That is the other best part, the plants love them! Best part is I DON"T HAVE TO WATER THEM!
Happy to see things working out!
-
ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!
Blumat auto watering
- Thread starter sunnydog
- Start date
-
- Tags
- blumat drippers irrigation watering
That is the other best part, the plants love them! Best part is I DON"T HAVE TO WATER THEM!
Happy to see things working out!
Cali MedPatient
Member
I couldn't have done it without you my friend!!
ItGrowsHerb
Member
The pressure reducer installs on a regular hose faucet, such as found outside. I used a Sharkbite hose bib I beliieve, stubbed out on 1/2" copper tied into a pex T off a cold water line for inside use. So a bit of plumbing may be needed.
It replaces the reservoir with its attached thru hull adapter. Certainly reduces equipment footprint!
It replaces the reservoir with its attached thru hull adapter. Certainly reduces equipment footprint!
Ya I believe thats what it was originally made for but I think some people are somehow installing these directly to their reservoir's if im not mistaken...
The P/R is for use with pressurized source water, such as a faucet or garden hose, or my keg system idea(couple of posts back).
It is not used for a "regular" res.
Cali MedPatient
Member
You can do it, but a lot of ingenuity and plumbing is involved. It's a long thread, but if you read it you'll find all the answers.
There is no point in it. You get .433 psi per foot of head, and the pressure regulators are set at 15 psi. Your reservoir would have to be located 35' above the blumat discharge point for the regulator to start functioning.
Cali MedPatient
Member
Tyga, What you'll need is:
A resevoir
a pump
a pressure switch to turn the pump off
a check valve
a bladder tank
optional is an inline filter
I found its easier to use a regular old adjustable pressure reducer than a blumat one.
A bunch of plumbing fittings
Weed, killer and a few other guys have some good pics on how to do it.
A resevoir
a pump
a pressure switch to turn the pump off
a check valve
a bladder tank
optional is an inline filter
I found its easier to use a regular old adjustable pressure reducer than a blumat one.
A bunch of plumbing fittings
Weed, killer and a few other guys have some good pics on how to do it.
ItGrowsHerb
Member
its what you have to do! I put a 7$ toilet valve in a 20 gallon tote to keep it topped up. Cut a hole in bottom of rez, jam valve in there and enjoy. Still needs a cold water line tho. I simply switched to a PR and used the same feed for the reservoir. You still might need that PR sometime down the line you never know. have a good day 
UPDATE:
It's been a week since I reinstalled my blumats to start over with more controls and fewer variables. I resoaked and triple-checked all my carrots for bubbles and I installed them on freshly repotted girls in firmly packed soil.
I'm happy to report that all 19 blumats remain untouched after 7 days. The girls look great, all I've done is rotate the pots and raise the light. I haven't adjusted the blumats once since the original setting.
Just now, 1 plant looked a little under watered but the carrot was dripping. She is also among 3 that were installed 2 days later, so only about 5 days ago.
Next step: Flower room, ~18 girls in 7-gallon smart pots!
It's been a week since I reinstalled my blumats to start over with more controls and fewer variables. I resoaked and triple-checked all my carrots for bubbles and I installed them on freshly repotted girls in firmly packed soil.
I'm happy to report that all 19 blumats remain untouched after 7 days. The girls look great, all I've done is rotate the pots and raise the light. I haven't adjusted the blumats once since the original setting.
Just now, 1 plant looked a little under watered but the carrot was dripping. She is also among 3 that were installed 2 days later, so only about 5 days ago.
Next step: Flower room, ~18 girls in 7-gallon smart pots!
A
ak-51
It's been a while since I switched from Pure Blend Pro to CNS17. Using CNS17 with no additives at all sure has simplified things, which was goal #1, but it's in question whether it is cleaner for my system.
The other day I had a drip line clog up. Usually I just remove the line from the blumat, hold the end that is connected to the feed line and stretch it out, then I'll kind of massage the line down the length of it. This usually loosens up anything that has settled on the sides of the drip line. I did that and about a 10mm turd thing popped out of it. Even though all of the CNS17 liquids are milky white it seems brown stuff falls out of it still.
When I went to clean out my pump filters they were just about as dirty as they were when I ran Pure Blend Pro.
I'll continue running it for a while and continue to observe any differences in the plant health or hydro system performance.
The other day I had a drip line clog up. Usually I just remove the line from the blumat, hold the end that is connected to the feed line and stretch it out, then I'll kind of massage the line down the length of it. This usually loosens up anything that has settled on the sides of the drip line. I did that and about a 10mm turd thing popped out of it. Even though all of the CNS17 liquids are milky white it seems brown stuff falls out of it still.
When I went to clean out my pump filters they were just about as dirty as they were when I ran Pure Blend Pro.
I'll continue running it for a while and continue to observe any differences in the plant health or hydro system performance.
THE PROBLEM: The blumat cone runs out of water.
This happened on 3 more of my blumats. They were on the 3 smallest girls (therefore those using the least amount of water), and I didn't notice them looking dry when I posted my 1 week check-in here. With everything running so smoothly I never hoisted the pots to check the water content. Instead I have just grown accustomed to looking at the posture of the leaves, and all looked well.
These are 3 sensors that I never touched after the original setting. This means that the initial setting was way off. Enough to pinch the hose completely shut. Or that the dripper hose simply became pinched shut during the last week. Evidently these small girls slowly used up their initial drenching, then the water from the cone, and finally got droopy yesterday or the the day before.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how the initial dial-in could be that far off. I did allow the blumats to soak a long time after screwing the caps on (as stated above), but I am kinda stumped as to how these cones were evidently not holding pressure when first installed. So far off that when I dialed back to a cling +2 arrows, those sensors never even had a chance to work properly.
Any thoughts? Thank you in advance.
All the offending blumats have been swapped out and the girls recovered just fine, altho they were pretty stressed. They were of course drenched again in order to reinstall more cones, and I doubt they have used up that water yet. (Unrelated: Can you stress a plant so much during veg that it will eventually hermie during flower?)
ALSO: Some of the girls outgrew their 1 gallon pots in roughly 9 days. I feel like a magician. Abracadabra.
I wouldn't be surprised if these finish a few days faster than I'm used to. Is that really possible with hydro?The roots were absolutely gorgeous, bright white and moldy/furry looking. Blumats + mycorrhizae! And the hole where the cone was is an amazing little world of root hairs too.
Cali MedPatient
Member
I'm having a similar problem as lowbrow. I soaked all my carrots, hand watered all my pots, installed the blumats, dialed down to a cling, then two more notches, and a bunch of my plants weren't getting enough water. I hand watered everything, opened then redialed all of my carrots to cling plus one arrow this time. Still, some of them are light feeling when I pick them up.
And AK, I had PBP in my veg room, and a bunch of mine stopped watering. I just undialed them and got a bunch of slimy crap coming out of them. I immediately drained my res., cleaned it and switched to GH 6/9. Hope this fixes that problem. I haven't had any slime in the flower room with the GH 6/9 and the plants look great, just some aren't getting enough water so I hope I can fix that with an adjustment of the dial.
And AK, I had PBP in my veg room, and a bunch of mine stopped watering. I just undialed them and got a bunch of slimy crap coming out of them. I immediately drained my res., cleaned it and switched to GH 6/9. Hope this fixes that problem. I haven't had any slime in the flower room with the GH 6/9 and the plants look great, just some aren't getting enough water so I hope I can fix that with an adjustment of the dial.
Lowbrow and Cali, I think that the media has a great deal to do with the success of "dialing back two arrows" ability to hit a good moisture content. I've had better success with getting the media to the moisture contentl that I want, and then just dialing to a cling.
When I was using SS#4, I would water the pots to runoff and then wait 24 hours to install the blumats as above. Now I have swapped over to Botanicare ReadyGro Aeration mix, and it seemed like the coco would dry out too much after waiting 24 hours. I mixed up the media in large totes and added water until the moisture content looked like what I wanted, potted up the plants and installed the blumats. So far this has worked well for me.
When I was using SS#4, I would water the pots to runoff and then wait 24 hours to install the blumats as above. Now I have swapped over to Botanicare ReadyGro Aeration mix, and it seemed like the coco would dry out too much after waiting 24 hours. I mixed up the media in large totes and added water until the moisture content looked like what I wanted, potted up the plants and installed the blumats. So far this has worked well for me.
Cali MedPatient
Member
Thanks for the tip Rives. I've been watering to slight runoff, waiting a little for it to soak in, then dialing to cling, then dialing the additional notch or two. I'm gonna leave them at the cling and see how that does. BTW I'm in Botanicare moisture formula.
Cali MedPatient
Member
Does anyone know where to buy the protective covers for the Blumat? They make a cap that goes on the dial to prevent it accidentally being moved. I brushed one while skirting and it drained my whole tank through that one pot by the time I came back the next day. The only place I can find them is from Blumat in Austria and the shipping is pretty high. Sustainable Village doesn't seem to have them and Google couldn't find them either. Thanks!!
A
ak-51
It would probably be much easier and cheaper to make some sort of protective cover yourself.
My initial idea is to get small pvc tube that would fit over the dial, cut about 1/2 inch sections, and cut slits 180 degrees from each other that go about half way up so the hose can go through them.
In regards to calibration: when I setup I completely soak the coco and put the blumats in immediately. I dial to cling and leave it there. Over the course of the next 1 or 2 days I'll tighten them up if there is too much runoff, which there invariably will be. I usually readjust them later that day/night and then the next morning and random times from then on. I probably waste 2-5 gallons* each time I setup by doing it this way, but I feel like it ensures that I have them as open as reasonable.
*I'll usually just readjust the pH and use that runoff for whatever I'm handwatering at the time, so it's not really wasted.
