Watering hundreds of solo cups

Why solo cups and not tall 4" square nursery pots?

Sounds like a huge pain in the ass ngl, you’d probably have an easier time setting up a bubble/aero cloner. Never done anything at scale like that, but you can setup solo cups for sip, you just poke holes in the bottom and put it in a tray. damn sure can’t do six weeks at least not with soil(I’ve found my max is 2) but coco is doable. Overgrow has a solo cup growoff every year and people pull off some crazy shit in solo cups with coco. Looks like a lot of work though, especially if you’re doing a bunch.

MidnightSun72 said:

I already have to water these girls twice a day in the cup and more probably would be better. They are almost always light. I am in there water basically every morning and every evening.

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I've been there bud thankfully with only with 6/10 plants, in future or until you plumbed in it would be worth ditching the perlite to give you a bit easier time.

Flood and drain,you can fit a lot of solos in a 4x4.

myke said:

Flood and drain,you can fit a lot of solos in a 4x4.

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Yeah but they may float

Ill preface with that Ive never done this. But could you run a soaker hose across the tops of all of your cups and pump your solution through that? A DIY larger scale drip irrigation... more like flood. But you get the idea. Just a thought, I'm sure there are plenty of negatives with this.
I also agree with the consensus about 6 weeks being too long in a solo cup.
Maybe next go of it, you can do a wick system.

I do that with my #2 pots outside and 3/8" soaker hose. It gets wasteful, and you need a runoff catch if indoors.might as well be flood and drain at that point

mudballs said:

I do that with my #2 pots outside and 3/8" soaker hose. It gets wasteful, and you need a runoff catch.might as well be flood and drain at that point

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I can definitely understand that when your adding nutes. What about just making your own flood hose? Can take any length you need and drill 1/8" holes at the increments and position you need it to be. Granted, this will be time consuming. But considering your watering twice a day, id say its worth the time investment.

I have also seen full drip kits on Amazon and other sites. Like 40 unit systems for like 30 bucks.

Star Dog said:

Capillary is a good method but ime needs covering with plastic and sites cut from it otherwise the ec is affected, it turns green with algea and gives a high humidity.

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The capillary mat in that video appears to be avoiding some of these problems, in that it has the capillary material on the inside, which is covered by something water-tight with a lot of tiny holes in it.

That should keep the mat more or less dry except where pots are actually sitting. It would at least avoid the algae growth. Evaporation is probably also much lower than with a "conventional" mat.

Does anybody know where to get the mats that are shown in the video?

@Star Dog How did/do you avoid roots growing into the mat?

I've used this same principle to get me over the weekend all you need a saucer and bottle

The pictures crap and so the carton anyway you'll get the idea, hopefully you can see there's a small amount in the saucer and a large amount in the milk carton, with a V cut in the neck of the carton water can only flow once air get in (vacuum pressure) when the air stops so does the flow, it's crude but any port in a storm.

I've used these for both capillary and sitting pots directly into trays they deliver about 1" of nutrients and can't refill until it's empties I've found them 100% reliable though mines are a bit different being older.

ComputerSaysNo said:

The capillary mat in that video appears to be avoiding some of these problems, in that it has the capillary material on the inside, which is covered by something water-tight with a lot of tiny holes in it.

That should keep the mat more or less dry except where pots are actually sitting. It would at least avoid the algae growth. Evaporation is probably also much lower than with a "conventional" mat.

Does anybody know where to get the mats that are shown in the video?

@Star Dog How did/do you avoid roots growing into the mat?

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Roots growing into it was one of the reasons I changed to coco, moving plants around was a real pia.

I would go with flood trays. Hundreds of solo cups would make for some mighty long rails using gutters / leach trays. Rockwool cubes are ideal for large grows like this. Anything round is going to lose a lot of space.

ComputerSaysNo said:

Does anybody know where to get the mats that are shown in the video?

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DirtyJerzey said:

I can definitely understand that when your adding nutes. What about just making your own flood hose? Can take any length you need and drill 1/8" holes at the increments and position you need it to be. Granted, this will be time consuming. But considering your watering twice a day, id say its worth the time investment.

I have also seen full drip kits on Amazon and other sites. Like 40 unit systems for like 30 bucks.

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Yeah, nah i aint drilling 400 holes. Too rigid and single use application of irrigation, imo.
Yo, if ur going really high numbers but small size, NFT man, and theres no reason coco in red solo cups cant be used successfully.
If u have no clue on fertigation in this type of setup, try these boys.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/ec-rising-in-reservoir.1069977/post-16794029
Thats what id do if i needed to execute ur idea on lowest budget, highest efficiency and survivability and low maintaince. Good god i cant contemplate an alternate method tbh.

Herb & Suds said:

Yeah but they may float

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Herb & Suds said:

Yeah but they may float

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Yes they'll float,but shouldn't be hard to hold them down.Strips of something between the rows with weights or something.

Said 6 weeks. Then shared a picture.

Y'all are a trip. Telling an adult what not to do instead of answering the question.

100s of solos. No fckn clue

You'll figure it out though, I'm sure.

Good luck

Livingblacksoil said:

Said 6 weeks. Then shared a picture.

Y'all are a trip. Telling an adult what not to do instead of answering the question.

100s of solos. No fckn clue

You'll figure it out though, I'm sure.

Good luck

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Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful input

Herb & Suds said:

Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful input

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Hit dog hollers when the shoe fits

Livingblacksoil said:

Hit dog hollers when the shoe fits

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Yup you hollered first

Livingblacksoil said:

Hit dog hollers when the shoe fits

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Then contributed nothing but whining