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DaveTheNewbie
I thought i was being smart letting the hose go longer, using 1 blumat per 7gal pot. Having thought about it i see your point. Trying to outsmart the maufacturer has screwed me again. Maybe one day i will learn ... maybe
Anyway as long as the pot isnt dry the roots have some water spare that hasnt been used yet, therefore they have all they can use. Maybe instead of aiming for a soaked pot i should aim for a not quite dry pot ?
No, you want that pot saturated for the most explosive growth. When you have the blumats dialed, the pots are heavy, with no runoff in the saucer. If the pot isn't saturated, it's not getting enough water.
7 gal pots are too big for a tropf... You might want to get some maxis if you haven't already... or use a smaller pot.
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DaveTheNewbie
try 2 per pot and soak before setting.the maxi's would probably be better but 2 regular will be alot better then 1.i ran 3 gallon smart pots with 1 and when they were in full bloom,it kept up barely.if 2 doesnt keep it pretty wet,try hand watering every three days for a nice boost to the whole root ball.
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DaveTheNewbie
Plants doing well, 1 week into flowering and looking nice and bushy :
Clones doing well :
Flooding issues still being worked on
Clones doing well :
Flooding issues still being worked on
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DaveTheNewbie
its funny you know, now that i have my setup cranking, havent even got a single harvest off it yet, love how it works, etc, im thinking about PPK's as a replacement, even tho i dont understand them properly.
someone recommended them in about page 6 or something when i was still talking RDWC, but i saw wicking and went NAHH.
more fool me
someone recommended them in about page 6 or something when i was still talking RDWC, but i saw wicking and went NAHH.
more fool me
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DaveTheNewbie
nope they are fine, working like clockwork, both in veg and flower rooms.
I just get bored easily, always wanting to change and improve things (aka experament)
drove my ex nuts
I just get bored easily, always wanting to change and improve things (aka experament)
drove my ex nuts
Kick, push, kick, push, coast... And away we go...
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DaveTheNewbie
theres no skating here!
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DHF
Keep the blumats for production and get used to dialin each strain more and more from monocroppin as yas learn more and more bout the blumats.....but.....
Nothin wrong with tryin a ppk as an experiment to see the function and needs from more equipment expense and tweakin , compared to sinkin a cone and makin sure it`s dialed down to a cling with no runaway floods.......but again....
All about where yer heads at....Still gotta dial environment and watts per sq ft with ANY setup so handle it Dave.....
Peace....DHF....
......
Nothin wrong with tryin a ppk as an experiment to see the function and needs from more equipment expense and tweakin , compared to sinkin a cone and makin sure it`s dialed down to a cling with no runaway floods.......but again....
All about where yer heads at....Still gotta dial environment and watts per sq ft with ANY setup so handle it Dave.....
Peace....DHF....
......my attempt at a quick summary-
His pulse ppk probably wicks very little now, but the float valve keeps a constant level of water in the bottom bucket if the pump/power fails. His pulsing really maintains the moisture/EC/o2 throughout, and the ´air gap´ created by the tailpeice greatly reduces the amount of medium thats perched with water.
¨In container media, perched water is the water that occupies the lower parts of a medium's mass and will not drain because it is held too tightly for the gravitational flow potential to overcome the capillary attraction of the medium.¨
The blumats seem to keep the moisture levels stable, but co2 and salts could build up. His connections seem to eliminate the chance of a flood and everything thats needed could be repurposed later. Im a big fan of turface (calcined clay) too. theres a good pic of the medium here
His pulse ppk probably wicks very little now, but the float valve keeps a constant level of water in the bottom bucket if the pump/power fails. His pulsing really maintains the moisture/EC/o2 throughout, and the ´air gap´ created by the tailpeice greatly reduces the amount of medium thats perched with water.
¨In container media, perched water is the water that occupies the lower parts of a medium's mass and will not drain because it is held too tightly for the gravitational flow potential to overcome the capillary attraction of the medium.¨
The blumats seem to keep the moisture levels stable, but co2 and salts could build up. His connections seem to eliminate the chance of a flood and everything thats needed could be repurposed later. Im a big fan of turface (calcined clay) too. theres a good pic of the medium here
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DaveTheNewbie
so your saying what i was thinking : that the new PPK isnt a wick system but a top feed system with a backup wick res for justin.
and yeah i always wondered about salts removal with a non flooding blumat system, they keep going in and never come out again.
im also interested in turdface, but im sticking with coco/pearlite for now.
village green
Member
im also interested in turdface
Funny, but the first time I saw that word in Delta's thread that's how I read it.
Funny, but the first time I saw that word in Delta's thread that's how I read it.
Thats why you're using the drip clean
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DaveTheNewbie
Ok so I have been thinking about this on the motorbike this morning. I am writing it down to get it straight in my mind.
Every pot has a (width, diameter, radius, surface area) which I’m going to call X
Every pot has a (height, depth) which I’m going to call Y
There is a length of 1mm brown hose pointing out past the Blumat which I’m going to call L
A quick digression : I acknowledge the existence of Perched Water but I am going to ignore it for simplicity.
Now every medium is different, but every medium has a relationship between the speed that water disperses (spreads) horizontally (laterally), and the speed that water sinks into the medium. For example coco has a decent rate at horizontal or lateral spread compared to hydroton clay balls.
For any pot that has a medium, and is drip fed in the centre, there is a maximum X size that can be fed for any given depth Y before water leaks or floods out the bottom. To take it to absurd extremes a pot that is a mile wide but a foot deep will not be fully watered with 1 drip or hose without flooding out the bottom first. I’m having trouble articulating this.
Now take a Blumat. There is a maximum length of dripper L that can go past the carrot before it’s too long for any given pot depth Y. Imagine a 1 mile dripper line past the Blumat if the pot is 1 foot deep again.
My theory is that the length of hose L needs to be dialled in for any pot combination of depth Y and medium. If it’s too long then you’re going to get floods and if it’s too short you’re not going to cover enough area, and it’s going to change given a change in medium. Im also going to propose that the shorter the hose L the more responsive the Blumat is.
Now I’m using a coco/perlite mix medium. It’s about 4 coco to 1 perlite on weight and 1 to 1 on volume. I’m using 7 gal smart pots (14” wide X and 9.5” deep Y) and there will be a maximum length of drip hose L that I can use for this combo without flooding. If the hose L is longer than this length then water will leak out the bottom before it hits the carrot and gets told to turn off. Now if this length L isn’t long enough to fully cover the pot width X then I will need a second Blumat per pot. Just having a longer hose L to fill a wider pot X isn’t going to cut it.
It’s worth noting that the depth Y of a 7 gal is the same as a 5 gal (12” wide X and 9.5” deep Y).
Every pot has a (width, diameter, radius, surface area) which I’m going to call X
Every pot has a (height, depth) which I’m going to call Y
There is a length of 1mm brown hose pointing out past the Blumat which I’m going to call L
A quick digression : I acknowledge the existence of Perched Water but I am going to ignore it for simplicity.
Now every medium is different, but every medium has a relationship between the speed that water disperses (spreads) horizontally (laterally), and the speed that water sinks into the medium. For example coco has a decent rate at horizontal or lateral spread compared to hydroton clay balls.
For any pot that has a medium, and is drip fed in the centre, there is a maximum X size that can be fed for any given depth Y before water leaks or floods out the bottom. To take it to absurd extremes a pot that is a mile wide but a foot deep will not be fully watered with 1 drip or hose without flooding out the bottom first. I’m having trouble articulating this.
Now take a Blumat. There is a maximum length of dripper L that can go past the carrot before it’s too long for any given pot depth Y. Imagine a 1 mile dripper line past the Blumat if the pot is 1 foot deep again.
My theory is that the length of hose L needs to be dialled in for any pot combination of depth Y and medium. If it’s too long then you’re going to get floods and if it’s too short you’re not going to cover enough area, and it’s going to change given a change in medium. Im also going to propose that the shorter the hose L the more responsive the Blumat is.
Now I’m using a coco/perlite mix medium. It’s about 4 coco to 1 perlite on weight and 1 to 1 on volume. I’m using 7 gal smart pots (14” wide X and 9.5” deep Y) and there will be a maximum length of drip hose L that I can use for this combo without flooding. If the hose L is longer than this length then water will leak out the bottom before it hits the carrot and gets told to turn off. Now if this length L isn’t long enough to fully cover the pot width X then I will need a second Blumat per pot. Just having a longer hose L to fill a wider pot X isn’t going to cut it.
It’s worth noting that the depth Y of a 7 gal is the same as a 5 gal (12” wide X and 9.5” deep Y).
MrAwder
Member
I think you explained it very well Dave. Makes sense to me. Using your example, what if you had a pot that was a mile tall and 1ft wide? In this case would the blumat would turn off long before the bottom media was saturated? Maybe 1 mile tall is a bad example...
Again I'm sure it depends on the medium to a large degree.
Anyway I think you are basically saying that the dimensions are as a large a factor as the volume and I would agree with that.
Again I'm sure it depends on the medium to a large degree.
Anyway I think you are basically saying that the dimensions are as a large a factor as the volume and I would agree with that.
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DaveTheNewbie
hadnt thought of that, but yeah it would also fail unless you had a very long blumat carrot, say a mile long. This is why they make the blumat maxi
well put sir
