feeding with a auto watering system

[HPS]

I have just installed a auto irrigation system in my micro stealth box. I have looked at a fertigation system but far to expensive for my 20 small girls, so I have tapped into the mains and ran standard garden drippers into each pot then got a digital timer from mitre 10 set it to water for 5 min every 48 hours seems to deliver the right amount of water only problem no nutes. Anyone got any ideas powder sprinkled on top of soil possibly? what? how much? when? Thanks peace..

[Luke Skywalker]

I would say you're barking up the wrong tree, particularly if you have a micro grow.

 

Get yourself a 50l reserviour, a good submersible pump and away you'll go. You need to be able to adjust the pH and EC of the water you're feeding, and using a tap based drippers you won't be able to do this.

 

Oh yeah, and you'll need a minute increment timer too, to allow you to time your irrigations easier.

 

For a very open media like expanded clay, 15 minutes every 2 hours is usually sufficient, for a closer one like perlite it coule be 5 minutes per hour and a half.

 

You'll need less water for smaller plants, and more (longer irrigations) for them as they grow up.

 

Hope that helps.

[Skunkxxx]

What is the down side of irragating ~~~ the time...with good drainage?

[F420]

What is the down side of irragating

 

Blocked drippers etc is the biggest problem.

[Luke Skywalker]

pH is a worry, as most tap supplies is high.

 

Blocked drippers, (you can solve this with filters) pressure problems, complex setups with manifolds and solenoids... etc...

 

It's just too much pissfarting around where a good sized reserviour would do the job better anyway.

 

Irrigation through tap lines is more for very large and outdoor growing, indoors it's much easier to just deal with submersible pumps. You can certainly set up a pressure regulated float valve attached to the tap to keep a large reserviour topped up, but honestly, as a general irrigation method, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

 

Unless, as I mentioned before, you have shiteloads of plants outdoors.