Coco Saturation

WATERING
I am trying to set up an automatic watering system. I have decided to use sprayers instead of drippers. The sprayers only cover about 30% of the surface. My question is, will the water wick to the entire pot or will I have dry pockets of coco? The sprayers take 7 min to put 1 litre of water into an 8 litre air pot, with 10-20% DTW.

smokey

Got pics, but the answer is probably yes it will saturate the whole pot, are you straight coco?

Use a wetting agent like SM-90 to reduce the surface tension of the water to promote better spreading and absorption. You'll get better results if you have more than 1 dripper / pot if you're in something bigger than 2 gallons.

mr_c said:

Use a wetting agent like SM-90 to reduce the surface tension of the water to promote better spreading and absorption. You'll get better results if you have more than 1 dripper / pot if you're in something bigger than 2 gallons.

Click to expand...

And SM-90 thwarts fungal gnats also.

I will say that the on the sides the upper inch of my smart pots are not near was damp as the lower portions but if I scrape away the top 1/2 inch it is a root mass.

gr865 said:

Got pics, but the answer is probably yes it will saturate the whole pot, are you straight coco?

Click to expand...

will try and get pics tomorrow when i water. coco/perlite 70/30 (coco is pith)

2 gal airpots

smokey

Pictures as promised. hard to see the actual water spraying. If you zoom in and look closely you can see it.
the last pictures is just porn. should harvest late this week. I am running a 3 week perpetual. The sprayers are on cycle 1 of flower (15 days of 21) last picture is cycle 3 of flower (day 57)

Smokey

Not being familiar with your system it looks like you have a pressure problem.
These are my emitters, stream type and I have to dial them back a lot to keep the water in the smart pots. And they do saturate that profile.

GR865
Thanks for the reply. What sprayer are you using? Looks like a rainbird. What is the white coupling in your picture?
I really like the look of your ground cover, is it just ornamental rock?

smokey

Smokey57 said:

GR865
Thanks for the reply. What sprayer are you using? Looks like a rainbird. What is the white coupling in your picture?
I really like the look of your ground cover, is it just ornamental rock?

smokey

Click to expand...

Yes it is a Rainbird, but I just bought 50 Chinese of the same design.
That white coupling is a quick disconnect so I can move the plants around, move them from the tent to work on them.
That is GrowStones, that are a toxic free blown glass product, I believe it come from AZ. I used it years ago in a Hempy bucket and have about a half bag left. I use is on the surface of the coco to deter Fungal Gnats, don't have them and don't want them. Them little bastard cost me a full grow a few yrs ago.

What pump are you running, g/m, pressure pump or aquarium?
I will be setting up and testing the irrigation for my new grow later this week. Going to attempt a 24 plant SOG, will have three 8 port Orbit manifolds and a single emitter per plant. My pump 1.2 gallon per minute @ 80 psi, I have a 30 psi pressure reducer in line, did not want to blow the tops off my emitters. May have to remove the pressure reducer with the new setup, all will be trial and error.

I am using a 1/6 hp pump, 1350/gph. i assumed (maybe wrong) that this would have LOTS of pressure. Not sure how to calculate pressure with this.
I am using the natafim 12 port pressure compensating manifold

Smokey