Blumat auto watering

[maestroman22]

Virgin,

Blumats are definitely a viable option if you need to be gone for an extended period of time. Really, the only factor in how long you can be gone is how big your reservoir is. Now, mind you, blumats can, and do, "runaway" from time to time...meaning that occasionally, they can empty out your res all at once when it's not needed. There are numerous things you can do to avoid this that are mentioned by sunny himself.

If you were contemplating doing this, I'd suggest water only....and have your blumats dialed in for a solid amount of time before leaving for an extended period. I've personally left for 10 days and had no ill effects...blumats ran perfectly.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. IMHO, blumats are the best things since sliced bread.

 

[rives]

Question: If I wanted to grow but also needed to be gone on business for as many as 5 days at a time are blumats predictable and effective? I realize it could be a bad idea for other reasons(power failure, fire, etc) but if I had to, would blumats work? My only other option would be to soak the soil and that could cause other problems.

Blumats work great for this. I'm gone about 10-12 days a month and they are the only reason that I can grow. As Maestro said, they would probably work best with water-only, but I use Veg+Bloom in Coco (ReadyGro Aeration Mix) and find it to be pH stable for extended periods, it stays in solution, and plays well with the Blumats.

 

[VirginHarvester]

Virgin,

Blumats are definitely a viable option if you need to be gone for an extended period of time. Really, the only factor in how long you can be gone is how big your reservoir is.....

....I've personally left for 10 days and had no ill effects...blumats ran perfectly.

Beautiful

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. IMHO, blumats are the best things since sliced bread.

Will do, thanks.

Blumats work great for this. I'm gone about 10-12 days a month and they are the only reason that I can grow.

Terrific.

I've had this thread tagged for a year or two to revisit when I'm in position. I figured this would be my best option but didn't realize they could be viable for a week or more.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

How are you guys treating your reservoirs? Do you have to treat them like hydro? I.E. do they need water cooling to be around 72~ degrees like hydro? Do they need to be aerated? Thanks for any info.

 

[rives]

No cooling, no aeration, no nada. With my water, V+B is stable enough that I never change the reservoir - I just add to it. They are at room temperature and don't gain heat because there is no recirculation back to them. I haven't had a problem, winter or summer. I use a bit of SM90, which kind of slimes things up, and 1ml/gln of DripClean to keep everything rolling. That's it.

 

[Dave Coulier]

How are you guys treating your reservoirs? Do you have to treat them like hydro? I.E. do they need water cooling to be around 72~ degrees like hydro? Do they need to be aerated? Thanks for any info.

Like rives said, you dont need to do any of that stuff. As long as you keep your res topped off you should be good. If you're using ferts in your res, I do recommend 1ml of bleach/gallon of solution. Without bleach id get slime buildup in my lines, and res.

 

[rives]

Dave, you haven't seen any issues with the soft parts in the Blumats breaking down from the bleach? I know that someone on here destroyed a bunch of spikes by cleaning them with a bleach solution, but it was probably much stronger than 1ml/gallon.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

I am the same as rives except I am using Maxibloom and I am not using the SM90 anymore because of the minor slime it seems to bring along.

 

[4tokin]

How are you guys treating your reservoirs? Do you have to treat them like hydro? I.E. do they need water cooling to be around 72~ degrees like hydro? Do they need to be aerated? Thanks for any info.

I don't like to let my nutes sit idle I feel it encourages micro organism growth.
Got sick of air pumps they keep craping out in deep rez's.
Lately I have been using a small pump 24/7 just to keep the water moving or this time around I pump to an overhead rez with an overflow which I have set up for basic filtration and aeration.

 

[Dave Coulier]

Dave, you haven't seen any issues with the soft parts in the Blumats breaking down from the bleach? I know that someone on here destroyed a bunch of spikes by cleaning them with a bleach solution, but it was probably much stronger than 1ml/gallon.

Ive seen no ill effects at all. If that worry has kept you from using bleach, then youve got nothing to worry about. A little goes a long way with household bleach. I dont need to do weekly purges like I used to before to flush out the bio-film. Ugh. I even use bleach in my humidifier to keep algae from forming inside. Plus it gives the room a clean scent too.

 

[Marlo]

someone on here destroyed a bunch of spikes by cleaning them with a bleach solution.......

 

[4tokin]

A question for those have BM's dailled.
When you run your hand around the side of the smart pot do feel any wetness or dampness on the side. When I do it to mine you can feel the saturation level in the pot.
I recently did a post morton of two plants that I culled and found that in the damp zone the root mass was structure more along the lines of DWC roots where as above the dampness the roots where a lot finer and extremley dense and followed the water flow up to the drip point.
After seeing this I have backed off the BM's enough that the saturation level is as close to the bottom as possible. Hopefully the top layers don't dry out to much and salt up.

They seem to be coming along nicely. EC is currently at 2.0 and they keep wanting more, not sure how much higher I can go but while they ask I shall deliver.

 

[Dave Coulier]

When I ran blumats and fabric bags, I didn't want to feel any wetness on the sides of the bags. It sounds like you're too wet in your media. One thing I used to do with fabric bags was cut a small hole large enough for my pinky to stick in so I could insert it into the lower level of the media to gauge moisture content.

I noticed you have rockwood cubes as your starter for your plants. Are you using larger RW cubes under the clay balls, or did you transplant into a soilless media? I tried RW and Blumats once and It was very very difficult for me to fine tune my blumats with them. I ditched the RW and went back to peat based media and have been much happier since.

 

[4tokin]

When I ran blumats and fabric bags, I didn't want to feel any wetness on the sides of the bags. It sounds like you're too wet in your media. One thing I used to do with fabric bags was cut a small hole large enough for my pinky to stick in so I could insert it into the lower level of the media to gauge moisture content.

I noticed you have rockwood cubes as your starter for your plants. Are you using larger RW cubes under the clay balls, or did you transplant into a soilless media? I tried RW and Blumats once and It was very very difficult for me to fine tune my blumats with them. I ditched the RW and went back to peat based media and have been much happier since.

Old habits and sloppy practices are slowly being challenged with this grow. Now that I have more time on my hands I have been paying a lot more attention to what my garden is telling me. So far I am seeing positive results and hopefully I can turn mediocrity into some of the first class product I see on these forums.

Back to the pots. They are 2 gallon smarties with about 3/4" of hydroton in the bottom then its all coco with a sprinkling of hydroton on the top. The rockwool cubes are only for starters and they are just placed onto the coco to do their thing.
With the moisture level on the pot sides I am getting to the point where I can just feel the dampness on the bottom seam.
As the pots dry out I am seeing improved vigour in the growth.

Some may think my garden is sparse. One thing I have learnt over the years, is if you are in a confined space that less is always more.

 

[Ez Rider]

No cooling, no aeration, no nada. With my water, V+B is stable enough that I never change the reservoir - I just add to it. They are at room temperature and don't gain heat because there is no recirculation back to them. I haven't had a problem, winter or summer. I use a bit of SM90, which kind of slimes things up, and 1ml/gln of DripClean to keep everything rolling. That's it.

When you say "veg+bloom", what is the actual brand?

 

[rives]

Hydroponic Research Veg+Bloom. You can get a free sample from them if you pay for the shipping. They have different formulations based on the composition of your water, so having a water analysis is very helpful. If you are on a utility, you can get a copy of the analysis from them or their web site will frequently have a link.

V+B thread on here - https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=234171

http://www.hydroponic-research.com/

 

[Ez Rider]

Hydroponic Research Veg+Bloom. You can get a free sample from them if you pay for the shipping. They have different formulations based on the composition of your water, so having a water analysis is very helpful. If you are on a utility, you can get a copy of the analysis from them or their web site will frequently have a link.

http://www.hydroponic-research.com/

Thanks Rives You ever use their +size or +life? Their products sound interesting and cheap. 1 part formulas, or close to it is the way to go. Guys with a witches brew of 10+ bottles have never made sense to me.

My water is REAL hard...like 450-500 out of the tap. I've been using RO/tap at a 3:1 ratio, which measures ~150ppm. I add my PBP bloom(10ml/gal), Hydroplex(2.5ml/gal), and Silica Blast(2ml/gal) and it finishes out at ~630ppm.

I'm still having trouble getting a few of the blumats dialed in.
1 was too dry, and the plant became underfed, while a few others keep having runnoff.

I'm looking at those 5l air-pots. My 8l pots look small, the 5's look tiny. I'm still thinking about changing though. I've noticed you, and several others growing larger plants than mine in those little pots using coco and blumats. I'd cut my medium needs in half, and I believe the smaller pots would help keep the RH down as well. Can you think of any downside(besides buying them) to going with the smaller(5l) pots?

 

[rives]

I have samples of the +Size & +Life, but haven't had a chance to use them yet.

That water sounds like you would need to chew it!

I haven't seen any downside to the 5L pots at all. I'm still growing the same size plants as when I was using the 3 gallon pots, but with half the media.

 

[Ez Rider]

I have samples of the +Size & +Life, but haven't had a chance to use them yet.

That water sounds like you would need to chew it!

I haven't seen any downside to the 5L pots at all. I'm still growing the same size plants as when I was using the 3 gallon pots, but with half the media.

I'm going to hit them up for samples on Monday. They're a local company, so they should have some insight into my water situation. I'm pretty happy with the nutes I'm using, but the PBP doesn't stay ph stable in the res for extended periods. Topping off with 4-6 gals of fresh mixed solution daily, seems to work best. I'd like the flexibility of being able to leave the garden unattended for more than a day. I know you've said that the veg+bloom is very stable, and from the analysis, I think I could run straight RO, with no need to add ca/mg.


Yeah the water here is ridiculous. A few years back, I demoed out/replaced some old 1 1/2" galvanized water pipe...you couldn't fit a pencil inside.

I'm going to go for the 5l pots if I can afford to. The savings on medium would add up quickly.

Back to the garden...maybe I'll have some pics later?

 

[Marlo]

I'm setting up my plumbing to run along the perimeter of my room. To do this I'm using some polyethylene tubing I got from the Home de pot. Not sure if anyone mentioned it before, but I figured I might as well post it again....

This is the only tubing I can source locally that will fit the blumat fittings. It is clearish/white and comes in a roll of 25' for $5.65. Its on their website as well

25' Polyethylene 3/8" OD 10mm / 1/4"ID 8mm
Home depot sku#301762 Part# HSPGE25

Its alot thicker and more rigid than the black tubing that comes with the blumats. Once a fitting is in the tubing, its not coming out, unless you cut it out. They fit extremely tight in there. Home De Pot has a number of T's, elbows, and quick connects that fit this tubing also (OD 10mm). Those are all about 4 or 5 bucks a piece, but at least I can get them locally.

I hope this helps somebody. I'll take some pics of the parts while I'm putting it together so you can see what I'm talking about