Those are what I use......
Blumat auto watering
- Thread starter sunnydog
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- blumat drippers irrigation watering
Those are what I use......
Cool. Thanks Sunny.
I only have 6 plants, minus whatever males surface. So just a few. Not running a loop of 8mm line, but rather a straight line with that valve at the end, raised up a bit to help capture and bleed air.
I may not have my old hose punch from my chem hydro days, what about a tiny drilled hole into the 8mm line? 1/16" or such? I'll play around with that.
I only have 6 plants, minus whatever males surface. So just a few. Not running a loop of 8mm line, but rather a straight line with that valve at the end, raised up a bit to help capture and bleed air.
I may not have my old hose punch from my chem hydro days, what about a tiny drilled hole into the 8mm line? 1/16" or such? I'll play around with that.
question for the experienced blumat growers....
i plan on eventually using 2 55 gallon reservoirs(4' tall type) to feed 48 plants total(24 per res.),
how high off the ground should my reservoirs be in contrast to the drippers? line runs will be at the max 8 feet, most 2-4 foot runs i think. will the lines going down 4 feet to the bottom of the res. effect the blumat flow even if the bottom of the res. is above the drippers?
can somebody post pictures of their res. using blumats?
should i just get 4 of the kits or buy seperate blumats and tubing to achieve this. eventually i'll double the drippers and do 2 per pot as i plan on doing larger sized pots.
i plan on eventually using 2 55 gallon reservoirs(4' tall type) to feed 48 plants total(24 per res.),
how high off the ground should my reservoirs be in contrast to the drippers? line runs will be at the max 8 feet, most 2-4 foot runs i think. will the lines going down 4 feet to the bottom of the res. effect the blumat flow even if the bottom of the res. is above the drippers?
can somebody post pictures of their res. using blumats?
should i just get 4 of the kits or buy seperate blumats and tubing to achieve this. eventually i'll double the drippers and do 2 per pot as i plan on doing larger sized pots.
softyellowlight
Active member
The bottom of the res NEEDS to be above the blumats. These work on gravity not siphon. What you can do is hang a 5 gallon bucket from the ceiling and have water from the 55 gallon res pumped up to that.
This is not quite accurate, although as a rule, higher is better
If you model the full reservoir as a point for simplicity's sake, and stick it at the centerpoint of the reservoir, that is the point that matters. Ignore any portion of your reservoir below the nozzle, so the centerpoint might move up a little. Now your total pressure comes from the amount of water in the reservoir times the height of the centerpoint minus the height of the blumat dripper.(Yeah, there's also losses from tube friction and whatnot.)
I've personally got around 15 gallons going about 28 inches above the blumats (27 gallon tote on a 36 inch table, 14 inch tall air pots in a humidity tray.) If I had a 5 gallon bucket full of water, I would need it to be at three times the height difference, blumat-to-centerpoint, so 28 * 3 + 14 = 98 inches, certainly above head height.
If I had a big-old container sitting on the ground, say a 55-gallon barrel, 34.5 inches tall, its centerpoint would be about 17 inches. Only 3 inches of height difference over the blumats, but because it's 55 gallons, it is already akin to a 5 gallon bucket at 33 + 14 = 47 inches off the ground. Raise it only 3 inches and the pressure doubles. Raise it only 6 inches off the ground and the pressure triples, making it slightly more pressure than my waist-height tote. You get the idea.
Okay, rives is right, I definitely chose the wrong physics model to look at this system with. It's not the weight of the water actually falling down onto the blumats that is doing the work.
The right conceptual model to use is the water column, which Wikipedia has a complete explanation of. The weight of the air column is added in, as well, but it mostly cancels out when dealing with small elevation changes. Physics can be kind of a mindfuck, even before you look at the wacky quantum universe.
SYL, I don't really understand all of the permutations of your post, but the volume of water doesn't impact pressure - elevation does. You get .43 psi per foot of elevation from the water surface to the discharge point on a gravity-fed system. If you have a 5000 gallon tank with 1 foot of elevation above the discharge point, you will have the same pressure as a 5 gallon bucket with 1 foot of elevation over the discharge. Counter-intuitive, but true nonetheless.
Carrot Placement
Carrot Placement
I have a total of 6 pails. These are 7 (liquid) gallon pails. 1 Maxi carrot per pail. I'm starting with two distributors per pail.
I'm thinking the three components (two drippers and one carrot) should be in an equilateral triangle with all three being 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk.
That sound OK?
EDIT: I think the two drippers should be along the "equator." Still 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk. Then the carrot would be like the south pole. Still 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk, and equidistant to each dripper.
Carrot Placement
I have a total of 6 pails. These are 7 (liquid) gallon pails. 1 Maxi carrot per pail. I'm starting with two distributors per pail.
I'm thinking the three components (two drippers and one carrot) should be in an equilateral triangle with all three being 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk.
That sound OK?
EDIT: I think the two drippers should be along the "equator." Still 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk. Then the carrot would be like the south pole. Still 1/2 way between the side of the pail and the stalk, and equidistant to each dripper.
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Just remember....you will have to use THREE drippers to do this.
Hey guys..im still loving this thread..been reading, but not all 106 pages.
Im about to switch to coco and wanna do blumats in my final pots(3gal). But im seing all sorts of stuff here that i dont quite understand. I thought the blumats was easy as hell to setup, and pretty low maitenance. But now i see you are talking about runaways and whatnot. What does that mean? Also how many carrots/drippers would i need in 3 gallons of straight coco? Im sorry if these questions have already been answered, and if theres a good reply somewhere in this thread about coco and blumats just link me up..
Stay Safe
Im about to switch to coco and wanna do blumats in my final pots(3gal). But im seing all sorts of stuff here that i dont quite understand. I thought the blumats was easy as hell to setup, and pretty low maitenance. But now i see you are talking about runaways and whatnot. What does that mean? Also how many carrots/drippers would i need in 3 gallons of straight coco? Im sorry if these questions have already been answered, and if theres a good reply somewhere in this thread about coco and blumats just link me up..
Stay Safe
GDK, check out this tutorial https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=111046&page=87
Rrog, when I was using the drippers, they replaced the carrot drip point. There are the "in-series" drippers (two hose nipples) and the "end-of-the-line" drippers (one hose nipple), and I think that you would have problems trying to match up their flow resistance with an open hose.
Perhaps I'm not understanding correctly, but I got the impression that you are talking about using three drip points - two via the drippers, and one open hose. The drippers have way more resistance to flow than an open hose, so I think that you are going to have trouble balancing the flow (the water would tend to run out the hose and not have any flow out of the drippers, taking the path of least resistance).
Nope. I'm not being clear. Thank you for your patience.
From the 8mm line, I run a 3mm line to the carrot. This simply a controller, not a drip point. Then the 3mm line runs to the in-line distributor where we have drip point #1. then on to the end distributor where we have drip point #2.
So two drip points and no open hose
From the 8mm line, I run a 3mm line to the carrot. This simply a controller, not a drip point. Then the 3mm line runs to the in-line distributor where we have drip point #1. then on to the end distributor where we have drip point #2.
So two drip points and no open hose
I think that works well. I set mine up so the drippers were equidistant between the plant stem and the edge of the pot, on opposite sides of the plant. I then stuck the carrot midway between two drippers, and on the same "circle" - halfway between the stem and the edge of the pot. I think that my reasoning was the same as yours - the water plume should be evenly distributed on each side of the plant and the carrot would sense the moisture from each.
