Blumat auto watering

[skyview]

Kit Kat - another factor might be pressure. Are you using a pressure regulator or do you have gravity flow from a storage tank? If the pressure is too high, the flow might also be too fast. That could cause one side of the pot to get over-wet while the other side is too dry.

 

[Kit Kat]

rrog - The carrot was (edit: not) in the dry zone on one side of the pot, maybe an inch from the wall and the drip line was extended anywhere from the base of the stem, to the opposite side of the pot entirely. It seems no matter where the drip line ends, one part of the coco pretty much remains mostly dry. The side with the carrot is always moist.

skyview - I'm using a gravity flow from a 32 gallon trashcan that had anywhere from 3 to 25 gallons of water in it at a time. This was sitting maybe 10" above the soil surface. The actual flow coming out of the drippers appeared to be the same drip-drip-drip flow that I had in the previous grow, when my res was just a 5 gallon bucket elevated maybe 20-24" above the soil surface.

 

[rrog]

Something seems like it wasn't dialed in. I'm assuming the soil was nicely conductive with respect to water flow, and if the soil is dry around the carrot, it should keep telling the dripper to drip, until the soil around the carrot is wet and shuts off the flow.

You mention "the carrot was in the dry zone" and also "the side with the carrot is always moist"

 

[Kit Kat]

Something seems like it wasn't dialed in. I'm assuming the soil was nicely conductive with respect to water flow, and if the soil is dry around the carrot, it should keep telling the dripper to drip, until the soil around the carrot is wet and shuts off the flow.

You mention "the carrot was in the dry zone" and also "the side with the carrot is always moist"

It probably would've helped if I added a not into that sentence. The carrot side was the side that was always consistently moist.

The first grow I did and had to tear down I popped the root balls out to take a peek and this is what I had, these recent ones were pretty much the same. Wet side is where the carrot it.

 

[rrog]

so the carrot side, that does not drip or add water was wet, and the side with the dripper was dry? Sorry for not understanding what's going on here...

 

[coxnox]

you have to make your drip line a little more long a maybe less turn on your carotte setting.

 

[Kit Kat]

You've got it exactly... when the dripper was stretched out further, to the far side of the pot the surface would be wet, and maybe a couple inches down, and it looked like a wet 'slope' would go through the coco back to the carrot but it would leave the remainder mostly dryish in comparison.

I'm with you on not getting what's going on here, seems completely backwards to me unless I'm developing channels in the coco or something?

 

[xmobotx]

it looks to me like the 'gnat condo' allows the sides to dry out too fast

 

[Kit Kat]

it looks to me like the 'gnat condo' allows the sides to dry out too fast

With 2x air exchanges a minute I'm inclined to believe that as well. Just from looking at what stays consistently moist it seems like a Maxi might work better since the water'll have to soak more medium just to get to it.

 

[rrog]

Maybe, but I use small carrots in my 1-2 gallon pots, and the maxi carrots in the 5+ gallon pots.

 

[Kit Kat]

What kind of pots are they in?

 

[rrog]

Geopots (fabric)

 

[rives]

KK, I'm not sure that it has anything to do with your current problem, but the arrangement with your reservoir should give you wide variations in pressure. I would expect it to cause runaways more than what you are seeing, though. The distance from the surface of the water to the dripper is what determines your head pressure, and the blumats like as much pressure as you can feasibly get to them with a gravity setup. Their pressure regulator is around 15-16 lbs, I think, and it would take about 32' of elevation to achieve that. I like having a small reservoir as high possible and top it off out of the main one a couple of times a day with a pump.

I use 3 gallon air or smart pots, and have tried about every arrangement that I could come up with to keep the pots evenly moist, including doubling up on the carrots and running a ring of remote drippers. The drippers probably worked the best, but I don't really see any difference in the plant health with just a single carrot with the drip line adjusted to Blumat's recommendation. I've gone to Botanicare ReadyGro Aeration mix, and it works well for me.

 

[Kit Kat]

rrog - thanks for that, I can't see how a fabric pot would be much different in the quick-dry department than the air pots then.

rives - I didn't experience any runaway issues and only one blockage (when roots in a far plant I couldn't get to grew into the end of the 3mm tube) even with the pressure variations. The lines were in a closed loop for all 10 dippers, maybe that's why?

Hearing that there is no real difference in plant health with even moisture or otherwise is good to know, this is only my second coco run and I wasn't sure if something was being left on the table by not achieving full saturation consistently. The plants certainly seemed healthy and happy throughout, and certainly consistently better than when I used to hand water.

 

[catman]

Mix the coco with another medium homie. Easy does it.

 

[Tyga]

Any of you guys in coco feel that your never getting enough saturation? I always set mine to a clinging drop + 2 arrows and the top of the coco gets bone dry besides the spot where the drip is landing. When I stick my finger in an inch or so in the medium it feels slightly moist but not to my liking... Even after adjusting and setting more arrows it doesnt seem to fix much. My reservoir is about 3.5 ft high you think my lines arent receiving enough pressure? My handwatered coco plants seem to have a much faster growth rate. In soil the blumats kicked ass but coco im strugglin getting them dialed in to perfection.

Ps. 1 Maxi or 2 regular for a 10gal smart pot?

 

[Bobbo4200]

I have two carrots per 5g airpot, and I am experiencing the same sort of dryness on one of the two ladies hooked up. I adjusted for more frequent drops, we will see...

 

[RomulusUSA]

@Bobbo4200 - Dirt or coco? Any pictures of carrot placement in the pots? I won't have the answer for you, but hopefully someone else will be able to help. Also, as far as you can tell, the media (soil) compaction is the same in both pots and the media was as close to equal wetness when you initially calibrated the Blumat's?

 

[Bobbo4200]

Coco. Hand-watered the same, then adjusted. Two different strains, and I'm not totally sure they are even the same brand coco in the airpots... The store ran out of the kind I was using. I should have put the carrots facing the middle(stem). Thanks

 

[Weird]

weird...

yea, what's up