Blumat auto watering

[rives]

Do not pull the spike out! Loosening the spike up will contribute to runaways.

When I need to pull a plant out of it's location, I disconnect the 3mm line from the T in the distribution tubing and replace it with a short piece that has a couple of knots tied in it. I mark the location of the indicator on the adjustment cap with a liquid white-out pen (it can easily be scraped off and redone, but the adjustment stays pretty close even from plant to plant from what I've seen). You can then back the adjustment off a half-turn or so to purge the air and then come right back to your setting.

 

[bikhomes]

i've only ever had to purge air out of the 8mm line, i just put a valve at the end and open it up for a couple seconds after i've reconnected the 3mm lines to the t's. seems to be fine, the 3mm will purge themselves when the valves open up on their own.

i've completely removed like 15 plants from the system and rearranged them, hooked them all back up and everything was fine after a quick purge of the bigger line.

 

[Mikell]

I was going to ask this anyway, but now that we're on the topic.

Anyone use the quick disconnect stops? Vaguely looks like an IV connection, but they have a 3mm-1/4" version. I was specifically curious if it formed bubbles at all during disconnect/reconnect and generally how it's worked out so far. Seems like a good way to go from 3mm line straight to drip to manifold using the fewest of their hokey looking fittings, but still have an easy way of adding/removing pots.

Kind of a chuckle they had to bring out a line (I'm assuming) of conversions to standard drip after making what looks like a frustrating proprietary tubing sizing. Reminded me of Ikea and their ridiculous fixture plumbing.

Also need to dust off my MS Paint skills and punch out a diagram to ensure I'm not doing something boneheaded

 

[Former Guest]

You can use 1/2 inch hydro tubing. There's connectors you can buy that aren't blumat that will connect the line to the carrot. That's my plan. Then I can use the ebb and flow connectors to fit the tube to the reservoir.

 

[skyview]

Hello all,
Over the last few days I have read much of this fantastic thread and I am definitely ordering the blumats to go in my 1 gal plastic pots. However from my brief experience I will need to take the plants out to spray for spider mites at sometime during the grow. Has anyone come up with a quick disconnect plan? Seems like the carrots would need to be taken out of the pot and reinstalled each time I did this correct?
Thanks for the help.

Joke: If shrimp came over on the shrimp boat...how did crabs get here?

I've been using these quick-connects with stops.
http://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_68&product_id=106

They're more expensive than using the Blumat caps or just tying the 3mm line but they're much more convenient if you need to move the plants very often or if you have lots of them. Last summer I had some out on a deck and moved them outside when it was sunny and kept them inside a greenhouse room when the weather was bad. They were great.

 

[Mikell]

^Bitchin'

You can use 1/2 inch hydro tubing. There's connectors you can buy that aren't blumat that will connect the line to the carrot. That's my plan. Then I can use the ebb and flow connectors to fit the tube to the reservoir.

I did buy a roll incase I needed it, but after reading more here and pondering am pretty set on using PVC. It'll fit much tighter in the tent and I can grade it for air purging. Not a fan of wrestling to make flexible water pipe look straight, I do that enough at work with Pex

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

if you're looking to save some cash on connecters that work with blumats look here ....... http://www.kentsystems.com/ same stuff different pricing

if nothing has changed the website sucks for anything but getting the part#'s ,but if you get on the phone to place the order they'll get you what you need.

 

[Nomad28743]

Hay thanks all for the suggestions. I like Rives method with the knotted 3mm tube and special thanks to Bikhomes for the reminder to have a valve on the lowest end.

What nobody wants to hear the punchline of my joke? Reminds me of my extremely brief stand up career. Jeez, I can't get a laff in a room full of stoners.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Joke: If shrimp came over on the shrimp boat...how did crabs get here?

Your sister... am I close?

 

[Nomad28743]

At least you answered.

No....on the Captains Dingy.

Now that I have your attention...Where can I get Tees ID 1/2 x 1/2 x 3mm. I went to the Kent site but wondering if that mates up with the local store tubing I wanna use.

Costco seems to have the best deal on the carrots.

 

[beta]

.

 

[Nomad28743]

Beta,
Will the barbs stand up to removal and reattaching the blumat tubing without failing after several disconnects? I would be worrying about a leak when I'm not able to see it or be there to fix. I just thought the Tee would be a more worry free set up. I will need about 15 tees which would be some $$ but I could sleep better knowing it was more leak resistant.
Have you personally used the barbs and not had leak problems from repeated disconnects?
Thanks.

 

[beta]

.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

I'd like to comment that I've been using a regular drip line hole punch from the hydro store with no leaks around the barb. These are typically used for installing 1/4" raindrip barbs so I was worried that they'd produce a hole too large for the small 3/32" fitting.

Your mileage may vary, but no leaks for me when installing into the softer 3/4" vinyl tubing from Hydrofarm.


* I have not tested pulling them in and out several times however. Just popped them in and went with it. No problems.


Just left my blumat room for 10 days with no real issues. I had one plant die due to a dry up, but it wasn't a main plant and was only added to the blumat distribution system days before I left so I didn't have time to observe it before leaving. All of the other 41 blumats performed flawlessly.

I linked (3) toter 96 gal trash cans to ensure I had enough solution to last me 10+ days in this 4000w room. I returned to each can a little less then half full.

+1 for blumats. They rock.

 

[Cobra420]

Just finished setting up Blumats in my Dual 150 cab. Using 2 distribution drippers per container but I may add another or 2 depending on coverage. Planning on using this cab as a seed runner.

Left side

Right side

Close up

LOVING these things. Have them running in my 3 - 600w tents and they have got to be the best investment I've ever made. More time now than I know what to do with. Excited to finally get them started in this cab.

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

^^^ those slave drippers work fucking great ...... until they don't

if you are running nutes through them you should watch them real close. even running drip clean doesn't make them clog free IME, but you can clean them really easy by taking them apart and dropping them in CLR for about 5 minutes.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I haven't been on here much lately, plants are so healthy with Blumats that I don't need to live on here to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

So there have been questions about strategies for removing plants... this is what I do

Mainline->barb->short brown hose->barb- long brown hose to Blumat

I clamp the short line between barbs and I can remove the plant while not doing a thing to the Blumat... I also use this system with plain water for flush...

Here's how.

I have two feeds in my flower tent... nutes and flush. When a plant is ready to go on water I clamp off the short brown hose(nute line), disconnect the long hose(connected to Blumat) and connect it to a short brown hose on the water side and unclamp that short brown hose.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm multitasking right now.

 

[Cobra420]

^^^ those slave drippers work fucking great ...... until they don't

if you are running nutes through them you should watch them real close. even running drip clean doesn't make them clog free IME, but you can clean them really easy by taking them apart and dropping them in CLR for about 5 minutes.

Thanks for the heads up Eighths-n-Aces

I'm loving the slave drippers. I have 4 per container in my 600w tents and they have worked FLAWLESSY this run. I don't know why I didn't go Blumats sooner. Anyone that is a slave to hand watering can and will get their freedom back going with Blumats. At the same time getting the healthiest growth with minimal maintenance. Win win in my book.

Another awesome feat I've seen with these are TONS of roots growing on TOP of the soil in my tents. I've never had root growth like this when hand watering... Then again, I never had the time to water properly. More so a flood it quickly to get done kind of guy back then. Never again, I'm working at changing my entire greenhouse over to Blumats now. Free up SO much time during the growing season.

As for clogging, this is a no till mix that I'm running so the soil is chock full of organic goodies, no mixing nutes here. As for the water, I'm just running it straight from a tap, similar to my 3-600w tents setup.

So far so good. I can disconnect the quick disconnects, work on the plants, move them around or whatever for however long I like and then rehook them back up and can instantly see them working again. More than enough pressure going through this system out of the tap.

 

[banknchips]

Ok so I've made my order. Ultimately I plan on using these on my scrog tables. I run coco setup in 8l pots using HEADS 6/9 formula. I have few questions though, if someone could kindly answer. I've read that these can be tricky to set up in coco. Should the coco be compacted more to get a tighter suction on the carrot? I understand the desivor has to be elevated at least 2ft. Is there any advantage to putting the resivor higher? Does the system respond differently as the water level in the resivor decreases? After I transplant into bigger pots does the plant need to establish a little or can I just put the blumats in? I know there is gonna be trail and error with these but hand watering everyday sucks. Any help with these question would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[FlowerFarmer]

I've had the best luck going into a pot that already has a good amount of roots in it. I just force it in down to the cap and they work great. Dial to Cling + 1 - 1.5 arrow or so and leave them be.

For fresh transplants/loose coco I have had some issues with run-aways. Well, not necessarily run-aways (full open flow), but just experiencing run-off from the pot while the blumat remained dripping. I water around the carrot so that the coco compacts around it a bit, but I don't physically pack the coco. If I encounter this I just tweak it closed a smidge at a time until I no longer have a wet tray under my pot.


They definitely respond poorly when the water level in your elevated rez gets low. At least these did in my experiences. I ran raised 55 Gal barrels and when the barrel got too low I didn't have enough pressure to keep everything dripping nicely. I've opened a blumat full flow at times only to have it dribbling out of the 3mm tubing. Best to run a constant pressure rez overflowing back down to a lower rez. You dial them to a specific pressure, best to keep it there. You want the water to have a nice stream out of the 3mm line when you've got all of them on your trunk opened full bore.

I don't know the specifics of rez height in regards to plant count/length of run, etc.. but I can tell you higher the better if you've got a lot to run. I'm now running 4 trays (36 plants) using 3/4" distribution tubing and fed from a closet the floor above the garden. No more problems with pressure... all blumats can be dripping quickly if needed without flow loss. Definitely nicer to work with and seem more reliable with the greater height and larger diameter trunk tubing.


hope that helps.