4x4 bed-Blumats/Blutape Qs

[MidnightSun72]

What's wrong with good old fashioned drippers connected to a submersible aquarium pump in a res?

Nothing wrong with it. Blumat systems are pretty cheap and there's no res to worry about. I have a tap water connection in my grow room so I would save myself the room and money for a res and pump.

 

[Rurumo]

Just for the people who find this and are curious about price-everything I need to set up a 4x4 system ended up costing me $90 shipped-I'll be using a 20 or 25 gal reservoir which I have already, so you can use a bucket or tote for that, and just drill it and plug in the bulkheads, or you get a pressure reducer and attach it to a water source. The thing I like about it the most is the way it self regulates the moisture level throughout the bed-so all you have to do is keep the res filled.

 

[V256.420]

There are a lot of love smileys going on in this thread. Got me horny

 

[PJ Diaz]

Nothing wrong with it. Blumat systems are pretty cheap and there's no res to worry about. I have a tap water connection in my grow room so I would save myself the room and money for a res and pump.

I thought you needed a gravity fed res system with blumats, unless you're talking about an outdoor irrigated system hooked up to pressurized lines. Drip emitters, 1/4" drip line and aquarium pumps are all cheap too, and can generally be sourced locally by most growers. I think a bag of 30 drip emitters is like $10. I use 4 emitters per pot hooked together with T's. Drip emitters can be hooked up to the tap too if you wanna skip the res.

 

[MidnightSun72]

I thought you needed a gravity fed res system with blumats, unless you're talking about an outdoor irrigated system hooked up to pressurized lines. Drip emitters, 1/4" drip line and aquarium pumps are all cheap too, and can generally be sourced locally by most growers. I think a bag of 30 drip emitters is like $10. I use 4 emitters per pot hooked together with T's. Drip emitters can be hooked up to the tap too if you wanna skip the res.


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thanks man. I appreciate the info.
Yes the blue mats can be hooked up directly to the tap. They don't need a resevoir. That's important to me. Literally nothing in my grow room touchs the floor except the planters bases.

When I talked to the guy at the shopI think it was like $100-150 max to setup four 3x6ft beds with blue mat. Also with blumat there's no timing irrigation, or pumps (if you use a res snd keep it above your grow bed you can skip the pump too. . It's just a dumb system that always fights to get back to equilibrium. .

 

[PJ Diaz]

thanks man. I appreciate the info.
Yes the blue mats can be hooked up directly to the tap. They don't need a resevoir. That's important to me. Literally nothing in my grow room touchs the floor except the planters bases.

When I talked to the guy at the shopI think it was like $100-150 max to setup four 3x6ft beds with blue mat. Also with blumat there's no timing irrigation, or pumps (if you use a res snd keep it above your grow bed you can skip the pump too. . It's just a dumb system that always fights to get back to equilibrium. .

So with the blumats, the valve is just open all the time? No timer? With the gravity system it makes sense, but pressurized too? The one thing that I don't think I would like about blumats is lack of drybacks. It's just always moist, right? Admittedly I've never used blumats, so speculating over here.

 

[MidnightSun72]

So with the blumats, the valve is just open all the time? No timer? With the gravity system it makes sense, but pressurized too? The one thing that I don't think I would like about blumats is lack of drybacks. It's just always moist, right? Admittedly I've never used blumats, so speculating over here.

Yes it's always moist. But you can get your moisture to a certain % that you like. You can use a soil moisture gauge but if you are a nerd you can also take a soil sample. Weigh it, Then dry it in a oven and weigh it again. Then you can know fairly accurately what your moisture content is.

anyway you want it to always be moist similar to the natural ground (I guess this depends where you live) and it supposed to help out the bacterial populations because the whole drought thing really makes them unhappy.

once you set your blue mat carrot sensor into the soil the system lets water out little by little enough to maintain the moisture percentage you initially set it at.

 

[PJ Diaz]

When I talked to the guy at the shopI think it was like $100-150 max to setup four 3x6ft beds with blue mat.

This is $33 and will connect right to the faucet: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Bird-Drip-System-Expansion-and-Repair-Kit-DRIPPAILQ/203909243

 

[lusidghost]

So with the blumats, the valve is just open all the time? No timer? With the gravity system it makes sense, but pressurized too? The one thing that I don't think I would like about blumats is lack of drybacks. It's just always moist, right? Admittedly I've never used blumats, so speculating over here.

The carrots have water in them, and when the soil starts to dry it creates pressure that opens the valve. Then when the soil is wet enough that pressure is relieved and valve shuts back off.

*it createa a vacuum, not pressure.

 

[MidnightSun72]

This is $33 and will connect right to the faucet: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Bird-Drip-System-Expansion-and-Repair-Kit-DRIPPAILQ/203909243

So how does it know when to drip?

 

[MidnightSun72]

Admittedly I've never used blumats, so speculating over here.

I haven't either by the way. But over the past 6 months I've been searching for ways to automate my grow and take a bunch of the labour out. One thing is hand watering.

So anyway I haven't used blumats myself. But a well setup blumat system is practically a set it and forget it deal. Probs worth checking moisture every now and again to be sure they aren't drifting. But they really get great reviews. And the system is not very expensive (I mean relative to most watering systems, not that fabulous normal drippers. Also for me when it comes to grow equipment 32=150 when we are talking about a grow system. The difference is negligible. Be the amount of time I'll spend installing dripper. With the blue tape you just put a loop of the stuff in the bed with the carrot sensor.

 

[PJ Diaz]

So how does it know when to drip?

A timer or just manually open the valve when you want to irrigate. True that is one more part to buy however.

 

[Rurumo]

A timer or just manually open the valve when you want to irrigate. True that is one more part to buy however.

Def cheaper setting up emitters like you linked. I just got excited when I figured out how blumats actually work(the tech is so simple but so genius), and you can tune them to the exact moisture level you want. They have a neat, supposedly super accurate moisture meter that you can use to really tune the system, but as midnight said, you don't need it. I'm just going with a dumb reservoir because I've flooded a room before when I was younger and it was a nightmare I refuse to repeat, no matter how unlikely it is to happen.

 

[lusidghost]

If you use Blumat for hydro, make sure to stick a wave maker in your reservoir. The water barely moves and your nutrients will start to fall out and sludge up.

 

[PJ Diaz]

If you use Blumat for hydro, make sure to stick a wave maker in your reservoir. The water barely moves and your nutrients will start to fall out and sludge up.

I think that's true for most reservoirs. I just finished setting up my circulation pumps and lung room air intake to solar power.

 

[lusidghost]

How are your Blumats coming along?