A few questions for you Blumat users out there...

[SpicySativa]

What's up guys?

*I've got a few quick questions for you Blumat users lurking out there...

First a little background... I grow 4 plants at a time in a 4x4 space (home-built cabinet) under a 600 watter. They live in 7-gal smart pots of my recycled organic mix. Currently I just hand water using a bucket and a cup...

On to the questions...

1) Since my grow is in a cabinet, I have to take my plants out to inspect them, train them, prune them, spray them, etc... Would this be a PITA with Blumats? Will I have to readjust them each time? Purge air bubbles? What's the procedure when you've gotta move a plant?

2) I like to give my plants a variety of teas (AACT, alalfa, kelp, etc). Also, I'd like to continue providing silica at least once a week. Could I just pour the teas on from time to time without making any changes to the Blumats? Will they basically "shut off" until the plants have dried the soil sufficiently?

3) How steady does the water pressure need to be? If I go this route, I'll be plumbing the Blumats to my Small Boy chlorine/chloramine filter. It has good pressure, but fluctuates any time someone flushes, showers, laundry, dishes, etc... Will that be OK? I understand there is a pressure regulator involved, but don't know the details...

Thanks in advance for any answers you guys can give me. It'd be really nice to be as to take weekend trips without worrying about watering...

Cheers,

-SpicySativa

 

[SpicySativa]

Well, with a little research I think I've got my second two questions answered.

Still curious how much of a pain in the ass it would be if I had to take the plants out of the room about once a week... Seems like you wouldnt want to get air bubbles in the system, or be removing and jabbing in the carrots that often.

 

[Budwhyser]

What's up guys?

*I've got a few quick questions for you Blumat users lurking out there...

First a little background... I grow 4 plants at a time in a 4x4 space (home-built cabinet) under a 600 watter. They live in 7-gal smart pots of my recycled organic mix. Currently I just hand water using a bucket and a cup...

On to the questions...

1) Since my grow is in a cabinet, I have to take my plants out to inspect them, train them, prune them, spray them, etc... Would this be a PITA with Blumats? Will I have to readjust them each time? Purge air bubbles? What's the procedure when you've gotta move a plant?

2) I like to give my plants a variety of teas (AACT, alalfa, kelp, etc). Also, I'd like to continue providing silica at least once a week. Could I just pour the teas on from time to time without making any changes to the Blumats? Will they basically "shut off" until the plants have dried the soil sufficiently?

3) How steady does the water pressure need to be? If I go this route, I'll be plumbing the Blumats to my Small Boy chlorine/chloramine filter. It has good pressure, but fluctuates any time someone flushes, showers, laundry, dishes, etc... Will that be OK? I understand there is a pressure regulator involved, but don't know the details...

Thanks in advance for any answers you guys can give me. It'd be really nice to be as to take weekend trips without worrying about watering...

Cheers,

-SpicySativa

1) Not really. Just make the drip lines long enough to pull each plant out of the cabinet. You won't need to touch the dripper once its in the dirt which means you can prune and train without affecting the setting
2)I keep the res for the blumat dead and do not add anything put water to it. Teas and feedings I do by soil drench. Teas and some nutes can possibly clog the dripper lines and potentially cause run aways
3) are you connecting the waterline directly to a faucet? If so there is a pressure valve you can order from blumat that will keep the pressure constant. If not, it's a non-issue as you will have the drippers connected to a feed line which will connect directly to the res

 

[SpicySativa]

Thanks for the response. The longer drip lines may work, but I usually take my plants out of the cabinet and walk them about 15 feet away to spray (as needed for PM, foliar feed, etc).

Would it be a bad idea to put a shutoff valve at each carrot and just shut off and pull it when I need to spray? Maybe drop the carrots in a bucket of water to keep them saturated while they are out of the soil? Would I then need to reset them, or you think they'd fee ought back up when I put them back and open the shutoff valve?

Thanks again for the help. Just trying to figure out some details so I can decide before I drop the $$...

 

[Budwhyser]

Thanks for the response. The longer drip lines may work, but I usually take my plants out of the cabinet and walk them about 15 feet away to spray (as needed for PM, foliar feed, etc).

Would it be a bad idea to put a shutoff valve at each carrot and just shut off and pull it when I need to spray? Maybe drop the carrots in a bucket of water to keep them saturated while they are out of the soil? Would I then need to reset them, or you think they'd fee ought back up when I put them back and open the shutoff valve?

Thanks again for the help. Just trying to figure out some details so I can decide before I drop the $$...

What I do is pull the carrot and stick it in a bucket of water. When you're done, re-drench the soil, reinsert the carrot and set it up again. I like to pull the carrots and check them every couple of weeks anyways. I find that once in awhile a carrot will go dry and this will cause it to runaway or not moisten the soil. So I keep extras ready soaking and ready to go.

 

[SpicySativa]

Nice. Sounds easy enough. Do you have to do any readjusting each time you reinsert the carrots, or do they seem to maintain they're adjustment?

 

[otis33]

it kind of defeats the purpose of blumats if you are constantly pulling and resetting. if you could make the dripper lines long enough to get the plants just outside the cab and do your maintenance close enough to keep the blumats plugged and dialed. the more you set and reset, the more problems you will have. they work best when left to do their thing. I feed light(1.0ec) h&g base+silica and hand water caps teas once a week. the people who have problems with these things are the ones who micromanage their blumats. good luck!

 

[Budwhyser]

Nice. Sounds easy enough. Do you have to do any readjusting each time you reinsert the carrots, or do they seem to maintain they're adjustment?

I readjust mine when I pull them, which isn't that often, to make sure everything is on the money. Lots of different ways to kill the cats. In my experience and your mileage may vary, those who don't maintenance or check these things on occasion are the ones who come back to their grow and find a wet floor from a runaway, or dead plants where one of the drippers plugged or caught an air bubble. Periodically, the lines need to be purged because you will get some algae or gunk build up from the fact that the res is normally located near your lights or in a warm room which promotes growth of algae and just gunk. You will find that even the res will need to be cleaned out periodically. If you check the bottom after two weeks, it will be slimy. This slime will run through the lines and often enough will cause a drip line to clog. When that happens the water stored in the dripper will drain and wham o, you've got either a runaway, or dripper that ain't dripping.

I check mine every couple of weeks. It's not a big deal and I have no problems despite the opinion of others. It's like doing preventative maint on your car. You catch it before it fucks up so you're not stranded on the road. Same concept.

I've had mine a few years now and they are a god send. You'll cut the time nec to tend to your plants in half, but it's a good idea to check em out every once in awhile, especially before you go out of town...that's just common sense

 

[SpicySativa]

Nice. Good info, guys. I wish I could spray near my cabinet, but I've hot a nice basement floor drain on the other side of the room. Don't spray often, but if I happen to see any little spots of PM I start weekly (organic) sprays.

Might be more trouble than it's worth if I need to be readjusting once a week...

 

[Budwhyser]

Nice. Good info, guys. I wish I could spray near my cabinet, but I've hot a nice basement floor drain on the other side of the room. Don't spray often, but if I happen to see any little spots of PM I start weekly (organic) sprays.

Might be more trouble than it's worth if I need to be readjusting once a week...

If you're careful pulling the carrot out, the readjustment is optional, but either way it takes like 2 secs to adj them. If you like being able to walk away from the plants for a week or more depending on the size of your res, these things are the shitz

 

[Bennyweed1]

I use blumats in my 18 plant flower room. I run a strict set it and forget it system.

As far as your removing the plants question goes there really is no easy method as blumats dont like to be disturbed. For four plants it shouldnt be that big of an issue but as someone else said, it kinda defeats the purpose of the blumats.

I purge my system every harvest by running hot water through the main line. Lot of gunk comes out. I also purge each individual dripper. It takes a little bit of time but is worth it.

Never run anything through your blumats, it will only bring you huge problems. Well nothing organic that is. Synthetics pose no real problem but we are not into that in this forum.

I mean theoretically you could have 20' of drip line for each plant but that just sounds like a big tangled mess.

I run about 3' for each plant so I can move them around but occasionally Ill accidentally place the container on the drip line which cuts water off to the plant and I am gone for 3-4 days at a time. I now double check for this everytime I move things around.

Blumats are a blessing but they are sensitive IMO. Once they are dialed in they literally take care of business for you but I takes a while to find that dialing.

Good luck amigo.