The Work Horse of the System
I did not coin the definition of the manifold but I did not know what else to call it. Just like your fuel line in your car there is a manifold port fuel injector. The spray manifold works kind of in the same way delivering water instead of fuel. There are times you have to accept the way things work and not question.
The design I came up with did not come by chance but by working on irrigation systems in my past. It use to boggle my mind when I worked on irrigation systems and watch the big water fly on golf coarse. One thing I learned about was closed loop systems. They would deliver water at all outlets/spray heads at the same pressure, or really close where a ended blocked system would not.
My first experiment was with a design I saw on eBay and YouTube. It did not work well while one nozzle would spray well and another hardly at all. I would check the nozzle for blockage but that was not the problem and when I would remove the nozzle water would flow out of the hole without any effort. But when I inserted the nozzle back into the hole/port there would be no spray. I then went from a 3/4 inch pipe to a 1/4 inch tube thinking that I needed a bigger main to hold the pressure. Well that didn’t work either.
That is when I remembered the closed loop making sure that any water that wasn’t escaping would be able to travel and flow still. Right after I made this little, crucial change in the design the sprays all delivered the same amount of water. Problem solved and I felt I had discovered a new world.
Since I have experimented with the number of nozzles or sprays I can run on a 250 gallon an hour pump and have not made a manifold big enough yet to say there is a limit to how many sprays I can have on a manifold. I am sure that I will run into that number someday soon as I am working on a bigger system right now. More on that latter.
But here is my design, one of the many I have made.
The first design
I use 1/2 pvc, t’s, 90 degree fittings, “T’s” and one 1/2 inch coupler. The hole for the spray is 11/64 of an inch and the spray fits into it snug to the point of screwing it in. I have glued the pieces together finding out I wish I didn’t as modifications always needed to be made to the containers and pump I was using.
So all I would do is cut my pipe to the dimensions of my container’s height and widths. I would look at where my plant sites were going to be and make calculated guesses as to where to place the spray nozzle in the manifold. That’s it, put it together, put water in your container and plug it in. Beware, water will be sprayed everywhere till you put a lid on it.
Where I get my Parts
The Sprays- This guy will run different specials and you will find some great deals. Most times i spend 10 bucks for 25 sprays. His Profile Store on eBay.
The Pumps - This guy has the best prices and the pumps work very well. He saves me a lot of money compared to other people selling like pumps. His e-Bay Profile.
Seven Spray Manifold
Seven Spray Aeroponic Manifold
This is where I would make any final adjustment, check for clogs and make sure that the spray is hitting all net pots. It is very important that drops of water are at least hitting the basket. Usually there is enough spray going on that is splashes everywhere but it can happen where a net pot doesn’t get any spray.
That is about it and next I will talk about medium, what your plant is growing in.
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