Blumats and Living Soil (my split from main thread)

[heady blunts]

rives just cleared up a lot for me with only a few sentences. from the main blumat thread:

The pressure change is as a result of the elevation change from the level of the water dropping, not the weight of the water. For every foot of elevation (head pressure), you gain .433 psi. For instance, if the water surface in your 5 gallon bucket is 1 foot above your blumats, you will have .433 psi. If you take that same bucket of water and elevate it to where the surface level is 10 feet above the blumats, you will have 4.33 psi. I use an aquarium auto-fill circuit that keeps my water level within a band about 2" high, and have had good luck.

 

[heady blunts]

 

[heady blunts]

i drew a diagram for the consistent pressure double res

 

[mad librettist]

day 1 of switching to one maxi per 15 gallon smart, instead of 3 regs

 

[Buddah Watcha]

Just installed some trompf blumats yesterday. Still working on dialing em in!

 

[heady blunts]

day 1 of switching to one maxi per 15 gallon smart, instead of 3 regs

do the maxi's have a wider footprint?

 

[mad librettist]

yeah they do, and apparently maxi's make for slightly drier conditions

 

[heady blunts]

mad how're the maxi's doin?

 

[mad librettist]

awesome!

they really do the job when you have a fast mix. runaways are kind of impossible because water would pool at the bottom where the cone is.

am convinced runaways happen when a cone has a strong vacuum, and water pools nowhere near the cone.

someone needs to run an experiment to see for sure whether saturation level outside the cone affects how fast it refills via suction.

 

[rrog]

runaways are kind of impossible because water would pool at the bottom where the cone is.

am convinced runaways happen when a cone has a strong vacuum, and water pools nowhere near the cone.

someone needs to run an experiment to see for sure whether saturation level outside the cone affects how fast it refills via suction.

Good to know 1 Maxi per large pail will work. That's what I'll be doing in modified 7 gallon pails with holes to approximate Smart Pot ventilation.

You're using Smart Pots, and you're meaning that the fact that the soil stays more saturated at the bottom of the pot, the carrot is always wet and this limits runaway potential? No vacuum if some of the carrot is wet? This seems like quite a revelation.

 

[mad librettist]

revelations? not this time.

I had a runaway before recent happenings. lol wishful thinking on my part.

I had a recent tear-down, so my blumats are on standby.

 

[Buddah Watcha]

heady blunts, could you recommend me a pump please and thank you?!

 

[rrog]

revelations? not this time.

I had a runaway before recent happenings. lol wishful thinking on my part.

I had a recent tear-down, so my blumats are on standby.

That theory still has merit. Has anyone noted if having the 8mm tube on the floor and 3mm drip lines running up is different than the 8mm tube being at the same level as the drip?

 

[cirog]

I have a weird setup where some of my 8 mm hose is higher and some is lower, and I have not noticed any difference in watering. As long as the drip hose is at least a half meter below the res, should not matter.

 

[rrog]

I agree, yet there are still floods. Seems the manufacturer would have some insight here. So it seems the only solid clue so far is the constant higher pressure. I wonder if Sunny has had flooding since going to the constant pressure hose. Or Heady with his ingenious toilet tank.

I had hoped that the straight water would have been part of the solution also, but MadL just had the runs.

 

[mad librettist]

well mind you, I think it was the usual culprit: variable water pressure.

 

[rrog]

I'm crossing my fingers that Sunny and Heady have some positive reports from their constant-pressure efforts.

 

[heady blunts]

i've had zero problems since switching to the new res. finished out my babies without ever touching the blumats again!

i'm convinced that with the head pressure controlled either by using the pressure reducer like sunnyd is trying, or rigging a consistent level remote res like i've done, the blumats work FLAWLESSLY!

i love them!

as far as having the feed line above or below the drippers, it doesn't matter. pressure is only dependent on the distance between the the water level at the source and the exit point at the drippers.

buddah i just use the smallest pump for water fountains available at the hardware store. it doesn't really matter as long as it's strong enough to lift the water to your remote res. i avoided oversizing it because i didn't want it to heat up the water as it runs 24/7.

 

[rrog]

Thanks for that update Heady. Very good news indeed.

Is it possible that the pressure you're supplying is greater than the pressure from the BM hose regulator? Your success could be due to constant AND higher pressure.

I wonder how Sunny is making out with his hose and pressure regulator.

 

[Bueno Time]

Bump this. Good thread. I have been thinking about blumats for a long time. I may get some soon. Not sure yet though.