Blumat auto watering

[Nomad28743]

After some more Googling I want to adjust it to 1/10 to start off with.

 

[Jhhnn]

I have read almost all the pages of this forum and did not notice anyone adding rabbit urine in small quantities to the rez. What do the smart folks in here think? My rabbit dookie does not stink and it is filtered thru a coffee filter for solids. I was going to mix it about 1/8 test that by hand watering on the least robust looking plant first.
Any opinions?

I run Denver water in organic soil, just hand water occasional ewc teas or now seabird guano teas during flowering. It's important to have an open soil mix with blumats anyway & I use fabric pots as well. I just water it in fairly slowly at which point the blumats shut down & resume when the moisture level returns to normal. I do the same w/ gnatrol when needed.

I know hydro guys use 'em, but Blumats work so well with clean water that I figure I'm asking for trouble putting stuff in the rez so I don't.

 

[Nomad28743]

Sounds like a better plan than a dookie filled rez.
Thanks for the wise council.
When I set up the BM's I up potted 2 into coco because I was wanting to see which I could manage the best. They are all in 2 gal Geopots(cloth bags). Turns out my set up has run nearly flawless and the coco got me thinking too hard about adding ferts.
By the way how do you get the seabirds to deliver the guano?

 

[Jhhnn]

Sounds like a better plan than a dookie filled rez.
Thanks for the wise council.
When I set up the BM's I up potted 2 into coco because I was wanting to see which I could manage the best. They are all in 2 gal Geopots(cloth bags). Turns out my set up has run nearly flawless and the coco got me thinking too hard about adding ferts.
By the way how do you get the seabirds to deliver the guano?

You'll want bigger pots to carry 'em through if you don't want to have to feed 'em much. I use 5 gal root pouches-

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Root-Pou...anter-with-Handles-5-Pack-RR800-05H/203371953

 

[Nomad28743]

Great link. Spot on as usual and I appreciate you taking your valuable time to support the community.

 

[Sforza]

Great link. Spot on as usual and I appreciate you taking your valuable time to support the community.

You are allowed to give him a rec.

 

[Nomad28743]

I did just now, thanks.

 

[majorana]

I have read almost all the pages of this forum and did not notice anyone adding rabbit urine in small quantities to the rez.

Wait, what? What purpose would rabbit urine serve..?

Regardless: I spent the past couple of days reading from the beginning and from the end this thread, and probably only got through 10% of it.

After two and a half floodings it looks like finally managed to dial in the blumats, and the plants look as happy as ever. After months of hand-watering plant by plant multiple times a day there's something eerie about just filling the reservoir every other day. Having no runoff also means less nutrients wasted and probably better oxygenation.

Before I start my next grow I figured I'd ask a few questions about how to use Blumats better. These might have been addressed before, but this thread is so long...

(Preamble: growing autoflowers/ruderalis under 800/1000W of LED in a 1.5m2 (5'*5') grow tent)

1. Previous (and current flowering) grows were in 50/50 coco/perlite mix with a layer of clay pebbles at the bottom and top, a mix of cloth/smartpots 7/11/15L (2/3/4 gallon). I've read in a couple of old posts that with blumats it's best _not_ to use perlite. Is there a consensus about that? What about clay pebbles (hydrotons) as a top layer?

2. I'm currently topping the reservoir every other day, to keep the water level at about the same height. That's already a big change, but I want better: I want to intervene just once a week. (I'll probably end up checking on the plants daily anyhow, but the less I need to do the better.)

I read into the long debate between gravity (using two reservoirs connected with a pump going vertically) or pressure (Shurflo pump+accumulator). I couldn't figure out the relative advantages of either though. Help?

Reliability is my topmost concern, price second. I chose Blumat in the first place in order to avoid having a pump that might fail me, but even if I use a pump compared to a "normal" drip-irrigation system I like how it's the plant that regulates the watering rather than a timer.

3. The manual says to use a maximum of 5 drip feed distributors. That's not a max of 5 carrots per 8mm line, right? And if I'm not mistaken, with a 1m height of the reservoir and 4-5 carrots per meter, that means I can have up to 40-50 carrots? As for the 3mm feed distributors (max 5 per carrot, right?) -- how many would you use in 2/3/4gal pots to better distribute the water cone(s)?

4. Early on the discussion there was a suggestion to have the 8mm line run in a closed loop. The diagram suggests two reservoir-connectors, but I also saw a 8mm T connector used to close the loop. Either works? Or, rather, should I even bother to do this?

5. Anything else I should know I might have missed..?

 

[kalopatchkid]

Right now, I'm using 3 drip distributors per 7 gallon pot outdoor, one carrot per pot. Each plant gets a 3mm quick disconnect adapter, so I can perpetually flower outdoor and disconnect plants without interrupting water supply to the rest.
Been working awesome so far, and made me into the laziest gardener ever. Rocking vegbloom rosoft with 1ml drip clean per gal in the Rez and it has been pretty trouble free.
I'm pretty sure you could run a lot more than 5 drippers per carrot if you had adequate enough pressure.

 

[Nomad28743]

The rabbit poop is fertilizer for the ones in soil and coco. Which Jhhnn convinced me to hand water in.

 

[majorana]

Right now, I'm using 3 drip distributors per 7 gallon pot outdoor, one carrot per pot. Each plant gets a 3mm quick disconnect adapter

So my understanding is that 2 drip points would be enough, since my largest pots are just over half the size (15L, 3.9gal)? In which case I can do without the distributors, and simply have a 3mm T connector (and short 3mm hose going off of it) after the carrot?

And thanks for the suggestion about the quick disconnect. I'm not sure whether or not it would be useful in my situation, but it sounds like to sort of thing one should have just in case.

 

[Jhhnn]

So my understanding is that 2 drip points would be enough, since my largest pots are just over half the size (15L, 3.9gal)? In which case I can do without the distributors, and simply have a 3mm T connector (and short 3mm hose going off of it) after the carrot?

And thanks for the suggestion about the quick disconnect. I'm not sure whether or not it would be useful in my situation, but it sounds like to sort of thing one should have just in case.

I set up manifolds, start seedlings in 3L airpots with the dripper a bit shorter than the recommended 3-1/8"-

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=52773&pictureid=1658632

I up-pot to 5 gal fabric pots, pull the dripper hose thru to the full 3-1/8 extension-

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=52773&pictureid=1715776

I use barbed disconnects in the 3mm hoses so it's easy to unhook the plants & move 'em around, put 'em on different height buckets as required or no buckets at all for some as seedlings aren't completely uniform like clones. Current batch at 5-1/2 weeks of flower-

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=52773&pictureid=1733215

The 5mm line is a springy PITA to set up. I put it in the oven on warm for half an hour to soften it up. The kits are kinda a tease because you'll want more hardware to do it really well but Sustainable Village is easy to deal with to get more.

 

[majorana]

Jhhnn-- The pictures of your setup are truly inspiring! Having a simple straight line with the hard 8mm and running the soft 3mm wherever would definitely make life easier. A couple of questions though:

Why start with airports and move to smart (fabric) pots rather than fabric to fabric? (I have seedlings in small plastic cups, maybe I'll switch them to 1/3L airpots before the final 2-3gal fabrics? My understanding is that with coco&autoflowers I should minimize transplants.)

Are the barbed disconnects the 8-3-8mm T's?

Last question goes back to the question of number of dripping sites - in the first pictures it's clear there's only 1 drip point, but do you have more in the 5gal pots? (If not, would you think it's worth a try?)

I read many great things about Steve and Sustainable Village, but being in Europe I order directly from Blumat -- which, unfortunately actually has a smaller selection

 

[Jhhnn]

Jhhnn-- The pictures of your setup are truly inspiring! Having a simple straight line with the hard 8mm and running the soft 3mm wherever would definitely make life easier. A couple of questions though:

Why start with airports and move to smart (fabric) pots rather than fabric to fabric? (I have seedlings in small plastic cups, maybe I'll switch them to 1/3L airpots before the final 2-3gal fabrics? My understanding is that with coco&autoflowers I should minimize transplants.)

Are the barbed disconnects the 8-3-8mm T's?

Last question goes back to the question of number of dripping sites - in the first pictures it's clear there's only 1 drip point, but do you have more in the 5gal pots? (If not, would you think it's worth a try?)

I read many great things about Steve and Sustainable Village, but being in Europe I order directly from Blumat -- which, unfortunately actually has a smaller selection

I like the airpots starting out because transplanting from them is a snap. Just take out the blue plastic screw & unwrap from around the rootball, move it to a bigger pot. It's a gentle process with little to no transplant shock. You might try it next time.

I use these when extending the 3mm line-

https://www.blumat-shop.de/Tropf-Blumat/Accessories-Fittings/Mini-connector--3-3-mm.html

Having a single drip point seems to be entirely adequate in 5 gal fabric pots. Moisture descends into the soil in a very flat cone. The soil towards the edge of the pot is moist at a depth of 2" so there's very little soil that the plant can't use. It's simple & no fuss. When I transplant into the final pot the blumat stays in the soil, goes along for the ride.

I confess to being a lazy grower & the way I do things reflects that. Work is fine but I'm no good at constant attention. It's a fair amount of work mixing the soil, then in starting a new batch of seedlings, then in transplanting & finally in harvest but it's divided up into flurries of activity. In between I mostly just pay attention & watch for problems. Fairly large pots & the nutrients in Ace's soil mix are more than sufficient to carry the plants to harvest while adding only water. I occasionally brew & add EWC tea but it's not on a schedule & not really necessary. This round I'm trying some seabird guano tea to see if the extra phosphorus boosts flowering.

I don't even need to fill the reservoir because it has a float valve plumbed into the house water supply-

https://www.amazon.com/HEAVY-DUTY-B...8&qid=1492611085&sr=8-11&keywords=float+valve

 

[majorana]

1. I've read in a couple of old posts that with blumats it's best _not_ to use perlite. Is there a consensus about that? What about clay pebbles (hydrotons) as a top layer?

After an exchange with a Canna employee, who has solid knowledge and vast experience, it was made clear that perlite should not be added to coco when using Blumats. The effect of perlite (i.e., faster drain) makes the delta in which the valve of the blumats opens or closes smaller. In theory that would mean an even tighter regulation of the ideal humidity level; in practice however it means an increased risk of unpredictable behavior (i.e., flooding).

He also said that in systems with frequent watering (such as Blumat, as they tend to have a continuous drip that changes in rate) it's best to use COGr A+B rather than Canna A+B (which is suited for soil or otherwise low-frequency watering).

Measuring the EC and pH of the medium at the end of veg and two thirds into flowering (to determine when to add PK) was also underlined, to ensure proper management.

The last uncertainty resolved involves oxygenation of water when growing in coco. The answer is don't. Especially when the EC profile is low, in early veg, especially when using a cistern-based system. Coco is aerated enough as it is with proper surrounding ventilation, and aerating the cistern causes pH to go up. (Later in bloom, when the mineral content in the water buffers pH fluctuations better, you can aerate if you want, but there's still no need to.) A little hack that could help reduce pH fluctuation is to actually reduce cistern aeration by having a piece of styrofoam to float on the top of the cistern.

(I got a lot of conflicting advice from different sources on these matters. The advice above was presented to me with expertise and the necessary chemical background, which I left out for brevity.)

 

[Jhhnn]

i found a couple places, like amazon, that only sell a few emitters....i want like 25 of them....any bulk packages out there?

North American distributor-

https://www.sustainablevillage.com/

Kits with 12 or 40 carrots are available thru Amazon. Costco apparently sells kits as well. As I've said before, the kits are a bit of a tease because you'll want more bits, pieces & hose to create an optimum installation.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

Hey fellows,
thanks to everyone who made this thread epic!
so, I finally decided to set my blumat system up, I am now in the fine adjusting phase...

summary:
- 8 blumats for 8 pots (1x6.5 liters and 7x3.7 liters. coco with a layer of clay pebbles on top. no perlite in the mix)
- the resorvoir is an igloo cooler. it's a classic beach igloo cooler, about 25 liters of capacity. to start i used about 10 liters of water. it hangs at more than 1 meter above pots level.
- i was about to use an airstone and/or a submersible pump to keep the solution oxigenated and mixed but decided not to go for it for now thanks to many comments on this thread (even though a couple nice replies were about to drive me in the opposite direction...)
- i am using mineral nutes, GHE 3 pack GrowMicroBloom trying to keep the pH at about 6.
- i have another two 6.5 liters pots with a soil mix (biobizz all-mix) in the grow but i decided to not use blumats with them so far... i will keep hand watering them with biobizz organic nutes. I realized too late I should use another res. for soil plants with plain water with occasional hand feeds and/or a more proper soil mix like many of you nice growers here. thing is, i am curious about coco. after 7 years in soil... i think i will have a coco only run next time and then decide whether i should use a second res. for soil plants.
- connected everything, it all went well and easy. i adjusted the blumats like the inctructions say, wait until you get the drop that won't drip and then give another 2 arrows... so yesterday i went in to check it seemed to me that some pots were quite heavy and some others not so light but i would have watered them... so i closed i tiny bit the heavy ones and opened the lighter ones until i got some slow drops... is this the right way to do it? how do you guys fine tune your blumats?

thanks and cheers!

 

[Jhhnn]

Yeh, Ziggy, it takes a bit of fussing at first to get each blumat adjusted just so. The difference between too wet & too dry can be a very small adjustment.

 

[SamsonsRiddle]

Hey fellows,
thanks to everyone who made this thread epic!
so, I finally decided to set my blumat system up, I am now in the fine adjusting phase...

summary:
- 8 blumats for 8 pots (1x6.5 liters and 7x3.7 liters. coco with a layer of clay pebbles on top. no perlite in the mix)
- the resorvoir is an igloo cooler. it's a classic beach igloo cooler, about 25 liters of capacity. to start i used about 10 liters of water. it hangs at more than 1 meter above pots level.
- i was about to use an airstone and/or a submersible pump to keep the solution oxigenated and mixed but decided not to go for it for now thanks to many comments on this thread (even though a couple nice replies were about to drive me in the opposite direction...)
- i am using mineral nutes, GHE 3 pack GrowMicroBloom trying to keep the pH at about 6.
- i have another two 6.5 liters pots with a soil mix (biobizz all-mix) in the grow but i decided to not use blumats with them so far... i will keep hand watering them with biobizz organic nutes. I realized too late I should use another res. for soil plants with plain water with occasional hand feeds and/or a more proper soil mix like many of you nice growers here. thing is, i am curious about coco. after 7 years in soil... i think i will have a coco only run next time and then decide whether i should use a second res. for soil plants.
- connected everything, it all went well and easy. i adjusted the blumats like the inctructions say, wait until you get the drop that won't drip and then give another 2 arrows... so yesterday i went in to check it seemed to me that some pots were quite heavy and some others not so light but i would have watered them... so i closed i tiny bit the heavy ones and opened the lighter ones until i got some slow drops... is this the right way to do it? how do you guys fine tune your blumats?

thanks and cheers!

you probably won't want to do the two arrows back in coco since it requires more moisture in the medium to keep it happy. If they are seeds, they should do fine like that. Once they are established, you can have it drop every 8-11 seconds to keep a few drops in your runoff tray. You'll also find that you won't go by arrows to adjust, but by the little indentation things in between the arrows. They can be quite touchy which is good and bad. Good because of complete control, bad because of the "OH, FUCK!" moments.

the more you mess with them the easier they are to understand and get the feel of.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

Yeh, Ziggy, it takes a bit of fussing at first to get each blumat adjusted just so. The difference between too wet & too dry can be a very small adjustment.

you probably won't want to do the two arrows back in coco since it requires more moisture in the medium to keep it happy. If they are seeds, they should do fine like that. Once they are established, you can have it drop every 8-11 seconds to keep a few drops in your runoff tray. You'll also find that you won't go by arrows to adjust, but by the little indentation things in between the arrows. They can be quite touchy which is good and bad. Good because of complete control, bad because of the "OH, FUCK!" moments.

the more you mess with them the easier they are to understand and get the feel of.

Thanks for the support my friends!
I'm still fine tuning these, making tiny adjustments following your advices... yesterday i felt there was nothing to adjust for the blumats

SamsonsRiddle, they are all clones...
1 "arrow" seems more like it for coco, thanks!
so you're saying to have a constant drop every 8/11 seconds, at all times? so far i adjust so that every pot is as heavy as a watered pot should be, but i don't have that constant flow and neither runoff on trays... should I?


Another thing: airstone.
yesterday i inspected my res and it was smelling!
so i decided to add a small aquarium pump with an airstone and a timed sub. pump to keep the solution mixed...
I made a T at the feed line, with the vent line going up, just as it is explained in this post:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=4955566&postcount=1783

I'll let you know how it goes, so far plants look happy.