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Blumat auto watering

huntingbb

Member
well putting up my 4 jr's on 4 2gals in coco, hopefully itl be enough. (they are the siphoning ones.)

Still debating a pump, but i bet the jr's are not a fair comparison to the full ones, so gotta get a few before final decision is made.

If i get the full size ones, do they come with a little hose?


By the way, anyone who wants Blumats call

Elite Hydro
Cotati CA
707-665-9855

Jonathan knows about them and will order you the right units and 3mm hoses.

Order the barbs and main hoses yourself and save a ton of money. Blumats are around $5 each and the 3mm hose is around $40 for 30 meters.

Good luck all!


maybe not eh? OK, so i get the hose and blumats above, what parts to make a rubbermaid into a rez?

8mm hose to go to the t's that lead to 3mm hoses to the pots?
anything special in this one?
and what measurements should the T fittings have?

Any specific bulkhead fittings i can get say at the same place as T's and 8mm hose, and anything else outstanding?

Currently have 13 in 2gal pots, 12 will go to 5gal in a few weeks; plz advise for the 5gal pots primarily if it means a difference in equipment. I will end up running minimum 12 girls on blumats at any given time; likely closer to 24.

Much appreciation in advance. :thank you:
 
D

dubdi3mond

just got 9 blumats put in today, was kind of a pain in the ass to set up but thats mainly because the area i have to work in is pretty small with plants already occupying it

id say took me all together about 4 hours but everything seemed to be running smooth

i opened all the valves then closed until there was a drop hanging then tightened a little more, gonna check on em again tomorrow make sure everything is getting watered and nothing has ran off and gave me a mini flood lol
 
D

dubdi3mond

how often your guys blumats are dripping? i guess i tightened them a little too much on a few sensors some of my pots were bone dry today but its all good, live and learn.

i set most of them to drip about every 15 seconds (pots weren't fully soaked yet, still a little on the dry side) but was wondering how often your guys' are dripping when dialed in
 

Lapides

Rosin Junky and Certified Worm Wrangler
Veteran
It kinda sounds to me like you didn't follow the directions very well.

Unless I have a dripper fail, all my plants stay moist and the drippers are only dripping as needed to maintain proper moisture.
 
C

Cheeb

dubdi3mond,

Did you heavily hand water the plants directly before setting the blumats?

Blumat should only start dripping as the pot starts to dry out from a heavy saturation. As the pots initially dry out the blumat should take over and start dripping, but it may seem like the pots are getting dryer then they should.

I usually handwater heavily and dial blumat to drop "cling" then tighten one arrow. I'm in coco.
 
how often your guys blumats are dripping? i guess i tightened them a little too much on a few sensors some of my pots were bone dry today but its all good, live and learn.

i set most of them to drip about every 15 seconds (pots weren't fully soaked yet, still a little on the dry side) but was wondering how often your guys' are dripping when dialed in

You really need to make sure that the soil is well moistened when doing the initial set-up. It doesn't have to be in a state of running off, but close to saturated.
If not, then the water will be drawn through the ceramic creating a negative pressure before you get a chance to find the initial "no drip" point and calibration will be difficult.

For the pots that have completely dried out, you must start the probe installation from scratch (i.e. soaking and filling them) as there is a fair chance that air would have gotten into the cones, rendering them ineffective.
 

61-50-7

Member
Could a tee be put on the 3mm drip line in each pot and couple inches of 3mm on either side to spread out the drip points for more even watering?

I know this is just one more thing to clog, but it seems like it would be easier to dial in one blumat per pot than adding an additional blumat for coverage.

Or the 3mm soaker hose?

Anyone doing this in 5g pots? How do you get even distribution? And is it even necessary?
 

Lapides

Rosin Junky and Certified Worm Wrangler
Veteran
Could a tee be put on the 3mm drip line in each pot and couple inches of 3mm on either side to spread out the drip points for more even watering?

I know this is just one more thing to clog, but it seems like it would be easier to dial in one blumat per pot than adding an additional blumat for coverage.

Or the 3mm soaker hose?

Anyone doing this in 5g pots? How do you get even distribution? And is it even necessary?

Blumats are NOT that complicated.

Yes folks are using standard sized blumats in 5 gallon pots and moisture distribution is just fine, right out of the box, no mods or anything like that.

Just order the blumats, follow the directions to a T, and your lives will instantly be changed.

That's all there is to it folks.
 
D

dubdi3mond

You really need to make sure that the soil is well moistened when doing the initial set-up. It doesn't have to be in a state of running off, but close to saturated.
If not, then the water will be drawn through the ceramic creating a negative pressure before you get a chance to find the initial "no drip" point and calibration will be difficult.

For the pots that have completely dried out, you must start the probe installation from scratch (i.e. soaking and filling them) as there is a fair chance that air would have gotten into the cones, rendering them ineffective.

the soil was moist when i first put them in, not heavily saturated but definitely a decent water, must have tightened them too much on some pots because like i said a few ended up being bone dry... so when i dialed them again yesterday maybe i did it wrong

gonna check again today and ill check inside the cones to see if they are empty, if so guess back to square 1....

edit: checked the cones and they all still had water in them, so it wasnt sucking it out of the cone yet but i opened up all the sensors and let them saturate the pots really well or until they were pretty heavy with a little run off

then i hand watered around each sensor a little to ensure it was wet around the cone then finally closed the dripper til just a drop clung to it

now ill check again tomorrow to see how it goes, seems like most of my plants are drooping pretty heavily since installing these but i'm sure ill figure it out
 
You expressed interest in 600 watters. I'm running these 30 off of 15 1k ballasts. So far so good.

Hey thaniel how are you running the 600s off of 1000w ballast? 2 per ballast wired some how? Or are they being flipped flopped back and forth?

Curious, never seen it done before.
 
distribution dripper warning

distribution dripper warning

Well, true to form I decided not to heed the warnings about using distribution drippers. I thin k that if you're going to use them it'd be best to do so with plain water. Well, it may be my nutrients (Peters Pro Series Hydro Formula and drip clean) but they seem to get these snot like clogs in them. Used the same formula without them and no problems. I am trying gh 3part now but jut thought I'd let everyone know. Here's my question to others who've used the drippers. I see why they're clogging - the solution has to go through lots of space for buildup to occur and flow to be slowed down. Have any of you just taken the little screw in plugs out all together? Or maybe leave the one at the end on just to keep that pressure and clean it out weekly?
 

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
Well, true to form I decided not to heed the warnings about using distribution drippers. I thin k that if you're going to use them it'd be best to do so with plain water. Well, it may be my nutrients (Peters Pro Series Hydro Formula and drip clean) but they seem to get these snot like clogs in them. Used the same formula without them and no problems. I am trying gh 3part now but jut thought I'd let everyone know. Here's my question to others who've used the drippers. I see why they're clogging - the solution has to go through lots of space for buildup to occur and flow to be slowed down. Have any of you just taken the little screw in plugs out all together? Or maybe leave the one at the end on just to keep that pressure and clean it out weekly?

That is why I do not trust them.
If you use several in one pot, if the first one clogs, all the subsequent ones will go dry, too. Happened to me outdoors.

SD:tiphat:
 

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
Blumats are NOT that complicated.

Yes folks are using standard sized blumats in 5 gallon pots and moisture distribution is just fine, right out of the box, no mods or anything like that.

Just order the blumats, follow the directions to a T, and your lives will instantly be changed.

That's all there is to it folks.

:yeahthats:yeahthats:yeahthats:yeahthats
 

huntingbb

Member
Blumats are NOT that complicated.

Yes folks are using standard sized blumats in 5 gallon pots and moisture distribution is just fine, right out of the box, no mods or anything like that.

Just order the blumats, follow the directions to a T, and your lives will instantly be changed.

That's all there is to it folks.


by standard size you mean NOT the jr's rite?
How big of a pot would you feed with one of those?


Exactly! Were you using straight H2O? Do ya think Hygrozyme could help?

i got the dutch master zone - popped in the rezzie, we'll see how this works :)
 

Protea

Member
i am ordering this now. and i am relying on this to keep my grow healty for 20 days over cristmas. there is no other way, and it will have to cater 100% on its own.
fingers crossed.
 
D

dubdi3mond

blumats seem to be working, pots were still moist today so thats a good sign
 
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