Blumat auto watering

[GuFF]

Is anybody using these with the pressure reducer and dosers / fertilizer proportioners?

I feel like that is the next step to truly advancing my laziness. To do that and then have the drains all pump out automatically. That would definitely extend the amount of away time I could have.

That's what I'm building. Here's the inline set up

Water only res (fed w float)>
Pump strainer >
Booster pump >
Back flow preventer >
Fertilizer proportioner A >
Back flow preventer >
Fertilizer proportioner B >
Back flow preventer >
Inline filter >
Accumulator tank >
Pressure reducer >
Blumats.

 

[otis33]

any of you guys have a hypothesis? or a solid answer why this

I think it's the blumats adjusting to the plants individual water uptake as each plant does this at a different rate. Just my hypothesis.

 

[sunnydog]

any of you guys have a hypothesis? or a solid answer why this

I think it's the blumats adjusting to the plants individual water uptake as each plant does this at a different rate. Just my hypothesis.

I think you may be on to something...........................:yay:

 

[julkop01]

Nice thread! Took about a week to read through but good solid info is always priceless. Little off-topic but since I got a tablet, I've been educating myself a lot this year. Basically everytime my wifey watches tv, I'm reading with this. 2-5 hours a day 6-7 days/week. It's like I'm back in school, but school of growing.
Root pouches + coco + blumats + maxibloom = gorgeus plants and easy growing <3 Just a thought, is this considered as a passive hydro or what? That's what I've called it so far anyways Happy growing fellow bm'ers!

 

[sunnydog]

Nice thread! Took about a week to read through but good solid info is always priceless. Little off-topic but since I got a tablet, I've been educating myself a lot this year. Basically everytime my wifey watches tv, I'm reading with this. 2-5 hours a day 6-7 days/week. It's like I'm back in school, but school of growing.
Root pouches + coco + blumats + maxibloom = gorgeus plants and easy growing <3 Just a thought, is this considered as a passive hydro or what? That's what I've called it so far anyways Happy growing fellow bm'ers!

It just waters plants, so you don't have too. I just use my soil, and some stuff to rot. Works REALLY well.

 

[Tyga]

Still having trouble with my blumats.... I feel that they are never giving the plants enough water. The girls don't show any sign of stress from under watering but the medium just never looks saturated whatsoever. I do the clinging drop +2 arrows in straight coco. 7/10gal smart pots..... 2 drippers per pot.

 

[greenmatter]

i always try to go by the weight of the pot. try opening them up a little. IME unless it is a runaway a blumat can't overwater

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Still having trouble with my blumats.... I feel that they are never giving the plants enough water. The girls don't show any sign of stress from under watering but the medium just never looks saturated whatsoever. I do the clinging drop +2 arrows in straight coco. 7/10gal smart pots..... 2 drippers per pot.

It is normal for the top of the pot to look dry.


Saturated is not the goal, but rather constant moisture level maintained at all times.

I did question if 2 arrows was keeping things a little too dry in straight coco. I ran about cling + 1.5 arrow in Atami coco...maybe a little less.


Believe it or not there is a very good level of moisture under that dry layer of coco.

 

[wiesser]

Sunnydog-

I just started using my blumats, and I've just added co2 enrichment. Currently I have the blumats connected to a res with plain ph balanced water only. My plan was to hand water nutes every four days or so. I'm starting to get the feeling that I might not be giving them enough nutrients. After hand watering nutes, they explode with new growth, and the blumats stop watering obviously because the soil is now saturated. It only takes about 24 hours for the blumats to start dripping again. This really surprised me. My room is dialed in very well, temp, humidity, ph, all good. I feel like the plants need more nutes, like that is the weak link now that I've got them on co2. This is never my first reaction when I feel like my plants are missing something, never add more nutes, less nutes is always better is what I've learned in my 10+ years of doing this. But I've never used co2 before either. What has been your experience? I noticed you said you also use plain water in your res. How often do you feed? I'm starting to wonder if I should do every other day maybe. I just don't like the idea of using nutes in my res. Old hydro experiences I guess, clogged hoses, pumping out the whole res if something goes wrong, I just would like to avoid it. Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sunnydog]

Sunnydog-

I just started using my blumats, and I've just added co2 enrichment. Currently I have the blumats connected to a res with plain ph balanced water only. My plan was to hand water nutes every four days or so. I'm starting to get the feeling that I might not be giving them enough nutrients. After hand watering nutes, they explode with new growth, and the blumats stop watering obviously because the soil is now saturated. It only takes about 24 hours for the blumats to start dripping again. This really surprised me. My room is dialed in very well, temp, humidity, ph, all good. I feel like the plants need more nutes, like that is the weak link now that I've got them on co2. This is never my first reaction when I feel like my plants are missing something, never add more nutes, less nutes is always better is what I've learned in my 10+ years of doing this. But I've never used co2 before either. What has been your experience? I noticed you said you also use plain water in your res. How often do you feed? I'm starting to wonder if I should do every other day maybe. I just don't like the idea of using nutes in my res. Old hydro experiences I guess, clogged hoses, pumping out the whole res if something goes wrong, I just would like to avoid it. Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

I really cannot speak to this, as I use a fully amended, organic soil, and just supply plain water for the whole grow. Someone else here can probably help more. I think most folks here use nutes in the res.
My soil is old, the bulk being about 7 years or so old.
This started as promix based with 40% or more homemade (in giant Rubbermaid tubs) compost. This % has gone up as time goes on.
The compost consists of; Aspen shavings, all herb scrap;root balls, stem, leaf. diatomacious earth "pebbles"(not powdered), lots of charcoal, rock dust, All kitchen waste, shitload of coffee grinds from local cafe.
Also, in different batches, powdered milk, fish meal, pumpkins, horse manure. This cooks for a couple weeks, ultimately flushing shitloads of mushrooms!


What I have been doing now,with each cycle in three gal. pots.
Pull out old root-ball(stem), this is usually soft and rotted, as I leave the blumats on even after harvest.
Pull out about a third of the soil; put a couple of cups of the spent soil aside.
With the rest, I add one cup of "mix". This consists of very VERY approximately (depends on what I got around), 8-10 parts neem seed meal, five parts fish and crab meal, three or four parts each of "Veg" guano and "flower" guano, 3-4parts fish bone meal, 2-3parts alfalfa meal, 3-4 parts kelp meal, 2 parts blood meal 2 parts rock dust. 1-2 parts soft rock phosphate, 1 part greensand.
I do not use any lime, they do not seem to need it ( growth is fabulous) and I been fucked by lime in the past. If it ain't broke, don't fuck with it.
I also have essentially given up on concepts like N-P-K. Any Ph nonsense is LONG GONE. Don't even THINK about that shit.



Mix 1 cup mix per three gallon pot with the extracted soil.
Dump this back in the pot.
With your hands, scoop a hole in the middle. Fill this hole with spent soil. Again, push this aside a bit to plant your plant, The idea being the plant does not have immediate contact with the hot soil. Soak in all in with a good drenching.
Take the remaining spent soil and back fill the pot.
By having a layer of spent soil on top, i have found the gnat population is almost ZERO, as they have no food to eat. When I top dressed, I used to be PLAGUED by the little bastards! They were gross, I hate them.
I run my blumats as MOIST AS POSSIBLE, with out running over. BTW, AFOM does essentially the same thing, only EVEN LAZIER! He scoops out 3-4 inches of soil, dumps the amendment mix in( he does not mix it in as I do), back fills the spent soil. This way is less work. He achieves excellent results also, so I might have to give it a try.


This is all MUCH EASIER than it sounds. As I've said, I only visit them every 2 weeks or so.
I do the mixing work in a plastic tub to contain the mess.

With a 1-2 week veg time(depends on strain,some way less veg), this sustains my plants for the whole run! In 35 yrs. of growing, I've grown all ways, it's NEVER been EASIER, or more productive.

 

[wiesser]

Sunnydog-

Thanks for the reply, and all the info. I'm going to be switching over to an all organic soil for my next round. Your system is really the set-up that I want. Like you said, with the blumats and organics, excuse me for quoting Ron Popeil, but you can just "set it, and forget it". I feel like the blumats are the next big thing for soil growers. A friend of mine told me he feels like they grow plants like a hydro set-up. I was skeptical at first, but now I believe it. Looking forward to trying these babies outdoors. I can envision having a hundred blumats in a small scale farm setting. 5000 gal res (spring fed) watering everything I can put in the ground, not only cannabis. I'm very excited, the possibilities, can't stop thinking about it.

 

[Tyga]

So my blumats have been running for a month... 10gal pots with 2 blumats per pot. So far Ive had 1 "Runaway" And a few that randomly just stop dripping... When i try to adjust sometimes even if open all the way they won't drip. These are a headache for me... -.-

 

[wiesser]

Tyga-

Just throwing this out there but did you make sure there were absolutely zero air bubbles in the cones before you sealed the tops? I always double check this, have to screw the tops on underwater.

 

[greenmatter]

Tyga are you running nutes or just water?

i've never had a blumat that i could open all the way without water coming out unless the 3mm was clogged.

 

[Tyga]

Im running GH w/ Micro/bloom... Drip clean... Couple other additives. I always screw the tops on underwater to prevent any water bubbles being inside.

 

[greenmatter]

when i started using the blumats i was running different medias and ran a few different nutes through the blumats. it worked great but i did have issues with the 3mm line gunking up on more than one occasion even with the drip clean. as time went by i phased out all the nutes that i ran through the blumats until i was down to just silica and water. thats when things started working great.

my guess would be it what you are running through the blumats that is causing you headaches and not the blumats themselves. it does not take much hydro "smegma" to clog a 3 mm line. when you set up your system did you put in a valve so you can flush the main feed line? i know when i ran nutes there was always shit in the lines, so i flushed a lot. it helped, but there is a reason i stopped feeding through the blumats

 

[wisco61]

Im running GH w/ Micro/bloom... Drip clean... Couple other additives. I always screw the tops on underwater to prevent any water bubbles being inside.

What are the couple other additives?

 

[TribalSeeds]

Sometimes the 3mm tube gets pinched and can get stuck. If you see any flat spots in the tubing just pinch them on the edges to get them round again. It can also stick just under the knob.
That material likes to stick together, especially when you first take them out of the pack. They suggest letting the tubes soak in warm water.

 

[Tyga]

What are the couple other additives?

Silica blast, Rock resinator, Floralicious +

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

I would guess the Floralicious is the culprit, I still have a new bottle I bought back when I was doing hydro but didn't use it after reading about many people blaming it for a gunky res. I run tap water with GH Micro and Bloom and just finished an eight week flowering run and they all flow fine still but I did notice a buildup on the outside on one of the 3mm tubes. Sorry you are having headaches with the blumats, they are supposed to make life easier. I know they have for me.