Hi there

I have bought two wilma dripper sytems that contain 16 pots so 32 in total. I'm using canna pro plus soil and have canna bloom feed. I'm mostly growing lowryder 2 but have a few aka mixes in there to. I will probably go for bigger and better strains later

I have a couple of mechanical timers but can't decide on how freqantly i should pump the water through there. This will be my 3rd grow but has been many years since the last. Last grow was 10 white widdows grown indoors with soil and a 1000w hps lamp. The down side with that 1000 watter was it needed to be cooled in a glass cylinder by a large and very noisey lti fan.

This time I have chosen led lamps. I got a couple of ufos but will be building my own using large stripboards and a hell of a lot of red leds with a good number of orange, white, blue and uv types. Alot of them run on 3.3v so will be using the 3.3v rail on a 550w computer psu rated at 18Amps. I know hps would be better but i gotta sleep in that same room and cant stick the noise.

I guess really I would like some comments on either how crazy I am or not . Plus any good sugestions on how to run the dripper sytems timings ect.

Thanks for looking.

If your using soil then they dont need feeding till they are dry and you probably are best to just turn the pumps on every few days when they are hungry..

Best of luck with your grow

I'd forget a dripper system with compost and i'd forget the led's too

Owd

Any reason why I should forget this system and led lights? I'm sorry but I have learned nothing from what you've said.

Led's are okay for noveltly grows etc but not for doing a full scale grow like your talking about.. 32 Wilma? Thats a lot of floorspace and alot of LED's - Your better off spending that cash on some decent exctraction and ligting.

The reason owd says forget the drippers in soil is because drippers are mainly used for mediums that need feeding quite often. With soil your going to need to feed maybe every 3 or 4 days depending on your enviroment and why bother doing drippers when you can just hand feed and get to know your plants. Another reason is think about the tiny bits of shit that are going to flow back into your tank and cause blockages in your feed pipes.

Yes I can see what your saying about the LEDs. I know its not the best method and I do regret buying those UFO lamps. Moslty because I know I can buy several hundred Leds plus a square meter of stripboard for less, and I have done. I plan to have two half square meters of leds above each dripper plus the 2 UFOs ( may as well use em now I got them ). I cant have any loud cooling for lighting cos I have to sleep in the same room and i have problems sleeping any way ( thus the grow )

I got the dripper system with the thought that It could water the plants automatically. I work away from home 3 or 4 days a week shop fitting so i thought it would be better that way. I dont wanna work three day days in a row and let them dry up. Is there a better method for auto watering soil? I could always hand water when Im home and just turn on the pumps on the days when I'm away would that work out as a happy medium?

I'm not expecting the sort of yeilds that you pro's have come to expect from your gardens which is another reason why i am growing so many lil lowryders. If it all goes wrong then its only a couple of weeks wages down the drian. But if it works then I will be able to sleep much better without the use of nasty perscription drugs. I do have alot of confidence in the led lamp im building They will be brighter and have a more usefull spectrum including uv than those ufo's i bought.

Its mosly all here now any way, my thumbs are a bit sore from threading in 32 tubes though

I have seen some very good growers using drippers in compost (some with canna nutes) so it can be done. I wouldn't mind knowing how much they feed/water as i've always found wet/dry cycles to work with compost. Most of them seem to use 4 drippers per pot, must be so much nicer than hand watering.

As for the lights, well you might not be able to have loud cooling but extraction fans aren't there for cooling, they are there for air exchange so you will need an extractor anyway. Way i see it if you are going to break the law to grow herb you might as well make it worth while...get yourself a hid if ya got the cash

Yeah I know what your saying I will have a small quiet fan for moving air across the room. I have 1000w Hps in a glass cylinder cooled by a gurt lti fan via 6" ducting. Probably needs a new bulb now. I would be using it if i didn't have to sleep in the same room, it really did my head in last time. If things change next grow then yeah I'll hook it up. One thing I will say about the UFO lamp and the 1000w hps. Wearing my sunglasses of course I can look at my hps longer than I can look at the UFO without it getting too much. The Leds are brighter to look at ,at least. But the hps bulb is a few years old though only being used for 2 grows before. And there is a lot of factors in light spectrum to consider, But i will build my own leds with lots of red and smaller amounts of orange blue white and UV so should have it well covered.

Ill post a diary next week when it all starts be intresting to see how they fair

Good HPS grow >1G a watt
Good LED grow =1 spliff per £200 spent