In a Drip system how shallow can the plant portion be? How about the Res size?

flogger11

New Member
In a small grow with say four or five, 3-3 1/2 foot plants how deep does the main plant tray need to be? Six inches or so? Eight? I know in an Ebb and Flow a person uses a very shallow tray, is this the same for a top feed drip?

How much would the res have to hold on a small personal grow like this? 3-5 gallons if a drip feed (with 1/2 hour on, 1/2 hour off of streaming feeding time) is used?

Is a gallon per square foot of plant tray for these growing heights a proper guess? Or would two gallons per square foot be more in line?

Am I correct in assuming with a top feed drip a person can ditch the airstone?

I also see many people online that are simply taking an 18 gallon storage tub, cutting holes in the top, installing netpots and a drip system while using the tub itself for the resevoir (just putting a pump inside). Is this bad? Other than potential temperature problems is there a down fall to this extremely simple setup? Once the roots hit the water doesnt it become a glorified DWC system? Would there be any purpose to the drip (well stream) at that point?

I know this is alot to help with, fyi the hand is much appreciated! :peace:
 
Hi flogger,

Most of what you are asking is in the forum. Though it does take a fair amount of effort to go find it. One good way is to read through the journals. See how others are doing it, and perhaps ask them about their grows.

DWC is just like you mention. A reservoir ( I use 10 to 12 gallons) with net pots (or something similar) in the lid. A water pump in the res pushing the nutrients through tubing into the net pots. There is also an air pump pushing air into the nutrients. DWC has also been called Bubble ponics, but that is more of a brand name.

Many people pull the water pumped after so much of the root system is down far enough into the reservoir. I usually do once I go into flowering. I've been thinking of leaving mine in, but to pull the tubes off and lay the pump on it's side. Hoping that will keep the reservoir nutrients mixed up better.

For small grows, this works very well. For added harvest, add SOG or SCROG techniques.

Hope this helps, keep the faith,
 
Back
Top Bottom