Cleaning your Flex Acre Drip Line Holes

Updated

Clear the holes in both Drip Lines from a ladder, with your pump running and your crop still in the wall.

Follow the instructions in this article every other week. Your Drip Lines stay on your Flex Acre and your crop stays in the wall, so this is a short job on a ladder rather than a teardown. The full scrub at the sink is a separate task in Deep Cleaning your Drip Lines & Disc Filter (Part 3 of 7). Follow the steps in Keeping your Flex Acre Clean before you begin.

Gather Tools:

  • Bristle Brush (in the Grower Toolkit)
  • Ladder
  • 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Clean Towels

Step 1: Take Off your Top Caps

  1. Set your ladder beside the first Drip Line.
  2. Lift each Top Cap off the Root Chambers to uncover the Drip Line underneath.
  3. Work down that side until all 8 Top Caps are off.

Your Top Caps are the covers over your Drip Lines, 16 in total and 8 per side. They lift straight off, so nothing has to be unscrewed and nothing has to come apart.

Step 2: Brush Each Hole

  1. Leave your Primary Pump running so water keeps moving through the line.
  2. Start at the hole nearest the pump.
  3. Work the Bristle Brush into the hole to clear the debris out.
  4. Work down the Drip Line away from the pump, one hole at a time.
  5. Repeat on the Drip Line on the other side.

Working away from the pump is what makes this quick. The water carries whatever you free toward the holes you have not reached yet, so cleaning outward pushes the debris out of the line instead of back into it.

Step 3: Check the Flow and Close Up

  1. Watch water come out of every hole along both Drip Lines.
  2. Brush again at any hole that is still not running.
  3. Wipe each Top Cap with 3% hydrogen peroxide and a clean towel.
  4. Set all 16 Top Caps back over your Drip Lines.

A hole that will not clear after a second pass is waiting on the full scrub at the sink, where the Drip Line comes off and a brush runs the whole length of the inside. Everything else you can reach from the ladder.

NOTE: If your Flex Acre has a green inline filter, your Drip Line holes stay cleaner and this task comes around less often. Every other week is the interval without one.

Your Drip Lines are clear and your Top Caps are back on. Well done!

Next: Flex Acre Maintenance Schedule, to see what is due next.