show and tell about your automated drip/sprayer systems

guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Iam on a cheap metro phone. Dont know how to put pics up. Id like to. Iam running 8 Gavita 6/750's in my basement at the moment with a 30,000 btu mini split and a santa fe classic dehumidifier. Running bottled co2 in a closed room using silver backed foam board cap nailed to 2x4 framing. Plants in coco coir in 1 to 3 gallon root pots and grow bags on a simple drip system draining to my sump well. At some other places in town i was running tables for drain to waste but ive since shut these down. Running a sealed room with ac and heavy duty dehueys is frikin expensive no doubt. Sometimes i think about going back to a vented room and ditching co2. I could run some of my older lamps to make up for the weight loss and still save on my electric bill. Shit is expensive anymore. Weed prices falling big time in med states. Iam in michigan and prices have fell considerably in the last few years.
Click to expand...
i ran co2 off and on for years in different rooms. bottled and burners both. it made for some explosive veg and high nutrient uptake but i really never noticed any increase in yield. seem to grow big heavy dongs fine without it. the price per unit here is like half of what it was 6 years ago.
 
Last edited:
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
it would be really easy to automate your setup. cheap harbor freight pump, 3/4" poly line, 1/4" fittings, 1/4" line, hose clamps, 3/4" barbed fitting with plug screwed into the end, and a cycle timer capable of 30 second cycles. If you were trying to water a large room full of plants this wouldn't work as well but for two plants it should work great.
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
I dont run drippers anymore. They always clog because i like to run humic acid in my tanks. But without them (pressure compensating) all the feed water likes to go to the very first few feed tubes. I went to lowes and bought a bunch of them 1/4 inch barbed flow valves for the feed site tubing. I adjusted each one with dixie cups to get the flow rates even as possible. It works. No more soaking wet pots of coir in the front and drier ones towards the back.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
exactly. that was why i was telling mtn man that my suggestion would only work well on a couple of plants. if you add valves to control flow you can make it work on a large scale. i really prefer the sprayers over any other method myself. i have literally never had a failure. i double filter the intake and put 2 sprayers per container and the shit is just automatic. i run fulvic sometimes but not the thick brown humic. u gotta figure out how to throw some pics up bro, i'd love to see what you're up to.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
guerrilla medic said:
exactly. that was why i was telling mtn man that my suggestion would only work well on a couple of plants. if you add valves to control flow you can make it work on a large scale. i really prefer the sprayers over any other method myself. i have literally never had a failure. i double filter the intake and put 2 sprayers per container and the shit is just automatic. i run fulvic sometimes but not the thick brown humic. u gotta figure out how to throw some pics up bro, i'd love to see what you're up to.
Click to expand...
The other way to solve that problem is to use a larger size pump and bigger manifold diameter.
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
I need high pressure pumps. Got 4 35 gallon trashcans for reservoirs with shitty 1000 gph active aqua pumps in each. Love to run just open tube....the barbed quarter inch valves arent perfect and they are a bitch to dial for each site. I could run 3/4 tubing i stead of half inch. The pump boxes come with all kinds of barbed fittings of various sizes
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
the pump I'm using is a low-flow high-pressure pump. The spray stakes need at least 20 psi to function. My pump maintains 45 psi but only flows at like 3 gallons per minute.
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Man.....them spray heads dont clog with base fert salts or additives? Even with a "y" filter seems the fine mesh of the sprayers would clog. I would like to set up sprayers if i knew they wouldnt. I seen some high times articles on spray head manifolds for coco drsin to waste systems.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
i have only been running them a year or maybe a little less, but been running multiple systems during that time and have NEVER had a failure. only ran salt based nutes(dyna-gro, advanced, house and garden) through them. i put a sediment filter in front of a y style mesh filter straight from the sprinkler aisle at home depot. i have ran single stakes that spray out both sides but i prefer two stakes per container. if one ever DID fail you are still covered, plus with two per container you have shorter pump cycles.
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Fuk yes....what size pot or container you running? Sediment filter???? In front of the common "y" ????
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
i use 5 gallon buckets but only fill em with 3 gallons of substrate. the sediment filter is essentially a 3/4 inch threaded fitting with a screen inside it. they are right in the same area next to the mesh filters at home depot. it screws right onto the end of the y filter.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
i have never used an anti siphon on these because with the sprayers you have to have 20psi of pressure to make anything come out. its not like open ended irrigation where if all your openings are below the water level there is a siphon effect.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
mackdx said:
FWIW, I have been running a system with the Netafim pressure compensating spray stakes for two years and have only had two clog up. No Drip Clean, no filters.
Click to expand...
hows going mack? so you don't even have a filter on your intake? did you clean the sprayers out and get em back in service or just replace them?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top