It should only take a day or two to find out. Shouldn't be too hard as long as you aren't going on vacation today.
-
ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!
Blumat auto watering
- Thread starter sunnydog
- Start date
-
- Tags
- blumat drippers irrigation watering
It should only take a day or two to find out. Shouldn't be too hard as long as you aren't going on vacation today.
G
Guywithoutajeep
It definitely wasn't for me
Budsworth
Member
This is a vague answer. Please elaborate. Thank you.
C
Cheeb
In coco,
I open full - adjust to cling - and then tighten about an arrow and a half. Most of the time no further adjustment is needed.
I have had a few run away on me by gradually opening them up more over time combined with lengthening the 3mm dripper - trying to saturate a little more and more evenly at that.
I'm on the fence about extending the the 3mm hose longer then the default recommended 8cm (or whatever) that it protrudes out of the blumat. Ever since I've ran it across to the other side of the pot I've had random run-away blumats totally out of nowhere.
Setup fine for over a week and then all of a sudden wet floors...and its not just happening upon a reservoir refill due to the increased pressure.
A lot of responsiveness is lost when extending the 3mm tubing across the pot - which is what the aim was, but I almost believe its a bit too much and think I'd prefer the snappy sensitivity of the default length - maybe just extended a little bit.
For what its worth..
I open full - adjust to cling - and then tighten about an arrow and a half. Most of the time no further adjustment is needed.
I have had a few run away on me by gradually opening them up more over time combined with lengthening the 3mm dripper - trying to saturate a little more and more evenly at that.
I'm on the fence about extending the the 3mm hose longer then the default recommended 8cm (or whatever) that it protrudes out of the blumat. Ever since I've ran it across to the other side of the pot I've had random run-away blumats totally out of nowhere.
Setup fine for over a week and then all of a sudden wet floors...and its not just happening upon a reservoir refill due to the increased pressure.
A lot of responsiveness is lost when extending the 3mm tubing across the pot - which is what the aim was, but I almost believe its a bit too much and think I'd prefer the snappy sensitivity of the default length - maybe just extended a little bit.
For what its worth..
i've totally been experiencing the same problem. i hadn't considered that it was the length of the drip line, but it does seem to coincide. interesting...
laughingmoon
Active member
The patio set has 12 Blumats, so the high end of your count doesn't work. Extra 3mm tubing would almost be a necessity. If you run off of a pressure line, then you will need a pressure reducer and if you run out of a reservoir, there is only one bulkhead fitting ("thru-hull adapter"). I like to have spares for everything in case disaster strikes, so I bought extra. There are no valves in the kit and I would recommend a minimum of three - one where the line attaches to the reservoir, one at the end of the line (or loop) feeding the Blumats so that air bubbles can be purged, and one for the parts bin. If you get two patio kits, then you would just need some extra 3mm tubing and the valves.
laughingmoon
Active member
Very informative Rives, thank you.
I have a DR60 tent which has a floorplan of 2' x 2'
If I handwater, I can put up to 16 square pots of .75 gal in for sexing, dropping me down to approx. 8 ladies.
If I blumat, I'll need a res. and that will cost me some space.
Given this limited space, what would you recommend?
Are you able to place your res outside the tent? Thats what I did.
laughingmoon
Active member
I think I might be able to put a 5 gal bucket outside and run a line through my air intake port.
That is what I did. I elevated the bucket enough to get a decent head pressure, and put an auto-fill circuit on it so that I wouldn't be constantly hauling water. Once you get that many plants rolling, they are going to go through a bunch of water. The following link is what I used - it is cool as hell with an air pressure activated level sensor and a mechanical float valve in case things go ugly.
http://www.marinedepot.com/SpectraP...ms-SpectraPure-SP5111-FIRORAFV-SP5111-vi.html
laughingmoon
Active member
Due to size, I'll probably veg for a max of 2 weeks before flipping. With 4 tall ladies about 3 weeks into flower, I'm using about 1 gal per two days.
Well, it is something to keep in mind if you have water nearby and the water-packing gets old. I think that the blumats also function a little more consistently with a relatively even head. I was surprised at how many neat things are available between the aquarium supplies and the RO parts.
dunkydunk
Member
I did the same thing, having the head pressure change constantly wasn't working out for the plants. I use a 40 gallon rez with a 5 gallon bucket set up high. I bought the float switch from these folks --
http://autotopoff.com/products/
Hey guys, I was in my room tonight and shooting some other videos, and figured I'd do a quick tutorial for beginners on how to set up Blumats on a system like mine. I apologize for the sideways video, this was the first time I filmed anything like that and first time uploading to Youtube. This is a private link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AsCHtPmEBA
Maybe it will help someone?
Maybe it will help someone?
M
medwa
My neck hurts.
But seriously--very cool, Lazy!
hey another great vid! am i just being stupid or doesn't this just water the same section of the pot and roots? i've always been taught that it was bad to water the same spot over and over and over again as it can damage the roots. is there anyway to use this system with coils wrapping around the soil bed so that all the roots are adequately hit?
C
Cheeb
Nice - have been thinking about this as well.
So to pump water from your 40 Gal to your elevated 5 Gallon bucket you use a water pump that remains constantly on?
Or is that float an electronic float which kills power to your pump?
I've been thinking about keeping a pump running 24/7 to pump water 1/2" to an elevated bucket, but rather then have a float up there just have a larger 3/4 - 1" overflow to allow water to overflow back down to the lower reservoir. Adding a pump however to a gravity fed blumat system is kind of working backwards though as it can be a point of failure where the bumats continue to work w/o electricity/pumps otherwise.
- -
Nice video lazy.
I see you have your drums plumbed directly w/ your Merlin. Is this so you can open valve & start them filling and walk away w/o overflow or does your Merlin constantly top them up as the plants drink?
If its the later wouldn't your nutes be constantly diluted - feeding them just straight RO as your plants drink off of the barrels. How do you know when to add more nutes to your barrel if its always full - just when your PPMs of your barrel are back to 0 - thus a 100% diluted res.
I normally keep a water RO barrel next to my blumat barrel and when its down to 5 gallon full I just manually pump water into the blumat barrel and re-nute. If my blumat barrel was auto topped as the level drops then it would only be full strength for the 1st day or so.
onthaherb
Member
I see they have the Blumat sets... Just connect them all and drop the nipple end in my res? Seems to good to be true, where can I get the sets in the US???
http://www.blumat-shop.de/Tropf-Blu...et-fuer-Kuebelpflanzen---folienverpackt-.html
http://www.blumat-shop.de/Tropf-Blu...et-fuer-Kuebelpflanzen---folienverpackt-.html
