hydroponic DIY drip system - Hydroponics

[Toleman]

Here are the parts to build a 6 pot drip system but is easily expandable to 8 pots for next to nothing. I think 6 is the max I can fit in though! I have recently built some staging in my greenhouse but I need to cut the legs down for this. I should then have from 70cm - 130cm of growth height!!!

The tray sits on the staging and the reservoir sits underneith. A pump feeds a 13mm manifold from which (6/8) 4mm dripper lines come from. They drip into pots, passed the roots and onto the tray. Then the water flows through a 19mm return pipe back to the reservoir. A small air pump will be used to keep the solution aerated and flowing to prevent stagnation.

Parts Required:

1 Garland Giant Tray (1200mm x 550mm x 40mm)
6/8 pots (im using morrisons flower buckets)

3m 13mm pipe
1 13mm T
2 13mm stop ends
3 13mm elbows
1 13mm filter

1 19mm Ebb and Flood (bulkhead) fitting.
1m of 19mm pipe
2 19mm elbows

8 Blue flood drippers
8 4mm nipples
4m 4mm drip line

2m of air line
1 4mm T
1m bubble tube.

A Maxi Jet MJ1000
A Reservoir
A medium (i'm using hydroton clay)

All parts were ordered from growell except the reservoir, the pump and growing medium. Picked up a 50 litre storage container today for £4.00 from Wilkinsons.

Just need to put it together now!

 

[LGHT]

Looks good. I have never setup a drip system before and considering either that or a flood and drain. What are you going to use to prevent debris from the hydroton and roots being picked up by the pump and sent through the hose causing clogs? I read that is a common problem with drip systems. Also on the buckets are you going to use 2 buckets 1 inside the other to keep the roots from clogging the drain hose?

 

[Toleman]

Hi LGHT

Here is the clog protection - Inline filter to protect the drippers, Screen on my ebb and flow to prevent too much entering the reservoir and pre filter on my pump.

I have thought about one bucket inside another - do you suggest a thin layer of clay between buckets? I'm also going to cover the tray in hydroton as a thin layer of water sits on it due to the lip on the drain fitting. I have also oversized the drain (3/4") and I will be inspecting quite often to check for roots. Another thing im going to do is adjust the top part of my timber staging I built. By removing the slats and dropping the centre support slightly Im hoping the majority of water will flow towards the drain.

Staging before slats went on. Centre support to be dropped as the drain fitting is best suited in the centre of the tray. Also the legs are going to be chopped down so my reservoir just fits underneath to give me massive grow height.

 

[Toleman]

As promised

32mm hole in the tray and the drain fitting put in place.

Then I made this out of the 13mm pipe to feed the drippers

I inserted the nipples like so

 

[Toleman]

Then connected to the pump - This is just a test run to check it all works ok and its not the final neat version. Pipes will eventually come in the sides so the lid can be removed easily

5 pots to show you scale - Drain pipe attached too

Drippers attached to 4mm tube

 

[Toleman]

Test run

Slight pooling but I can get over that

A few spots of water leaking but I will add some plumbers putty to fix that

 

[Toleman]

Return pipe

Pourus pipe instead of air stones

All packed away for next spring

Chris

 

[LGHT]

Great info! Looks like you where also aware of the problems with a drip system. I also considered an inline filter, but read that the Sure to Grow media is a lot cleaner and doesn't leave debris like other medias thereby preventing majority of the problems before they occur. On a side note you may consider inserting a 1" piece of PVC to raise the pot on 1 side to help with the drainage.

Good luck with your system and please keep us posted.

 

[millworkman]

Awesome write up. Keep us updated and good luck.

 

[Toleman]

Cheers for the replies, I will keep you all updated.

Last night I had a think and some of the drippers were not very 'drippy' like the one shown. I then realised in the mock set up the water had to be pumped 1.2m high and the pump has a a maximum head of 1.5 m. Good job my real set up is about 0.5m tall so I should get more pressure then.

Chris

 

[wordwiz]

Chris,

How does the porous pipe work? It doesn't appear to sell in the US, unless one wants a 2, 3 or 4 foot hose. I'm considering using regular rubber tubing and making pinholes in it as a substitute.

Mike

 

[Toleman]

Hi there Mike.

The two rings shown are made from a single 1m piece cut into two (0.5m each).

That porous pipe is 4mm internal diameter which is the same as standard clear air line.

Im using one in my current nft system and the other in the new one. You can either put a 'T' piece in like I have to make a ring or a straight barb and stop end to use it straight.

Im using a small air pump my girlfriend has lying around I tested it by blowing through in the sink and it works well with plenty of small bubbles.


Chris

 

[wordwiz]

Chris,

Just had a go at making one. It's so-so, but it is hard to judge for sure. I have a 950 GPH air pump but right now it's only powering about four buckets. Little air was coming out of most of the holes but some nice bubbles was coming from a couple. I probably need to play around with it but is should work.

Anything has to be better than regular air stones - and I cannot afford 50 ceramic ones. I almost lost two tomato plants because the stones became clogged and quit working.

Mike

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Nice pictorial of your project Toleman.

Chris,

How does the porous pipe work? It doesn't appear to sell in the US, unless one wants a 2, 3 or 4 foot hose. I'm considering using regular rubber tubing and making pinholes in it as a substitute.

Mike

That pipe looks a lot like soaker hose, so you might try a piece of that since it's readily available from 1/4" up to 1" in size.

 

[wordwiz]

SS,

Spot on, as the Brits say. Googled Soaker hose, found 100 feet of 1/4" hose for $14 and that includes tax, license, shipping and dealer prep!

Hopefully, it weighs enough that it will not float in a bucket of water.

Mike

 

[Silver_Surfer]

SS,

Spot on, as the Brits say. Googled Soaker hose, found 100 feet of 1/4" hose for $14 and that includes tax, license, shipping and dealer prep!

Hopefully, it weighs enough that it will not float in a bucket of water.

Mike

Plug the end with a 1/4" stainless steel bolt and kill 2 birds...

 

[wordwiz]

SS,

Have tried that with regular plastic tubing - it kept that end down but the opposite side floated above the water level.

If worse comes to worse, I can always use something like nuts, washers or even rocks or such to hold it down.

Mike

 

[Toleman]

I realised my porous pipe floats somewhat too. Im probably going to wedge it under my pump as it has those suction pads to hold itself down.

Should be spot on!

 

[Noshownate]

porous pipe will check that out my air stone doesnt work as good as i would like.
hope all works out good!

 

[Blister]

Forgive my ignorance on hydro, but if the grow medium is causing the system to plug up, why not switch to something like regular glass marbles that don't give off any debris? I would assume that the clay pellets are being used by themselves and not mixed in with another medium. Am I way off base here?