To purchase separately if not hand feeding:

• 1 x 19mm Grommet
• 1 x 19mm Elbow
• 1 x Feeder Ring
• 13mm Hose For Feeder
• 19mm Hose for Drainage
• A Pump
• A reservoir

These pot sets are designed for 2 types of systems; recirculating system or run to waste system. 

How it works, the bottom bucket is deeper than the top pot, this creates a small reservoir. Fill the top pot with the growing medium, then drip feed. The nutrient can then drain through to the bottom bucket where it can be discarded or recirculated.

You can also add extra pot sets to the system by the use of joiners and lengths of hose.

Here is an illustration of a recirculating system:

First, you would notice that there are several pot sets on the bench. Each pot set should only accommodate one plant.

These pots must contain growing media (best to use coco or coco blends) to keep the moisture, aeration and to support the plants to stand upright.

There is one large reservoir that holds water and nutrients.

A submersible pump is placed into this reservoir to pump the nutrients into the drip/irrigation line and feed the plants via the water rings / halos.

The water rings / halo's are fixed to the irrigation line and are pointed to each bucket to feed the plants.

You will also see the elbow piece at the bottom of each pot. It functions to drain the excess nutrient solutions to the return line back to the reservoir.

As a result, nutrient solutions are not lost during the watering / feeding process, making this method an effective recirculation technique.

A digital timer for the pump is recommended. Feed it according to the correct schedule. This is because when the pump gets the nutrients and water into the irrigation line and through to the plants, gravity will drain it back to where it begins.

Run to Waste method:

If you don’t want the nutrients to return to the reservoir, you can get it to drain out of the system to a separate reservoir. This is called run to waste. This method does help solve the problem of nutrient unbalances. A  Nutrient unbalancing is not good for plants’ growth.