diy drip hydroponics

14 years ago

Have been searching, but to no avail..

Can you just run a couple tubes to each pot, from a pvc manifold, instead of having to buy all the pressure compensated drippers? To ensure that all hoses water equally, just put the hole on the top of the PVC and make sure the PVC is level! VOILA! i think.... of course the tubes will be fastened to the pot somehow, to avoid water the surrounding area instead of tomatoes! please any feedback will be much appreciated... by the way, am doing an outdoor hydro tomato setup, with at least 40 3 gallon pots situated ontop of irrigation channels to direct the flow back to reservoir.

Comments (3)

chinamon
14 years ago
i actually just bought all the parts to build my 4-site top drip system. i havent done any assembly yet because im still waiting for germination. i will be using hydro drippers on stakes. im sure you can use ANYTHING to feed/drip as long as nutrient solution finds its way to your grow medium.
grizzman
14 years ago
yes you can do that. I did it on my big tomato trash can for a bit the first year. rather that worrying about all the tubes coming out the top or being level, just make sure the hoses from the manifold to the net pots are long enough that you can raise or lower them as needed. If there is an arch in the line, the line with the highest arch will have the slowest feed rate. Tinker around with the arches until you get them all approximately the same.
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lucas_formulas
14 years ago
Hi elves,
You do not need any pressure compensated drippers unless you run a high pressure (mostly huge) irrigation system.

Best is to have (as you intended) one horizontal tube and it doesn't need to be perfectly leveled. From that you may use (stick in) micro tubes with or without simple drippers connected at the end.

I have solved it in a different way than grizzman: I use a small pump and keep the difference in level between reservoir and outlet as low as I can. Then you have enough flow but no pressure to control. I have managed to feed 20+ drippers with a tiny 5 watt pump (smallest available from aquarium supply) by keeping the difference between reservoir and outlet around 40-50 cm (one a half foot) only. You save lots of energy and material cost in that way. Here you can simply adjust the "pressure", by changing the location of the pump. You can raise or lower the reservoir or change the depth you immerse the pump into in the reservoir. Once you have got the ideal level, you can copy the system or use it in different ways but keep the actual leveling.

PS: simply drilling tiny holes in a horizontal 3/4'' pvc tube may work as well, but it's tricky and may end up in a rather difficult to control water jet. I'd at least invest a few bucks in micro tubes and PVC connectors anyway.

I am lucky as I have a supplier here in S.E.A. that sells very cheap drippers, connectors and stuff in ISO quality. Adjustable Drippers cost less than 5 ct/piece - I should sell them via eBay, I guess ;-)