how many drippers per plant?

i have a few questions about drip irrigation....

1. how did you guys run your drippers off your main line? i've seen those things you hook your main line up to and it has like 8 nozzles to run your drippers off of, but i just poke holes in my main line and run them off of there, keeping all my lines the same length for even drips.

2. how many drippers do you use per plant? i stack a 4 inch rockwool on top of a 6 inch cube, then i run 1 dripper to the top of the 4 inch cube. i was wondering if it mattered if only one corner of the cube was enough to spread the water around. bfore this drip system i was hand feeding, so even distribution wasnt a problem.
they seem to be fine but i'm wondering if i should run 2 lines per plant? one on opposite ends of the cube.

3. how often are you guys feeding your babes in a 12/12 period?
i dont have mine set on a timer just yet i just wait til i feel them and they are light and i plug it in and let the girls get a drink, but i would like to have it on a timer.

4. i have an air stone and a couple dual output air pumps in the res that i turn on before i send the nutes to the ladies, my question is, should i just let that run throughout the 12 hours of "on" or should i run it 24 hours?


any help/opinions/suggestions will be taken into consideration.

thanks for readin

-itfm

nice topic+rep. I have just bought an 8 manifold dripper that has tubes, stakes, and the manfild for 13 bucks at lowes.

For systems with rockwool yu sound ok. As log as they are 1-2 inchs away from the stem, so no rot. For rockwool I would set it up on a timer. When the rockwool is at 60 percent go ahead and drip.

I am still experimenting. I might just met it go using bubbler attachements once every few hours into my hydrton netpots. For you I can imgaine that the 1/2 gph might be nice. Sadly I have not yet done too much experimenting with rockwool and drip. I flood that still. Might move to drip soon.

curious to read. Grodans rockwool website, the official company one is kinda cool.

jkim said:

nice topic+rep. I have just bought an 8 manifold dripper that has tubes, stakes, and the manfild for 13 bucks at lowes. .

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so what would you do if you needed more than 8 drippers?

jkim said:

For systems with rockwool yu sound ok. As log as they are 1-2 inchs away from the stem, so no rot. For rockwool I would set it up on a timer. When the rockwool is at 60 percent go ahead and drip. .

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good to know, do you think that will be enough ventilation to the roots at 60%? i'm not recycling the runoff as there pretty much is close to minimal runoff.

ImTheFireMan said:

i have a few questions about drip irrigation....-itfm

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1. how did you guys run your drippers off your main line? i've seen those things you hook your main line up to and it has like 8 nozzles to run your drippers off of, but i just poke holes in my main line and run them off of there, keeping all my lines the same length for even drips.

You can either use one of the manifolds like you said about or you can make slight holes and put in little grommets to fix the thinner line in.

2. how many drippers do you use per plant? i stack a 4 inch rockwool on top of a 6 inch cube, then i run 1 dripper to the top of the 4 inch cube. i was wondering if it mattered if only one corner of the cube was enough to spread the water around. bfore this drip system i was hand feeding, so even distribution wasnt a problem.
they seem to be fine but i'm wondering if i should run 2 lines per plant? one on opposite ends of the cube.

You can run just one and be fine

3. how often are you guys feeding your babes in a 12/12 period?
i dont have mine set on a timer just yet i just wait til i feel them and they are light and i plug it in and let the girls get a drink, but i would like to have it on a timer.

A 4" cube can hold around a litre/quart
a 6" cube holds around a gallon roughly.

Work out what rate the pump outputs, divide it by the number of drippers then you can figure out how long it takes for a cube to saturate.



4. i have an air stone and a couple dual output air pumps in the res that i turn on before i send the nutes to the ladies, my question is, should i just let that run throughout the 12 hours of "on" or should i run it 24 hours?

Keeping a pump or airstone in the res, makes sure there its lots of air in the solution and that it ciruclates to prevent any pathogens forming on the top.

speedyseedz said:

3. how often are you guys feeding your babes in a 12/12 period?
i dont have mine set on a timer just yet i just wait til i feel them and they are light and i plug it in and let the girls get a drink, but i would like to have it on a timer.

A 4" cube can hold around a litre/quart
a 6" cube holds around a gallon roughly.

Work out what rate the pump outputs, divide it by the number of drippers then you can figure out how long it takes for a cube to saturate.

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hell yes, thats exactly what i wanted to know. thanks brother, +reps for that

take a trip to lowes. you will find the dripper isle is a wonderful world. Everything you need but the rockwool. Altho now they have coco blocks. Also got handy install brochures for free. Everything is very cheap and made to catch the eye of the diy'r. GL. 4 in blocks on the 6 in blockS! That is some major growth. Congrats on springing for the 6 in cubes.

tea tree said:

take a trip to lowes. you will find the dripper isle is a wonderful world. Everything you need but the rockwool. Altho now they have coco blocks. Also got handy install brochures for free. Everything is very cheap and made to catch the eye of the diy'r. GL. 4 in blocks on the 6 in blockS! That is some major growth. Congrats on springing for the 6 in cubes.

Click to expand...

Using 6" on top of 6" and then in a 12"x12"x12" square pot with cellmax around the cubes is fantastic.