Like it. These Blumats are very interesting.
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Blumat auto watering
- Thread starter sunnydog
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- blumat drippers irrigation watering
Like it. These Blumats are very interesting.
Blumat organic 'top dressing' idea: Take a small 2"-3" funnel and stuff its tip end into the soil where your Blumat drips. Aim the Blumat hose so it drips into the funnel, then fill the funnel with whatever you'd like to feed the plant - Guanos, EWC, maybe even liquid concentrates like Roots or Earth Juice.
Think it'd work? I'm helping a friend get set up with super soil / water-only Blumat system, but it'd be nice to have a way to give the plants some additional food on an as-needed basis.
Think it'd work? I'm helping a friend get set up with super soil / water-only Blumat system, but it'd be nice to have a way to give the plants some additional food on an as-needed basis.
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You might have a hard time penetrating the soil at the drip point with a funnel. The roots form an incredibly tight mass at that point. When I wanted to supplement something like epsom salts, I just made a mound out of it under the drip hose and it seemed to work fine. I think somebody earlier wrote about using a piece of pantyhose to form a tea bag and placing it under the hose.
Thanks to all the usual contributors keeping this thread alive and well. I've been lurkin in here for the past few weeks. Gonna dust off my blumats and give em a go again.
3 gal airpots. Gonna be running straight RO water, no nutes. Organic soil. An occasional top dress and handwater to keep things happy... I'm about to start gathering all the plumbing, tubes etc. hopefully I won't have to buy anything, lol.
3 gal airpots. Gonna be running straight RO water, no nutes. Organic soil. An occasional top dress and handwater to keep things happy... I'm about to start gathering all the plumbing, tubes etc. hopefully I won't have to buy anything, lol.
F
Folate
My blumat top dress style is to make an indention in the soil with my thumb under the drip and place guano, neem, et.al.
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Oti$
Can't wait to watch youf blumat grow Marlo! I first broke 1gpw with my blumats. Love em..im glad to see this thread still going it was a tremendous help getting my set up put together a couple years ago.
Still working on getting my blumats dialed in. I learned the importance of having runoff trays that are bigger than the reservoir
. I have 1 4x4 tray for each light. I'd been slowly adjusting the drippers on 1 side, until I thought it was good...4 arrows out from where I started. Yesterday, before I left for work, I opened up the "tester tray" a final arrow. I opened up the other trays drippers...4 arrows, all at once. The pots are at the right moisture content now, but there was about 8gal of runoff between the 2 trays. Now I'm letting things stabilize. If I continue to have runoff, I'll dial back half an arrow, if not, I'll leave them be.
I also discovered that PBP grow and PBP bloom DO NOT mix well. I had about 5 gal of grow solution left in the res. I added 5 gal of bloom solution, and it created a funky film on the top of the water. I vacuumed the whole mess out and started with fresh solution. Just a little FYI.
Again, I'd like to thank EVERYONE who contributes to this thread. I've only had the blumats up for 2 weeks, and I can see what a game changer they are
. I have 1 4x4 tray for each light. I'd been slowly adjusting the drippers on 1 side, until I thought it was good...4 arrows out from where I started. Yesterday, before I left for work, I opened up the "tester tray" a final arrow. I opened up the other trays drippers...4 arrows, all at once. The pots are at the right moisture content now, but there was about 8gal of runoff between the 2 trays. Now I'm letting things stabilize. If I continue to have runoff, I'll dial back half an arrow, if not, I'll leave them be.I also discovered that PBP grow and PBP bloom DO NOT mix well. I had about 5 gal of grow solution left in the res. I added 5 gal of bloom solution, and it created a funky film on the top of the water. I vacuumed the whole mess out and started with fresh solution. Just a little FYI.
Again, I'd like to thank EVERYONE who contributes to this thread
. I've only had the blumats up for 2 weeks, and I can see what a game changer they are
I may try that if runoff persists. I REALLY like the safety of a full sized tray. Either of my 4x4 trays could easily contain the entire 40 gal reservoir in the event of a runaway. With the airpot's raised bottom, the plants would stay above the water-line, even in the event of a complete runaway.I think the runoff was caused by my opening 4 arrows all at once. The ones I opened gradually had almost zero runoff. It was all from the side that got opened up all at once. I believe the drippers were flowing faster than the cones could react to. The majority of the plants seem wet enough now, but I may have to open up a few of the thirstier girls a little more.
BTW...This weekend, I'm going to assemble all the materials for a version of the paired reservoir set-up you showed
. I don't know if I'll get it all set up this weekend, but getting ALL the parts on 1 table is 3/4 of the battle. I'm thinking a 3.5-5gal bucket, slaved to my 40gal res. I'd like to run the pump fairly often, to keep the solution mixed(PBP tends to settle over time). Is there any reason this would be a problem? I can't think of any, but I'm pretty new to the blumats.The "bottom" of my pot sits ~3" off the ground...Having that much exposed water sitting around would cause me all sorts of problems. The rh in my tent spikes if there's more than just a little water sitting in the trays. I'd really like to avoid having any runoff. Thanks for the idea though
I mean use both your existing catch tray and small saucers, not just one or the other. If you get a runaway, and you will, the small saucer just overflows into the large catch tray but now you know which plant is responsible. If you use low-profile saucers, the water won't even get up to the raised bottom in the Air Pots.
There shouldn't be a problem with running your pump more frequently. When you are deciding which pump to buy, pay close attention to the "head" figure, which is how much vertical height the pump can push the water up. Also, be sure and look at the pump volume at the height that you will be using it - the volume falls way off as the head increases. My pumps are rated for nearly a thousand gallons per hour, but will take a couple of minutes to move 2 gallons when bucking an 8'+ head.
There shouldn't be a problem with running your pump more frequently. When you are deciding which pump to buy, pay close attention to the "head" figure, which is how much vertical height the pump can push the water up. Also, be sure and look at the pump volume at the height that you will be using it - the volume falls way off as the head increases. My pumps are rated for nearly a thousand gallons per hour, but will take a couple of minutes to move 2 gallons when bucking an 8'+ head.
Aerated Compost Tea
M
maestroman22
Beta, I actually run AACT's through mine with no issues. I even run through a filter. I have ran AACT's and organics through without a filter in the past, but have found the filter to be very useful and have no visual, or any other (yield, quality) cues that it has harmed my microherd. The filter helps prevent clogs (which anyone who has used blumats with any nutes for an extended period of time can tell you, it happens) and just makes life easier.
Disclaimer: I'm not a trained botanist, biologist, nor do I have the ability to send to a lab for sampling, but I can say that I've ran AACT's through with both the filter and no filter and have seen no difference.
Hope that helps. Feel free to shoot any questions you may have. I'll do my best to answer based on my experience.
ACT
ACT
So where do you put the filter? I'm imagining a cage type filter on the inlet, like you would see in a fish tank going to a canister filter.
ACT
So where do you put the filter? I'm imagining a cage type filter on the inlet, like you would see in a fish tank going to a canister filter.
I had a bunch of runnoff again yesterday morning, so I dialed down 1 arrow, which has seemed to stabilize things. I am going to pick up some saucers today, and place them under each pot. This does seem like the most logical way to monitor/fine-tune the system. The hardest part is that I have to pull 2 plants out of each tray so I can reach the back row. I made a few "plugs", by putting a toothpick in 1 end of a few discarded 3mm lines.
Hopefully I can get this dialed in pretty quick, before the plants are too big/delicate to easily move in and out of the tent. I may have to pull the entire front row out to get the saucers under all the pots. Unfortunately, I've only got access to 1 side of the tent. It's in a corner, with my veg tent against the other end. I need a little room for myself.
I've been looking at pumps. The 633gph ecoplus seems to be what I need. It;s got 7.5' of head, and I'm only going up 6', maybe a little less. I'd go with the next size up(9.5'), but it's pretty noisy. What size upper reservoir is reasonable for 32 small/mid sized plants? I'm planning on running the pump 15min/hour, and was thinking a 3.5 gal bucket would do the trick...opinions?
Blumat makes several that go in-line with your 8mm main lines. Here's the first 1 I came up with...http://blumatsystems.com/product/19/Blumat-Filter-Assembly
I would think that size upper reservoir would work fine if you are running the pump that frequently. I run 4 gallon buckets for the upper rez, but the lines plumbed into them reduces the volume somewhat. I don't usually go over 6 plants, but even when they are pretty big my rez only drops a few inches and it gets refilled twice a day. Runaways can drain it in a hurry, though.
