Blumat auto watering

[StennyH]

I'm buying these to set them up and I have some questions.

1) Does the patio kit really come with only one 8 mm to 3 mm tee? I thought I needed 12 to connect all the carrots to the 8mm line. How could you ever run the patio kit without buying 11 more tees?

2) I need to fully remove each plant individually from the tent and take it outside to spray every week or so. How can I do this? Should I use the "Quick connect/disconnect for 3 mm tube" aka IG15522? If I am using all 12 carrots, I guess I need to bite the bullet and buy 12 of them? I was planning on using shutoff valves on each side of the 8mm tube anyway, so I guess I don't need the more expensive disconnects that also have a "stop," because I can bleed the water out of the tubes before using the disconnects. Sound good?

Thanks, this thread is great.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

Do you like blumat based root porn?

[YOUTUBEIF]zj2S2kLmKu8[/YOUTUBEIF]

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

I'm buying these to set them up and I have some questions.

1) Does the patio kit really come with only one 8 mm to 3 mm tee? I thought I needed 12 to connect all the carrots to the 8mm line. How could you ever run the patio kit without buying 11 more tees?

It comes with one extra tee and one on each blumat.

2) I need to fully remove each plant individually from the tent and take it outside to spray every week or so. How can I do this? Should I use the "Quick connect/disconnect for 3 mm tube" aka IG15522? If I am using all 12 carrots, I guess I need to bite the bullet and buy 12 of them? I was planning on using shutoff valves on each side of the 8mm tube anyway, so I guess I don't need the more expensive disconnects that also have a "stop," because I can bleed the water out of the tubes before using the disconnects. Sound good?

Thanks, this thread is great.

I honestly don't think blumats are ideal if you need to remove your plants from the grow area. Having to bleed and read adjust every time you replaced the plants would essentially defeat the purpose. It usually takes me about two weeks to get them dialed in just right. But that is just my two cents, others on here may have a way to make it worthwhile.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

And now that I stonily think about it, I had to remove a male this round and I just used a piece of the tiny line that runs through the blumat and tied two knots in it and stuck it on the tee where the blumat was. If you could get six extra of the small soft line you could cut them in half and seal them up. You would not have to bleed the main lines this way but you would still have to bleed the blumat so kinda back to square one but I think it would be cheaper than quick disconnects.

 

[StennyH]

Ok how about this - why would I have to bleed anything at all? Couldnt I just pinch the 3mm tube closed at three points before I remove using the disconnect? Seems like I wouldn't have to readjust then once I plug them back in.

 

[northerngrafta]

With it working in the same way as autopot has anyone every combined the two so they get top and bottom feeding??

 

[Swayze]

Nice Swayze! How do the 4 hold up watering the big 20 gal?

So far so good. I'm really enjoying using these with smartpots. I was concerned that the outer edge of the soil would dry out too much with the drip lines going towards the center of the pot, but so far so that hasn't happened. If it were too, I had already planned to water in my teas and anything that can't sit in a reservoir along the outside to correct that, but like I said it hasn't been an issue.

So far this has been an incredibly easy and time saving addition to the garden.

 

[Lapides]

I've been meaning to ask this: In this setup, what are folks doing to mitigate chlorine? Are peeps just not concerned, or is there a rigged-up solution?

I'm not too concerned really. I use 20 gallon rubbermaids for my rez's. When the girl are drinking their most, I'm probably topping off with 7 gallons a day. The remaining 13+ gallons have been sitting in the open rez for at least a day. I'm guessing a lot of the chlorine has evaporated by the time it reaches the soil. I'm sure there is still some, but not as much as right out of the tap.

I think I read something recently that molasses kills off chlorine and chloramine in tap water. For those using a rez, we could just use a recirculating pump and add molasses to the rez once a week or so. I did it once, not for the purpose of killing chlorine but just to get carbs to my soil, and had no problems in terms of clogging.

But anyway. I have no real problems in my beds with chlorine and I can SMELL it coming out when I'm drawing gallons+ from the tap.


BTW, I love it when this thread becomes active again. I love blumats SO much!

 

[Fou]

Hey folks!!
Tell me your opinion plz!!
I am about to make an outdoor grow with autoflowering strains and i will use the 12 Blumat auto watering system!!!
Is it smart to use 2x55LT smart pots for 14-15 plants or should i use 12x11LT smart pots for 12 plants??
Something like this:


x=plant
O--= blumat

 

[StennyH]

If I use these:
Blumat Quick Connect w/ Stop - 3mm to 3mm

http://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_68&product_id=106

Would it help me be able to easily remove the plants from the tent to take outside to spray? In other words, if I use these to disconnect the blumats, would I be able to plug them in 30 minutes later without having to readjust?

I'd buy 3 and use 3mm y-splitters to save money, so I'd really be using each disconnect to disconnect 2 plants (and each plant has 2 blumats).

 

[rives]

If I use these:
Blumat Quick Connect w/ Stop - 3mm to 3mm

http://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_68&product_id=106

Would it help me be able to easily remove the plants from the tent to take outside to spray? In other words, if I use these to disconnect the blumats, would I be able to plug them in 30 minutes later without having to readjust?

I'd buy 3 and use 3mm y-splitters to save money, so I'd really be using each disconnect to disconnect 2 plants (and each plant has 2 blumats).

You won't have to readjust, but you might need to bleed the air out. The setting won't change simply from moving the plant, but air bubbles can wreak havoc with the blumats. What I do is mark the location of the pointer on the twist cap with a liquid white-out pen used for making writing corrections - you can then open the valve up and purge the air bubbles, and come right back to your setting. If you need to change the setting later, you can just scrape the white-out off with your fingernail and re-mark it. However, I've found that once you find the right setting, it doesn't really change even from one run to the next.

 

[StennyH]

Thank you!

 

[nachoconqueso]

The 1/4" on/off bleeder valve I mentioned in my last post works very wel. Very snug fit and no leaks.

 

[LEDfoot]

The 1/4" on/off bleeder valve I mentioned in my last post works very wel. Very snug fit and no leaks.

1/4" barbs fit into the 8mm Blumat line easily enough if you run hot tap water over the tubing first. I'm using a 1/4" quick disconnect from Value Plastics after a Blumat shut-off valve coming out of the res bulkhead fitting.

To give you an answer, Fou, I'd do the individual pots (but I've never done autos).

 

[nachoconqueso]

When you guys are setting up your blumats do you screw the brown piece all the way down before screwing the cap on or do you leave the brown piece all the way open and then screw the cap on?

 

[LEDfoot]

When you guys are setting up your blumats do you screw the brown piece all the way down before screwing the cap on or do you leave the brown piece all the way open and then screw the cap on?

I don't think it matters. I've only done this recently but I pulled the 3mm lines out of the caps before assembling under water. Three weeks of flawless use so far.

 

[nachoconqueso]

I don't think it matters. I've only done this recently but I pulled the 3mm lines out of the caps before assembling under water. Three weeks of flawless use so far.

I do the same thing. I just bought another set. 24 blumats and overall I'm still very happy with them. I took a 6 day vacation recently and they performed great while I was gone. I'm actually going to be adding these to a hempy smartpot coco setup. Can't get any better than that imo.

 

[rives]

When you guys are setting up your blumats do you screw the brown piece all the way down before screwing the cap on or do you leave the brown piece all the way open and then screw the cap on?

Don't screw the brown cap down tight and then assemble the blumat - there have been instances reported where the brown cap was broken by the force of the pinch valve moving into position as the spike starts to react to the media moisture. I've found that the "sweet spot" is highly repeatable for different plants, so I don't really move mine much from the previous setting, or if I do, I put it back where it was.

Having the top of the stationary green pointer roughly even with the bottom of the brown cap is a good place to start.

 

[nachoconqueso]

Got it. Any recommendations on how I should do the line for plants in a 3 x 4 layout. Circular or straight?

 

[rives]

My preference is to wrap the feed line around the perimeter with T's set every so often. You can use 90's in the corners to get the line to fit up to the walls tighter, if that is an issue. Any extra T's can be corked off with a short (3" +/-) chunk of the 3mm line with a couple of knots tied in it. I replace the short pieces of 3mm line that come with the blumats with some pieces that are about 3' long. This way you can move things around a bit without hitting a short leash. You do need to be careful of setting pots (or whatever) on the 3mm line because it is very easy to pinch off the flow. Feeding the 8mm line from each end helps, and I like to put a T at the mid-point of the run with a valve to purge the air out.