Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 (edited) Hi folks just thought id do this thread to show how easy it is to setup automated feeding in your garden. I only use this for my flower room & water my girls in veg by hand, otherwise i'd have nothing to do! This one i'll make is for 6 plants.Its really easy & not expensive as you will see, perfect even if you just want to go away for a week on holiday I use this with a run to waste method, so a catchment tray in the bottom of your tent/groom is essential to catch the runoff.Ok, first pic is of the things you will need, you can get them from any hydro store for cheap as chips.Here we have 4mm feed line, 13mm plastic pipe, hole presser, a 13mm stopper, some nipples & Blue drippersFirst thing you do is put the stopper on the end of the 13mm pipe like so...Next you make the holes in the 13mm pipe for the nipples like so, always making 1 more than you need, this is important as it stops your res draining into your flower room!Then we insert the nipples like so... Edited March 15, 2014 by madgiz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 (edited) Then its time to do the feed lines, consider where your res is going to be sitting when you do this, i then cut six feed lines all the same length, usually the distance of my furthest away plant to my res...Then just pop them onto the nipples like so but leaving the top one empty...Then cut a small length of 4mm tube for that top nipple that you can tape somewhere to the side of your res, this stops any trickling sounds when their being fed...Then just pop all the Blue drippers on the other end, they have a v shape to them so when the water comes thru it splits in two streams (although not always)So you should now be looking at this!!Now all you have to do is pop it onto a maxijet pump or likewise, and have the pump plugged into a timer...Make sure you get a filter for your pump as this stops any bits going thru and blocking your feed lines, ive never had one block on me yet while using a filter but because this is cheap to do i tend to renew my lines every 4 grows or so anyways, but the filter is a must!! Get one!!!And lastly, heres one i made earlier you can see the short tube taped to the side to stop trickling when the pump is on. Also in my res i have an airstone & another small pump to keep the solution moving so it doesnt go stale, this res will do me 6/7 days for 6 plants fed daily.Regards to the timer settings, you want to use a digital timer as these can be set in minutes (argos) what i do is put 5 of the drippers into a bucket & 1 into a jug, then turn your timer on for 1 min and see how much is delivered into the jug, then calculate how many mins you need the pump on to flush your plants thru, i usually go on that i can get runoff in a 6.5ltr pot using roughly 1.5ltrs of feed, to achieve this i have my pump on for 4mins per dayHope this helps out, it really is the lazy way to do things TS Edited March 15, 2014 by madgiz 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bond Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Excellent post mate! I've spent some time setting up something similar and after a fair bit of experimenting with floods, rings, and drippers I find that Claber drippers work best for me. They are adjustable so you can regulate each pot as I've found that the plants in the centre of the room use more water than the plants on the perimeter and also the pump pressure is slightly different to the pots furthest away from the pump. Other than that I've done the same as this, and it works great! Brilliant post TheSaint! Watering for me takes as long as it takes to mix the feed and then I just switch the pump on, hey presto 4 hours latter all the pots are well soaked! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budelaire Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Thanks for this Saint, top notch mate. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CK. Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 There is no beating that for simplicity, I'm lucky enough to have enough time to hand water so never considered it apart from the odd time I'm away for a few days but this looks so easy to do, I've booked my summer hols for next year and was gonna have to shut my growing down for a couple of weeks but..... I reckon even I could do this, cheers Saint CK 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluez Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Almost the same as I do mate, however I use the claber drippers also. I originally had the pots on capillary matting and tried to drip just enough so they didn't drip too much out the bottom ( I'm in the loft so can't run to waste) - I got terrible salt build up though (pm coco nutes). Now I have them propped up on 2" x 1" bits if wood and have them in a 1m x 1m tray, so I just mop the tray out every few days. The 1m trays are a god sent by the way, and they do actually hold 100L which I had the delight of finding out this weekend when I set the digital timer to only "turn off" on a Monday and not every day!!!! How do you run to waste mate? Straight into a drain? Bucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBlueRizla Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 I tried something similar to this, I remember those blue ends that look like pens. I couldn't get it all to stay nice and attached, which meant water leaked everywhere. Silly me! Nice write up, maybe if I had this I would have done in right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roundsquare Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Very nicely done Saint now i don't do Coco but i think this should be pinned. Great pictoral guide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 ! How do you run to waste mate? Straight into a drain? Bucket? Hi m8, the bottom of my flower room is lined with pond liner which goes a few inches up the walls so therefore waterproof thanks for the comments guys n gals, ive been meaning to do this thread for a while just never got round to it, glad its helping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluez Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 So you just empty the bottom every now and then? Pump? Sponge? Also where did you get the green filter for your pump? None I've bought come with them??.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 (edited) So you just empty the bottom every now and then? Pump? Sponge? Also where did you get the green filter for your pump? None I've bought come with them??.. No i only ever empty the res after a full grow, during a grow once the res gets low i then top up with say 60ltrs of water, then add my nutes accordingly Also during the week il have a look at my ph & ec, you tend to find the ec of the res creeps up slightly over the course of the week due to evaporation of water, i just add a couple of litres of plain water to bring the ec back down to where ive originally set it If my ph has drifted higher i add ph down If my ph has drifted lower i add liquid silicon e2a - the filter for the maxijet DOESN'T come with the pump, you need to ask for these! Edited October 31, 2012 by TheSaint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiffa Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 about time too looking great buddy , took to this hydro lark like a duck to water top work bro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 about time too looking great buddy , took to this hydro lark like a duck to water top work bro cheers Jiffa m8 hope your well man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 How do you run to waste mate? Straight into a drain? Bucket? If you look at this pic you will see my plants all raised off the floor by using upturned square saucers to sit them on, thus meaning when they get fed any runoff runs down into the pond liner/catchment tray instead of them sitting in it, you then mop it up every few days & get rid, hence run to waste (or as you can see in my room i tend to get a bit lazy with this part i just let it evaporate) it would be much easier to clean if i were using 1.2m garland trays tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluez Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 That's exactly what I was after mate! That's just what I've done after having them on the floor and getting salt build up. What nutes do you use mate? I've had terrible probs with pm coco using drippers. How much run off do you get each watering? How many times a day do you water? Sorry about the questions, your set up is now almost identical to mine and I'm double checking there isn't something I'm missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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