DIY drip system DTW

3 gallons pots 100% coco and one blumat carrot per pot. Super easy.

xtsho said:

3 gallons pots 100% coco and one blumat carrot per pot. Super easy.

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That is good. The information they give on their website apparently makes no sense.
I guess I'll have to try it myself one day.

ComputerSaysNo said:

That is good. The information they give on their website apparently makes no sense.
I guess I'll have to try it myself one day.

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This site has better information on using blumats.

@xtsho Thank you.

I have looked in the wrong place on the main Blumat site.

They actually offer two kinds of systems:

• A capillary feeding system, where the water goes straight through the carrot into the soil. That one would not be useful because it doesn't give off enough water.
• A drip feeding system, where the carrot acts as a water sensor, but the water itself is drip-fed.

I was not aware that the second one even exists... it makes a lot more sense to me now.

Will probably try at some point.

ComputerSaysNo said:

I have looked at the documentation on their website. It says that the XL blumat can give up to 200ml of water per 24 hours. A medium-size plant can take 2-3l per day. That means I would need at least 10 blumats for such a plant. They also say in such a setup the tank would have to sit higher, and the carrots would constantly be dripping water (making it drain to waste if I understand correctly).

What am I missing here? Is their website wrong about their own product? How can you feed an actual plant with 2 carrots if they can't give more than maybe 400ml per day?

I would really like for somebody to show their amazing Blumat grow here and demonstrate how that is better than an AutoPot.

I can see some specialty applications, like many small plants in small pots waiting to be transplanted or something like that.

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I would agree. Maybe they could work for certain situations, but in general, there are much better ways to irrigate your plants. Roots go where the water is. This picture is the void left from when a carrot was pulled out. The roots just wrapped around the carrot. It's much better to encourage even root growth by evenly distributing your nutrient solution across the top of your grow media. There is a reason you don't see professional growers use carrots.

Cheap drip fittings... DRIP IRRIGATION ALL — onestopoutdoor.com

ComputerSaysNo said:

@jondamon Can you link the kit that you have bought for the reservoir water level indicator? With the blue hose.

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eBay U.K. item number for level indicator kit
281198236338

Or you could buy this and some clear tube etc
eBay U.K. item number
233916192577 this is the bulk head connection that the kit utilises (but it’s not the IWS bulk head that the kit has)

Sk-one said:

I would agree. Maybe they could work for certain situations, but in general, there are much better ways to irrigate your plants. Roots go where the water is. This picture is the void left from when a carrot was pulled out. The roots just wrapped around the carrot. It's much better to encourage even root growth by evenly distributing your nutrient solution across the top of your grow media. There is a reason you don't see professional growers use carrots.
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I've never had that occur using Blumats. That also looks like the Blumats were adjusted improperly keeping the growing medium too wet. Looks like a swamp.

Used properly they work great.

Sk-one said:

I would agree. Maybe they could work for certain situations, but in general, there are much better ways to irrigate your plants. Roots go where the water is. This picture is the void left from when a carrot was pulled out. The roots just wrapped around the carrot. It's much better to encourage even root growth by evenly distributing your nutrient solution across the top of your grow media. There is a reason you don't see professional growers use carrots.
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I guess gold leaf gardens aren't professionals?
Pretty sure they can't even keep there product in stock...those blumats and living soil beds must not be very good. Rofl

JustBlazin said:

I guess gold leaf gardens aren't professionals?
Pretty sure they can't even keep there product in stock...those blumats and living soil beds must not be very good. Rofl

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All right, you got me I should have said I personally haven't seen any commercial growers use them. I'm not here to bash anyone's equipment or method of growing. If it works for you and you get quality bud, great! I am partial to top feeding though

Sk-one said:

All right, you got me I should have said I personally haven't seen any commercial growers use them. I'm not here to bash anyone's equipment or method of growing. If it works for you and you get quality bud, great! I am partial to top feeding though

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I hear you, ya I love them they work great for me. I used to hand water for 10+ years So to be able to get better results with less work has been a blessing.
I have never seen that with the roots going around the carrot like that either, i think xtsho is correct they were not set up right.

Sk-one said:

This picture is the void left from when a carrot was pulled out. The roots just wrapped around the carrot. It's much better to encourage even root growth by evenly distributing your nutrient solution across the top of your grow media.

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xtsho said:

I've never had that occur using Blumats. That also looks like the Blumats were adjusted improperly keeping the growing medium too wet.

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I think this is another example for the misunderstanding concerning Blumats (that I had as well).

They have two kinds of system:

• "Classic", where the carrot itself is the water feed
• "Tropf-Blumat" (engl. "drip Blumat"), where the carrot is only a sensor and the water is drip fed

I'm not sure if @Sk-one showed the Classic or the drip system; and if the root would seek out the carrots in either case. That would make sense, because the water from the carrot will diffuse into the surrounding medium as it dries out, so the carrot will always be more or as wet than the medium. This would explain why the root would seek out the carrot.

Is it really a problem if some roots grow that way?

I will probably run a controlled test one day with 2 AutoPots and 2 Tropf-Blumat pots. There I will also compare BioTabs to GHE nutrients in both scenarios.

With regards to setting it up in order to have "even irrigation": that is just a non-issue with an AutoPot. The irrigation is perfectly even, and the top of the medium is never very moist, that really discourages fungi settling there. I like it a lot.

If "even irrigation" is necessary at all, with the Blumats one would have to make a drip-ring of some sort.

ComputerSaysNo said:

I think this is another example for the misunderstanding concerning Blumats (that I had as well).

They have two kinds of system:

• "Classic", where the carrot itself is the water feed
• "Tropf-Blumat" (engl. "drip Blumat"), where the carrot is only a sensor and the water is drip fed

I'm not sure if @Sk-one showed the Classic or the drip system; and if the root would seek out the carrots in either case. That would make sense, because the water from the carrot will diffuse into the surrounding medium as it dries out, so the carrot will always be more or as wet than the medium. This would explain why the root would seek out the carrot.

Is it really a problem if some roots grow that way?

I will probably run a controlled test one day with 2 AutoPots and 2 Tropf-Blumat pots. There I will also compare BioTabs to GHE nutrients in both scenarios.

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Ya your spot on, that is what's going on, makes perfect sense. The water on the classic comes from the ceramic carrot so the roots engulfed it. With the trompf I see root mounds under the drippers, sometimes huge mounds inches thick. That's usually when using coco I believe. I've never had a huge mound but have had lots of roots under the dripper, I end up covering them with my top dress though

ComputerSaysNo said:

With regards to setting it up in order to have "even irrigation": that is just a non-issue with an AutoPot. The irrigation is perfectly even, and the top of the medium is never very moist, that really discourages fungi settling there. I like it a lot.

If "even irrigation" is necessary at all, with the Blumats one would have to make a drip-ring of some sort.

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You can get drip emitters or there's the blusoak tape/line. I think the blusoak is for beds and long runs.
Ive also heard of sticking your drip line in a straw and sticking the straw halfway down your medium so you get more even distribution, never tried it but saw it posted recently on the blumat thread on icmag

I understand how autopots work, but don't have any experience using them. When I grow drain to waste with coco, I check my runoff EC as a proxy for the EC at the root zone. If the correct amount of runoff isn't maintained, I have seen spikes in runoff EC. How are people who use autopots monitoring the EC of their rootzone?

JustBlazin said:

You can get drip emitters or there's the blusoak tape/line. I think the blusoak is for beds and long runs.
Ive also heard of sticking your drip line in a straw and sticking the straw halfway down your medium so you get more even distribution

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I would probably build a star-shaped manifold or simply use a drip-ring. To be honest, the bottom-fed system that the AutoPot (and similar wick systems like Octopods) use appears to be more elegant to me. None of these issues occur there. Water is very evenly and moderately taken from below and distributed through the medium.

Sk-one said:

I understand how autopots work, but don't have any experience using them. When I grow drain to waste with coco, I check my runoff EC as a proxy for the EC at the root zone. If the correct amount of runoff isn't maintained, I have seen spikes in runoff EC. How are people who use autopots monitoring the EC of their rootzone?

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My experience with the AutoPot is limited. I have not measured EC at all, and I see no reason to. The nutrient solution goes from the tank straight to the plant, then evaporates. It is not a drain-to-waste system. There is no "run off" water at all.

I have tested the pH inside the tray, it does not test differently that the tank supply. I'm using a layer of clay pebbles in the bottom of the pot, which did raise pH a little in the beginning, but that effect is now gone. pH in the tank was rising as well at some point, but that was probably due to other factors unrelated to the plant or medium. It was not a huge effect in any case.

All I can say is that my plant is doing fabulously in the AutoPot (coco/hydroton mix). I could not be any happier.

JustBlazin said:

Ya your spot on, that is what's going on, makes perfect sense. The water on the classic comes from the ceramic carrot so the roots engulfed it. With the trompf I see root mounds under the drippers, sometimes huge mounds inches thick.

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I think the "Classic" should not even be feasible because it does not put out enough liquid. It will definitely attract roots.

If I understand the system correctly, the Tropf-Blumat will also attract roots. This is because it works by capillary action. Water is constantly drawn out of the carrot into the surrounding medium, which in turn opens the drip valve. So the medium around the carrot will always be more moist than the adjacent area.

Having root mounds around the drip area should be common to any drip system. Is that a problem? Probably not. More roots are more roots.

Sk-one said:

All right, you got me I should have said I personally haven't seen any commercial growers use them. I'm not here to bash anyone's equipment or method of growing. If it works for you and you get quality bud, great! I am partial to top feeding though

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Blumats are top feeding.

There are commercial grows using bottom feeding with capillary matting. I'm thinking of going capillary myself.

jondamon said:

Evening all.

I wanted to share a DIY drip feed DTW system I’ve built with some help from others on RIU. Namely @myke.

I built this system to water 2 plants in 18L pots of 100% coco as many times I needed on a 15 minute segmental timer.

let’s go over some parts.

SUPPLY + DELIVERY RING COMPONENTS

13mm Flexi and Rigid Pipe ( I utilise long side as rigid pipe and short side as flexi pipe )

13mm Flexi pipe from ring to reservoir

13mm Barbed Elbows x5 to Create the ring and the supply out of RES.

13mm Barbed Tee x1 to create the supply connection.

13mm barbed Valve to isolate ring if needed or to drain the res (you’ll see why I say drain the res later)

4mm Flexi pipe for drippers

4x Adjustable schrubbler type drippers or PC emitters

4x micro tubing stakes/pegs

13mm Pipe stakes for securing ring if needed.

4mm hole punch tool for making holes for 4mm dripper lines.

4mm straight connectors

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Mission.... whats wrong with topspin manifolds? Super cheap and they work