Drip irrigation with coco questions

I currently run coco in 1-1.5 gallon hard pots with blumats. They are in 12" saucers that all sit in a tray in case of a runaway carrot. Well, after this last week of dealing with some bad lockout (all my fault. Who knew you were supposed to flush the pots with blumats every so often? Lol) and having to flush the pots with gallons and gallons of feed to bring the EC back down to acceptable levels and then having to suck it all out with a little 1 gallon shop vac, I am over that life.

1. Opinions on a purpose built tray for drainage that my pots sit directly in, but its sloped for drainage. Either plumb it into an old drain or shop vac it from one location in the front of the tent instead of 6 individual saucers and having to lean under the netting. Or do I go with 6 saucers/stands that have built in drains that can be plumbed together with pvc pipe, like the floraflex system.

2. I'm looking to add a drip system so I don't have to worry about flushing under normal circumstances and can just feed to runoff as many times per day as I'd like. And, if I do need to flush, I can do so via the reservoir and let it run straight to a drain or a condensate pump. I know I have an older aquarium pump laying around. I'll need to check the gph and lift on it to see if it's enough. If not, there seem to be plenty of $15-30 options. What are the octa-bubblers I see? Just a manifold to split water lines? Or do they even the pressure out?

It appears that to set up the drip system, I'll need:
Pump
Timer
Supply line, large and small
Octa-bubbler(s)
Drip rings of some sort

Other than determining saucers or tray, is that it as far as the drip system goes?

I will be running 4-9 plants in a 4x4 tent depending on setup I decide on. I can see that fluctuating in the future depending on strains and timing, etc.. probably 4-6 would be the norm. As far as nutes go, I'm open to suggestions, but do like the one or two part stuff. Dry is preferred because it tends to be considerably cheaper. I had decent luck with MaxiGrow and MaxiBloom but have heard they can clog up in drip systems.

Thanks in advance!!!

I just do this......


6" hydro halo....6" tubing...6" ball valve... small pump.... timer .... pot riser.... drain tray with a hole.... small plastic tote for runoff. Pretty simple actually.

Hollatchaboy said:

I just do this......
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6" hydro halo....6" tubing...6" ball valve... small pump.... timer .... pot riser.... drain tray with a hole.... small plastic tote for runoff. Pretty simple actually.

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I will probably do something like this in my 3x3 with 1 or 2 plants. My goal is to have the 4x4 run more hands off.

Here's the handful of things I have saved in my cart for when I decide to do automated coco growing. I also like the idea of a drip ring, but my plan was just to use some of the extra water line and T-fittings to make my own rings. Won't be quite a pretty as Holla's setup, but should be considerably cheaper, and you can make as many as you'd need for very little cost.

Just use t fittings and feed line to make circles like Fangthane said. It will be more reliable than store bought drippers. Just drill few small holes, i use 4 per ring, start with small hole and test it out then expand hole size or # of holes. Start with holes big enough to not get clogged easily, but not too big.

Roguedawg said:

Just drill few small holes, i use 4 per ring, start with small hole and test it out then expand hole size or # of holes. Start with holes big enough to not get clogged easily, but not too big.

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My thinking was to just use several T's, each separated by maybe 3" of line and then form that contraption into a circle. That way no holes would need to be drilled and you could aim the drips to some degree.

Fangthane said:

My thinking was to just use several T's, each separated by maybe 3" of line and then form that contraption into a circle.

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1 T and the line in a circle is sufficient. @Laughing Grass made some and they seem to work well.

Pipe the drains to a condensate pump. They are cheap and self contained

Hey TCH~
Here's the setup I'm using..
20gal reservoir, 550gph pump, 1/2" line, y filter, line fittings, 3/4" pvc, 1/4" rubber grommets, 1/4" line, 1gph emitters w/ drip stakes, 3*3 tray, drain fitting to bilge box/pump, flex line to 5 gal catch bucket, emptied when needed. 1 way valve on 1/2" line in res to prevent flooding. PVC is easy to clean with pipe cleaner and supply lines are easily replaced when needed. Y-filter rinsed each week to prevent buildup. Could also install 1/4" barb shut off valves to control amount of feed per line..
Lots of digging through ICmag before building my setup.. they've gotta great wealth of information.

Hope this helps! Good luck~

I have tried drippers and I found them to be annoying with uneven/unreliable distribution and a lot of time spent with the pump running. Halos are better because they have more even distribution, but will push salt deposits into the areas it isn't penetrating, which isn't a huge deal but I'd rather not have to mess with it at all. I would like to try the plastic pot caps that have the slots for distribution - something like this seems useful especially if it can cover the entire top of the medium.

Greenman68 said:

I have tried drippers and I found them to be annoying with uneven/unreliable distribution and a lot of time spent with the pump running. Halos are better because they have more even distribution, but will push salt deposits into the areas it isn't penetrating, which isn't a huge deal but I'd rather not have to mess with it at all. I would like to try the plastic pot caps that have the slots for distribution - something like this seems useful especially if it can cover the entire top of the medium.

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I have definitely been looking at those caps from floraflex. @Jjgrow420 runs floraflex if I remember correctly, but not sure if he just runs the nutes or uses other components as well from them.

TCH said:

I have definitely been looking at those caps from floraflex. @Jjgrow420 runs floraflex if I remember correctly, but not sure if he just runs the nutes or uses other components as well from them.

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Hey man. Yep you're right I do run their nutes but I found I could plumb my own system for a fraction of the cost of floraflex so I went the diy route. And just use dripper emitters and or sprinklers from amazon, rainbird makes alot of stuff similar to floraflex without using proprietary threads and such so its a lot simpler for me to use their stuff which is hella cheaper too

Jjgrow420 said:

Hey man. Yep you're right I do run their nutes but I found I could plumb my own system for a fraction of the cost of floraflex so I went the diy route. And just use dripper emitters and or sprinklers from amazon, rainbird makes alot of stuff similar to floraflex without using proprietary threads and such so its a lot simpler for me to use their stuff which is hella cheaper too

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Do you use those caps like above? Or just drip emitters by themselves? Do you run the octa bubblers?

TCH said:

Do you use those caps like above? Or just drip emitters by themselves? Do you run the octa bubblers?

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I don't use the caps, I do run 8 port manifolds from rainbird. Same idea as the 'bubbler'. They're only a couple bucks each rather than whatever floraflex marks them up for.

TCH said:

1 T and the line in a circle is sufficient. @Laughing Grass made some and they seem to work well.

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Pretty happy with them considering the alternative is $20 a pop.

You'll also need a 1/2' riser and a method to connect to your supply line

I used 3/4 pvc and some T fittings.

I used 1/2" to maintain more even pressure through the whole system.

There's a bunch of diff options for emitters, you can buy rainbird drip emitters and run 1,2,3,4... per pot if you want. I found the easiest way with the most efficient coverage was with the little sprinklers. I run 2x sprinklers in each pot and they pretty much cover the whole pots surface with multiple drip points sorta achieving the same outcome as that floraflex thingamagigy does for 1/100th of the cost.
See if I can dig up a pic

I've tried most available drippers, both pressure-compensated and el' cheapos.

The Floraflex caps work great, even better with the optional mat. They work well the common low-psi submersible pumps. They seem quite resistant to clogging as the holes in the drip ring are much larger than typical drip emitters. They rely more on volume than pressure and the output is very consistent from one to another. Also, they're quite cheap, a few bucks per cap.

Diff setup, but same sprayers