Help Drip drain to waste system coco

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
I use 0.5 gph on 15/30 mins 1/2/3/4x daily per pot depending on where they are at and what they like. Works for me I have 0 clue what others use.
 

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Here's how I did mine...............it take's a little bit of experimenting to dial in, but is a cost effective method(sorry....I'm gonna have to work in metric here)

So.......make your drip system with 16mm and 8mm tube and accessories from your grow store(cheaper than buying a 'system' and is made to fit your room, buy more fittings than you think you need, spares are always good. It is also important to keep your 8mm tubes feeding the individual pots to the same length, to keep pressures equal throughout the system)

Get a pump which is stronger than you need...........say 250-500LPH, you will be running this pump for 15mins at a time on a 15min segmental timer, so 250/15=16.6L per 15 min cycle.
Depending on how many plants you are watering, 16.6L in 15 mins may be too much. To reduce this, get a 6mm drill bit(1/4") and drill a hole in your 16mm supply tube, within your reservoir, but above the water line, so when the pump switches on, some of the pumped water goes back into the res. Now you need to measure how much water you are pumping in 15mins and simply add more 6mm holes in the tube until you get the required amount of water pumping through the system.

As an example, I had mine set up to deliver 8L of water in a 15 min cycle to 16 x 16L smart pots, so 1/2L per plant, per watering. When I started the plants off, I'd give 1 x 15min cycle per day, then increase the number of 15min cycles to suit your plants as they grow. You need to keep monitoring how your plants are taking up the water and adjust the number of waterings required throughout the plants lifecycle. It's also very important to monitor the ph an ec/ppm of you res water at least every day and completely refresh every 1-2 weeks(ie, let your res empty, clean out and replace fresh water, keeping the same water cycling for weeks on end invites problems)

Ps, there is no need to really run to waste, until you do your flush every couple of weeks, if you run to waste every time you're just wasting expensive nute's. You wanna be putting just enough water in at a time to keep the medium moist, not wet.

Hope some of that makes sense.....good luck
 

Porky101

Well-Known Member
I am watering every other 15 minutes during lights on.

So 15 min on and 15 min off for 12 hours
 
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