The Crystal Palace is back, now with a Spiderfarmer SE5000.

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Dirtbag

Dirtbag

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Not bad for a 7 day rebound.
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PK1

PK1

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Not sure what you mean, like the room itself? Or the irrigation system?
i meant the system. The issue i am facing is finding a proper timer and the drip connector. the pump and the pluming is not my concern.
The current timer i have is one of those circler once that can be set for every 30 min only. I also got one of those drip connectors from home depot that you can screw the head in/out and it adjusts the flow of the water. But when its turned on only one section of the rockwool gets wet and starts draining out of the cube with in seconds.

Based on some of the videos and readings i've done is that you want slow drips from top so it washes out all the build ups in the rockwool leaving fresh nutrients. easier said then done at the moment. lol
 
tobh

tobh

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i meant the system. The issue i am facing is finding a proper timer and the drip connector. the pump and the pluming is not my concern.
The current timer i have is one of those circler once that can be set for every 30 min only. I also got one of those drip connectors from home depot that you can screw the head in/out and it adjusts the flow of the water. But when its turned on only one section of the rockwool gets wet and starts draining out of the cube with in seconds.

Based on some of the videos and readings i've done is that you want slow drips from top so it washes out all the build ups in the rockwool leaving fresh nutrients. easier said then done at the moment. lol
this is why i got the 4" floraflex caps. they kinda distribute the solution more evenly. Also pick up a minute increment digital timer. that 30 min interval simply won't work, you'll go through a shit ton of solution that way. just my opinion. you might get away with that timer by way dialing back the flow rate but that'll be an absolute bitch to tune with any kind of consistency.
 
PK1

PK1

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this is why i got the 4" floraflex caps. they kinda distribute the solution more evenly. Also pick up a minute increment digital timer. that 30 min interval simply won't work, you'll go through a shit ton of solution that way. just my opinion. you might get away with that timer by way dialing back the flow rate but that'll be an absolute bitch to tune with any kind of consistency.
ok thanks for that tip. i suspect this is what you are referring to for flor flex cap
 
Floraflex
tobh

tobh

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yessir. the v2 is a little better iirc, has taller sides and better perforations for the solution to fall through. either one would work. that way one single spot isn't getting all the solution and it keeps the tops covered which helps prevent algae growth, which can cause problems if allowed to run rampant.
 
PK1

PK1

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yessir. the v2 is a little better iirc, has taller sides and better perforations for the solution to fall through. either one would work. that way one single spot isn't getting all the solution and it keeps the tops covered which helps prevent algae growth, which can cause problems if allowed to run rampant.
ya, i saw a video that a grower was using these and he was super happy with it. i just called my hydro store and their actually affordable
 
Dirtbag

Dirtbag

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Cemchris turned me on to using rainbird free flowing manifolds and naked ended 1/4" feed lines. No drippers. Having done automated irrigation with 2gph drippers, drip stakes, bubblers, and floraflex caps in the past, I'm sold on the simplicity of a single naked ended feed line. Especially for the 3" cubes. Anything that restricts flow is another failure point. The floraflex caps work the best of the previous options but still it's more shit to clean between grows, and I saw zero difference in growth or health of the plants by just leaving the top of the rockwool open to get all funky looking with a single stream of water feeding it.

The mass of the root system is in the slab anyway so it doesn't really matter how evenly the water is distributed on the top mounted block. It'll plinko percolate its way through the wool evenly enough as is.

The timer I use I believe is an atlas or something, made by titan controls. Has 8x on/off settings with 1 min increments. I then control the shot size by restricting the flow with a ball valve.
 
PK1

PK1

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Cemchris turned me on to using rainbird free flowing manifolds and naked ended 1/4" feed lines. No drippers. Having done automated irrigation with 2gph drippers, drip stakes, bubblers, and floraflex caps in the past, I'm sold on the simplicity of a single naked ended feed line. Especially for the 3" cubes. Anything that restricts flow is another failure point. The floraflex caps work the best of the previous options but still it's more shit to clean between grows, and I saw zero difference in growth or health of the plants by just leaving the top of the rockwool open to get all funky looking with a single stream of water feeding it.

The mass of the root system is in the slab anyway so it doesn't really matter how evenly the water is distributed on the top mounted block. It'll plinko percolate its way through the wool evenly enough as is.

The timer I use I believe is an atlas or something, made by titan controls. Has 8x on/off settings with 1 min increments. I then control the shot size by restricting the flow with a ball valve.
thanks for the info D, i'm with you with the top caps when the plant is bigger and under 2nd slab. Essentially you are feeding to get the water to the lower slab which holds majority of the roots. correct me if im wrong, i think at seedling stage ensuring to keep the rockwool moist at about 50% at all time will make the roots grow faster and bring enough air to the roots and with these caps we get the ability to direct the water to different areas of the 3" blocks. The timer for the pump is one of the main puzzle to this grow. dialing that in is key
 
Dirtbag

Dirtbag

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thanks for the info D, i'm with you with the top caps when the plant is bigger and under 2nd slab. Essentially you are feeding to get the water to the lower slab which holds majority of the roots. correct me if im wrong, i think at seedling stage ensuring to keep the rockwool moist at about 50% at all time will make the roots grow faster and bring enough air to the roots and with these caps we get the ability to direct the water to different areas of the 3" blocks. The timer for the pump is one of the main puzzle to this grow. dialing that in is key
For sure it will. But, again I like simple and personally with the 3" blocks I prefer to hand water them once a day and really soak them. It's easy, the plants are small and a 2L pitcher will water like 8 plants. I even hand water the slabs that way for the first week. I don't get too particular with automated feedings until the plant is big, well established and growing rapidly.
But, that's me.
 
tobh

tobh

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For sure it will. But, again I like simple and personally with the 3" blocks I prefer to hand water them once a day and really soak them. It's easy, the plants are small and a 2L pitcher will water like 8 plants. I even hand water the slabs that way for the first week. I don't get too particular with automated feedings until the plant is big, well established and growing rapidly.
But, that's me.
^^^ this. if it weren't for being in a tent, i likely would be more lax during the first few weeks as well. i have an allergy to manual labor though, so once the girls were on the slabs, it was automation time. YMMV
 
PK1

PK1

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For sure it will. But, again I like simple and personally with the 3" blocks I prefer to hand water them once a day and really soak them. It's easy, the plants are small and a 2L pitcher will water like 8 plants. I even hand water the slabs that way for the first week. I don't get too particular with automated feedings until the plant is big, well established and growing rapidly.
But, that's me.
i can agree with that since there isn't much root development at the begging. I can understand the automatic feeding when there is going to be tons of roots in this case involving frequent feeding to get the bottom slabs moist properly. For now i'll play with the time and the pump to see how much volume of solution comes out in 15 sec, 30 sec and so on. from my understanding is that we want 10% run off to remove much salt build up and keep fresh nutrients in the cube.
 

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