Blumat auto watering

[greenmatter]

And so the goal of this is to build a cheaper Maxi-carrot?? Or are we thinking these would be better than a Maxi?

for me at least it is because i have more standard blumats than i use and i need maxis because i think they will do good things in the 10 gallon totes ......... if i can get 20 maxis out of a $5 piece of PVC i'll be a happy camper

if these work i think a bastardized blumat "midi" might be a good thing in medium sized pots (i know i had dry spots in the 3 gallon geo's on occasion). maybe making them longer than maxis would help out in really large outdoor pots

to be honest i would be happy if they work at all ....... IMHO it would be real hard to improve blumats

 

[Canniwhatsis]

Having issues getting my Maxi dialed in in a 20 gallon smart pot with 4 distributor heads,..... bottom staying really wet,.... nice wick thru most of the soil, but still a very SLOW runaway happened (took 3 days to fill the drip tray, all the while turning it back a smidge (half arrow) each day, finally over flowed today and I turned it back 2 arrows)



Not sure what's going on, Took a lot of force to get the carrot thru the rootmass and I"m kinda wondering if I didn't crack something?

 

[silver hawaiian]

I dig it.

If this proves successful, I'd say it's a + in the sense of the easy conversion from the reggalar blumat into a maxi.

I've not yet experimented with the distributors, but I've tried multiple tropfs in larger containers, and had always wondered how a single maxi (or fewer maxi's than tropfs) would fare. But, never really was convenient to get a single maxi or two for testin's sake..

 

[GuFF]

I've figured out a way to use fertilizer injectors with blumats, therefore eliminating reservoirs and allowing a VERY long time between fertigation maintainence. The problem before was the minimum flow rate for injectors to be accurate, here's how I plan to solve that, this is the inline set up:

Main water source off tap >
Backflow prevention >
Fertilizer injector A >
backflow preventor >
Fertilizer injector B >
Solenoid valve with backflow prevention >
Accumulator tank >
pressure switch >
Blumat pressure reducer >
Blumats.

The pressure switch is powered by your home's 110VAC, the switch is then wired to a transformer which has an output of 24VAC, that is then wired to the solenoid valve. All of these can be purchased at Menards.

You must measure your source water's pressure,
1) if you have city water it should stay consistent.
2) If you have a well, then it will fluctuate with the pressure switch on your water pump.

The high pressure cut off on the pressure switch for the blumats must be lower than the lowest pressure of your source water. That way the high pressure cut off is met even of your source water is at its lowest pressure.

I plan on using the Young Mixer/Proportioners. They have no moving parts and have a bag inside that does not allow your source water to come in contact with the concentrated nutrient solution. They also have a setting to change the dilution ratio from 200:1 all the way down to 30:1, that way a 2 gal proportioner (injector) could last you anywhere from 400 gallons of fertigation solution down to 60 gallons.

I was interested in the Add-it Proportioners which use the same concept as the Young proportioners but with sizes down to 1 pint (ideal for small set ups), but unfortunately they dont have a plastic bag for the concentrated nutrient solution therefore would allow a small amount of the source water to come in contact with the concentrated nutrient solution. Would work fine for a one part fertilizer but with a 2 part as I use, the calcium from the A injector and source water would cause calcium phosphate to precipitate out in the fertilizer B tank.

 

[sunnydog]

Tip

Tip

If you find a BM constantly flooding, AND the adj. knob difficult to turn, IME, it is likely cross threaded.

Also, a note to new users, ADJUSTMENT gets EASIER with experience.
After a while, you will just "know" how to adjust. I can adj. 40+ and usually only need to tweek one or two after the first few days.


Best wishes,
SunnyD

 

[rrog]

What an excellent post! These things can easily get cross threaded. I don't know why this isn't mentioned a lot more. I've done it and suffered one of the 3 runoffs I've ever had.

 

[pakalou]

hi blumatters!

how about using maxi or the pvc extension to drip from higher point to the coco surface for making more DO?

if anybody tried, did it work?
or do you think it does?

 

[sunnydog]

hi blumatters!

how about using maxi or the pvc extension to drip from higher point to the coco surface for making more DO?

if anybody tried, did it work?
or do you think it does?

Don't think so hard.

 

[pakalou]

i'll try if nobody did when my lady ready.

 

[Grow4Flow]

uh, i don't think you're going to create DO by creating a "Splash" on a dry surface.

 

[rrog]

Stick to an "open" soil with aeration amendments, maybe. Use a fabric pot like Smart or Geopot. Both will go a LOT further to increase O2 in the soil

 

[ak-51]

EZ-cloner with plain tap water and home-made Clear-Rez.

Then into Canna Coco and watered with Jack's Hydroponic + Calcium Nitrate, Rhizotonic and maybe Pro-Tekt (can't really remember). Sometimes I even watered them with runoff from my flower stuff (which I did not pH or check with the truncheon either). This was all under T5's up to this point.

Then onto the table under the 1K MH with blumats, where they've been for 5 or 6 days. They're only getting Jack's Hydroponic and the Calcium Nitrate through the blumats. I gave them some Great White a day or two ago by sprinkling it on and then watering it in a little bit.

Please visit my suggestion thread to increase the size limits on pictures and voice your support.

 

[Mantra]

Hey all!

I'm about to do a run in coco using 25litre air pots (just 5 of them). These are 30cm in diameter and about 30cm deep. Would you recommend I use two carrots per pot?

Where should I position the carrots do you think? If I go with two carrots per pot, and assuming the plant is in the middle of the pot, should I place the carrots on opposite sides of the plant about midway between the stem and the rim of the pot? And where should I point the dropper hoses? I could point them right at the stem, but am thinking it might be more even if, coming from the carrot, I let the drip hose run for 3cm or so, whack a t piece in it, and then have another 4cm of hose on each end of the t piece. That would give me four points where it drips per pot, evenly spaced midway between the stem and the edges of the pot.

Does this sound feasible? Any input is appreciated! If there is optimal placement for the carrots and for the end point of the dropper hose in air pots of this size, I'm all ears.

I will be running the full suite of H&G nutes into canna coco.

 

[Mantra]

Ah - here is a diagram to illustrate what I mean.

Grey line = looped hose to res.
Brown lines = 3mm hose.
Green circle = stem.
Brown squares = carrots.

 

[sunnydog]

Ah - here is a diagram to illustrate what I mean.

Grey line = looped hose to res.
Brown lines = 3mm hose.
Green circle = stem.
Brown squares = carrots.

View Image

You could probably use one carrot with 3 slave drippers.

 

[Mantra]

You could probably use one carrot with 3 slave drippers.

Cheers, SD. You're a legend! Thanks for all your contributions to this thread.

 

[Mantra]

Ah. One more thing. Sorry if pester this thread a bit over the next little bit. I last grew a couple of years ago and I hadn't heard of this technology. I'm a big fan of coco, and used to hand water - which was a nice way of learning to read the plants. But it was also inexact and a pain in the ass at times and I made mistakes. So this might be the technique I've been looking for! So I'm excited to begin my first grow with this technology. And I'll doubtless have a few questions to ask. Thanks for your patience, all.

I'm up to page eighty or so of this thread so far, and am looking forward to finishing it. But I need to order some stuff now - so sorry if I'm asking anything that's already been answered.

So my next question is:

I used to grow in 70% canna coco and 30% perlite.

Are there any opinions on adding perlite to coco (specifically canna if it matters) and is there a standard mix people use with blumats?

 

[rrog]

I have no comment on the medium question, but will say I use one carrot and three drippers and loved it. Very even moisture.

 

[ak-51]

I used to grow in 70% canna coco and 30% perlite.

Are there any opinions on adding perlite to coco (specifically canna if it matters) and is there a standard mix people use with blumats?

I just run with 100% Canna coco. In the past I have put hydroton or grow rocks on the bottom of the pots to aid drainage, but I am testing just doing coco from top to bottom.

Is there a benefit to using perlite in coco with blumats? I have never really looked into it.

 

[rives]

I use Botanicare Readygro Aeration formula, which is coco with perlite already added (don't know the proportions), as well as EWC, and a few other things. It works great, the only issue that I've seen is getting the media packed tightly enough around the Blumat for it to do a good job sensing the moisture.