The Drip Hydroponic Growing System
Drip hydroponic system is widely used in commercial growing for crops like tomatoes and peppers. In a Drip system, plants are grown in a growing tray separate from the nutrient reservoir. A pump is submerged in the nutrient reservoir to push the nutrient solution to feed the plants via small tubes from the top. Nutrient solution that is dripped onto the base of each plant will slowly seep through the growing medium and then reach to the root zone. A timer is used to control the pump for the watering cycles.
In a Recovery Drip System, overflow of the nutrients will be collected back into the reservoir for reuse. The Non-Recovery Drip System does not collect the excess of nutrient solution. Therefore it is crucial to use a more precise timer to control the watering cycles to minimize the waste of runoff while nourish the plants with adequate hydroponic nutrients.
Though nutrient solution is utilized more efficiently in the Recovery Drip System, more maintenance tasks are required. When nutrient solution is recycled back into the reservoir, it will have significant change in pH and the strength. Therefore, constant checking and adjusting of the nutrient solution is essential.
Since Non-Recovery Drip system does not collect the excess of nutrients, it basically requires little to no maintenance. After you have set up the system with pH-adjusted nutrients, you can basically leave it to operate by itself until the time to refill with more nutrient solution.
Common growing medium used for Drip systems are rockwool, clay pellets and lava chips. Growing medium plays an important role in Drip system to determine the type of emitters used for dripping purpose. Generally, a fast draining medium (such as clay pellets) will require faster dripping emitters. On the other hand, slower dripping emitters are best used alongside with slow draining medium like rockwool.
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