Help me decide please which drip system to buy.

I am currently a former DWC grower, who is switching over to drip only, I will either be doing drip with coco, or drip with hydroton.

My two questions in this review are:
1: Out of all the easy drip systems I found worth buying, which one is best for the set up I am doing?
2: And lastly is it possible to do this with hydroton?

From my last DWC grow my GF was scarred for life when the pumps broke, and the floor flooded, I do not see this happening again, but she is scarred for life so I can not do DWC she has made that clear.

But I have all this hydoton left over and I would of course undoubtedly rather use hydroton instead of coco, but it is so hard to find subjects online discussing a top feed drip on to hydroton.

I understand it is common to do Hydroton Top Feed with a spray of constant flowing water rather than just a steady drip but I do not want a system that is loud, plugged in to the wall, or screwed on to a faucet.

I honestly think that what I want can only be done in coco or soil, but I am hoping I can reuse all this hydroton and save money from buying coco for every grow.

So please pick and tell in the thread exactly what item from Amazon that I listed that you feel is best for this type of set up. Or if you know something better than what I found on Amazon please list in forum, thank you. And I few items I listed or not drip but they have my so damn curious so if anyone has any luck with using the other self watering items I listed or opinions to share then please do.

Moisture Matic MM6PC11 Moisture Matic Plant Watering Set of http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2IXM3M/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=ISHUUKH3TA9XY

Little Beauties Island Planter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P6EFKU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=IAWDN1DJM0GQ8

Planters' Pride 35 Coconut Coir Pellet Self-Watering Greenhouse Kit
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S4KEDTW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I2EXMFFTHRS4Z3

Miracle-Gro AeroGarden AeroVoir Watering System
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJAR32M/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I1AFD8PXSARXJ3

SWE Wonder Planter Self-Watering Planter, Charcoal
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D60YDEU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I1KYFLYT61LDWK&psc=1

DriWater 2" (PT) Perforated Tube & Gel Pac
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0025ZILL8/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I24UR5Y2IOZSIP

Bonsaiboy Outdoor Garden Desktop Grow Light
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002C6F384/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I2MRDUE9RWSO6S
Self-Watering, Max-Well CUBI Planter Charcoal - 10 Inch
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001TJSLRK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I8NR8SIELK5WU

Plant Purrfect Self-watering Plant Pot (Dark Green)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2HNC7G/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I1O6KJBPCWVVL5&psc=1

Plantpal Self Watering System for Plants
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SYKLS2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I1UN5AWPB9ITX5

Planters Pride RZWTRO Self-Watering System
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001005NII/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I3NZMIPQCAGRVL

Claber 8053 Oasis 4-Programs/20 Plants Garden Automatic Drip Watering System
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000U5YFR4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I2REIHIQBOEQ1A
Blumat Self Watering Probes - for Vacation Watering set of 5
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B8VYQ28/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=I1PSQZ14U062D6

The Claber is what I was going to use for the Hydroton, and the Blumat would be used for coco.

Check out Scottyballs grow thread. He used a water farm with hydroton, GH Flora Nova Bloom, and a CMH bulb to grow a one pound Pineapple Express plant.

Mohican said:

Check out Scottyballs grow thread. He used a water farm with hydroton, GH Flora Nova Bloom, and a CMH bulb to grow a one pound Pineapple Express plant.

Click to expand...

But Isn't That Spray And Not Drip?

Hempy bucket, passive hydro. Much cheaper, easier and a mostly fail safe method of growing your favorite flowers and veggies. Otherwise, GH makes the Water Farm and the Power Grower. I own the latter and it works well if that's just what you gotta do. I used it once and went back to Hempy Bucket.

The water farm/power grower are actually DWC bubbler with a drip ring. The air bubbles push water up the tube and around the drip ring and feeds the hydroton from the top. It's a very simple and effective system. I like it. Just Hempy is so much less trouble and worry free.

Good luck.

The hempy bucket appears from my research as just a bunch of medium with a drainage hole at the end of a bucket, my only question is will this work with a automated system like drip from blumat or claber or some other drip that does not need to be plugged in to any socket for power and that will not need to be connected to any faucet for water supply. I really want something automated where I just refill the Reservoir Supply. But I don't like the idea of spending money constantly on new medium with every grow, I will only use AN PH perfect tech to keep it simple, and I am keeping an eye on my ppm, so far just using tap boiled, then filtered seems to give me around 612, and all my girls are on it until it's time to increase it towards the final stages, which I have never done before, so that should be interesting, anyone know how to increase the ppm easy and cheap? Mostly easy is what I am going for and take in to account I'm using AV PH perfect. And thanks for all the help, hey does anyone except donations for helping on the forum? Do you accept Paypal? Once again thank you for all the help fellow growers.

wwfjdraw said:

The hempy bucket appears from my research as just a bunch of medium with a drainage hole at the end of a bucket, my only question is will this work with a automated system like drip from blumat or claber or some other drip that does not need to be plugged in to any socket for power and that will not need to be connected to any faucet for water supply. I really want something automated where I just refill the Reservoir Supply. But I don't like the idea of spending money constantly on new medium with every grow, I will only use AN PH perfect tech to keep it simple, and I am keeping an eye on my ppm, so far just using tap boiled, then filtered seems to give me around 612, and all my girls are on it until it's time to increase it towards the final stages, which I have never done before, so that should be interesting, anyone know how to increase the ppm easy and cheap? Mostly easy is what I am going for and take in to account I'm using AV PH perfect. And thanks for all the help, hey does anyone except donations for helping on the forum? Do you accept Paypal? Once again thank you for all the help fellow growers.

Click to expand...

Taking hempy that complicated seems like a waist of time. Why? The entire idea behind it is KISS. You can use perlite over and over. Hydro is feeding the Nutes through water. That's it. The medium for DWC and other hydro systems is all bout providing the nutes through the medium of water. Passive hydro(hempy) does the same. Soil is completely different. But still the same.

It's all good how you achieve your results. Hempy, dro, soil? Who cares but you? As long as you are getting the results you want. Right? I've tried em all.

Good luck bro. Don't know anything about AN nutes. Lucas formula works tho.

Thank you for wishing me Good luck. I always start out everything in coco pellets, it seems perfect for seeds and clones, rockwool never worked for me, and the plugs are good as long as you have dwc in my experience but without it, pellets seems to work the best.

Thank you for all your advice. I think I will do hempy, I already have half my plants in coco party cups, and they will need to be moved soon to bigger containers, so I have from now till then to figure this whole thing out.

So far the only good experience I have had with set it and forget it watering is with the mat peet pellets use to stay wet with that my humidity dome came with. And DWC, I miss DWC because of well everything about it is so damn perfect, but my gf/roommate is scarred for life and she complains about the power bill going up.

Originally when it came to the idea of using drip to replace dwc in regards to an automated self watering system I assumed the only option that I would favor would be coco with blumat, because I figured that way could be the easiest, but again I hate the idea of replacing the coco with every grow.

You are correct when you say that the perlite can be reused over and over, and perlite is cheap, in fact it has to be the cheapest medium I have ever purchased.

Ok so lets say I drill a hole in my bucket, then what? I just fill it up with cheap perlite, and transplant my coco plant in to it and then top feed it with nutrients until it starts to come out the hole, and how is this any different then just having coco and perlite in a regular pot with drain holes and then top feeding it until the water comes out the bottom holes of the pots like I did with my last grow? The only difference I'm seeing with this system compared to a regular coco and perlite in regular pot set up is that this could be used with perlite only so it is reusable (well except for the Coco I have with this round) and instead of many drain holes (like my regular pots) it has only one and it is not at the bottom but near the bottom on side of the Hempy Bucket system.

So how exactly is this easier? :Like for example, do you feed it less often? Is there a better chance of never over or under watering it? And can this be made with drip systems where I can set it and just refill it with no chance of under or over watering it like DWC/drip?

Dude, Google Hempy, there is a ton of info, but on a nutshell yes. 10% runoff every time you water-hydro ph, hydro ppm, and the red makes it so you dont have to water all the stinking time...I feed every watering btw, 2-3 days in the main heat of flower. They love it. Whenever you transplant, give it a week to hit the res. The growth will be noti oboe after two weeks.

I talked it over with my GF, and we are kinda leaning against doing hempy for most of the grow, don't get me wrong we will try it out, I mean we have everything already for it so it won't cost a thing, but I would rather have something that was more in the lines of drip so that I can set it and forget it, and unless I am mistaken, you can't do drip like blumat or claber or can you? Wouldn't it flood it? I am searching and I can not seem to find much of anything on Any Drip with Hempy Buckets.

The whole idea of Hempy Bucket is the simplicity and set it and forget it KISS style. Drip? I think it's doable, just totally unecessary. What is more simple(set it and forget it) than mixing up and PHing nutes every other day then, pouring them into the bucket?

Who cares how you do it dude? I mean seriously. You asked a question and were given plenty of information to go on and now I think it's just time for you to make a decision.

If you're going to use a hempy bucket you're still going to have to hand water. At that point just stick with the coco. You can reuse coco...I've been using the same bale for like a year. You can do a drip system with hydroton but the balls can create water channels and sometimes pinch off roots (supposedly). If you use a drip system with coco you're gonna have to plug into something. If you want a totally passive system with no moving parts and that's the simplest thing ever look into a wick system. That would work perfect with coco.

The whole idea of hempy is more of a mess then I want to deal with, I think I will just still with smart pots, coco/perlite, and get dripping. Now I just need to find out which drip system to use. Speaking of wicking, what do you think of this?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2IXM3M/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=ISHUUKH3TA9XY

wwfjdraw said:

I talked it over with my GF, and we are kinda leaning against doing hempy for most of the grow, don't get me wrong we will try it out, I mean we have everything already for it so it won't cost a thing, but I would rather have something that was more in the lines of drip so that I can set it and forget it, and unless I am mistaken, you can't do drip like blumat or claber or can you? Wouldn't it flood it? I am searching and I can not seem to find much of anything on Any Drip with Hempy Buckets.

Click to expand...

I'm going to try hempy with a Claber for total hands-off in the next couple of months. I've used the Claber for when I'm going to be away for a few days and they work fine for that purpose, just haven't used it through a whole cycle to gage the results.

I don't see anything wrong with combining hempy and top-drip for almost completely hands off. Doubt I'd use it as my main method as I'm having great success with fabric pots watered every 3 days or so. But not a bad method to test with a couple of spare clones in my small tent.

The Clabers come with 20 lines, each line drips 2 oz. every 12 hours, it's pre-set, can't be modified. BUT, you can use as many lines per pot up to the maximum of 20 total. 3-4 lines per pot during flowering is probably about right if you want to go hands off, so 4-6 plants depending on the size and cycle time.

Aqua trays and coco slabs are a piece of piss and super cheap. 3 or 4 small plants per slab 2lph drippers, run to waste or recirculate either is fine.

I use a pump and irrigation lines for my hempy grow and let me tell you it is a lot easier than hand watering and mixing up every few days, I mix up a barrel once a week, set it and forget it. Whenever I need to water I just flick a switch. Not really drip though more of a torrent lol I just call it top feed

I run a drip system. Don't worry about buying any of those expensive ready-made systems and build one yourself for a fraction of the cost. I run two reservoirs, two trays. 4 rockwool cubes in each tray under a 1000w HID light and yield 2 lbs. Everything you need can be found at Home Depot or Lowes. Other items such the pump can be found at hydro store. Check out this video on setting up drip system: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC65Wtjuej_YyOOxg4PC-uhA

I replicated it and it works beautifully. The pump runs a timer and I change the nutrient solution every couple of weeks. Talk about "set it and forget it." You can run one tray/reservoir under a single 600w comfortably.



Here is a parts list, if interested:

27 gallon tote ($11.97) http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-Gal-Storage-Tote-in-Black-207585/205628022

Large cement mixing tub ($12.9 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Plasgad-Black-Large-Concrete-Mixing-Tub-887102C/205451585

110gph pump (around $10)

1/2", 1/4" tubing, fittings all found at Home Depot for pennies.

Hope this helps.

whatever you do, don't listen to that @GrowUrOwnDank she hands out grow advice like she's a pro, yet by her own admission has never grown with hid, never grown more than one auto plant at a time, has yet to post one picture of her 'successful' grows and finds dwc too complicated yet has the balls to abuse other members at will. Please @GrowUrOwnDank stick to trolling in Toke and Talk.

I would like to know who coined this word Hempy Bucket. Doesn't everyone know that a hempy bucket is the same thing as a dutch bucket system that has been used and around for the last 50 plus years?

I'd rather pay more for the Blumat or Claber than go through any more trouble like going to The Store and getting the parts then putting it together, honestly yes I do not feel like changing my mind on that one, but thank you for the advice.

She is worried about where to put the nutrients that over spill from the bottom side hempy hole. I don't like the idea of replacing my saucers with anything bigger that could take up more room just to catch the run off either. Or can you catch the run off with just ordinary low lip saucers?

I think we've decided on doing drip with all the current warrior pot, 420 pots and fabric pots, and only t

FLOOD AND DRAIN TABLE.

No Thanks to the flood drain idea, the hempy was a nice recommendation, but I'll stick to a trial run with a couple this time, and see from there, besides any hempy bucket I do use, I will just use a dripper for anyways so setting a system up non hempy drip is what I will focus on, no more advice about flood and drain or hempy please.

It is nice to know someone else has heard of The Claber Drip System.. Can anyone compare the two BluMat VS Claber to find out which is better or worse for a drip system? And does anyone know about the Other links I mentioned? I can't stop thinking about this one, because it reminds me of the blumat tech in a way with the cone measuring how much moisture is in the medium then releasing the feed based on that reading, except this looks easier because their is no drip instead you just fill the outside res that goes on the pot and the feed is given from the cone rather than drip, what do you guys think?:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2IXM3M/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3CR80CLWPMV79&coliid=ISHUUKH3TA9XY

If I do go the hempy bucket route, I will just get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Eezy-Gro-Self-Watering-Planter-12-Inch-Margarita/dp/B00BMR8D86/ref=pd_bxgy_hg_img_y

Looks like I could have my res without anything dripping out on t a saucer or a drain table since the pot is filled from the bottom.