Blumat Drip Irrigation with Super Soil?

JustBlazin said:

So you used them? How long did you use them for?
Yes you are right they can runaway but if you set them up right it's very rare.
Been running mine for just over a year and I've come into my tent a few times to see one with a small puddle under it, I just adjust or fix what problem caused it and all's good again.
Most I ever saw on my floor was a couple litres but I check mine everyday.
In total I've probably had a pubble under about 5 times. But sometimes I see a small puddle and it's already stopped watering so I just dial it back a little and all's good
I also put a pond liner at the bottom of my tent in case of a major runnaway

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No. Have not, but have not seen 1 user who hasnt had puddles or worse. It doesnt mean it is a bad idea, but I am water only and nothing is going to over soak my pots to runoff!

If I did a hydro type setup, 100% would use them because I already would need to flush large amounts through, so I would setup for a drain system of some sort.

In a good supersoil setup all we have to do is water and LST. For vacation it could be real nice for sure, but otherwise I like a few hours with my plants. That could change after another 20 cycles though.

ComfortCreator said:

No. Have not, but have not seen 1 user who hasnt had puddles or worse. It doesnt mean it is a bad idea, but I am water only and nothing is going to over soak my pots to runoff!

If I did a hydro type setup, 100% would use them because I already would need to flush large amounts through, so I would setup for a drain system of some sort.

In a good supersoil setup all we have to do is water and LST. For vacation it could be real nice for sure, but otherwise I like a few hours with my plants. That could change after another 20 cycles though.

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I hear you...puddles suck, that's why I got the pond liner, piece of mind, but like I said if you set them up correctly and dial them in, you shouldn't have a problem.
There's alot of reasons people get runaways, from air in the lines to big perlite touching the sensors or a number of other reasons.
That's why you have to keep a eye on them first few weeks after set up

post 5222 of the thread I posted earlier is a post about making your on pressure system like the one sustainable village sells for a fraction of the price

Blumats work great. And the simplicity of setting them up and maintaining them is a plus. They might not be practical for everyone but I've seen too many setups that were just way too complicated and require pumps timers, manifolds, etc... Too much stuff to bother with if you're just growing a few plants.

I've only had 2 runaways and that was when I first started using them. You'll know within 48 hours if you have one that needs to be adjusted. But once you get them dialed in and don't touch them you should never have a problem with runaways.

As for resetting the system. I've taken plants out and all I did was shut off the carrot with the adjustment valve, pull it out and put it in a container of water. When I put another plant back in that spot I just take the carrot out of the water and put it in the new pot and adjust it to drip. Just keep an eye on it for a couple days and then leave it alone.

They sure make watering coco easy. It was becoming a chore with daily coco watering. After I started using blumats sometimes I'd go 3 days without even opening up the tent.

Thanks to everyone for your input.
I'm definitely gonna introduce this product to my garden. Seems like it's a bit more expensive than I thought especially factoring in the flood tables.
I'll make a post about my garden on here but I'm usually posting on IG. Give me a follow if ya want, it's @ hemposapien

Hemposapien. said:

Thanks to everyone for your input.
I'm definitely gonna introduce this product to my garden. Seems like it's a bit more expensive than I thought especially factoring in the flood tables.
I'll make a post about my garden on here but I'm usually posting on IG. Give me a follow if ya want, it's @ hemposapien

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You can get a decent pond liner for pretty cheap...that's what I used

@Hemposapien.
If you have fungus gnats, which is pretty common with organic soil at one point or another.
When I top dress I sprinkle aquabac(it's a type of bti) on top of the top dress, it's really helped with the gnats looks like it's wiped them out for me.
They used to be a big problem for me in my top dress the larvae love that shit.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I couldn't trust blumats and didn't want to check on them multiple times a day. Not to mention the price.

SIPs for me from now on.

I tried blumats in my organic soil and always had problems with runoffs.. Gave them a fair shot but couldn't ever stop air from getting in the carrot.. I read perlite and other types of aeration media touching the carrot could cause issues, so I tried packing the carrot holes with compost and that didn't help..

I followed all the tips, tricks and advice from the pros, and blumat site but couldn't ever make them work dependably for me.. but man.. I wish I could have as that'd be the perfect solution in my setup.. and when they did do what they were supposed to do, the plant absolutely loved them!

I recently saw a podcast that recommended packing the carrots in clay, then wrapping them in burlap before plugging into the pot..
I might have to unpack a couple and give them another shot using the above info and see what happens..

GreenGuy_1995 said:

I tried blumats in my organic soil and always had problems with runoffs.. Gave them a fair shot but couldn't ever stop air from getting in the carrot.. I read perlite and other types of aeration media touching the carrot could cause issues, so I tried packing the carrot holes with compost and that didn't help..

I followed all the tips, tricks and advice from the pros, and blumat site but couldn't ever make them work dependably for me.. but man.. I wish I could have as that'd be the perfect solution in my setup.. and when they did do what they were supposed to do, the plant absolutely loved them!

I recently saw a podcast that recommended packing the carrots in clay, then wrapping them in burlap before plugging into the pot..
I might have to unpack a couple and give them another shot using the above info and see what happens..

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You say you had air in the carrot?
Did you boil the water to get the oxygen out of the water? They recommended it on the tad hussey podcast when he interviewed one of the guys from sustainable village, was one of the first 10-25 episodes. I noticed if I didn't boil the water I would see air bubbles inside the carrot.

I use a mixture of pure peat and ewc for packing in the carrot hole.

Also if you ever knock your pot make sure to push your carrot in to make sure it's still snug in the hole

Hemposapien. said:

Oh wow, that's great to hear responses so quick. The main selling point is that they monitor the moisture levels and water accordingly.
My only concern is, how do I top dress with the irrigation set up? Usually I put the plant on a bar stool and top dress one at a time but from what I've heard it's not ideal to mess with the irrigation set up once it's up and running. Appreciate the input from both of you! Thank you.

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Top dress as you normally do but may need to pull out the carrots & reset them later; not as big of a problem as you think. Not totally set and forget but blumats are great; it’s nice to get away for awhile & not have to worry about your plants too much. I’ve had most of my problems from either letting the reservoir run dry or because I simply never cleaned the system. After running it 3 yrs the reservoir lines got gunked up w/ black slime but all I did was rinse everything out with hot water and bleach and the system was workin on auto pilot again. Try to keep the reservoir lid on nice & tight; light exposure can enable algae and bacteria to grow. Cleaning the system out annually with hot water & dish soap is probably a good idea.
In order for the gravity feed to go as long as I have it I needed extra vertical height. Putting the reservoir on top of an old tv cabinet solved the problem but this made it a real pain to refill. Hooked up a hose through a small side hole I cut into the lid and lip of the bucket connected to a pump inside a source bucket. Now I just plug in the pump every few days to refill the reservoir. If I ever go away for a week+ I can put it on a recycle timer that fills it up again daily.

JustBlazin said:

You say you had air in the carrot?
Did you boil the water to get the oxygen out of the water? They recommended it on the tad hussey podcast when he interviewed one of the guys from sustainable village, was one of the first 10-25 episodes. I noticed if I didn't boil the water I would see air bubbles inside the carrot.

I use a mixture of pure peat and ewc for packing in the carrot hole.

Also if you ever knock your pot make sure to push your carrot in to make sure it's still snug in the hole

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Yes, I tried the boiling water trick.. I even went down to the store, grabbed a couple gallons of pure distilled water for the boiling and still had trouble with air in the carrot, but honestly, I think the air was coming in after the carrot was plugged into the soil and I probably didnt have enough of the packing material (compost/ewc) around the carrot and that's how the air kept coming back in.. not 100% sure tho, and will be giving them another shot at some point... just on a smaller scale until I can master and duplicate on larger scale..

GreenGuy_1995 said:

Yes, I tried the boiling water trick.. I even went down to the store, grabbed a couple gallons of pure distilled water for the boiling and still had trouble with air in the carrot, but honestly, I think the air was coming in after the carrot was plugged into the soil and I probably didnt have enough of the packing material (compost/ewc) around the carrot and that's how the air kept coming back in.. not 100% sure tho, and will be giving them another shot at some point... just on a smaller scale until I can master and duplicate on larger scale..

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Ok, so they were loosing water while in your pot which means it was having water pulled out by your plant or possibly having a space between your carrot and your soil or perlite . I too have noticed that some carrots will loose a small amount of water after a run. This is probably just the water getting pulled out of the carrot until the water gets turned on by the blumat. So maybe just a little bit gets pulled out at a time. I've never had an issue with that small amount being taken out, but I wouldn't reuse those ones without re filling the with water.
When you set yours up you pack hole with non perlite peat or ewc then stick in carrot push down wiggle around then pull out and refill hole again then push carrot in nice and tight, then pack down around the carrot with your fingers and heavily water it in around the carrot and push carrot in again after watering in, also water whole pot so it's super saturated and then set it up with hanging drop minus 2 arrows and you should be good.
You ever bump your pot or handle it roughly give the carrot another little push down for good measure