bobblehead overtakes

[DHF]

LMAO SH......Agree wholeheartedly bout cuttin to the chase and bypassin all the pesky rules of actually DIALIN yer shit........and....

Here`s the thing bout cu ftg.....It ALL depends on how pourous/aerated OR compact/dense said medium yas`re puttin in each said container for "volume" measurements.....but....

My# 5 sp`s were NOT 5 gallon containers just like nursery plastic pots are misleading bout how much actual medium they hold , and the ONLY container I EVER used that held the amount of medium as the container was sized is 3 1/2 and 5 gal buckets.....period....

When I mixed Chunky Perlite along with coco croutons/husks and all the stringy fibers for the perfect mix , the shit was waaay fluffy , but settled down lil bit after total saturation before plants went in , but.....

12" x 12" x 12" of medium goes only as far as the "actual" size of each container....fluffy or compacted....

Peace...DHF........

 

[greenmatter]

" design flaws" ........ "user error" ......... bullshit!

blumats work and bobble knows what he is doing .......... FACT is the more you do the more likely you are to wind up with shit happening. if grower A is growing 10x the number of blumats as grower B grower A is 10x more likely to get kicked in the ass by murphy's law

i started with 5 blumats and my ass was puckering for a week because i never used them before. i don't think i would have survived setting up on the scale of a bobblepod

 

[silver hawaiian]

Ha! That's why she's my wife dude - 'cause there ain't much be-trippin' goin' on, ever.

But the process leading up to finding the wife involved plenty of bitches been trippin', that's for shore :friends:

What I was saying was hateful was your bitches be DRIPPIN'

 

[FlowerFarmer]

This was in my thread earlier: Automation is the lazy gardener's worst enemy... You've still gotta be on top of your shit.

This is the ultimate truth.. any issues I have in my garden are related to getting too lazy because of the blumats...they've got it handled... I have friends that I blumat..and I have friends that I dont. There are people that cannot handle the automation..regardless of the method. They get too comfortable/distant and that is when issues occur.


I however.. can comfortably say that I could leave a trellised horizontal blumat garden for 30 days and produce the same optimal results regardless of if I was there or not. Sure.. I wouldn't do it late in flower when things were getting heavy, but that goes for any garden. I've got no problem leaving a garden in the vegetative stage for some time provided the res is large and the lights are excessively raised to account for stretch.

Speaking of user error.. I've got a good one.
A buddy of mine who is not a grower mixed a barrel once for a buddy that had to leave town. The grow was handwatered at the time needing hit daily. My buddy mixed up head recipe, but didnt use the pink for bloom! I come over to make sure everything is going good and notice that the bloombastic my buddy got was damn near gone. Upon questioning him..luckly he didnt try to hide his mistake. He mixed head recipe 6mL Micro / 9mL per Gal of Bloombastic! An emergency flush was in order..

I've got another buddy who likes to mix them in reverse.. He'll do 9mL micro / 6mL bloom. I'm not sure how many times he's done this but the plants actually never missed a beat.

^this is the main reason I blumat. I can mix a res and do my thing.. No need to rely on anyone else.. I'd rather rely on my carrots. If they fuck up their is typically a reason behind it.

I wouldn't mind messing around with pump top fed coco (to prevent having to drench to run-off and individually dial), but full size flood tables would be in order. That is my gripe with blumats.. they still require me to do laborious potting and have give each and every plant individual attention when dialing.

Hydro takes the cake there. With my JonJaffer style stadium I could pop in a clone and I was done. Res was on a RO top off... all I had to do was stick my truncheon in the diluted res and addback floranova bloom until I reached my target EC> So easy a caveman could do it.


Stacked gardens take a bit more dialage and grower craziness as DHF has stated. If I was in bobbles position I'd personally be going to the fast flow tubes similar to Heaths flood tube grow. In a grow with increased plant number I have to opt of hydro.. you wanna be able to pop a clone in and let the system take care of the rest. I certainly wouldn't want to be dialing 144 blumats every 4 weeks regardless of how reliable they are.

 

[DHF]

Stacked gardens are stacked gardens FF , be they on 2 walls as a stadium setup with plants on only 2 sides of the room , or plants on all 4 walls equidistant from the stacked bulbs versus the linear setup of bulbs side by side with staggered levels up and away from the bulbs.....so....

Point blank...It`s ALL about dialin YOUR setup with watts per sq ft , optimum environment and keeping each plant from overcrowding the 1`s next to em , over , or under each level for dialed and similar results from EACH plant for a consistent return on investment every run......and...

That`s why I preach takin 100`s of cuts MONOCROPPED and rootin em to find the cream of the crop for the flip rooms so they`ll ALL grow similar and create that "perfect" sideways canopy FTW and dialed returns across the board for "Yearly returns" instead of each run greatly varying from the last or the next....anyways...

My 2 centavos from all them yrs....

Peace....DHF..........

 

[bobblehead]

Trolls and asshats beware... Freds ate his wheaties this morning...

FF- how many days does it take you to dial your blumats? This is my biggest issue... Setting them up, and then driving 3hs away, not coming back till a week later. I need to be there 2x a week to dial the blumats in proper. My thinking is that i should be able to pull the old bag and plug in a new bag of the same size w/o making any adjustments. Is this the case for you? If not, i might as well scrap the idea of using blumats at this location, and swap everything out to DTW. Adjusting blumats 2x a week for every new crop isn't an option.

I've designed my octagon to only use 48 blumats, but that's still quite a few blumats to be playing with... I'm not making any drastic changes right away, but the next octagon will be built DTW... I'll be able to run them side by side and see which performs best.

I have to agree with you about Heath's designs... Vert sog doesn't require lots of individual attention to each plant, it's more about growing as many plants the best you can. Heath's plants weren't always in 100% perfect condition from what i've seen (i'm only talking minor deficiencies, not attacking HR), but there was always a lot of them and they were in mostly great shape. Closet growers are so focused on each plant... I feel that i need to be more focused on the general health of the whole garden... And not be concerned about a few plants here and there that are lacking... B/c in the big picture, those few plants are insignificant. Blumats i feel are more about individual plants, whereas DTW feeds the masses...

 

[high life 45]

I've also seen experienced growers say, mid-flowering, "Oh shit, I didn't realize the ballast was set at 600W and not 1000W."

LOL I did this exact thing last week. I left 3 of my 1ks on the 600w setting for about a week and had completely forgot about it.

Bobbles you got quite the thread going here and a great attitude, and it comes with an intelligent anti bs turret aka freds. I am over an hour from my grow and can only imagine being 3hours away. (GA$) Eager to see get this puppy DIALED! Keep up the good work.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Trolls and asshats beware... Freds ate his wheaties this morning...

FF- how many days does it take you to dial your blumats? This is my biggest issue... Setting them up, and then driving 3hs away, not coming back till a week later. I need to be there 2x a week to dial the blumats in proper. My thinking is that i should be able to pull the old bag and plug in a new bag of the same size w/o making any adjustments. Is this the case for you? If not, i might as well scrap the idea of using blumats at this location, and swap everything out to DTW. Adjusting blumats 2x a week for every new crop isn't an option.

I've designed my octagon to only use 48 blumats, but that's still quite a few blumats to be playing with... I'm not making any drastic changes right away, but the next octagon will be built DTW... I'll be able to run them side by side and see which performs best.

I have to agree with you about Heath's designs... Vert sog doesn't require lots of individual attention to each plant, it's more about growing as many plants the best you can. Heath's plants weren't always in 100% perfect condition from what i've seen (i'm only talking minor deficiencies, not attacking HR), but there was always a lot of them and they were in mostly great shape. Closet growers are so focused on each plant... I feel that i need to be more focused on the general health of the whole garden... And not be concerned about a few plants here and there that are lacking... B/c in the big picture, those few plants are insignificant. Blumats i feel are more about individual plants, whereas DTW feeds the masses...

I don't run any type of perpetual like that. I just crop out at 60 days and reload the room.. I usually have to give em a few weeks veg in the bloom room.. so I'm not super efficient and definitely hurting my crops per year. I'm working on sorting that now so that I can keep a flower room on 12/12 all the time. I'll likely try to crop 4k every month in a 8k staggered setup in my new space.

It takes me 1 good night after work to dial my blumats. I really dont mess with em after that unless its to open them up a hair come mid flower.

I go around and shove a blumat in each pot dialed shut...then..
I take my socks off..lol and drench the hell out of everything (48 plants) with a wand. I get a lot of run-off all over the place and make quite the mess. I then open my barrel valve and I go back around to each plant one by one and open the blumat to full stream.. let it blow out some air, etc initially and then dial to cling + 1 arrow or so. (used to go 1.5 arrow but I think it leaves them a little too light). I use straight atami coco normally in 2 Gallon Pots.

It sounds like I'm lucky compared to others but I never really touch them again after that. I keep a few blumats filled with water and soaking in case something comes up. I shouldnt have to repeat this process until I chop and re-setup the room in 60 days. I do use 55 gal drum pretty high in the air and top off before it gets down to 15-20 gal so pressure has not been an issue for me. I'm experimenting with a buddy pumping from a barrel to a elevated bucket and running the blumats off that.. so far so good.

I'm not sure if you could pull a pot and stab in a already dialed blumat to another pot. I'd assume you'd want to drench the new plant (to run-off) and dial to cling + 1 arrow. Cant say for sure though.. if this is possible I'd imagine you'd need both the old pot and new pot at the same moisture level in order not to throw the blumat off course.


I hear you on the plant numbers thing.. its no biggie to blumat smaller plant numbers, but with increased numbers I think there are better options.

My gears are grinding now over my 11x16 new space. I'm half tempted to just go 4k per side horizontal with like 16 plants per side harvested once a month. I also break-out like crazy when touching plants so vert (bushes) makes it a bit miserable for me when I need to slip around in there.. I know I might not get the yield of vertical, but I'd be cropping no worries every month. Unfortunately I've had a change of broker recently and only getting 3k a pop for my (L)abor. (used to get 3600). Its fast and immediate though so I guess I cant complain. It can be the difference of several thousand dollars however depending on my use of wattage and yield.

I'm a sucker for vert though.. its just so nasty.. I might duplicate my blumat circles in this new room and drop 600w lamps in the "voids" to see how that does.

Decisions..decisions..
I did just grab a commercial dehumidifier and got a 36k split ac on the way so its time to get serious and crop like clockwork.


take care

 

[megayields]

Holy cow.....miss a day and all shit breaks loose..I gotta go back and catch up (puts on his DHF flak jacket)

 

[farmhouse cat]

OK bobbles...you gave me the go ahead.

Just to lighten up the mood and lets yas all know that theres other things in life besides growin.

 

[greenmatter]

i thought that i would be able to "re stick" the blumats in new pots when i switched plants out. what i am seeing so far is that 9 out of 10 blumats have small air bubbles inside them after a two month run so i have been getting that out and re adjusting every cycle.

i have not had any huge problem dialing these in, but IMHO getting 50 of them right the first time and being able to drive away for a week at a time is probably not going to happen for you B. ........ murphy's law man

if you had 24-36 hours to watch and make minor adjustments at the start i think you could make it work for you ....... a sleeping bag and an empty piece of floor for one night could be the difference between disaster and perfection

i have never been three hours away from my grow unless i was on vacation .......... not sure if i would be able to stay sane or get any sleep if i was

good luck

 

[bobblehead]

i thought that i would be able to "re stick" the blumats in new pots when i switched plants out. what i am seeing so far is that 9 out of 10 blumats have small air bubbles inside them after a two month run so i have been getting that out and re adjusting every cycle.

i have not had any huge problem dialing these in, but IMHO getting 50 of them right the first time and being able to drive away for a week at a time is probably not going to happen for you B. ........ murphy's law man

if you had 24-36 hours to watch and make minor adjustments at the start i think you could make it work for you ....... a sleeping bag and an empty piece of floor for one night could be the difference between disaster and perfection

i have never been three hours away from my grow unless i was on vacation .......... not sure if i would be able to stay sane or get any sleep if i was

good luck

Thanks greenmatter! This is what I'm looking for... Good thing I keep this long ass thread, huh? ha ha... Reading yours and FF's experience setting the blumats, I need to hang out for 2 days to do it right. That I can handle... It's a lot better than cleaning up a flood. I know these blumats are legit, I'm just having troubles getting them perfect.

I have a full size bed in the kitchen, along with a refrigerator, microwave, and a micro-oven... Growing green beans, romas, multi-colored peppers, zucchini, and yellow squash with blumats outdoors... Veggies are looking great! Like my man FHC said, there's more to life than growing... and now that the weather is warming up, I'm gonna spend some time hanging out on Lake Huron. I might as well make the best of my time up north, right? My life is rough... haha... and because there is more to life than growing, I need to leave my work at the grow house, and be gone for most of the week so I can focus on making progress in other areas of my life. I'm only doing this for another 4 years... and I want to have some sort of life when I quit.

Anyway... Things are looking good for house #2 around August... and that's just my new place of residence... Maybe a legit medical grow within my numbers... oh my... ha ha... It's cheaper now-a-days to buy a house than rent a 1 bdrm apt. Crazy times we live in...

 

[Vic Hammer]

I've set up 3 runs of Blumats now so, a pro I am not. But, here's what I've found.

-If you set up the Blumats according to instructions then it will take 1-2 days before they begin to drip. Like FF said dialing down one carrot is better than 2. 2 is too dry.
-Each Blumat will have to be adjusted individually. Plants feed at different rates. Therefore maintaining equivalent moisture levels throughout the containers will require different drip rates. Since this is the case, re-stabbing preset Blumats, is not happening.
-The 3 gallon smarts I'm currently using drip constantly. If you dial a partially moist container down to a cling then it will likely get too dry. Their is a nub of roots growing up from the surface towards each dripper.
-Some Blumats are more sensitive than others. A slight adjustment can cause them to drip like crazy and saturate a container and overflow. I'm marking these and removing them from use at crops end.
-Air is not a problem. Why should it be? When the system opens to drip air will be forced out. I'm open to explanations as to how they can airlock or vapor lock.
-I find a small ring of moisture on top of the coco surface to work very nice. I then dial down slightly near end.

BTW, I a run on shelves 2 high. Each level fed with one rez no problem.

 

[ashesashes]

Good thing I keep this long ass thread, huh? ha ha... Reading yours and FF's experience setting the blumats, I need to hang out for 2 days to do it right. That I can handle...

Sooner than later, you'll be able to glance at them and have a sense on if the drips are fast enough for that size plant with those environmental conditions at that time of the day.

Understanding the lag time between adjustment and response is important. I suspect it will be much faster with your smaller pots that #7 nursery pots and Maxis.

Where the carrot is placed in the pot matters. Where the drip line drips matters. If I had to dial in your numbers, I'd probably be a little more particular about being consistent plant to plant.

But if I was going to grow your numbers, I'd probably run DTW like you are talking about, or some other system.

 

[ashesashes]

Air is not a problem. Why should it be? When the system opens to drip air will be forced out. I'm open to explanations as to how they can airlock or vapor lock.

Air is a problem when there is not sufficient back pressure to force air out. Like ducting, hoses create resistance over distance and at 90s and other curves. This has the effect of reducing pressure in systems where these details were not attended to, or necessity demanded them, or the reservoir was not super high above the system (i.e. not high pressure to begin with). Now bubbles aren't being forced out, and boom: airlock.

Your set up might not create airlock. Good for you. I bled the system daily, and daily the first gallon had significant air bubbles in it. This process eventually got automated.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Growing green beans, romas, multi-colored peppers, zucchini, and yellow squash with blumats outdoors... Veggies are looking great! Like my man FHC said, there's more to life than growing... and now that the weather is warming up,

My vegi's are doing great as well. That is how I got the blisters on my hand the last time you saw me. Digging in the garden. My wife wants it so I get the blisters for her doing the laundry. Who wants to do laundry that's women's work you know.

 

[megayields]

Thanks greenmatter! This is what I'm looking for... Good thing I keep this long ass thread, huh? ha ha... Reading yours and FF's experience setting the blumats, I need to hang out for 2 days to do it right. That I can handle... It's a lot better than cleaning up a flood. I know these blumats are legit, I'm just having troubles getting them perfect.

I have a full size bed in the kitchen, along with a refrigerator, microwave, and a micro-oven... Growing green beans, romas, multi-colored peppers, zucchini, and yellow squash with blumats outdoors... Veggies are looking great! Like my man FHC said, there's more to life than growing... and now that the weather is warming up, I'm gonna spend some time hanging out on Lake Huron. I might as well make the best of my time up north, right? My life is rough... haha... and because there is more to life than growing, I need to leave my work at the grow house, and be gone for most of the week so I can focus on making progress in other areas of my life. I'm only doing this for another 4 years... and I want to have some sort of life when I quit.

Anyway... Things are looking good for house #2 around August... and that's just my new place of residence... Maybe a legit medical grow within my numbers... oh my... ha ha... It's cheaper now-a-days to buy a house than rent a 1 bdrm apt. Crazy times we live in...

Dude your at Lake Huron..IVE BEEN THEIR! lol..I delivered a load of lettuce their like a year ago...omg how weird is that?

OK Blumat question..what is the largest amount of Blumat's that can be run easily, I've been contemplating Blumat's but my flower room plant count is about 85-100 plants in #2 smarties and CoCO....can it be done with that high a plant count? I don't think I can get a reservoir BIG enough in my grow area also lol??? Can I?

 

[bobblehead]

I've set up 3 runs of Blumats now so, a pro I am not. But, here's what I've found.

-If you set up the Blumats according to instructions then it will take 1-2 days before they begin to drip. Like FF said dialing down one carrot is better than 2. 2 is too dry.
-Each Blumat will have to be adjusted individually. Plants feed at different rates. Therefore maintaining equivalent moisture levels throughout the containers will require different drip rates. Since this is the case, re-stabbing preset Blumats, is not happening.
-The 3 gallon smarts I'm currently using drip constantly. If you dial a partially moist container down to a cling then it will likely get too dry. Their is a nub of roots growing up from the surface towards each dripper.
-Some Blumats are more sensitive than others. A slight adjustment can cause them to drip like crazy and saturate a container and overflow. I'm marking these and removing them from use at crops end.
-Air is not a problem. Why should it be? When the system opens to drip air will be forced out. I'm open to explanations as to how they can airlock or vapor lock.
-I find a small ring of moisture on top of the coco surface to work very nice. I then dial down slightly near end.

BTW, I a run on shelves 2 high. Each level fed with one rez no problem.

Sooner than later, you'll be able to glance at them and have a sense on if the drips are fast enough for that size plant with those environmental conditions at that time of the day.

Understanding the lag time between adjustment and response is important. I suspect it will be much faster with your smaller pots that #7 nursery pots and Maxis.

Where the carrot is placed in the pot matters. Where the drip line drips matters. If I had to dial in your numbers, I'd probably be a little more particular about being consistent plant to plant.

But if I was going to grow your numbers, I'd probably run DTW like you are talking about, or some other system.

Air is a problem when there is not sufficient back pressure to force air out. Like ducting, hoses create resistance over distance and at 90s and other curves. This has the effect of reducing pressure in systems where these details were not attended to, or necessity demanded them, or the reservoir was not super high above the system (i.e. not high pressure to begin with). Now bubbles aren't being forced out, and boom: airlock.

Your set up might not create airlock. Good for you. I bled the system daily, and daily the first gallon had significant air bubbles in it. This process eventually got automated.

Thank you guys for dropping some knowledge on me. FF too. I also now understand why some pots dry out and others don't... I didn't realize I was supposed to completely drench the medium. I thought it was supposed to be at the desired moisture level. This shit is hitting me like a ton of bricks now... I'm so happy I did 1 grow with the blumats already to get some experience with them, I'm on the second now. I'm really excited now to go back and fix things right.

I've experienced the air lock going from the 1/2" tubing to the 1/4" tubing. My solution was to bleed the 1/2", then attach the 1/4", and then bleed the 1/4". B/c I only bled the 1/4" to begin with, I ended up having air stuck in the 1/2" tubing. It's only a matter of when those air bubbles move if they're there...

My vegi's are doing great as well. That is how I got the blisters on my hand the last time you saw me. Digging in the garden. My wife wants it so I get the blisters for her doing the laundry. Who wants to do laundry that's women's work you know.

lol... As should be the cooking and cleaning... The last girl scratched up my teflon frying pans though... Should have known to cull her then.

Dude your at Lake Huron..IVE BEEN THEIR! lol..I delivered a load of lettuce their like a year ago...omg how weird is that?

OK Blumat question..what is the largest amount of Blumat's that can be run easily, I've been contemplating Blumat's but my flower room plant count is about 85-100 plants in #2 smarties and CoCO....can it be done with that high a plant count? I don't think I can get a reservoir BIG enough in my grow area also lol??? Can I?

lol, oh Mega... Lake Huron is HUGE... Good luck finding me based on the information provided in this thread.

I don't see why you can't use blumats bro... FlowerFarmer does it big and he's using 55gal drums... I don't see why you can't stack up 2 55g drums... Or get a 100gal rubbermaid horse trough... It would warm Freds heart.

 

[megayields]

LOL oh I know I was actually in Port Huron to be exact ...well...so 2 55gal drums and I need to get the drain reservoir HIGHER than the 3rd shelf correct?

 

[Vic Hammer]

Air is a problem when there is not sufficient back pressure to force air out. Like ducting, hoses create resistance over distance and at 90s and other curves. This has the effect of reducing pressure in systems where these details were not attended to, or necessity demanded them, or the reservoir was not super high above the system (i.e. not high pressure to begin with). Now bubbles aren't being forced out, and boom: airlock.

Uhm, back pressure is what will prevent air or liquid from flowing out of the system. Head pressure forces the liquid out through the drippers. And, yes I did assume a properly setup system.
Cause if it isn't setup right then of course if can't be expected to function right.

Your set up might not create airlock. Good for you.

Are you guys attaching the Blumats in the totally closed position? If so, the system should bleed when you open them. Let run till no air appears and then dial to the cling. Then dial down one carrot. The system is bled. Move on to dialing in. Unless you let the rez level get below your feed line then no more air is introduced. No airlock.