Neat idea!!

Thanks! That lowest hole...either the dripper needs to be turned over to reflect the 2gph side to drain faster or that hole doesn't need to be that low. What happens is when the upper bottle is full, it drips faster and fills the growth chamber till water runs out that bottom hole. Probably could just do away with that chamber dripper and replace with a barb fitting so it runs straight through. The media ought to get saturated well enough. I'm filling this with screened/washed floor dry clay granules for the media.

i like it. a few questions though.
is the green inverted 2 liter at the bottom (red cap with a dripper) cut off to just act to funnel the water to the emitter?
Is there a drip emitter in the top inverted 2 liter to control the output?
Will it drip into the media fast enough to saturate all of it (the media that is)?

i did a similar thing a few years back but not hydro. holes in the side of a 4" pipe with herbs growing out them. ran a 1/2" perforated pipe down the middle. just water it as needed with the hose. excess water drained out the bottom.
worked pretty well. I may modify that sytem to work hydroponically this year.

Yes to the first two questions. The red cap with dripper bottle top is siliconed in place. This dripper just needs to be deleted and replace with a piece of tubing. Not sure how the saturation is going to be yet. I was sort of thinking just about any plant is going to have roots that will extent into the center or beyond when setting so if the area of saturation is just in the center it should do ok?

How did you keep the media from running out the sides of your pipe and what type media did you use?

Dripper has evolved into the PVC Flipper Dripper . Perlite media, three plant holes. 2 Liter nutrient capacity. Flip it to drip it! Fill by either removing one end or through level indicator hose. It was a mental blowout getting the drip and fill for the upper and lower containers in what was an airlock situation...draining the top and filling the bottom and visa versa when flipped without leaking but I won the battle, lol! Got to open a valve and close a valve before flipping but it's not all that difficult little screw things. Fun stuff! Plants ought to get a gravity workout on this thing. Wish my strawberry plants would get here.

What is the next stage of dripper evolution?

{{gwi:1000286}}

Since mine wasn't hydroponics, I used potting soil. I used rope to criss cross the bottom to hold the dirt there and I used window screen across the side holes to hold it there. I started my herbs in peat pots then transplanted when they were big enough.

I asked about the saturation because until the plants have grown enough for their roots to reach the center, you have to make sure the edges get saturated.

Did away completely with the drip emitters. Inside what isolates the center section is now weed barrier fabric with the micro pores that let air and water through. Glued onto the ends of the end pieces, trimmed then glued into the couplers. Both ends will come apart from the center. Still need the twist open/close air valves to allow flow through. This will surely saturate all the media in the center as it is a whole surface drip from the fabric and drains quickly enough to the bottom side as to not overflow the plant holes.

Some strawberries I bought at the hardware store in the foam plugs. Seem to be doing fine so far after a couple days.

{{gwi:1000287}}

Well I don't mind admitting that after a couple of days, right after the previous post I went to flip the flipper and water ran out the side holes. Hmmm. Don't know what went wrong since it worked fine in the empty test. Maybe the perlite plugged the micro mesh. Oh well. I have enough to keep me busy without worrying over a novelty. Sorry if anyone was following this. Maybe I will try some other mesh later on...

probably catching on the roots and running out along them.
Just my initial thought on the subject