costco was carrying the balcony kit last spring...
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Blumat auto watering
- Thread starter sunnydog
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- blumat drippers irrigation watering
They offer several blumat kits-
http://www.costco.com/Tropf-Blumat-Automatic-Watering-Kit-w12-Sensors.product.100097013.html
Customization w/ different bits & pieces can be had either thru Sustainable Village or Amazon.
I dont use Coco Dizzy, but I can still give you some advice on moisture levels when using blumats. I lift the plants rootballs out of the plastic containers so I can inspect root health. If I see alot of white fuzzy roots, I leave the blumats alone. If there are no root-hairs visible, Ill adjust my blumats every so slightly in the direction I need, and re-inspect in a few days. If properly dialed in, you'll have roots all over covered in white fuzzy hairs. If you dont see root-hairs at all then an adjustment is in order, imo.
I do like the level of moisture you are already aiming for. Whats the roots look like so far?
DizzyGround
Member
Thanks for the tips. I could'nt lift the whole plants but made a little sneek peek. Roots are definately hairy, but not superfuzzy megahairy. The coco in the bottom of pot was not wet, it was moist and airy.
My plants have been on blumats for approx 1wk now. The very top layer of coco is starting to dry very slowly. 4L (~1gal) pots.
I fount this somewhere in the depths of this topic.
My coco doesn't have any 100% dry coco yet on the top. Plants in pictures are also much older so I might be close to what he has or slighly wetter.
I also had 2 pots giving runoff once in the beginning and I think they looked a little bit too relaxed. Leaves were hanging a little lower than I'm used to. This was in early veg, pots not fully rooted. No more laidback plants, now they look sharp.
What do you coco growers find the best moisture level? Do you watch roots also like Dave Coulier? There seems to be many saying keep it till allmost runoff and some keep it dryer just like in the picture i quoted.
ChasingGreen
Member
Is this the kit you'd recommend someone gets to start out with?
Also, would I need one of these? I plan to use a 25 gal tote as a res.
http://www.costco.com/Tropf-Blumat-Pressure-Reducer.product.100096030.html
If you're doing plain water & soil then you need either the pressure regulator or an elevated reservoir. If you're doing hydro w/ nutes in the water you can't use the pressure regulator.
Depending on how you set it up, I'd also recommend a shutoff valve & either the supple 8mm superflex tubing or more of the 3mm tubing + whatever bits you need to fit your plan. I haven't used the 8mm superflex but it has to be an improvement over the very springy 8mm that comes w/ kits.
Sustainable Village has it all. This leak alert gizmo would be a good idea in a lot of situations, as well-
https://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_69&product_id=171
I use the 8mm superflex red tubing and I like it. I also got quite a bit extra of the 3mm tubing. SD recommended using lengths of two or three feet to run from the 8mm tubing to the plants, so I cut mine at 3 feet long. Later in the thread SD recommended no having this line any longer than you need it to be. I find that at three feet, it is too long, since my plants are small and packed into a small area. One or two feet long would still give me the ability to shift the plants around somewhat. As long as the 3mm line is now, I have pinched it off by setting a smart pot on the line a time or two. After this run I will be cutting the 3mm line back to probably about 18 inches long.
Everybody's situation is a little different. I drape the 3mm tubing from manifolds along the walls so keeping it pinch free is easy-
https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=52773&pictureid=1496453
sunshine247_365
New member
I'm intrigued by the idea of using a rich, fast draining media with blumats to avoid the feeding schedule and bottles all together. Would you give me some pointers on what types of media have worked for you when using blumats this way?
This is the recipe Eighths-n-Aces gave me last spring-
Soil mix 7/13/15- 14 gal
3 gals peat
3 gals coarse flushed coco block
2 gals med/coarse perlite
1 gal earthworm castings
1 gal compost
1 gal garden soil
1 gal leaf mold (partially decomposed leaves)
1/2 cup of this 3 part lime mix- 1 part dolomite lime, 1 part gypsum & 2 parts powdered oyster shell
1 cup glacial rock dust
2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup azomite
2 cup crab shell meal
4 cup kelp meal
4 cup fish meal
4 cup fish bone meal
1 cup langbeinite
2 cup neem seed meal
1 cup alfalfa meal
Wet with ewc/compost tea to level suitable for planting
Let sit & keep moist for 3-4 weeks until the fishy smell is mostly gone.
It's a modification of the soil recipe from here-
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=268468
Notice that the bentonite or clay used for water retention in the original mix is missing. Getting all the ingredients is expensive up front because of packaging but several batches can be made from the initial purchase. Some of the ingredients will last for a very long while just because the mix uses very little of them. Way To Grow has all of it but some may be hard to source locally, depending.
I'm sure that some substitutions are possible. The coco must be coarse & chunky. A simple ewc tea every week or few refreshes the microherd. I just use an air stone in a couple of gallons of water with a handful of ewc brewed for a day or so, applied until I see a little runoff.
Ace assures me that two good crops can be had from the same batch of soil using this method. He grows in beds while I use 5 gal fabric pots. His grow is magnificent & my more modest efforts greatly improved with his help so I'll just go with what little I've learned for now. It suits me because I'm lousy at following a schedule for feeding & watering. Keeping a light buzz on doesn't make that better. My life is more free form now that I'm retired & I like it that way.
anyone know the size of the stock bulkhead fitting in the patio kit???????? drill size??...and I cant find my extra drip tubing I think sustainable village is where I got it..cant remember size of the tiny stuff but this round I don't think I will need it....gonna use a brute trash can as reservoir and drill it from the flat part underneath ..prob make a stand and then put another res on top and use float valve deal like I did on other setups...yeehaw its only taken me like 6 years I think they been sitting maybe more...
whythefnot
Member
Has anybody tried EM-1 in their res? It's alive, but I don't know that it would create a film.
I believe I used a 1/2" drill. The actual size is probably metric but the rubber gasket seals it up pretty well.
Glad to see that you are making progress. I think you will like the system. I know I sure do.
it's 10mm iirc, but like sforza said the gasket makes it unnecessary for it to be perfectly tight.
after settin up the system half a dozen times, i prefer to put the bulkhead an inch or two up from the bottom as a safeguard against debris in the res. any potential clog stuff sinks to the bottom and won't be in danger of getting sucked into the feed lines.
^^^^ didn't think of that ..maybe I will use a black tub with yellow lid from home depot..their like 30 gal if I remember right and pretty strong...but squareish so flat for bulkhead fitting ...I was gonna seal my res anyhow so I don't know as debris would ever be an issue..was gonna put float valve in trash can /main res and then put another container on top with a direct connection to hose...might use a clear one or use a hose on side like waterfarm to see top container water level....yeehaw ..thanks guys...
ya i use a 35 gallon tote for the main res and a 5 gallon bucket for the remote. we hand fill the lower res with 5 gallon water bottles lugged over from the tap.
if you made a sealed automated res you might not have to deal with the bit of debris that we can't avoid. just throw an inline filter on the fill line for good measure.
if you made a sealed automated res you might not have to deal with the bit of debris that we can't avoid. just throw an inline filter on the fill line for good measure.
I bought a kit from Sustainable Village that included a bucket that already had two bulkhead fittings installed. They send the bucket with the fittings in backwards so that they don't stick out and get broken during shipment. They positioned the two outlets a couple inches up from the bottom of the bucket like Heady suggests and it is a good idea since it seems to help keep crap out of the lines.
I use one of those black tubs with the yellow lid as a lower res to pump up to the upper bucket res. I installed a third bulkhead fitting up high on the bucket to receive the flow from the sump pump in the tub. The tub holds water without deforming or flexing.
The bulkhead fitting doesn't leak, due to the gasket, even when used on a five gallon bucket which has a pretty tight curve.
They are 27 gallons and I started using one this round for my main res and it works great. I pump up from the res to a 5 gallon bucket stacked on top of two buckets, so three buckets high. I run the pump constantly with an overflow back into the res. Super simple.
