Easy Watering System

[Tom]

My reservoir is made from a 120 litre plastic drum from which a submersible pond pump connected to a digital timer runs the nutrient mix around the grow room to feed the 4 litre per hour drippers, I use one dripper per plant. The plants are in self watering pots and and the timing of the watering system is set to keep the reservoirs of the pots topped up without overflowing them too much. I use a twin outlet air pump running 2 air stones to keep the water well aerated and the nutrients nicely mixed.

 

The only occasions I have for dumping the reservoir are if there is something drastically wrong with the nutrient mix, when it's time to switch to flowering or at flush time, with run to waste the used portion of the nutrients doesn't end up back in the main reservoir but in the smaller ones in the bottom of the pots, I just refill the reservoir when it runs low.

 

The reservoir:

[Tom]

Instead of paying through the nose for the good quality flexible hose sold for watering systems I just bought a cheap garden hose from Bunnings for around $6 and screwed the watering system fittings into that after pre-drilling a 3mm (1/8") hole in the side of the hose where I want to place the dripper. The hose pictured had been used in a previous grow room so rather than waste it I just got a little creative with the 4mm lines that run to the drippers.

[Tom]

The drippers, these were hard to get a clear picture of as their colour doesn't seem to photograph very well making them look fuzzy, the 2 clear pictures of a similar type of dripper are courtesy of Frazzle.

[Tom]

I cut 3 short lengths of the 4mm hose and pushed them into the return end of the feeder hose to create a little back pressure and ensure even nutrient delivery to all drippers, as this also increased the noise I fitted a short piece of the feeder hose on the end to direct the flow onto the side of the reservoir, the gap ensures air gets back into the system to prevent siphoning.

[Tom]

I used a hose male/male joiner here so that I can disconnect the submersible pump from the watering system and use it with a short hose to fill a drum or with a garden hose to dump the reservoir into the garden.

[Tom]

The self watering pots have a small reservoir at the bottom from which the plants can access water/nutrients between watering times. For flushing I just let the plants use up all the nutrients in the pot reservoir and then hit them with PH'd water through the watering system, if I have to empty them out during the grow for a flush there are several methods I've used ranging from an old bike pump to a car window washer pump.

 

All my smaller pots are in use as shown in the earlier pictures above and as you can see there are several different types but the principle is the same in all of them. The pot pictured here is one of my larger ones for when I want to grow big plants, the small holes around the rim are for when I tie the plant down.

[Tom]

The digital timer can be one of the cheaper types if you want, it only has to run the submersible pump so the load is fairly light. I set it to 2 - 3 minutes every 2 hours at first, there is usually enough nutrient left in the feeder hose to keep the drippers going for a little while after the pump is turned off, I increase the times as the plants grow, the aim being to top up the reservoirs without getting the floor wet from overflow, the timing and length of the watering can be set to preferences of the individual grower.

[Tom]

Let me know if anything is missing people, the aim is to keep this as easy and simple as possible.

 

[loylty gets u nothing]

well done tom

thanks for sharing

i am at the stage where the hand watering is shitting me

once i get a float valve i will then adopt this method

i will be using coco/perlite so feeds will diff but everything else the same

how often do u dump the main res?

take care and all the best

bil

[Tom]

how often do u dump the main res?

Only if there is something wrong, when it's time to switch to flowering or at flush time, with run to waste the used portion of the nutrients doesn't end up back in the main reservoir but in the smaller ones in the bottom of the pots, I just refill the reservoir when it runs out.