Blumat auto watering

[Wiggs Dannyboy]

^ damn Mr. Robbins, sorry....Wiggs, nice job on the condensing. This is a hell of a thread and you deserve a medal for combing through. Good stuff right up there.

Hey...my pleasure walindour! I was compiling this list of posts for my own use, figured why not share. The folks who really deserve praise are all those who were figuring shit out ahead of me, especially Sunnydog, I'm just playing the part of secretary I guess.

A fan of Tom are ya? Supposedly Wiggs Dannyboy was modeled after Therence McKenna, with maybe some Tim Leary thrown in for spice.

 

[prowler]

Hey Sunnydog could you quote-edit-link Dannyboy's list to the first post? I crawled this topic through too and there is a lot of chitchat. Someone might loose precious information while fast reading through this.

Thanks Danny!

 

[walindour]

Hey...my pleasure walindour! I was compiling this list of posts for my own use, figured why not share. The folks who really deserve praise are all those who were figuring shit out ahead of me, especially Sunnydog, I'm just playing the part of secretary I guess.

A fan of Tom are ya? Supposedly Wiggs Dannyboy was modeled after Therence McKenna, with maybe some Tim Leary thrown in for spice.

Yeah - I love me some Tom Robbins. Been a while since I read Jitterbug so I think it may be time to pick it up again. Still Life w/ Woodpecker was my first TR read. Definitely a tripper and brilliant writer. He and I have lived in the same places (kind of) at different times. Did you hear him on Wait, Wait...Don't tell Me last year? He pitched a new reality show call Fungi for the Straight Guy. Had me in stitches and I am still waiting for a pilot.

 

[wisco61]

I just picked up a couple more patio sets and stumbled upon a great deal. If you are in MI and have a Superior Growers Supply nearby, they have a sale going on that drops the price of the patio sets to $56.21!

The sale is until the end of October, 25% off everything in the retail stores.

Some of the retail stores do not have them in stock, so I would call ahead and make sure the one you are going to has some available.

 

[wisco61]

So I had 2 runaways today, but I sortof know why.

I turned off the water supply to change some lines around and forgot to turn it back on for about 8 hours. When I turned it back on and watched them for a bit to see if I could figure anything out. A few of them were pretty dried out and came on with a full stream of water. In veg it was 4 of 14. 2 of them I gave a 16 oz cup of water to, and that slowed the stream to a drip in about 15 seconds. The other 2 I let go. 1 of those was one of the runaways. These were spread out over the drip lines, some in front some in back.

I have another 14 in flower and it was lights out so I just left those go. I saw a runaway a couple hours later and went in to check it out. Just 1 out of the 14 was overflowed. The only thing I can think is, this plant was the first in a line of the 7 on that side, so maybe it had a bit more pressure.

Anyways, I guess one way to get runaways is to have an interruption in water supply, and then have it resume. A temporary clog or pinch in the line or res running out/low could cause this. Maybe if they turn on with too much pressure because the pots are extra dry, they nudge the dial a bit more open or something.

 

[rrog]

Wisco, sorry for not recalling, but are you using a res or tap water?

 

[wisco61]

A res but I have a water pump running from the lower res to the 5 gal bucket at the ceiling 24/7 keeping it constantly full.

 

[rrog]

Sweet. Thanks. I ask because I'm wondering how many people have runoffs when using tap water like me. My tap water is well water, BTW. So far, no runoffs. The BMs have let me be very lazy. The soil is all pre-loaded so no bottled ferts. Best grow I ever had

 

[rives]

Wisco, in my experience having higher pressure makes the Blumats more resistant to runaways, not less. I would just about bet that the reason that you had runaways in this instance was because the carrots had some of the water leached out of them while the supply was turned off. I've found that this can take place surprisingly quickly under the right circumstances, and it totally invalidates the Blumat's setting. The other possibility is that, as the pot dried out, it created channels in the media that directed the water flow away from where the Blumat could sense it. Good luck!

 

[wisco61]

None of the carrots dried out, I checked. No bubbles or anything. I am going to interrupt the water supply again in a couple days and see if the same thing happens.

The 1 out of 14 in flower is confusing me. I have been trying to figure out why that particular one got screwed up but none of the others did. They are all in the same pots, I checked the soil temp of the one and it was no higher than the others. It gets less airflow then some of the others, so its not like it was dried out more. When I redo the experiment, if this particular one has issues again I will look more into the pressure thing. If it doesn't and some other one does, I will have to rethink.

It definately isn't the channel thing. I have the plant in a nursery flat so the pot was soaking in 2 inches of water and still dripping away at a pretty good pace. Not a solid stream, but close to it. Somehow the dial got turned up is the only way I can explain it.

 

[rives]

Somehow the dial got turned up is the only way I can explain it.

I've done this before - I usually grow in a scrog, and the adjustment knob is pretty damn easy to brush against and change the setting.

 

[wisco61]

That was my first thought to as it has happened before, but I hadn't been down to that end of the tent for 2 days so it wasn't nudged at all.

I am changing my upper res up a little today so I will need to readjust all the blumats to account for the pressure change. Once I get them reset on a couple days, I will see if I can't make some runaways happen again.

 

[LeeROI]

Blumat has an accessory:

"Protective cap for dripper
Product No.: 3411

Covers the adjusting knob on the dripper valve and prevents accidental or unauthorized resetting (child safeguard)."

 

[Señor Chang]

I wanted to check in and report my findings to the blumat group.
I'd been curious about silicone rubber tubing for the feed lines and not just the drip lines.
I located a vendor and have purchased their .224 ID silicone flexible tubing.
It fits all of the blumat parts and works like a champ.
It is infinately better than working with the black 8mm feed lines.
If you have been contemplating a change, I can heartily recommend flexible silicone tubing.

 

[wisco61]

link or price?

 

[Peacefrog]

A few of them were pretty dried out and came on with a full stream of water.

That's your reason right there. When the the water is dripping straight down the wet spot will reach the Blumat sensor quicker and shut off the flow of water. When it is coming out in a stream the wetness is 2 to 3 inches farther away from the sensor which lets the water work it way to the bottom before it gets to the sensor and shuts off.

Words to live by ... always know where the wet spot is.

 

[wisco61]

That's your reason right there. When the the water is dripping straight down the wet spot will reach the Blumat sensor quicker and shut off the flow of water. When it is coming out in a stream the wetness is 2 to 3 inches farther away from the sensor which lets the water work it way to the bottom before it gets to the sensor and shuts off.

Words to live by ... always know where the wet spot is.

It definately isn't the channel thing. I have the plant in a nursery flat so the pot was soaking in 2 inches of water and still dripping away at a pretty good pace. Not a solid stream, but close to it.

.

 

[Señor Chang]

http://www.mocap.com/silicone-rubber-tubing.html
I had to buy it in a 100' spool.
It cost me about $85 and that includes shipping to Alaska.
They require you to request a sample prior to the actual order.
The sample comes with some special tape that I found useful when attaching tubeing to my bulkhead.

The stuff really is a lot easier to work with than the black plastic 8 mm feed line that came with my 12 pack.
Hope this helps!

 

[wisco61]

Hmm the blumat stuff is $35 for 30 meters, or 98 ft.

http://waytogrow.net/store/product/3761/Tropf-Drip-Line-30m-Roll/

 

[rrog]

I used all BM parts except for the 3/32" connectors