Blumats. Who's using them?

[McShnutz]

I'm thinking of moving the drip-lines out a little further...they're currently at the ~3" from the carrots and in the 5g pots that seems a bit close. I was thinking of moving them another inch or so out eventually. Right now the 3mm line ends right under the plant within about 1/2" from the stems.

Absolutely!!! You nailed it, you should get the droplet as far away as possible. If you can't or don't have the end result your after, adjust the dial more open and that should even things out. But first and foremost, leaf and vigor/dialy vertical gains should be your main indicators of a happy root system.

Don't be over cautious on overwatering. Your in pots and its easier to dial back blumats instead of dial up. You'll dry out quicker than a raised bed, so any hiccups won't require a complete reset. What I mean by reset is, taking the carrots out and prepping them under water and a full soil drench.

 

[Jjgrow420]

I'm thinking of moving the drip-lines out a little further...they're currently at the ~3" from the carrots and in the 5g pots that seems a bit close. I was thinking of moving them another inch or so out eventually. Right now the 3mm line ends right under the plant within about 1/2" from the stems.

I wouldn't vary from the instructions. I've only ever seen people have runaways etc when doing their own thing. Changing the distance from the carrot could cause overwatering. When I first set them sometimes I wouldnt see action for a week but I never changed anything and it was fine. Once it Waters you can see if you need to dial it up or down. Thats my opinion tho.

 

[Billy the Mountain]

I'm thinking of moving the drip-lines out a little further...they're currently at the ~3" from the carrots and in the 5g pots that seems a bit close. I was thinking of moving them another inch or so out eventually. Right now the 3mm line ends right under the plant within about 1/2" from the stems.

How high is your res?

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

How high is your res?

It's about 4' above the carrots/medium surface.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Still fussin'. Feel like my smaller pots are definitely where they need to be, but my bigger 5g bags seem pretty dry on top and around the exteriors.

I adjusted the carrots again last night after changing/cleaning out my reservoir and loosened the valves a little bit more so they started dripping again and the soil did seem a bit better this morning, but without any runaways, etc. Thinking that after I can remove the tomatoes and hot-peppers for outside, I'll re-adjust my setup and have two carrots per pot so that they're covering more area.

...though I will say that even with the soil seeming/feeling dry to me, the plants haven't wilted.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Still fussin'. Feel like my smaller pots are definitely where they need to be, but my bigger 5g bags seem pretty dry on top and around the exteriors.

I adjusted the carrots again last night after changing/cleaning out my reservoir and loosened the valves a little bit more so they started dripping again and the soil did seem a bit better this morning, but without any runaways, etc. Thinking that after I can remove the tomatoes and hot-peppers for outside, I'll re-adjust my setup and have two carrots per pot so that they're covering more area.

...though I will say that even with the soil seeming/feeling dry to me, the plants haven't wilted.

I think you're headed down the wrong path. I literally set mine once and left them. If you do it the way they tell you to it'll work. Once you start doing your own thing and messing around is when they don't work proper. Do you pull the clone outa the plug every day until u see roots too??? lol. I used 7gal pots and one reg carrot set proper was more than enough. Heard fabric pots aren't the greatest with bumats. Duno from exp though

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

I think you're headed down the wrong path. I literally set mine once and left them. If you do it the way they tell you to it'll work. Once you start doing your own thing and messing around is when they don't work proper. Do you pull the clone outa the plug every day until u see roots too??? lol. I used 7gal pots and one reg carrot set proper was more than enough. Heard fabric pots aren't the greatest with bumats. Duno from exp though

The fact that after a full week I'd gone through what looked like maybe a gallon and a half of water for both 5g bags and also the other plants, plus the fact that the other plants show at least some moisture when the 5g's were dry from the top all the way down to about 3+ inches was making me uncomfortable, given I'll be gone Monday for the next week and a half.

I did a bit of research and even the Blumat people suggested it was OK to adjust the drippers to find your desired soil-moisture level. I did exactly what they suggested, find the hanging drip then dial back two triangles. Though I know others have dialed back less than that.

 

[Jjgrow420]

The fact that after a full week I'd gone through what looked like maybe a gallon and a half of water for both 5g bags and also the other plants, plus the fact that the other plants show at least some moisture when the 5g's were dry from the top all the way down to about 3+ inches was making me uncomfortable, given I'll be gone Monday for the next week and a half.

I did a bit of research and even the Blumat people suggested it was OK to adjust the drippers to find your desired soil-moisture level. I did exactly what they suggested, find the hanging drip then dial back two triangles. Though I know others have dialed back less than that.

Ya I duno man. Aside from the obv things like purging the air from the carrots when putting them together and the line after it's all set up. Res meter off the top of the carrots etc etc. Like I said I heard excess perlite can mess with them and I also heard fabric pots aren't great with them.
From what you said you kinda varied from the instructions with the original install waiting an extra day or whatever you did there. I can't speak to that because I haven't ever done that. I just followed the instructions to the t. Like water to runoff then install and get the drip, then dial back 2 notches. If the drip was inbetween 2 notches I set back 2 spots exactly in the same spot it was originally (in between not on the notch). I also didn't change anything until after the first watering event to make sure it was working properly. In the beginning they didn't take much water, then they started once the soil dried. It can seem like the soil is dry sometimes but when you put your finger in its moist. Duno if that helps or not.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Ya I duno man. Aside from the obv things like purging the air from the carrots when putting them together and the line after it's all set up. Res meter off the top of the carrots etc etc. Like I said I heard excess perlite can mess with them and I also heard fabric pots aren't great with them.

Yeah, I was really careful about assembly/soaking and I've purged several times in the past week to make sure. From what I can tell, perlite would make them over water more than underwater.

I checked this morning after last night's tweak and I was a bit more satisfied with how the medium looks, and the carrots weren't running in either of the pots, though one of the tomatoes was getting dripped. My thought is that I've not been tweaking or adjusting often, just twice since I started last Wednesday. So a small adjustment, then see how it works across a few days, etc.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Yeah, I was really careful about assembly/soaking and I've purged several times in the past week to make sure. From what I can tell, perlite would make them over water more than underwater.

I checked this morning after last night's tweak and I was a bit more satisfied with how the medium looks, and the carrots weren't running in either of the pots, though one of the tomatoes was getting dripped. My thought is that I've not been tweaking or adjusting often, just twice since I started last Wednesday. So a small adjustment, then see how it works across a few days, etc.

Yea the perlite would cause overwatering I'm assuming. Just pulling things to brainstorm some ideas on what maybe happening

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Yea the perlite would cause overwatering I'm assuming. Just pulling things to brainstorm some ideas on what maybe happening

I haven't done anything about it, but I'm thinking I may want more than the 3ish inches of distance from the drip-point to the carrot. That way more water will be applied and allowed to wick through the soil before the soil around the carrot is damp enough to trigger it to stop. But again, I haven't moved on anything like that because I have the carrots in nice and deep and firm and I don't want to have to do a reset right now.

 

[Jjgrow420]

I haven't done anything about it, but I'm thinking I may want more than the 3ish inches of distance from the drip-point to the carrot. That way more water will be applied and allowed to wick through the soil before the soil around the carrot is damp enough to trigger it to stop. But again, I haven't moved on anything like that because I have the carrots in nice and deep and firm and I don't want to have to do a reset right now.

From what I understand, each drip point needs to be 3" from the carrot otherwise it could overwater. I also think it wouldn't get the area around the carrot as moist causing it to turn on before it should. But I duno. I was big on making sure I followed everything exactly as stated because I was afraid of runaways. When really that never even happened even when the drippers clogged up

 

[TrichDaddy]

I made it to about page 20 before I ordered a set for the next run

It will be 5 plants in coco in a 3x3.

My question is, what happens if I need to take the plants out of the tent? Can I take the carrot out temporarily and carefully reseat it when the plant goes back in the tent? Maybe stick it in a cup of water to stop it drying out?

 

[lusidghost]

I made it to about page 20 before I ordered a set for the next run

It will be 5 plants in coco in a 3x3.

My question is, what happens if I need to take the plants out of the tent? Can I take the carrot out temporarily and carefully reseat it when the plant goes back in the tent? Maybe stick it in a cup of water to stop it drying out?

Your username gave me a chuckle.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Back home after 9 days away, looking after some family...

The Blumats worked great. I left the setup unattended (though my wife was home for the duration). I had filled my reservoir with 11 gallons (with Ca/Mg and 3.75g of MaxiBloom), pH'ed down to about 5.9 to account for both the fact I'm using ProMix HP as well as upward drift across the week.

Remember that I also had 5x hot pepper plants in .75g pots and 7x tomato plants in .75g pots as well as the 2x Duban Poisons in 5g bags. I also decided to move to 12/12 the day I was leaving, since my plants were trained down low and I was ready to let them stretch.

I came back to everything alive and well. The reservoir had drained down all the way sometime in the previous day or two, which left everything alive, though the smaller .75g pots were dry and the tomatoes were starting to wilt. The Durbans definitely started to stretch (8 to 12")...but not as much as the tomatoes...which gained more than a foot in my absence.

As the system was 'dry' and as the tent was in chaos (see pics), I pulled the carrots and hand watered all of it. The peppers and tomatoes are now removed from the tent, and will be hardened off for outdoor planting, and they will be pruned back. I did a bit more snipping on the two Durbans, removing a few lower leaves for clearance as well as some of the lower/minor bud sites that will soon be buried.

I'm going to re-install the carrots in the Durbans and just keep 'em going. Since the system was drying out, the carrots had air in their internal water chambers, so they've been re-soaking. I've kept the valve settings exactly where they were though.

What I came back to. Note that there are pepper plants under the tomato chaos:


Durbans:


A bit of trimming and fussing later:



This is where they'd been 9 days before:


(yes, one plant had been suffering from a Ca or Mg deficiency, but previous to traveling I'd moved to fix that).

So, all in all the Blumats were a good solution and worked well.

 

[Jjgrow420]

I made it to about page 20 before I ordered a set for the next run

It will be 5 plants in coco in a 3x3.

My question is, what happens if I need to take the plants out of the tent? Can I take the carrot out temporarily and carefully reseat it when the plant goes back in the tent? Maybe stick it in a cup of water to stop it drying out?

... Yea. That can be an issue. They do have shutoffs for the small line. But they're exp
Try to avoid taking them out and putting back in. I'm sure it'll work, but you'll have to reset the carrot everytime which can take ~week or so to dial in. The other option is to turn off the lines at the res shutoffs. Then the water won't flow if/when removing the carrot line from the mainline. Still a biatch... the small shutoffs would be better but again cost. If you don't care to spend around 6bucks per shutoff then that's the way I'd go. For me, I'd need 12 or 16 shutoffs and that would cost far too much.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Back home after 9 days away, looking after some family...

The Blumats worked great. I left the setup unattended (though my wife was home for the duration). I had filled my reservoir with 11 gallons (with Ca/Mg and 3.75g of MaxiBloom), pH'ed down to about 5.9 to account for both the fact I'm using ProMix HP as well as upward drift across the week.

Remember that I also had 5x hot pepper plants in .75g pots and 7x tomato plants in .75g pots as well as the 2x Duban Poisons in 5g bags. I also decided to move to 12/12 the day I was leaving, since my plants were trained down low and I was ready to let them stretch.

I came back to everything alive and well. The reservoir had drained down all the way sometime in the previous day or two, which left everything alive, though the smaller .75g pots were dry and the tomatoes were starting to wilt. The Durbans definitely started to stretch (8 to 12")...but not as much as the tomatoes...which gained more than a foot in my absence.

As the system was 'dry' and as the tent was in chaos (see pics), I pulled the carrots and hand watered all of it. The peppers and tomatoes are now removed from the tent, and will be hardened off for outdoor planting, and they will be pruned back. I did a bit more snipping on the two Durbans, removing a few lower leaves for clearance as well as some of the lower/minor bud sites that will soon be buried.

I'm going to re-install the carrots in the Durbans and just keep 'em going. Since the system was drying out, the carrots had air in their internal water chambers, so they've been re-soaking. I've kept the valve settings exactly where they were though.

What I came back to. Note that there are pepper plants under the tomato chaos:
View attachment 5129082

Durbans:
View attachment 5129084

A bit of trimming and fussing later:

View attachment 5129086 View attachment 5129087

This is where they'd been 9 days before:
View attachment 5129088

(yes, one plant had been suffering from a Ca or Mg deficiency, but previous to traveling I'd moved to fix that).

So, all in all the Blumats were a good solution and worked well.

Nice! Glad to hear they worked for ya!!!
Now that you know have an idea of how much water they take when your away you could maybe leave a 5gal or something for your wife to toss into the res so it doesn't dry out

 

[Jjgrow420]

Back home after 9 days away, looking after some family...

The Blumats worked great. I left the setup unattended (though my wife was home for the duration). I had filled my reservoir with 11 gallons (with Ca/Mg and 3.75g of MaxiBloom), pH'ed down to about 5.9 to account for both the fact I'm using ProMix HP as well as upward drift across the week.

Remember that I also had 5x hot pepper plants in .75g pots and 7x tomato plants in .75g pots as well as the 2x Duban Poisons in 5g bags. I also decided to move to 12/12 the day I was leaving, since my plants were trained down low and I was ready to let them stretch.

I came back to everything alive and well. The reservoir had drained down all the way sometime in the previous day or two, which left everything alive, though the smaller .75g pots were dry and the tomatoes were starting to wilt. The Durbans definitely started to stretch (8 to 12")...but not as much as the tomatoes...which gained more than a foot in my absence.

As the system was 'dry' and as the tent was in chaos (see pics), I pulled the carrots and hand watered all of it. The peppers and tomatoes are now removed from the tent, and will be hardened off for outdoor planting, and they will be pruned back. I did a bit more snipping on the two Durbans, removing a few lower leaves for clearance as well as some of the lower/minor bud sites that will soon be buried.

I'm going to re-install the carrots in the Durbans and just keep 'em going. Since the system was drying out, the carrots had air in their internal water chambers, so they've been re-soaking. I've kept the valve settings exactly where they were though.

What I came back to. Note that there are pepper plants under the tomato chaos:
View attachment 5129082

Durbans:
View attachment 5129084

A bit of trimming and fussing later:

View attachment 5129086 View attachment 5129087

This is where they'd been 9 days before:
View attachment 5129088

(yes, one plant had been suffering from a Ca or Mg deficiency, but previous to traveling I'd moved to fix that).

So, all in all the Blumats were a good solution and worked well.

Lol you have a prob with birds making nests on top of your lights too huh. Haha. That's one mean heatsink

 

[Jjgrow420]

To tell the truth, I bought more carrots thinking I would set them up again for this 5x5 and I haven't gotten around to doing it. Lol. Not because I wasn't happy with them just the fact of time really. I did, however set them up in a 3x3 w/8 plants and an organic run (Gaia green). See how that works out. It's been doing great so far. Just got all the carrots dialed in (except one final adjustment today on one) and they're doing their jobs!

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Nice! Glad to hear they worked for ya!!!
Now that you know have an idea of how much water they take when your away you could maybe leave a 5gal or something for your wife to toss into the res so it doesn't dry out

That would be too easy.

Actually I don't REALLY know how much these two are going through per week because of all the other crap that was in the tent. I did pull everything else out, but had to do a full reset and also clear the lines...I kept the bigger 8mm line but replaced the 3mm to the carrots. Since things went dry, there was gritty precipitate/salt build up clogging and slowing things down. Kind of a pain in the ass to get it all sorted out. But done.

What's anyone using to keep their lines clear? Either as an add-in to their water, or for periodic flushing?

Did a bit more tying down to spread out both, though the tallest of the two needed it the most. Glad I decided to grow just 2 this time around and worked hard at keeping the height trained to bag-top levels. They're going to fill the tent (33" x 60") anyway.