COCO and BLUMATS FTW!

[TribalSeeds]

They have drip line hole plugs that you could use to plug into the main line for stuff like that

 

[FlowerFarmer]

so i had my first major fuckup with blumats last night lol. i pulled that jackberry ko out of the tent and instead of tying the end of the drip line like i normally do i just tightened down the screw valve on the blumat itself. BIG MISTAKE lol. i walked in to 20+ gal of water in my tent floor this morning. good thing they are water proof other wise i would have jacked up my floor. lets hope the seals dont leak before i get off work tonight when i will have time to shop vac out the water. fingers crossed haha

doh...

Should have tossed the carrot in a small bowl of water to keep it saturated.. if ceramic part is completely wet it likely wouldn't have opened up on ya. You'd want to do this anyways so that the carrot doesnt dry up. They'd need to be completely filled and soaking in water before re-setup. Best to toss em in water anytime they are not in use to prevent having to re-fill them an re-soak.

Another poster mentioned that he normally keep some clothes pins on hand. They work pretty well at temporarily closing the open 3mm line.

These kind.

 

[TribalSeeds]

After hand feeding tea or whatever, do you guys shut down the valves to the res or just let the drippers go while its really soaked?

 

[Mister_D]

Tribal - there is no reason to touch the blumat after hand watering. It will merely sense the pot is wet and stop dripping until the plant drinks some water. This is the beauty of blumats, they are automatic

 

[TribalSeeds]

Cool. I let them sit overnight after hand watering when I first installed the blumats, so I wanted to make sure they werent supposed to be left running in a soaking container. I havent seen them completely stop dripping since installing them.

 

[Desert Hydro]

i took down the heri and jackberry earlier today. saved the heri to reveg. its gonna be some of the strongest stuff ive ever seen. it looks way more frosty than the jb and i gave a buddy an uncured piece of jb about the size of an m and m and he said it fried him big time off one hit and he's an everyday smoker. if thats any indication of how stron the heri will be then i am honestly a bit scared to smoke it lol. i have little to no tolerance.......

you might be wondering where the giant bitch in the corner went.......it fell over and i cant get back to it so it stays where its at for a couple more days. they are damn near done. no more than a week more tops.

 

[Mister_D]

Tribal - You could always dial them down 1/4-1/2 arrow if you media is too wet for your liking.

 

[DreadNeck]

Blumats are the way to go with coco. If I didn't have issues with getting rid of coco (nosy neighbors) I would still use that setup. Made the switch to hydro recently. Anyways, your coco looks a little dry, make sure your ceramic sensor didnt suck up the water! Good luck with your grow.

Peace,
Ruger

I've only run coco once but I just spread it around my yard and then mowed over it. Approximately 150 gallons.

 

[Grow4Flow]

I gave these things a shot and they were very simple to set up but a pain in the ass to troubleshoot. I would keep my coco damp but no matter how many times i dialed those things in, they would not drip when they needed to.

 

[rives]

I gave these things a shot and they were very simple to set up but a pain in the ass to troubleshoot. I would keep my coco damp but no matter how many times i dialed those things in, they would not drip when they needed to.

I would suggest that perhaps you weren't doing something right. I'm on my first run with Botanicare ReadyGro Aeration mix (coco & perlite) after about 2-1/2 years of using SS#4 with them, and am loving it. I've found that if you set them up properly and leave them alone, they will actually do a far better job than you can.

 

[Grow4Flow]

The problem I was having was with the cones draining out without the drippers ever opening up. I could unscrew the valve a tiny bit and have water pouring out but they would never drip when the coco was dry.

I had only a 5 ft length of feeding line running to 5 root pots in a basic loop. Don't understand what happened. I have three of these patio kits waiting to be used so I guess I will try them in grow bags next.

 

[rives]

If you get the preliminary moisture set right in your pot, and you soak the blumats, and assemble them under water then you should be golden. Rrog, I believe, came up with the notion of squirting water from a syringe into the holes in the cap (while holding it under water) - this purges out the last of the air bubbles, and makes the blumat far more responsive. Unlike SS#4, the blumat in aeromix never really seems to stop dripping.

You haven't mentioned your reservoir elevation - the more, the better. If you decide to give them another shot, jump on here if you have problems and there should be plenty of help available.

 

[Grow4Flow]

oh, i see. maybe i went wrong by not assembling under water. i was filling them up to the top an screwing the cap on.

i use a 5 gal beer fermenter for my res as it has a spigot built into it. the bottom of it is approximately 4ft off the floor and the root pots are about 4in off of the floor so it seems to allow plenty of gravitational feed. these pots dry out quickly too, they are much like air pots.

http://www.sodohydro.com/2011/06/rout-your-roots/

 

[rives]

Those pots look pretty cool! Sounds like you should have plenty of head pressure. If you roll the assembled blumat around after you have it filled with water, you shouldn't be able to see any air bubbles through the translucent green section. They seem to keep working later in the run with a bit of air, but the response is so sluggish that it is nearly impossible to get them set-up properly that way. I forgot to mention to make sure and soak them for at least several hours (I do it overnight) before assembling/installing them.

When I was using SS#4, I would water the pot to runoff and let it sit for a day, install the blumat and adjust it to a clinging drip. This always worked great. Since this was my first time with a coco-based media, I watered the mix in a large drain pan until it got to what seemed like the right moisture content, put it in the pots, and installed the blumats like I always had. This seemed to work pretty well - I was concerned about letting coco sit for a day because it seemed like it might dry out too much. Still figuring it out!

 

[Grow4Flow]

DH, what method of feeding are you doing on the rockwool and are you just sticking to MaxiBloom only as your nute?

Also, do you train your plants in the airpots or let them do what they want?

 

[Ermahgerd]

I'm interested in switching over to coco and looking for a easy way to water and noticed your thread. Very nice man =)
I'm having trouble finding these blumats and you mentioned something about a 12pack. I've only found these two links:
http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/product/TBTK.htm
http://www.grotec.co.uk/Drippers
Think they look legit?
I'm thinking of starting off in root riots > 1.5L round pots > 7.6L smart pots. Do you think these blumats are enough for them pots?
Sorry still new to this game and my head is swelling from tons of reading haha.

 

[St3ve]

Here is a great place to get them online.

 

[Ermahgerd]

Thanks st3ve, but i'm looking for UK/Europe sites since I don't want to pay a ton on shipping. On a bit of a budget

 

[rives]

Thanks st3ve, but i'm looking for UK/Europe sites since I don't want to pay a ton on shipping. On a bit of a budget

How about straight from Blumat in Germany?

http://www.blumat-shop.de/Tropf-Blumat/Sets/

 

[Ermahgerd]

Thanks for that link rives.