A little blumat confusion

[slowandeasy]

slowandeasy. Just curious as to wether you turn your blumats off when hand watering?

I turn mine off about a day, depending on the stage they are in. Later in flower they require more moisture obviously. When you use Blumats the Coco will look dry on top, but damp underneath. So when you hand water, they are much more wet than the drippers keep them...unless you have your drip rate too high.

 

[dunkydunk]

If you are hand watering in addition to using blumats then you don't have to turn them off, as they will slow down or stop when they sense the extra water from the hand watering. The blumats will start dripping again to maintain whatever the moisture level was before you hand watered.

If you're trying to flush with plain water and you don't want the blumats throwing nutes into the mix, then you would have to shut them off, preferably with a master valve, or run plain water through the blumats.

 

[slowandeasy]

If you are hand watering in addition to using blumats then you don't have to turn them off, as they will slow down or stop when they sense the extra water from the hand watering. The blumats will start dripping again to maintain whatever the moisture level was before you hand watered.

If you're trying to flush with plain water and you don't want the blumats throwing nutes into the mix, then you would have to shut them off, preferably with a master valve, or run plain water through the blumats.

I turn mine off, because I want them to just get the Kool Bloom watering for a day. I do not mix it in my rez. Then turn back on. Plus it ensures the Coco does not stay too wet. Blumats will slow down or stop...but by handwatering you are drenching them way more than usual. Either way works fine.

 

[1quixotix]

Thanks for the insight peeps!

 

[asher1er]

to the ones running blumats with coco... are you keeping a lower ppm then usual in your tanks?

 

[dunkydunk]

to the ones running blumats with coco... are you keeping a lower ppm then usual in your tanks?

I can never get a straight answer to this question, the impression I'm getting is to use the Drip Clean product from House & Garden and then you don't have to worry about excess salt build up.

My drip clean is still in the mail, I have one blumat on my mother plant as a trial. So far so good.

 

[slowandeasy]

to the ones running blumats with coco... are you keeping a lower ppm then usual in your tanks?

same as always. 6/9 is low anyhow...but drip clean helps ensure no problems

 

[asher1er]

A little blumat confusion

Well I ask cause in a 75wpsf room I have some heavy eaters.. I've done runs staying below 1000ppm the whole way through but I have some heavy eaters that will go pale green on me unless I bump there ppm's up and those usually require about 1400... But with my feed schedule which is usually every other day my salts build up mighty quick so I give them some light feedings every weekend or 2 usually..

 

[Cheeb]

I've ran/run blumats in coco using both 6/9 (head) or 8/16 (lucas) and have never ran into any salt build up issues. I've also ran maxibloom at around 1.6 - 1.8 - 2.0 EC - no issues.

I think that because the blumats never allow the coco to get bone dry the medium never drys enough, to the point to allow salt accumulation...or at least I've never experienced negative effects. I would however sometimes add a tad of water to a low reservoir to give me a day before actually having to fill/add nutes so they did in fact get a bit of diluted nute for a day or so before being filled back to full strength.

- never used drip clean before.

- -

I think its definitely unnecessary to tighten the blumats to OFF if your wanting to handwater - be it plain flush or exclusive additive. Its just more work having to re-dial ever individual blumat when you want to resume tank nutes. Handwatering your plants via water pitcher or whatever would completely saturate your medium thus keeping the blumats pinched OFF. They would only resume dripping after the coco starts to dry a bit. I've found this to normally be a day or so before the blumat drips again after a heavy manual watering.

I however dont ever manually flush a plant on a blumat unless its a final flush before harvest. If your not overfeeding its typically not necessary.


peace

 

[215forLife]

Is there any possible way to get around using gravity feed with the blumats? There is no way I can move my rezes above my trays.

 

[greentrich]

Is there any possible way to get around using gravity feed with the blumats?

There's a couple different ways to accomplish this. If watering from a high pressure source i.e. an outside faucet, Tropf sells a pressure reducer so you can have the correct pressure running to your drippers.
You can also hook a pump up. The size of pump depends on the amount blumats you have. I'm not using a pump, so I cannot recommend a pump/dripper combo. But I know it can be done.

 

[slowandeasy]

Is there any possible way to get around using gravity feed with the blumats? There is no way I can move my rezes above my trays.

Can you put your rez in a different room? I have all of my Rez's out side of all of my tents. Same room, but you get the concept. This will keep your rez nice and cool as well. Or like GT said, they do have the pressure reducer.

 

[215forLife]

Rez temps are overrated imo (unless in Aero/DWC/NFT) since the grow medium will have the same temp as the ambient air. I actually like having the reses in the same room because they at as heat sinks and help keep the temp in the room stabilized (sealed room) since water holds more heat than air.

But yeah how would I do it using a pump with say 8 sites per rez?

 

[slowandeasy]

Rez temps are overrated imo (unless in Aero/DWC/NFT) since the grow medium will have the same temp as the ambient air. I actually like having the reses in the same room because they at as heat sinks and help keep the temp in the room stabilized (sealed room) since water holds more heat than air.

But yeah how would I do it using a pump with say 8 sites per rez?

Rez temps are never overrated, do whatever you like.

 

[dunkydunk]

If you are trying to use a pump with blumats, and I'm just guessing here, you would either want to use a small pump provided it has enough head pressure to get the nutes up to the plants, or use a larger pump that is throttled down by a valve. The 3 mm tubing in a blumat isn't going to work with high flow rates, it's all about the drip... drip.... drip....

Either way, I'd think you would have to cycle the power to the pump on and off (15 on/15 off?), because running an electric motor in your rez 24/7 is likely going to raise the rez temps to the point that you will no longer find them overrated.

 

[down2grow]

I honestly do not see the need for 10 gal Smart Pots. I actually think transplanting from Smart Pot to Smart Pot is more stressfull. Since the roots stick to the fabric. Your plan seems good, but if you up pot that much, water once...then wait a few days to let the roots seek moisture. Then set the drippers to a slow drip...as they grow, speed up the pace.

If you are using 10 gal Smart Pots and growing Trees you will need a big Res. Airstones are required IMO. Your water can be a tad higher than in a DWC set up since the roots are not bathing in it. But dont be too high. If you are a newbie, try not to tackle too much at one time. How much space and what kind of lights are you using?

Slow,

Ok so I'm just going to run 5 gallon smart pots just to see what I can get. How long were you vegging for to get 3 zips in the one gallon? What kind of light?

I'm about to pull the trigger and get the blumats, but I can't find a source for the extra 3mm dripper hose. Also since I'm only vegging 4 and flowering 4 at the same time. The patio kit should be enough for my set up. I need an extra barrel thing since I'll have two seperate reservoirs. Is anybody usin the shut off valve. I guess I just need a good source for extra parts too.

D2G

 

[zor]

I've ran/run blumats in coco using both 6/9 (head) or 8/16 (lucas) and have never ran into any salt build up issues. I've also ran maxibloom at around 1.6 - 1.8 - 2.0 EC - no issues.
peace

Cheeb, could u share with us your observations of the different coco formulas in the blumats?

 

[greentrich]

but I can't find a source for the extra 3mm dripper hose

If you're in the U.S., your best bet is GreenAcres. If they don't have it, and can't get it...you can order from the manufacturer. Just be ready to pay a hefty shipping charge to the states...~$30 just for shipping.

I have two of the shut off valves...one for the main, one for the bleeder line. I know for a fact GreenAcres has those parts (if I didn't buy them out). Sustainable Village WAS a good place, but their availability created problems for me.

 

[Cheeb]

Is there any possible way to get around using gravity feed with the blumats? There is no way I can move my rezes above my trays.

How about using a small pump to pump water to a 5 gallon bucket on a shelf. Have the bucket fill up and then overflow back to the res so that the 5 gallon bucket is always full. Then just feed the blumats off of that 5 gallon bucket.

Other then that using a pump to feed the blumats is pointless - if your going to attempt that why not just use a pump to feed the plants normally. - saving you the money on blumats and having to dial individually.

- -

I have not noticed any impact on yield or quality with warmer then normal reservoir temps when using blumats. Reservoir temps normally are an issue to prevent pathogens and are kept low so that your water can hold as much oxygen as possible. Important in an active hydro system, but not so much with blumats/coco as your medium has a good oxygen/moisture ratio - your not relying on your water to provide this oxygen.

- -

Cheeb, could u share with us your observations of the different coco formulas in the blumats?

Have not really noticed any distinct differences between the formulas. They all seem to work flawlessly. I'm more partial to 8/16 and maxibloom because I'm not doing any real math. I've got to pay more attention when mixing HEAD recipe as its not double the bloom as I'm used to. I'm leaning towards maxibloom because I like to top up my blumat reservoir before its completely empty (say 5 gallons left or so). Because of this its easy to top up, add nutes until I hit my target EC. With head recipe this was more difficult because I was unsure of the amount of water I was adding back to the res which already had SOME water in it - if that makes any sense.

- -

Biggest mistake I've made using blumats was letting my reservoir run dry. Blumats/pots ran dry and I had to resoak blumats, pots, and then manually re-adjust every pot. Sucked.

 

[down2grow]

If you're in the U.S., your best bet is GreenAcres. If they don't have it, and can't get it...you can order from the manufacturer. Just be ready to pay a hefty shipping charge to the states...~$30 just for shipping.

I have two of the shut off valves...one for the main, one for the bleeder line. I know for a fact GreenAcres has those parts (if I didn't buy them out). Sustainable Village WAS a good place, but their availability created problems for me.

Green,

Just looked on Greenacres. Just to clarify it's the dripline for .55 cents per foot, right? It doesn't seem like they sell the barrel adapters. Is there anything else that I can use or is there another source where I can buy that? I'm trying to avoid buying two planter sets.

D2G