Drippers vs blumats in a DTW coco grow

MojoRizing

MojoRizing

Well-Known Member
getting ready to dive into the world of coco and definitely want to setup an automatic watering system. Just looking for some advice with choosing between blumats and an automated top drip feed system. I like the whole concept of DTW and can see the benefits of multiple feedings where you are flushing out the old nutes with fresh nutes by forcing runoff. With the blumats You aren't really getting any runoff right? So would you not technically be flushing the medium and thereby getting the benefits of DTW?
 
They are a self wartering system. Basic idea is that you plant the blumats into your medium at the desired wetness. As the medium dries out it dries out the ceramic cone in the blumats which then opens up the water feed tube that it's connected to. Once the desired moisture level is again reached it closes off the feed tube. In theory it will keep the medium always at the desired moisture level.
 
Kind of sounds like a modified auto pot system. Sounds interesting. Never heard of such a thingies do run drip to waist and absolutely love it
 
There is a pretty big thread on blumats over on another message board. You can google blumats and should be able to find it if you are interested in reading more about them. Apparently they go with coco like peas and carrots.
 
I've been doing blumats in coco for about 2 years and I love it. I only run 1-3 plants at a time on my system. I use drip clean to fight the salt buildup, and there will always be a couple of blowouts where the blumat gets out of adjustment because I fucked with it. As long as you can keep the tank stable, you can leave the setup to run itself for days. I go out of town sometimes for 5 day weekends and everything is always cool when I get back. My best haul using this system was a little over 8oz pineapple chunk in a 30"x30" scrog tent.
 
It is much easier putting in one to two gallons in the rez than it is doing 2 to 5 hand waterings a day! Wish I made the change yrs ago, one of the main things I like is there is no pump to crash when i am away for a couple of days.
GR
 
I would say blumats if you only have a couple plants but def go with dripper system if you have a lot. Blumats are gravity fed and it gets complicated if you have some pots higher than others, low pressure can get clogged easier, etc. I run 55 gal barrels with enough air bubbles so they look like hot tubs with pumps on timers. an easy way to do it is get a garden hose attach it to the pump, lay the hose in the middle of your plant rows. Drill holes and connect barbed 1/4" connectors into the hose and run 1/4" black hose lines to each plant. I also prefer using 2gph drip emitters on the lines running to the plants so the water pressure equalizes to all plants.
 
cocojo3 said:
I would say blumats if you only have a couple plants but def go with dripper system if you have a lot. Blumats are gravity fed and it gets complicated if you have some pots higher than others, low pressure can get clogged easier, etc. I run 55 gal barrels with enough air bubbles so they look like hot tubs with pumps on timers. an easy way to do it is get a garden hose attach it to the pump, lay the hose in the middle of your plant rows. Drill holes and connect barbed 1/4" connectors into the hose and run 1/4" black hose lines to each plant. I also prefer using 2gph drip emitters on the lines running to the plants so the water pressure equalizes to all plants.
Click to expand...

I agree completely.

I'm assuming your DTW and not recirculating correct? I have drums as well and was told by a few people not to bother with air stones in the reservoirs as there would be enough oxygen uptake simply from coming out of the lines and into the medium. Any input?

Personally I like the idea of having air stones. If anything to keep the nutrient solution consistent. Especially since there is no feeding during the lights off. 12 hours of solution sitting there stagnant is not something I agree with.

Our co2 setup would require us to have about 60' of tubing to be able to get the pumps out of the co2 and into a fresh air environment so that's why we didn't run the air pumps.

How's the pH swing from having that much air induced into the reservoirs?

Personally I find that if you create a loop manifold you wont need to worry about even pressure. We also run open ended tubing in conjunction with an inline filter to negate any possibility of dealing with a clogged emitter.

Sorry for hijacking the thread there Mojo... Not my intention.

I wouldn't fuck around with the blumats after going DTW with pumps. WAAAAAY more control brother. And like you said, you will have control over runoff %, as well as feed intervals. blumats do a great job of keeping a medium moist, but with multi-feeds in coco your also getting the introduction of air into the root mass following the feeding. I used blumats in a soilless mix when I had a family member become Ill and had to fuck off for a week. Other than in an instance like that I wouldn't use them. Coco is about growth rate, oxygen into the rootmass, and multi feeds. Using them in Coco is like only using 2 gears in a Porsche. Yeah your still going to move forward but not nearly to the potential.
 
Yes dtw. Even if the solution is oxygenated enough there's no harm in supercharging it. the air stones also keep the reservoirs constantly mixed. with my air stone setup my drum levels off additives in about 30 seconds. a good way to test this is add ph up or down and see how long it takes for your ph to settle.
My ph swing is about .3 per 2 days but that would vary more so on your nutrients used.
I used to use drip emitters like .5 gph per plant at the end of each line coming off my main line but recently I've taken them off and I get enough flow in 1 minute to have 30% runoff per watering and pretty even too. I check by watching when my pots start leaking out of the bottom and even with no controls the pots are all within 10 seconds of each other. Now I don't have to worry about clogged emitters. That's running 36 plants on that system too.
 
Thanks so much for the great info. Definitely going to add some stones to the drums after reading this.
 
Terrapin2 said:
can anyone recommended a blumat setup?
Click to expand...
The deck and planter kit has everything to get started. Recommend you get the shutoff valve too. All you need is a 5 gallon bucket. From here you just add the parts you need to expand if you like them. downside is they take up a lot of space if you have larger plants.....lots of five gallon buckets.
 
gr865 said:
It is much easier putting in one to two gallons in the rez than it is doing 2 to 5 hand waterings a day! Wish I made the change yrs ago, one of the main things I like is there is no pump to crash when i am away for a couple of days.
GR
Click to expand...

Fast forward 1 plus years.
I had so many problems with the Blumats in coco, lost most of a grow.
I switched to a drip system for my past two grows and loving it. Total of 39 zips of smokable from a total of 6 plants in the two grows, two in one grow and 4 plants in the last grow.
I am sure that some people have had great results. But I went away for 5 days and the Blumats quit sometime early after I left, upon my return of the 5 plants in the tent, 4 were dead and one never recovered. Was running a vertical 400W coco grow with 5 plants on screens, they were about 5 weeks into flower when I took the trip. Learned a lesson on that grow.

GR
 
gr865 said:
Fast forward 1 plus years.
I had so many problems with the Blumats in coco, lost most of a grow.
I switched to a drip system for my past two grows and loving it. [ ... ] I am sure that some people have had great results. But I went away for 5 days and the Blumats quit sometime early after I left, upon my return of the 5 plants in the tent, 4 were dead and one never recovered. Was running a vertical 400W coco grow with 5 plants on screens, they were about 5 weeks into flower when I took the trip. Learned a lesson on that grow.
Click to expand...

Bummer. I don't even think twice about leaving my grow for a week, I've been gone almost four weeks before without incident. I run a perpetual 3-chamber cab with sixteen bonsai moms in party cups with coco/perlite, each with a Blumat carrot, plus a couple normal sized pots vegging and six in flower.

How long was your Blumat setup going before you left for five days?
 
Observe & Report said:
Bummer. I don't even think twice about leaving my grow for a week, I've been gone almost four weeks before without incident. I run a perpetual 3-chamber cab with sixteen bonsai moms in party cups with coco/perlite, each with a Blumat carrot, plus a couple normal sized pots vegging and six in flower.

How long was your Blumat setup going before you left for five days?
Click to expand...

I had been fucking with it for months before I thought it as good, it ran for a few weeks before I left on the trip. Water was never even through all the pots.
 
gr865 said:
Fast forward 1 plus years.
I had so many problems with the Blumats in coco, lost most of a grow.
I switched to a drip system for my past two grows and loving it. Total of 39 zips of smokable from a total of 6 plants in the two grows, two in one grow and 4 plants in the last grow.
I am sure that some people have had great results. But I went away for 5 days and the Blumats quit sometime early after I left, upon my return of the 5 plants in the tent, 4 were dead and one never recovered. Was running a vertical 400W coco grow with 5 plants on screens, they were about 5 weeks into flower when I took the trip. Learned a lesson on that grow.

GR
Click to expand...
Got a buddy that swore by Tropf Blumats when the forums where all over em and raving. I was skeptical. About 6 months ago by buddy ditched em in a fit of rage. Couldnt get to work right. He went to a super simple regular ole drip system like mine and said never again. I knew them pricey gadgets weren't for me. Glad I skipped that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top