Dripper system, part wet part dry medium?!

[Cookiemonster69]

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying the ease of lockdown (UK).

I'm currently on 4week veg. Im running 10 gelato 41 by growers choice in a 4x4 tent under an SF4000, in Coco.

I bought 10 dripper stakes/(steaks?) That shoot water 360° on each pot. However I may have went a little overboard with 10 plants as the water pressure is too low between 10 plants. So it only dribbles near the stem of the plant.

However, even with run off only somewhat one side of the Coco pot only gets drenched to run off. The other side feels dry to the touch

I've seen people use just 1 dripper, as in it literally just dripps down the steak and is enough to water the medium.

How do I tackle this issue?

 

[Cookiemonster69]

Sorry it's not a 4x4 tent it's a 3x3!!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I use THOUSANDS of drippers at work every day. I feel qualified to answer this question. lol

Without going to a bigger pump, you can:

A) drip for less time, but multiple times during the day. This allows the water you're dripping to saturate/soak into the medium versus dripping until run-off. Even if you don't move the stake, the pots should absorb a lot more water this way versus letting them drip longer in a single shot.

B) physically move the stakes from one side of the pot to the other side midway drip, or again do an interval of one side for X minutes, move drippers, other side for Y minutes.

C) put a simple valve in-line so you can control the flow/stop the flow to a set of pots. If you don't have enough pressure at the pump, then turn off the line to X amount of pots, water the rest for X minutes, then turn off that set (at the valve) and turn on the next set (at the valve.) If your pump can't keep up with 10 drippers, halve the workload for it.

D) invest in a larger pump and put a splitter on the end of your drip lines so you can put TWO stakes in per pot (covering each side of the pot.) Most costly of the solutions but should allow your emitters to work properly. You could try without a larger pump but you're already not hitting pressure on your emitters it sounds like, so doubling the output is just going to lessen the flow even more.

Do the emitters soak the pots sufficiently when they DO have enough pressure?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I use the multiple drip sessions in my vegetable garden in sandy soil.

Use a surfactant, I use yucca powder. It helps keep the drippers clean and will help the water disperse in the soil better.

You are actually getting to much water in one stream that is causing channeling. Perhaps you could go to drippers and slow it down a bit?

 

[Cookiemonster69]

I use THOUSANDS of drippers at work every day. I feel qualified to answer this question. lol

Without going to a bigger pump, you can:

A) drip for less time, but multiple times during the day. This allows the water you're dripping to saturate/soak into the medium versus dripping until run-off. Even if you don't move the stake, the pots should absorb a lot more water this way versus letting them drip longer in a single shot.

B) physically move the stakes from one side of the pot to the other side midway drip, or again do an interval of one side for X minutes, move drippers, other side for Y minutes.

C) put a simple valve in-line so you can control the flow/stop the flow to a set of pots. If you don't have enough pressure at the pump, then turn off the line to X amount of pots, water the rest for X minutes, then turn off that set (at the valve) and turn on the next set (at the valve.) If your pump can't keep up with 10 drippers, halve the workload for it.

D) invest in a larger pump and put a splitter on the end of your drip lines so you can put TWO stakes in per pot (covering each side of the pot.) Most costly of the solutions but should allow your emitters to work properly. You could try without a larger pump but you're already not hitting pressure on your emitters it sounds like, so doubling the output is just going to lessen the flow even more.

Do the emitters soak the pots sufficiently when they DO have enough pressure?

Hey! Thanks for your reply!

And you deffinately are some dripper genius aren't you lol
I never actually thought of half the things you mentioned I like the way you think.

But you see my 2mm feeding pipes that come of the main pipe, there's 5 connected on each side of the main tube, at the end. So I can't actually toggle each side!

I've decided I'm going to get a more powerful water pump, with that I also ordered a bigger reservoir. My current pump pushes 800 litres per hour (I think), so I ordered one that is suppose to do 3000 Lph. Hopefully that should widen the circumference of the water when it drops out.

It's coming today so il show you a picture of how it does today!