Blumat system advice?

[TheRealJPeterman]

FYI, sustainablevillage.com is one of the best sources of any blumat accessory, fitting, shut off valve, etc. you could possibly need.

For those in Canada, blackswallowsoil.com also offers every blumat accessory as well. I'd also recommend the kis organics podcasts from Tad Hussey. He has a couple episodes where they focus solely on blumats for anyone interested in learning more about them.

 

[JustBlazin]

this threads been great thanks for all the usefull info. i have a couple more questions do you need an air stone in your res to keep the water agitated? as i read that algae could be a problem with tap water and can you take out a male thats using a carrot? or if you have a seperate veg room can you use blumats in both, just not sure how you would disconnect a carrot from the line without screwing everything else up, i guess you just take the carrot out and leave it?

 

[TheRealJPeterman]

this threads been great thanks for all the usefull info. i have a couple more questions do you need an air stone in your res to keep the water agitated? as i read that algae could be a problem with tap water and can you take out a male thats using a carrot? or if you have a seperate veg room can you use blumats in both, just not sure how you would disconnect a carrot from the line without screwing everything else up, i guess you just take the carrot out and leave it?

Some people recommend a stone, some don't. I personally am not using one, but, I'm a new grower so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. From what I read, it's clear colored reservoirs that will cause problems with algae so I grabbed a black one and leave the lid on.

Make sure your buy a shut off valve with your system. This allows you to turn the water flow off to work on your system and would be perfect for your example of removing a carrot.

 

[waterproof808]

this threads been great thanks for all the usefull info. i have a couple more questions do you need an air stone in your res to keep the water agitated? as i read that algae could be a problem with tap water and can you take out a male thats using a carrot? or if you have a seperate veg room can you use blumats in both, just not sure how you would disconnect a carrot from the line without screwing everything else up, i guess you just take the carrot out and leave it?

They sell these 3mm quick connects w/on-off valves. I highly recommend putting one on each carrot, very handy if you ever need to rearrange things or remove a carrot from your set up to service it.



You dont need an airstone but If you do use an air stone you are going to need a bleed valve at the end of the mainline to let any trapped air bubbles out periodically. Air Bubbles in your lines will cause issues with your carrots. I make a big loop with my main line with both ends attached to my reservoir, so the water pressure is more even. At the far end of the loop, I put one of those shutoff valves pictured above to bleed out any trapped air or sediment.

 

[JustBlazin]

not sure if I should say this or not but one of the other forums has a pretty epic amount of info on blumats, I would attribute the amount of info on the blumats there to alot of people in europe using them as they are made in Austria I believe, probably worth checking out, I learned about the recirculation method of refilling your res bucket also covering exposed black lines that get to hot with foil to prevent vapour lock witch i guess can happen if your black supply line is exposed to to intense heat and a few other things in just the last day

 

[JustBlazin]

well I have been doing alot of reading about the blumats, so ill share a few things I learned so far.

1.Pond liner/Trays in case of runaway
Just learned this yesterday,originally I used a plastic sheet for painting and what not on the the floor in case of a runaway, suffice to say for a week that I used that method I was extremely paranoid of it flooding out so yesterday I read to use a pond liner duh! Perfect comes in all different sizes, so I had to take all my plants out yesterday to install it(definitely not as worried if I get a runaway) but thanks to the above post about the quick connects it was much less painful thanks water proof they work great for taking out plants already hooked up,but if you don't have the the quick connects you can just tie a knot in the 3 mm hose that attaches to the carrot.

2. Quick connects or knot in the drip line
having these really makes taking out a male or doing work on your garden heck even putting in a pond liner...

3. Extra drip line
buy extra 3 mm drip line so you can move you plants around some people make them 3-4 feet , mine are only between 14 - 30 inches id say, was nice I just connected the quick connect to the line they supplied so it wasn't a waste(the tiny drip line it comes with is pretty useless)

4. T with shut of valve at end of line/farthest point from res
this way you can let out air and debris, i use a loop with two through hull adapters and a shut of with a T at the farthest point in the loop from the res this way ir equalizes the pressure and if something goes wrong on one end it can still get water to the rest

5. Bigger pieces of perlite can throw off the sensor
You should dig a hole where the blumat is going to go and fill with pre moistened peat/coco/ewc, i did this then watered around the blumat after installed to ensure it was nice a wet around it

6. T after hull adapter
I put a T fitting coming out my res with one ends hose pointing up to nothing to let out my air bubbles in the line before they can become a problem

7. Nutes
Well i use organic soil with just water and this is the best course because its straight water, but from what I've read organic Nurse no good, only a few salt based nutes can be used you will have to look into which ones exactly

well that's all i can think of right now if i can think of anything else ill stop by

 

[TheRealJPeterman]

I've been using them for about a month and while I do like them I'm considering going back to hand watering.

Some of my distribution drippers don't work very well. If I unscrew them completely water comes gushing out no problem but once they're back in the drip isn't as consistent as the others and sometimes not dropping at all.

I'm also not a fan of not being able to move my pots around. I've got bad knees and a bad back so bending over or being on my knees inside the tent is hard on me. It makes defoliating a pain in the ass as I can't just disconnect them, take, them out of the tent, then reconnect. Perhaps there is some sort of valve our quick release available that I'm not aware of that would allow me to do that?

Overall I do like them as it takes the guess work out of watering and allows the plants to drink when they want.

 

[JustBlazin]

I've been using them for about a month and while I do like them I'm considering going back to hand watering.

Some of my distribution drippers don't work very well. If I unscrew them completely water comes gushing out no problem but once they're back in the drip isn't as consistent as the others and sometimes not dropping at all.

I'm also not a fan of not being able to move my pots around. I've got bad knees and a bad back so bending over or being on my knees inside the tent is hard on me. It makes defoliating a pain in the ass as I can't just disconnect them, take, them out of the tent, then reconnect. Perhaps there is some sort of valve our quick release available that I'm not aware of that would allow me to do that?

Overall I do like them as it takes the guess work out of watering and allows the plants to drink when they want.

black swallow sell the quick connects listed a few posts up, I grabbed a bunch, they are very handy for taking out a plant. If you don't want to pay for the quick connects you can just pinch the 3mm drip line with a clothes pin to stop water while you loosen the top screw on the blumat and pull out the 3 mm drip line and tie a knot in it to stop any water then when you reattach just reset the blumat to the hanging drop and adjust from there I guess, I'm no expert I've only done it once and it was a week after initial install, so if anyone knows better let us know

 

[TheRealJPeterman]

black swallow sell the quick connects listed a few posts up, I grabbed a bunch, they are very handy for taking out a plant. If you don't want to pay for the quick connects you can just pinch the 3mm drip line with a clothes pin to stop water while you loosen the top screw on the blumat and pull out the 3 mm drip line and tie a knot in it to stop any water then when you reattach just reset the blumat to the hanging drop and adjust from there I guess, I'm no expert I've only done it once and it was a week after initial install, so if anyone knows better let us know

Thanks I'll look into them. Don't mind paying if they're that useful.

I'm trying to visualize how they would work with the distribution drippers. Each pot that I have has an 8mm to 3mm T connector off the 8mm supply line so I can run drippers. Would I connect one end of the quick release to that T connector and the other end to the carrot?

I also might have screwed myself a bit by cutting holes in the pots and running the supply line through all of them rather than running it over top of the pots.

 

[JustBlazin]

Thanks I'll look into them. Don't mind paying if they're that useful.

I'm trying to visualize how they would work with the distribution drippers. Each pot that I have has an 8mm to 3mm T connector off the 8mm supply line so I can run drippers. Would I connect one end of the quick release to that T connector and the other end to the carrot?

I also might have screwed myself a bit by cutting holes in the pots and running the supply line through all of them rather than running it over top of the pots.

hers a pic of how i use them...i also got extra drip line so i could move plants around to have easier access, so i just cut a piece of drip line hooked it into the T coming out the 8mm drip line attached the quick connect then attached the small piece of drip line that come with the blumat
hope this helps

 

[JustBlazin]

@Richard Drysift when you use neptunes fish and seaweed with your blumat plants do you put it in your res or do you just hand water it in?

 

[Richard Drysift]

Hand feed; never put anything but water in the reservoir.

 

[JustBlazin]

Hand feed; never put anything but water in the reservoir.

ok thanks for the reply
good to know

 

[sfsdfuturegrower]

For those in Canada, blackswallowsoil.com also offers every blumat accessory as well. I'd also recommend the kis organics podcasts from Tad Hussey. He has a couple episodes where they focus solely on blumats for anyone interested in learning more about them.

I second the Tad Hussey podcast. I found some good recommendations on blumats from the experts he gets on the show.