Blumat auto watering

[greenmatter]

cyat, not at all. Give em a try.. keep a clean res and you'll likely love them.




What medium are you using?

My experience has been the opposite...I've been rocking blumats for some time now and have never had a run away in straight bcuzz coco / 2gal. I might have had one once but attribute it to not properly drenching before dialing that particular plant.

I have however had a hiccup by having roots grow up into the 3mm line thus clogging it. I use a plastic fork now as others here have suggested to prop the drip end from laying on the coco floor.

Other then that I've got to say that blumats have performed flawlessly for me. It doesnt take me a while to "dial them in" so to speak aside from the initial setup (is more laborious that 1 time when compared to other hydro grows), but I no longer tweak after setup. I just drench..dial to cling + .5-1 arrow and that's it. Dont touch em again until harvest.

I run em clean with micro/bloom & bloombastic. No problem so far running 21 to 48 of these things across multiple layouts for a few years now. I've ran em right out of the patio kit and have ran them w/ 1/2" and kent tees. These things just work..

Those having troubles has to be either setup issues (physically or operator error)... or density/retention of medium issues.

I'm itching to get some shots up of my blumat work, but only have the smart phone right now and don't feel comfortable enough to use it for pics.

the water i have cleaned up "over the years" has not been from the blumats. it has been from every drip system i have ever used. pump failures,bad timers clogged lines and emitters just are a part of the game. i don't like cleaning up water so i build everything as flood proof as possible, even if the chance of a flood is minimal

i'm loving the blumats so far! i have not been using them for long but so far they work great! i have not had a single runaway, but i have found that there is a "dialing in" phase on a blumat or two (but it gets shorter every time) and this has never been long.

the dialing in i am talking about is finding that "sweet spot", and should not be confused with plants dying of thirst or drowning while i turn a dial back and forth for a week.

blumats rock!

 

[dansbuds]

Quick question guys , i got my blumats hooked up again for this round of plants . this time i lengthened the hose from the carrot to get water to the other side of the pot hoping to get more of the medium (coco ) wet instead of just near the carrot . are they to long or are they a good length from the carrot ????

They seem to be working pretty good like this instead of the shorter drip lines like i had the last few times & the coco is getting a better full feeding than before . it was only feeding like half the pot with the shorter lines . if i remeber correctly the instructions say 5mm length from the carrot & these are a little longer . i'm thinking its better this way , what do you guys say ?

 

[heady blunts]

if i remeber correctly the instructions say 5mm length from the carrot & these are a little longer . i'm thinking its better this way , what do you guys say ?

the blumat manual says 8cm. you're fine.

 

[rrog]

I like the dripper holder!

 

[dansbuds]

the blumat manual says 8cm. you're fine.

I like the dripper holder!

Cool , thanx guys
rrog , yeah bud , it works pretty good

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Quick question guys , i got my blumats hooked up again for this round of plants . this time i lengthened the hose from the carrot to get water to the other side of the pot hoping to get more of the medium (coco ) wet instead of just near the carrot . are they to long or are they a good length from the carrot ????
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i48/skippys88/DGs stuff/DSC01114.jpg
They seem to be working pretty good like this instead of the shorter drip lines like i had the last few times & the coco is getting a better full feeding than before . it was only feeding like half the pot with the shorter lines . if i remeber correctly the instructions say 5mm length from the carrot & these are a little longer . i'm thinking its better this way , what do you guys say ?

I've experimented with this after seeing lazyman have his drip end all the way across the pot..a larger pot, but similar to what your doing.

While it does make the blumat less responsive I feel that its the way to go for the most part. When running the blumats by default (8cm out of cone) I've experienced one side of my 2 gal pot moisture while the opposite side remained a bit dry.

Extending the dripper a bit resolves this issues, but DOES leave you open to run-away blumats if not using a good wicking medium. In a different mix then straight coco I've witnessed in friends gardens water passing through the pot without ever saturating near the blumat location to stop the drip. This has been extremely rare and I attribute it to a non-wicking medium mix or maybe not properly drenched/setup initially... kind of like water running out the bottom of your pot quickly when handwatering. The pot got too dry and doesnt "take" water right away.

But in straight coco I've never experienced any issues having the drop point quite a distance away from the carrot.

 

[dansbuds]

While it does make the blumat less responsive I feel that its the way to go for the most part. When running the blumats by default (8cm out of cone) I've experienced one side of my 2 gal pot moisture while the opposite side remained a bit dry.

Yup , same size pot & same problem which is why i extended it too .

Extending the dripper a bit resolves this issues, but DOES leave you open to run-away blumats if not using a good wicking medium. In a different mix then straight coco I've witnessed in friends gardens water passing through the pot without ever saturating near the blumat location to stop the drip. This has been extremely rare and I attribute it to a non-wicking medium mix or maybe not properly drenched/setup initially... kind of like water running out the bottom of your pot quickly when handwatering. The pot got too dry and doesnt "take" water right away.

But in straight coco I've never experienced any issues having the drop point quite a distance away from the carrot.

yup straight canna coco .... so no worries ... great to hear ....

 

[heady blunts]

you've got to visualize the "onion shaped moisture zone" under a blumat dripper.

the carrot should be far enough away from the dripper that when the "onion shaped moisture zone" is at its maximum coverage, half or more of the carrot is within it.

if the drip is too far from the carrot, then the moisture zone will not reach the sensor, the carrot will be drained, and you will get a runaway & flooding.

in the same line of thought: if you place the drip at the edge of a pot, you're only getting half an onion. if you put the drip near the center of your pot, you will be taking full advantage of your soil volume.

 

[gdbud]

I like the dripper holder!

I use the same type of drip holder. It was on the other end of a ID tag on a clone I received. just flipped it over and it pre-drilled ready to go.

 

[dansbuds]

you've got to visualize the "onion shaped moisture zone" under a blumat dripper.

the carrot should be far enough away from the dripper that when the "onion shaped moisture zone" is at its maximum coverage, half or more of the carrot is within it.

if the drip is too far from the carrot, then the moisture zone will not reach the sensor, the carrot will be drained, and you will get a runaway & flooding.

in the same line of thought: if you place the drip at the edge of a pot, you're only getting half an onion. if you put the drip near the center of your pot, you will be taking full advantage of your soil volume

Thanx Heady , i'll pull them back a little so they're dripping next to the stems .

Thanx guys for all your input , i did have a couple runaways but figured it was cuz my rez is not high enough now with the flood tables in there . but i am raising that today as well as pulling back the drip lines closer to the stems . thanx again everybody .

 

[vwgtiron]

blumat setup

blumat setup

Guess I should have posted these in here, let me know if you have questions.

 

[vwgtiron]

OH btw as a drip tube holder I just use the rainbird drip tube supporter, 10 packs are 5 at Ace hardware or Lowes when they are in stock. Same thing with the manifold they sell a support stake with a 1/4 ID which matches the outside circumference of the blumat manifold tubing.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Sweet never thought to set em up like that.

Since we are sharing.. check out how I run em'

 

[rives]

Looks very nice, FF. However, you might consider putting some diagonal bracing or a plywood diaphragm on the drum stand legs to eliminate shear. If those are 30 gallon drums, you have about 700 lbs on there, and if they are 55 gallon, then it is around 1250 lbs. Unless they have some support that I am missing, if that load tries to shift sideways you are going to have a real mess.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

I was planning on it when I built but its pretty dang sturdy as it. It is boxed in down on the floor as well so that gives it quite a bit of strength.

My plan is to actually add some shelving so that I can store nutes and stuff below the reservoirs so that should strengthen in up a bit more.

Its not going anywhere right now though so I'm not sweatin it. Appreciate ya lookin out.

 

[rrog]

Impressive work I'd say!.

 

[heady blunts]

Guess I should have posted these in here, let me know if you have questions.
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=36819&pictureid=872771&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=36819&pictureid=872770&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=36819&pictureid=872764&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=36819&pictureid=872763&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=36819&pictureid=872762&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

that is fucking legit.

 

[~Shhh~]

Love the plastic forks flower farmer, gonna grab a pack for mine tonight!

 

[cyat]

Flowerfarmer,
whats the hose goin to the top of the drums for?

so 1/2 main line with the blumat 3/32 tees and small brown tubing?

looks awesome!

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Thanks guys.

I dont take credit for the fork idea. I believe I witnessed someone else doing it on here and copied them. Works a charm.

Cyat - yup 1/2" black tubing off of the barrel down to the plants and it makes a circle..teeing back into itself. From there the 3/32 kent tees stab in and have 3mm tubing to each plant/cone.

The tee right off of the barrel which goes upward with GH blue see-through tubing is my "water level indicator". It allows me to see how much juice is in the barrel quickly just by glancing at the side.

Others have suggested that because this blue tube is open up top that it also acts as a release for any bubbles that might make their way into the tubing. Not sure if that is the case or not, but I have never had any issues with air-lock or the alike. I also do not have a valve at the end of my run for the occasional bleeding. I have not experienced any troubles to warrant the need to bleed off anything preventively.