Blumat or Ceramic Self Watering Probes?

[billgee]

I was running a Blumat test. I was impressed. I was a bit hand-wrangled when it came to the setup but I looked forward to a life of filling up a reservoir with nutes, tie all of them together in a system and step/ back from the tedium of hand watering.
Then, I ran into these Self-Watering Probes on Amazon and tried them out. They have the advantage of separating the pots from the Ponderous Blumat system. Each (5 for $10.68) can be attached to a one gallon water jug (and dont you have too many of those around).

So now Im leaning toward the independent Ceramic probes without all the messy interconnected black tubes.

Any body got any experience with them?​

 

[RedBeardy5]

Can you post a link for those ceramic probes. I rum blumats and love them.

 

[billgee]

Can you post a link for those ceramic probes. I rum blumats and love them.

Could you tell me anything about Blumats and why you love them. I got all tied up in the stiff black feeder lines and there was a problem with keeping the lines clear though they were bigger than american counterparts. The Probes from Amazon dont seem to come from anywhere and no support
They can be found at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002VAHXC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[RedBeardy5]

Blumats water when needed and are so simple to setup. I went with 1/2inch tubing and the 3/32 kent tees.

 

[RedBeardy5]

Those probes off amazon look like blumats lol it's a good idea

 

[touchofgrey]

I have been running blumats for years and love them. You just keep the rez filled and let gravity do the rest. Depending on your nutes I'd be a bit concerned about clogging on a system that actually feeds through the ceramic cones. My $.02

You're right, the blumat tubing is a pain, it's better to use an alternate super flexible red silicone hose. The best source I have found for blumats and a huge selection of fittings and accessories is these guys. http://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=59


I just redid the irrigation setup when I remodeled my cabinet. I added some auto shutoff disconnects that have made it easy to remove the plants for training and trimming.

 

[stoned40yrs]

Hey TOG are you using two reservoirs, one with a pump to fill the other or just 1 res? Nice looking setup!

 

[touchofgrey]

Hey TOG are you using two reservoirs, one with a pump to fill the other or just 1 res? Nice looking setup!

Thanks, blumats and coco make life simple. I just use one rez. 5 gallon camping water container that I've adapted to garden hose then adapted to blumat hose. I use garden hose quick disconnect fittings (with auto stop) to unhook the rez then just remove the cap to refill. I usually only mix 3 gallons at a time which will last a week in my little box.

 

[stoned40yrs]

Thanks, blumats and coco make life simple. I just use one rez. 5 gallon camping water container that I've adapted to garden hose then adapted to blumat hose. I use garden hose quick disconnect fittings (with auto stop) to unhook the rez then just remove the cap to refill. I usually only mix 3 gallons at a time which will last a week in my little box.

THX!

 

[rives]

Those are "Blumat Jr's" or knock-offs. They water through the ceramic spike itself, rather than using a pinch valve to regulate flow through a hose. They have several drawbacks for our usage, but they work pretty well for ornamental plants running straight water at low volume.

Because the water needs to flow through the ceramic on the spike, the potential volume of flow is much lower than regular blumats. They are dependent on siphoning, and the moisture content in the plant will vary considerably based on elevation changes in the reservoir feeding the spikes. They also must feed out of a reservoir that is very nearby the plants, so you can't use one central reservoir.

 

[gobyebye]

im running blumats and i dont have a problem except if you bump the maxis,but thats just because i have my maxis on the bottom side of my pot..its said that they can be put on the bottom side of the pot,or the top..now that ive gone through all this trouble,i would just start off by putting them on top,so theres no issues..its just really annoying, because if you bump them even the slightest bit, the whole pot will flood. Also depending on your soil makeup, if you have a lot of perlite, they can get in the way of the ceramic carrot. I have a lot larger setup and use organic soil and my soil moisture content has to be a certain %, so i would go on irrometer.com and order a soil tensiometer

 

[billgee]

I went with 1/2inch tubing and the 3/32 kent tees.

1/2 inch tubing Where?
3/32 kent tees??????

 

[billgee]

bump the maxis, but thats just because i have my maxis on the bottom side of my pot..

Maxis are their long ones, right? I just bought 2 to try out

Not sure what you mean by 'bottom side'

 

[gobyebye]

yea maxis are the longer ones. you can either put them both in the top or one on the top(smaller carrot) and punch a hole in the side of the pot vertically and insert the larger carrot (maxi) but i found theres a large deadband that can cause problems