COCO and BLUMATS FTW!

[Desert Hydro]

the plan for this room is 2 plants per light. im gonna veg them until they are about 4-5 feet tall then im gonna lay them over horizontally and scrog them sideways. stole the idea from the blog at sustainable village. should be really fucking cool haha

 

[Bwanabud]

yeah for sure. i have been looking into this as well. you can set up a res with a constant flow pump and a pressure reducer. the only thing that scares me about that is that if you have a runaway dripper you are going to have a near endless supply to flood with lol.

i think with a little diy ingenuity you could rig some fail safe protections pretty easily. you may be seeing something like this from me in the near future.

I run a number of large scale pressurized Blumat systems, all indoors of course. You must have a drain/flood system, and add a water safety cutoff switch to the pump...when it senses water, it kills the power to the pump. A secondary back-up solution is the sensor connected to a electric solenoid switch with a break/make, inserted on the output side of the pump.

Running the pots with Blumats to the point of run-off, is a necessary option for accurate set up/installation and basic maintenance. Any grows over closet size are wasting time with the spec "accumulator", the liquid capacity is minimal and the pump runs far too often.

Other than that, they run about as automatic as a grower would want.

 

[Desert Hydro]

I run a number of large scale pressurized Blumat systems, all indoors of course. You must have a drain/flood system, and add a water safety cutoff switch to the pump...when it senses water, it kills the power to the pump. A secondary back-up solution is the sensor connected to a electric solenoid switch with a break/make, inserted on the output side of the pump.

Running the pots with Blumats to the point of run-off, is a necessary option for accurate set up/installation and basic maintenance. Any grows over closet size are wasting time with the spec "accumulator", the liquid capacity is minimal and the pump runs far too often.

Other than that, they run about as automatic as a grower would want.

i guess that makes sense to have them on tables with a res that cant overflow/flood etc. didnt think of that. i have 5 4x8 tables collecting dust but i hate how big and bulky they are. not very stealthy to move around in public. im not in the greatest area and always fear a robberry

 

[Bwanabud]

Yea when you're hand watering the girls, you have complete control of the run-off and water volume each pot gets. When you switch to "auto" pilot then precautions are mandatory to prevent problems...Blumats are a hybrid hydro system, anytime the controls are in charge, and eliminate human involvement then better to error on the safe side.

Pressurized systems are much more stable than gravity fed, the pressure stays stable and consistent to the point of the sensor...and fewer run-aways or dry posts occur. Depending on your grow size, other options are available that are easier to maintain and change over to new plants in the room.

A simple trough out of heavy plastic sheet, that's inclined for fall rate of 1/4" per 10',,,,to a dump zone(bucket/drain....is far more than efficient at solving the problem, instead of installing tables.

 

[Desert Hydro]

gravity is ok for me right now since im not running a lot of lines. ive got plenty of head pressure with the 15gal res at 4' high right now. set up my auto fill res today. the black hose is the fill line and the white pvc is the overflow. i extended the overflow down to the top of the res so it doesnt splatter everywhere.

still sorting out this calmag issue but they seem to be improving slowly

 

[Desert Hydro]

went and checked right now and the new growth is healthy and green again. im gonna start backing off the foliar to every other day or two and then to once a week once they are back to normal. pretty soon i will bump up the food again and introduce co2.

 

[Desert Hydro]

getting FUZZY in there!

 

[Old Toker]

 

[fishinnutt]

Been loving the benefits of coco for a while now, but just recently decided to jump on the blumats. So far so good, I haven't watered in the usual manner for 3 days now. Been making small adjustments as some pots were wetter than necessary and I was finding water in my ebb flow table (using it as a catch pan for all the plants) but because they aren't in individual catch pans, it's hard to tell which plant is too wet without lifting the plants up a little. I can feel wet media in the bottom of the pots with my finger fairly easily with most of the pots, but the tops of the media all look dryer than they are. So far the plants are all quite healthy. The plants have used far less water than I would have predicted which is mildly scary in coco, but as I mentioned, the plants all look pretty good. Does anyone use the distribution drippers so the top of the media is more evenly moist?

 

[Desert Hydro]

i was having massive issues until recently. got everything sorted out and now they are recovering nicely. bad coco with a ton of salts in it caused lockout and then it presented itself with deficiencies so i answered with heavier feeds. got worse and worse until i flushed the hell out of them and gave them a restart and moved them from 1 gal to 3 gal pots in a new clean brand of coco. the roots are coming back to life, the plants are getting green and healthy all around. still a little light and deficient but night and day difference. flowering on the first if they keep this up. now i have to build my scrog frames and mount them to the light framework and hang the trellis netting.

Been loving the benefits of coco for a while now, but just recently decided to jump on the blumats. So far so good, I haven't watered in the usual manner for 3 days now. Been making small adjustments as some pots were wetter than necessary and I was finding water in my ebb flow table (using it as a catch pan for all the plants) but because they aren't in individual catch pans, it's hard to tell which plant is too wet without lifting the plants up a little. I can feel wet media in the bottom of the pots with my finger fairly easily with most of the pots, but the tops of the media all look dryer than they are. So far the plants are all quite healthy. The plants have used far less water than I would have predicted which is mildly scary in coco, but as I mentioned, the plants all look pretty good. Does anyone use the distribution drippers so the top of the media is more evenly moist?

you will find that your happiest, perkiest plants with coco and blumats are the ones that are slightly dry looking up top and feel kind of light in the pot. its scary at first but just make sure the drippers are still doing their job and youre good. i fine tune them over a week or two and then its mostly hands free from there. most people will tell you that they use less water, less nutes and get better yields. im feeding at 600 ppm/1.2 ec and staying there until is see the need for more. may start burning some propane soon

i have never used distribution drippers. they werent even around when i first starting using blumats. i think the key here is small root bound pots so they are constantly feeding and burning through everything you throw at them. how big are your pots? im in 3 gal grow bags now and expect close to a half pound or more each on most of these plants. im in 70/30 coco perlite

 

[Bwanabud]

I had a lot of problems running the pots on the dryer side in mid-late flower, all of my strains prefer 1/2 arrow light of slow run-off...it keeps the salts and air moving, and rez changes take effect much faster.

Obviously a solid root system before the flip is essential.

 

[Desert Hydro]

I had a lot of problems running the pots on the dryer side in mid-late flower, all of my strains prefer 1/2 arrow light of slow run-off...it keeps the salts and air moving, and rez changes take effect much faster.

Obviously a solid root system before the flip is essential.

yeah for sure. if you look at the info on the sustainable village page they recommend slightly more moist in flower. im assuming its like you said, people are pushing higher ec in flower and you need to keep them flowing down and out as much as possible. what are you keeping your ec at? i know DTW with no runoff is a little less forgiving and you need to be a bit more precise

 

[Desert Hydro]

updates. 13 days change, even with a shit ton of lockout and burns. now they are coming back with a vengeance! plan on flowering on the first but may let them green up a little bit more.

 

[Desert Hydro]

dont mind the butchered ones in the black pots. they were overgrown mothers i hacked back into submission

 

[Desert Hydro]

getting big and healthy! day 3 of flower

 

[Old Toker]

Hey DH.....nice grow! Sorry if I missed it....but what is your max growing height?

 

[Desert Hydro]

Hey DH.....nice grow! Sorry if I missed it....but what is your max growing height?

probably way less than i have lol. gonna start scrogging them today. may experiment with laying them horizontally as well. saw some cool grows where they got them tall then lay them over to flower.

 

[Old Toker]

probably way less than i have lol. gonna start scrogging them today. may experiment with laying them horizontally as well. saw some cool grows where they got them tall then lay them over to flower.

I'm very interested in seeing how that works out for you! Seems as though you'd have the benefits of a large root system with more "headroom" during flowering. Are you going to lay the entire room over...or just a few?

 

[Desert Hydro]

im only gonna lay over the ones i think it will be beneficial to do so. got a few indica bushes that it wouldnt work well on. they will get scrogged outward and 4 per light or so. the tall long armed ladies will work well sideways i believe

 

[Desert Hydro]

scrog! gonna scrog most of them but will lay over 4 plants or so as a test to check validity. i think its gonna kick ass but ive been wrong before lol