Clueless on NFT

Alright so I've posted here many times before, and as of March of 2009, I built a "ghetto" type of aero system. This system consisted of a rubbermaid roughneck, a pvc manifold with misters in it, and then a submersible pump which was inside nutrient water spraying the nutes up thru the pvc and misting the roots of the plants inside of the rubbermaid roughneck. Many of you have systems similar to this, but you just tweaked things to work better for YOUR particular setup, as did I.

As time went on, I had no choice but to go smaller, seeing as I had to find a new location. However I did find one, and I'm doing a somewhat micro grow in a 2ft by 2ft tent. I'm using a 150w HPS light and some CFL's for side lighting where necessary. I recently decided to get some PVC fence posts and go for a more "NFT" type of route, seeing as I've done a lot of research and I really like the ability to customize the aspects of the NFT systems (of course, when built yourself, that is). And I have already gathered most of my materials. I got 4" square PVC posts, and what not. That's not really the point so much as the method of feeding the plants is.

So with most of the necessary background info out of the way, here's my question: What is the best method for delivering the nutrient water to the plants when they are contained in a PVC fence post (in net pots), and then there are caps on both ends of the post. I have seen some people use drip lines, some people use just one smaller hose at one end, and so on. What would you guys say works best?

Another question I have is, say I wanted to drill a small hole in between each net pot, and then run a small hose through there and use a mister to spray water out of the end, how would I go about moving the water from the pump, through a pvc pipe (or maybe just hosing?) and then splitting it into different drip lines (4-5 to be somewhat exact) to deliver water to pretty much each plant. I feel like I have a basic idea of this, but I'm still lost on some aspects, and I have read so many DIY tuts and what not and they always seem to skip over the fine tuning of getting the drip lines into the fence posts. So what do you guys think? Is my idea of using 4 or so drip lines and drilling holes into my fence posts a feasible idea? How would I go about doing this specifically without having to worry about leaks?

I might have additional questions on this thread, so bare with me please. And hopefully this thread answers questions other DIY NFTers may have.

Thanks in advance to all you rollituppers, you have no idea how much I've learned from this forum and I hope to one day pass my knowledge on (and I already have to a few close aspiring friends trying to be self-sufficient).

I'll be awaiting any replies this thread may get.

Not sure there is a "best way" to deliver the nutrient solution through a 4" pvc fence post. Traditional NFT is probably the worst way. This being, NFT without sprayer/misters, i.e. just the thin nutrient film, possibly from a dripper or just piped in on one end.

So.. Definitely don't do traditional NFT. Because, for the same amount of work, and better results, you can install sprayers/misters. As for installing a mister in between net pots, Earl has a nice picture of how to hook up to the pump https://www.rollitup.org/402028-post1.html you can get rubber grommets which will allow you to drill a bigger hole, that the sprayer/mister will actually fit through, and still be water tight.

Otherwise, (and this is from someone with a bit of fence post experience), I would recommend doing the StinkBud style sprayline, which is just 1/2" pvc pipe down the fence post, with ez-clone sprayers drilled in. It has amazing results https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html

People also use AeroFlo spraylines, laser drilled, with good success.

If you wanted to improve on these, you would next go for a higher pressure pump, and higher pressure misters. Still, the volume inside the fence post.. makes that .. difficult becuase the roots only hang ~2" before they are at the bottom... (in other words, I'm not sure I would recommend high pressure misters/foggers for fence posts, yet, when you can get such good results following stinkbuds method!)

I've tried a few methods with fence posts.. traditional NFT, intermittent NFT, and Aero/NFT.. but so far the Aero/NFT works the best, and that is with ez-clone sprayers. Oh, and I had excellent success with stinkbuds units! Will be trying medium pressure foggers/misters soon, but not sure if it's going to be "worth it" so to speak, considering the extra cost, but we will see.

Fence posts are great for customization.. You can make modular units, that can connect/remove as needed. Mine sit on wooden rails, and slide to the left as they progress. Quite convenient! Plus, at harvest, I can actually walk/crawl on the fence posts to get to the back. https://www.rollitup.org/3516218-post23.html