Large scale drip systems

[Baylife]

Greetings fellow farmers!

I wanted to start a thread regarding an important issue facing large scale outdoor farmers....how to feed all these pretty ladies. Last year I hand watered 80+ plants that had over 200 gallons of soil each.....never again! While I enjoyed the quality time with my budz it was entirely unnessicry. With this in mind i've been thinking of using the dosatron to mix the nutrients on a per gallon basis and some sort of drip system to distribute the solution as needed. I've heard some negative aspects of drip systems though: sometimes they leak resulting in an unequal feeding amount per plant. So basically, does anyone have any sweet pictures or advice on how to achieve this successfully.

 

[Seamaiden]

Um... we just got the drip system from Lowe's. The inline drippers from them aren't very good, so if you want inline you're better off making them yourself. Clogging due to our very hard water is an issue, but it's not an issue if we DON'T use the inline drippers. Leaking hasn't been a problem for the most part.

Dripworks may be your new best friend this year. ;)

 

[sealed138]

Drip works rules!
Last year I fed 50 200 gal pots with drip.
You're going to want a good in line disk filter. I used a 2" filter and made a 2" manifold from PVC. Also make sure that your system is symmetrical, this will help keep things even. I did 5 rows of 10. My 2" manifold fed 1" black poly hose that fed each row. You want to make sure to size your system sothere is plenty of supply to feed each row.

 

[Baylife]

Drip works looks awesome thanks for the help. Another thing is will salty ass nutrients clog these things eventually?

 

[Seamaiden]

I believe they will, which is why the companies that sell fertigation equipment usually also sell line flushing... stuff. I can't recall if it's a combination of a clearing agent AND something you put on the end of the line, or if it's just the clearing agent, though.

 

[sealed138]

Maintenance is definitely a priority. Just use a little bit of that time you saved to check on your drippers/sprayers/soaker hose. Also keep your filter clean and you should be a happy camper.

 

[Seamaiden]

I forgot to mention that pressure at the controller/feeder (or whatever the hell it's called) is important, too. Because of the slope of the property we were blowing out lines left and right until we finally installed a pressure regulator after the filter. Took it from what had to be over 120psi unregulated at that particular downhill spigot to 30psi, no more blown lines or hoses.

 

[707seedbank]

drip works is great but if your in that area wyatt irrigation has the same stuff and is much cheaper. If your going to run ferts the disc filters are a must.

Yucca extract works great for cleaning out your lines and your plants will love it to.

 

[707seedbank]

I forgot to mention that pressure at the controller/feeder (or whatever the hell it's called) is important, too.

Pressure regulator