Does anyone have experience with Wilma Dripper System used with Soil?

[SuperKellus]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any thing that will help me with a couple of things I need to find out about this way of growing, Im actually have the Wilma 16 & Wilma 4 but they all work the same way, other than the Drippers, Arrows for Soil, Floods for Hydro mediums but its the soil arrow drippers I need to know about, and how often to water them. Ive heard varying ways going from 1x 15 minute feed per day to 4x 20 minute per day. As there is no real table of instruction that comes with it Id be greatful for any advice about 1.Watering (how often) 2. Reservoir change (how often), do you leave it till it nearly runs low, assuming P.H is stable and plants are happy, or change it once a week/fortnight regardless? Nice one, S.K:rasta:

SuperKellus Reviewed by SuperKellus on 05-20-2011. Does anyone have experience with Wilma Dripper System used with Soil? Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any thing that will help me with a couple of things I need to find out about this way of growing, Im actually have the Wilma 16 & Wilma 4 but they all work the same way, other than the Drippers, Arrows for Soil, Floods for Hydro mediums but its the soil arrow drippers I need to know about, and how often to water them. Ive heard varying ways going from 1x 15 minute feed per day to 4x 20 minute per day. As there is no real table of instruction that comes Rating: 5

[SuperKellus]

Just in case anyone needs to know, Ive found using the Wilma systems with soil works well just don't water too much, and water during daytime only. I water/feed 2x 15 mins (week2-week4 Veg), 3x 15 mins (week5-week6 Veg), 3x 15 mins (week7-week11 Flower) and for the final week no feed just watering 3x 15 min per day. I dont use the wilma for a recirculating system but a run to waste, not as it was intended but it means I dont have to worry about the system getting blocked with nasty little bits in the run off which is basically un-avoidable, Using the the drip/dippers rather than the flood/drippers ensures that not much run off is created by a 15 minute watering anyway (this is true of the 11l pots I use) this may change depending on which size pots you are using as the wilma comes in 6.5L, 11L & Big 18L pots depending on the system. The drainage hole back to the reservior is blocked up to ensure nothing re-enters the system and empty what ever collects in the tray, but I have found that with 2x 15 minute feeds, so far, very little run off is created & what little there is evaporates in an ambient temp of 25 degrees c this has provided a little humidity that I needed as my humidity sticks between 40-45%. The main thing here is once you have your system up and running and made all checks, happy all is working smoothly, is to simply keep an eye on your reservior and as there is no run off interferrence you will find once it has been set it will only need minimal adjustments if any at all. S.K

[CanGroIt]

How often do you change your res from plain water to water with nutes? Like do you have plain water in the res for four days then water with nutes for three or change every day or..... Know what I mean???

CGI::::::

[SuperKellus]

It was thanks to your watering suggestions that I managed to finally settle on my watering shedule, at the moment I just add my grow nutes to the tank at 5ml per Gallon. This basically means I can just come back to them every other day and remove any run off (very little atm) and just top up as an when needed generally every 6 days, and my tap water needs alittle ph down (I use Canna organic Citric acid I think) before settling at about 6-6.3 adding the nutes at the sametime. Its actually a very easy way to go about things considering Ive never used a wilma system and Im not even using it the way it was intended. The only ajustment to the system i had to make was to raise the pots alittle so they were'nt sitting in a puddles, but the run off is minimal so Im not sure I needed to, better safe than root rot I guess. Thanks for your earlier advice by the way all good stuff. E.Z S.K

[CanGroIt]

Cool. Was asking cause just wanted to know if you would have to worry about salt buildup or not. Sounds like you got things covered.....

CGI::::::