Blumat watering system

Does anyone have any experience with the Blumat watering system (indoor or outdoor). I am planning to try a grow using an organic super soil (Stepwell soil) and the Blumat watering system.

Here is the website link below. Its an impressive & clever looking system that uses ceramic expansion/contraction to regulate moisture levels in soil.


Any feedback from blumat users would be very much appreciated.

Leon

I tried them couldn't get them right so I gave up and went with auto pot been happy out the last 6 years

Even use the easy2grow in veg

Oh and flooded the tent a number of times. Not good in the second story of a rented house

a friend of mine uses them and he loves them, his plants and soil look and feel properly watered all the time. I think its just about getting them properly precharged/set before plugging em in the soil. I know they can't dry out or ur screwed and will need to pull em and soak again.

How the heck did that flood your tent? It's funny because I just bought these things for my wife's houseplants:

Which are the same thing but without the siphon addition.

Leon727272 said:

Does anyone have any experience with the Blumat watering system (indoor or outdoor). I am planning to try a grow using an organic super soil (Stepwell soil) and the Blumat watering system.

Here is the website link below. Its an impressive & clever looking system that uses ceramic expansion/contraction to regulate moisture levels in soil.

Home

blumat.com

Any feedback from blumat users would be very much appreciated.

Leon

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Been running them for years. Works great for water only grows but there is a learning curve. It takes some trial and adjusting to get them to flow correctly and it can turn into a total nightmare if you let the reservoir run dry. Keep the bucket elevated properly and try to set all the lines at the same height. No “roller coaster” humps; may need to zip tie the lines to keep them even.
Do your self a favor and order an extra inline shutoff valve for stopping the flow for maintenance or transplants. Makes for less of a mess in your grow area whenever you need to move things around. Once you put in the carrots mobility is limited. I use 2 for every 7 gal pot; can get away with one per container under 5g. I added a pump to a water supply bucket so I don’t have to lift anything to fill up the res. Can even be put on a recycle timer to top it off once per day for long term vacation watering.

Richard Drysift said:

Been running them for years. Works great for water only grows but there is a learning curve. It takes some trial and adjusting to get them to flow correctly and it can turn into a total nightmare if you let the reservoir run dry. Keep the bucket elevated properly and try to set all the lines at the same height. No “roller coaster” humps; may need to zip tie the lines to keep them even.
Do your self a favor and order an extra inline shutoff valve for stopping the flow for maintenance or transplants. Makes for less of a mess in your grow area whenever you need to move things around. Once you put in the carrots mobility is limited. I use 2 for every 7 gal pot; can get away with one per container under 5g. I added a pump to a water supply bucket so I don’t have to lift anything to fill up the res. Can even be put on a recycle timer to top it off once per day for long term vacation watering.

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Thanks for the advice. Very helpful. Just one Q........ do you use the standard 5" carrots or the longer ones that are 9" or both? Also do you use the Blumat Digital Water/Moisture Level Sensor Meter....... if yes, do you recommend it to get accurate moisture reading on the soil?

5” carrots are fine for containers indoors. The long ones are better for outdoor beds. No you don’t need a moisture meter; you can easily tell by the weight of the pot and/or how the plants look. If you use fabric pots it’s nearly impossible to overwater; not a constant drip. The carrots actually dispense the right amount if set correctly. The roots sort of pull on them to get moisture as needed but the carrots must be kept moist and filled with water to control the valve properly. That’s why letting the reservoir dry is such a mortal sin.

Richard Drysift said:

5” carrots are fine for containers indoors. The long ones are better for outdoor beds. No you don’t need a moisture meter; you can easily tell by the weight of the pot and/or how the plants look. If you use fabric pots it’s nearly impossible to overwater; not a constant drip. The carrots actually dispense the right amount if set correctly. The roots sort of pull on them to get moisture as needed but the carrots must be kept moist and filled with water to control the valve properly. That’s why letting the reservoir dry is such a mortal sin.

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That all makes perfect sense.......... cheers.

They are sick af but you cannot let the rez run dry like R. Said. The smallest air bubble can disable your carrot. Right now im stress testing to see how long untill i get clogged lines

They are very good but have an extremely low margin for error.

With synthetics, they work best in a tent where light is distributed better. In open spaces the edges of the plants will go deeper green since the N levels will build up due to lower light levels (no run off creates N build up basically). You are organic so that problem is fixed, assuming your mix is correct. Staying on that point though, if you are synthetics you can not have strains that like varying ppm amounts. If you want that option you need a second res with the altered ppm. If you don't do that, the heavier or lighter feeders will verge on going toxic or deficient. So naturally the easier thing to do is only grow strains that like a similar ppm range.

Since you are organic your only real hurdle will be elevation and flood risk. I personally used multiple smaller resses elivated up. If a leak occured it was limitied to a smaller res that my catch could handle. I would say do not go lower than 10L containers per plant (20L per 2 etc) for pressure and storage amount. It's extra work but less hassle in the event of flood. Otherwise, just use one big res for ease and accept the higher floor risk. Withought sounding like a scare monger I would honestly say you've got a good chance of it happening at-least once, so really think about how you are going to deal with that, keep electrics out of the way etc.

I tried to use run the soaker hose on top of rockwool slabs and it was a stupid failure of an idea. The carrots aren't great in rockwool, and the hose needs to be making as much contact with the medium to really sponge the water out. I'm sure it works well with coco, and I could see how it would be amazing with soil because you're only running water. I worried about the hoses clogging with hydro.

Richard Drysift said:

Been running them for years. Works great for water only grows but there is a learning curve. It takes some trial and adjusting to get them to flow correctly and it can turn into a total nightmare if you let the reservoir run dry. Keep the bucket elevated properly and try to set all the lines at the same height. No “roller coaster” humps; may need to zip tie the lines to keep them even.
Do your self a favor and order an extra inline shutoff valve for stopping the flow for maintenance or transplants. Makes for less of a mess in your grow area whenever you need to move things around. Once you put in the carrots mobility is limited. I use 2 for every 7 gal pot; can get away with one per container under 5g. I added a pump to a water supply bucket so I don’t have to lift anything to fill up the res. Can even be put on a recycle timer to top it off once per day for long term vacation watering.

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Hi there.......Had a question for you. I have been setting up my indoor Blumat system (pic attached) this week......... just one Blueberry strain in a 7 gallon pot with an organic supersoil (from a local Canadian company called Stepwell Soil). Have one standard carrot and 3 drippers (and the moisture meter). It took a few days after initial set up for the carrot to start releasing the valve and flowing water to the drippers. However i am struggling a bit with these 3 drippers and getting them dripping evenly. Have you had any issue with these drippers?

Leon727272 said:

Hi there.......Had a question for you. I have been setting up my indoor Blumat system (pic attached) this week......... just one Blueberry strain in a 7 gallon pot with an organic supersoil (from a local Canadian company called Stepwell Soil). Have one standard carrot and 3 drippers (and the moisture meter). It took a few days after initial set up for the carrot to start releasing the valve and flowing water to the drippers. However i am struggling a bit with these 3 drippers and getting them dripping evenly. Have you had any issue with these drippers?

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Go auto pot mate blumats flooded on me more times than I liked......never looked back

I’ve been using Blumats out doors for years. There is some very good info in this thread. Richard D has provided solid info as have many others. I don’t get the flooding; hoses, or fittings come loose or just a runaway dripper? Never had that problem but use them outside exclusively. Do not even think a grout running organic nutes, that can be a nightmare. Put a valve at the end of each run so you can flush the system occasionally. As Richard D said above, takes a bit of dialing in. I wouldn’t use anything else. One more thing, I have gone to 1/2” poly supply lines and tap 3mm feeder to that. That 11 mm feeder tubing can be problematic.

@xtsho here’s a blumats thread for you buddy.

Blumats are easy to set up. You just have to keep an eye on them for the first couple days to make sure you don't get any runaways that don't shut off. They are adjustable so you have to initially dial them in. Blumats were one of the biggest improvements in irrigation I've ever done. It's literally plug and play. Fill the reservoir and walk away which is why I don't understand why some people say not to use them.

Leon727272 said:

Hi there.......Had a question for you. I have been setting up my indoor Blumat system (pic attached) this week......... just one Blueberry strain in a 7 gallon pot with an organic supersoil (from a local Canadian company called Stepwell Soil). Have one standard carrot and 3 drippers (and the moisture meter). It took a few days after initial set up for the carrot to start releasing the valve and flowing water to the drippers. However i am struggling a bit with these 3 drippers and getting them dripping evenly. Have you had any issue with these drippers?

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Use the adjustment on the carrot to open the valve and let water flow to the drippers. Use the adjustments on the drippers to get them all dripping evenly. Put the carrot adjustment back where it was but keep an eye on it for a day or two to make sure it's set properly.

These are the instructions from the Tropf Blumat for using multiple drippers. What I wrote was slightly different as I said to open the carrot valve when adjusting the drippers. Either way the drippers are adjustable. You just need to adjust them so they all drip the same.

"Take the thin drip tube and cut pieces approx. 20 cm long. Then connect a maximum of 5 distribution drippers together and fit the end distribution dripper at the end of the chain. Lay the chain of distribution drippers anywhere around the roots of the plants. It is important to leave a distance of approx. 8 cm between the Tropf-Blumat and the nearest distribution dripper. First set the Tropf-Blumat as instructed in Step 6 and then connect the chain with the Tropf-Blumat. The black screw need not be adjusted unless a distribution dripper can be seen to be releasing less water. In this case loosen the black screw by one turn. Unscrew completely and clean once a year."

Something else to consider.

I've never had an issue with false readings from the carrot when growing in coco but I imagine it could be an issue in some soil due to perlite and such but that's easily resolved. I've never heard of anyone having that problem but I see how it could happen.

"Before set up, also consider the makeup of your potting soil. Does it have significant levels of perlite, pebbles, or other problematically 'dry' soil amendments? If in close contact with the carrot, these amendments may trick it into a false reading on moisture levels. To avoid this issue, create a hole for the carrot, and fill with well-watered and perlite-free potting soil. Stick the carrot into this perlite-corrected space."

Fishbulb said:

Go auto pot mate blumats flooded on me more times than I liked......never looked back

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Just out of curiosity, what nutrients are you using for your autopot grow....for veg & bloom?