DIY Top Drip Coco Pots

[El Cerebro]

Cool design, and you write a great diy tutorial. You can use an inline bio filter if you're worried about clogging, but prob have to check it daily if coco floating around. How about some fabric smartpots to help with that? How do plan to manage the res/nutes for recirculate instead of DTW?

 

[roxy002]

Cool design, and you write a great diy tutorial. You can use an inline bio filter if you're worried about clogging, but prob have to check it daily if coco floating around. How about some fabric smartpots to help with that? How do plan to manage the res/nutes for recirculate instead of DTW?

Thanks for the reply and advice you left! I think I will definitely need an inline filter, as I noticed today that a couple of rings weren't functioning properly like the others. I'm not sure if it's anything to do with the way I made the holes, or if they are actually blocked, but the nutes weren't coming through properly. Either way I will fit some anyway. Also, it wouldn't take long to remove this rings and fit new ones if I needed to. I've still got plenty of pipe left.

Can you explain what you mean by managing the nutes/res for re-circulate? This is my first attempt at a re-circulating system, so still learning myself.

 

[powerplant]

Sweet setup

 

[roxy002]

Think I will have an air pump going to the res aswell, as the nutes will be sat there for long periods with no movement.

 

[cemchris]

Drip rings are the down fall. Same thing with my system. You cant really move plants around. Why I am moving to the Halos. Other then that Nice DIY. Having Recirc coco for a long time on ebb tables I can say DTW is really a better choice. Plants have never blowin up or been as healthy as they have been with DTW for me.

 

[ir0nLung]

looks like really nice work rox. so as long as the rings aren't clogged does it seem like they function uniformly? (the rings furthest from the pump dispense solution at the same rate as the ones closer to the pump)

 

[roxy002]

looks like really nice work rox. so as long as the rings aren't clogged does it seem like they function uniformly? (the rings furthest from the pump dispense solution at the same rate as the ones closer to the pump)

Thanks! I put a lot of thought into it, but I'm no expert either, and always learning. Yeah, the pressure seems to be equal on both ends, as the pump has more than enough power. If anything, it could do with more pots to release the pressure, as it comes out a bit to fast. The problem is, some holes aren't squirting like the others, but this is happening in random pots. Also, I checked the EC tonight and it has shot right up for some reason? I topped up the res and brought the EC down to around 2.4 - 2.6. Why would the EC go up? Is this because the nutes aren't getting used properly? Thankyou for the comments and help everyone.

 

[roxy002]

Drip rings are the down fall. Same thing with my system. You cant really move plants around. Why I am moving to the Halos. Other then that Nice DIY. Having Recirc coco for a long time on ebb tables I can say DTW is really a better choice. Plants have never blowin up or been as healthy as they have been with DTW for me.

My first plans was to have a DTW system, but decided on a recirculating system, to save on nutes and labour time.

Checked out these halos on Youtube and they look the shit! Great idea, but a google search doesnt bring any suppliers up in the UK?

The EC has shot right up for some reason using the system this way?

 

[ir0nLung]

i primarily run rdwc systems so im no coco expert.that being said, 2.4-2.6 seems way high to be targeting to me. are you saying the ec is rising in the res before you feed or after you've fed and recirculated its rising? if the latter i would assume the ec will always be higher in the runoff once you've ran for awhile and salts begin to build up, especially if you're still early on and your plants aren't eating that much. granted dwc is a different animal than coco, but i run like a .7 ec during mature veg and top out at around 1.2 - 1.4 during wks 3-5 of bloom.

 

[cemchris]

My first plans was to have a DTW system, but decided on a recirculating system, to save on nutes and labour time.

Checked out these halos on Youtube and they look the shit! Great idea, but a google search doesnt bring any suppliers up in the UK?

The EC has shot right up for some reason using the system this way?

Yea your right you blow through nutes and water in DTW. Go through about 32 gals every 3 days with 9 plants.

Sucks about the suppliers. Hydrofarm the only peeps with them. Would cost a pretty penny to ship out.

If you are dripping run a lower EC with more frequent watering. Also when refilling your rez I will dump the plain water through the plants to flush them and let it drain back to the rez. Seems to help in recirc.

 

[El Cerebro]

Can you explain what you mean by managing the nutes/res for re-circulate? This is my first attempt at a re-circulating system, so still learning myself.

Sorry, missed this. Not exactly sure what I mean cause I've never run recirc but always wondering if it's actually more effecient. With recirc there's the opportunity for more nasty stuff to live in there, dealt with easily enough if you're into it I guess, plus of course plants are depleting the solution and ratios don't stay optimum without effort?

I hear a lot of success with DTW w/ very little runoff on a dialed sched or continuous, so headed that direction myself. But thinking of also running a little dtr or e/f table for pre-veg, mainly because I have it and recirc seems convenient in that case? Following your thread for ideas..:thinking

 

[roxy002]

Just a little pic update. These were taken last night.

They seem happy enough, no obvious signs of nute burn or stress of any sort.
I've heightened the lights a bit, as I can see these getting really bushy, and want them to stretch a bit to create more nodes. The strain is Northern Lights in case I haven't mentioned that yet.

 

[dankworth]

A properly done dtw in coco will use less water/nutes than recirc.
Assuming your nute values are dialed, they will stay dialed. Recirc causes different stuff to get used up at different rates. Leading to the wrong nute ratios over time.
DTW, dialed, will feed them the perfect food every time they eat. Less risk of pathogens as well.

DTW for me leads to better health with less risk.

 

[roxy002]

A properly done dtw in coco will use less water/nutes than recirc.
Assuming your nute values are dialed, they will stay dialed. Recirc causes different stuff to get used up at different rates. Leading to the wrong nute ratios over time.
DTW, dialed, will feed them the perfect food every time they eat. Less risk of pathogens as well.

DTW for me leads to better health with less risk.

Thanks for this Dankworth. Good advice, and advice taken.

Every time I check the EC, it has gone through the roof! I top up with nutes and water, get the EC and PH just right, but 2 days later the EC is way to high again.

I have now bought a separate res for the nutes and have it dripping to waste. I have also, changed the timer on the pump to just feed once a day, when lights turn on. What I think would work better is to have the nutes dripping a lot slower for a longer period of time twice a day.

So tomorrow, I'm going to replace the straight coupling where the hose is connected to the PVC pipe, with an isolation valve, so I can turn the valve and control the flow of nutes to the drip rings.

Obviously there is a build up of something going on in the res, which isn't going to do the plants any good, as dankworth correctly pointed out.

 

[roxy002]

I will post some better quality pics of the ladies tomorrow, so everyone can see how they are progressing.

They are really starting to grow now, each day I go into the room I can see a big difference.

Anyone grown Northern Lights before? Any info on this strain would be appreciated.

 

[Botanikos]

Looking pretty good, I may try this myself

 

[roxy002]

Update!

Went to check on things 2 days ago, and decided to swap the straight coupling that connects the PVC to the hose for an isolation valve. The reason for this, is to control the pressure into the manifold, so I can turn the isolation valve until I have reduced the pressure to a "drip" from the drip rings. I want to feed the plants slowly over a longer period of time, rather than saturate them in 1 minute.

I fitted it, turned the pump on, then noticed that none of the rings where working correctly. Some holes where squirting out, some where slowly dripping and some weren't releasing anything at all.

I wasn't surprised to be honest, as I've been warned about this by members on the forum. Obviously fine particles of coco must be entering the system and blocking the holes I made. (The holes were only pierced, so not very big at all)

Also I noticed that, in 2 areas of the table, the nutes weren't draining properly into the guttering. I watched, and discovered that at the very edge of the corrigated sheet, the nutes were building up and running underneath the plastic and soaking the wooden frame, then dripping onto the floor.

 

[roxy002]

So, off come all 20 drip rings!

 

[roxy002]

Next job was to drill a hole into every piercing I had made, only slightly bigger than the piercing itself. I also made sure that the drill bit had a blunt tip, as to not pierce the drip ring on the other side. It didn't take too long, and now all the holes are nice and clean!

A good idea would of been to take a small round file and gently take the burr away from the edge of the holes, but I didn't have one...never mind, hopefully this will work.

 

[roxy002]

To solve the leak problem, I simply rubbed the edge of the plastic with some sand paper until the plastic was a lot thinner. It might also be a good idea to score a line on the underside of the plastic, to stop the water running into the wood. I haven't tried this yet but will do, if plan A fails.