just dropped off.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Joe.Grow said:
How does one do this with soil and not have salt buildup? Top watering every so often?
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well I only do organic and recycled living soil so I dont have to worry about salt build up... but there are folks on the SIP thread that use nutes also. You do need to top dress or have a cover crop to ensure that the soil continues to wick since if it gets too dry the wicking process can stop working correctly.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I definitely like the passive nature of the SIPs to be honest, one less failure point. Even if you ran an airstone in it, if the pump died you'd probably be just fine - you'd just end up anaerobic. If I were travelling/vacationing much I think SIP would be a no-brainer for my goals of not needing to tend to them for small stretches. Right now a dtw/drip watering setup and SIP are my top two interests.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
I definitely like the passive nature of the SIPs to be honest, one less failure point. Even if you ran an airstone in it, if the pump died you'd probably be just fine - you'd just end up anaerobic. If I were travelling/vacationing much I think SIP would be a no-brainer for my goals of not needing to tend to them for small stretches. Right now a dtw/drip watering setup and SIP are my top two interests.
Click to expand...
this is exactly why I got into SIPs .. air stones aren't needed but some people use them. I topped off my SIPs when they were in the middle of flower and went on vacation for 10 days and everything was great when I got back! They are almost too easy! lol I used the earthtainer pdf on the thread I posted above to make my SIPs but there are a ton of great ideas there!
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
Annoyed with the hand watering chore and not keeping on top of it like I should and coming back to this.

So in a 7gal container, when I pour a pitcher of water on it I'm getting some run-off though it may be somewhat from going to sides and weeping out the smart pots.

I'm now trying to decide on what GPH dripper and how many, with the setup I've been thinking of with 4 drippers per (2 short, 2 deep in a loop each to the bubbler head) I'm now wondering how long and at what rate. Any suggestions on this specific aspect?
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I'm dealing with yellowing from the bottom up again and I'm suspecting my under-watering as much as any def/toxicity or lockout. I'd like to get my shit together on the watering to at least rule that angle out.
 
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