What’s up dgc homies. So I’ve been running Canna A&B in Coco now for about a year, hand watering in Nursery pots and I’m really interested in Blumats. I’ve really enjoyed hand-watering over the past few years but I’d like to automate my watering so I’m not mixing nutes every night. I only run four plants at a time in my veg and flower tents. Does anybody have experience with these? I grow in a basement and I’m lucky enough to have a drain in my floor just in case things go terribly wrong and my reservoir drains itself. Anyhow I love you guys and I’m looking forward to your responses! #growerslove
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Blumats are only for soil.
I’m growing out of canna coco and have been using blumats successfully now for about 8 months. I’m not going to tell you the system works perfectly. In fact you will still need to monitor and adjust the pressure knobs from time to time to get a consistent drip rate. Also you will need to consider the height of your reservoir. Make sure you have room to keep your reservoir elevated above the height of your drippers. I have my reservoir about a foot higher than the base of my plants. All in all you can still use the blumats with coco but you can’t set it up and walk away for days and sleep comfortably. If I were to do it again I would get a timer/pump system. Maybe check out the floraflex system if you want something more reliable for coco. I haven’t used it but I have seen and heard good things.
I’m not known for bullshitting anyone. Irrigation should work perfectly without the need for adjustment. Ever. A pump, 3/4″ heater hose as the main line with a decent size diameter air hose can be pressure fit into the 3/4″ hose for feed lines that will never clog. No drippers or emitters to fuck you. I zip tie short bamboo stakes to the feeder lines as spikes. I’ve used every manner of top feed irrigation and nothing is cheaper or more full proof. i.e. fool proof. 😉
I love the DGC cause I know im gonna get good answers. Thanks for the quick responses I don’t even bother reading any other forums but when I do I always bring my questions here. My wife brought up the obvious since I only grow four plants in flower and four plants in veg just to mix up my nutes ahead of time as its not the handwatering. I actually like hand watering but the idea of a system that only uses gravity soundee appealing. Hey, I’m having great results the way things are thanks to you guys. I’ve been having nothing but a good time very little stress so I’m still super duper stoked. Love you guys as always
#growerslove
Hand watering hydroponic plants will never give you the performance of an exact schedule. The plant’s internal clock can anticipate when it’s time to do certain things when on a schedule. You don’t turn on and off the lights on your schedule for example. When you hand water a living soil they are not being fed nutrients that need to be absorbed by the roots on contact. When they’re watered is irrelevant. Something to think about. With only 8 plants you could use 1/2″ hose with some water rings.
This table has some water rings hooked up to a large manifold because of how many sites there are.
No shit, well the good thing is I do come home from work everyday and immediately go down and work in the garden. So they do get watered approximately at the same time. I don’t worry too much about performance, I spent the first year and a half running tons of bottles trying to push the limit but over the past 6 months I’ve just been running Canna a and b plus microbes for the most part. I’m always up for new ideas as long as it’s fun and enjoyable. That’s the most important thing for me, not yield, not potency but enjoyability. Plus my older kids and mom don’t have to pay for their medicine and neither do I and we all get to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Thanks J and Mojo!!
Agree a lot with the mystro here. There is an internal clock the plants come to fit in to when your having things in exact schedules. The plants I do see like a trick from time to time. For instance I feed twice a day at 1pm and 1am in veg. If I change the time to 2:30 just for 1 day the plants seem to start praying a lot harder and seem to like the change up.
I make my own drip systems. 3/4″ tube, 3/4″ T 3/16″ drip lines and barbed straights, a yellow hole punch (google yellow drip line punch), drip stakes, a timer and a pump. Super easy to make. I’ll make a post on the site sometime this week about making it.
Hey Matt. Those barbed straights are the failure/leak point. It’s easier to just drill small holes in the 3/4″ hose and pressure fit cheap clear tubing (cut at an angle) larger those 3/16″ lines that clog. Something like this…
https://www.lowes.com/pd/B-K-3-8-in-x-20-ft-PVC-Clear-Vinyl-Tubing/1000116041
I run the similar setup as the pics Mystro put up…
With tht being said 3 of my old school homies ran BluMats with coco,and coo/perlite ,,,and I can tell you brotha and fellow DGC Homie that the reason u r looking for automation and ease ,that BluMat will cause issues..You wont have a full proof water flow and automation……Does that mean Automatic drip/feed-line irrigation does not eff up some times,,absolutely not,,but if you do it right,similar to the pics posted,,as long as you upkeep your rez and once a month or every other month just take 20 mins and clean pump or check everything hidden,,,you will be golden..
Its my Opinion you go with a Reservoir (of your choice) a pump to match the amount of lines,in your case 4,which is super EASY,,and let that bitch rock the party like a stripper birthday party,,,much love DGC crew
PS::I use the 1/2 inch PolyTube that you can puncture with little tool it comes with and use the plastic fittings for 90s,and flow valves..you can hook up any dripper/mister you want and really user friendly if that is a issue in your case,,,much love again
Hey brother and sisters, I didn’t read most the posts, I apologize for that, but I did want to say there is an AMAZING product that is decently prices call Black Hole drippers, similar to the ones J mystro linked, but not as expensive, I have used QUITE a bit of things, a single port out of pvc line with a T made with the Pvc and two 8 outlet manifolds at each side for 16 outlets, then you can connect the manifolds with 1/4 OD to 1/4 ID tubing to the Black hole dripped to each plant http://www.greenerhydroponics.com/Black-Holes-Dripper-12-in-_p_79262.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw8OLGBRCklJalqKHzjQ0SJACP4BHrRAJtOrRR4YWbp-RrZVG3vnZSFZXAMpK1XS7RJ-JWjhoCOhnw_wcB
Ya Dawson the water ring set up I made was crazy expensive. I spent 800 bucks just on the clay pellets. Far too much time and money in that system for the average grower. It rocked out though but I hate washing rocks. The other irrigation setup I showed is just 2 pieces of hose pressure fit with no drippers that cost less than 20 bucks minus the price of a pump. Drippers I feel are for soil. You want to water to run off in coco or excess minerals will not be removed.
J… If one isnt getting that run off each day, what do you guys think of a manual plain water flush once a week?
I sure do recommend a light plain water rinse weekly before each res change. I do it even with proper run off. Microbes and excess minerals can cause pH to drop so I run neutral (7.0) water through and hope my run off is around 6. I run about twice the amount of container size in water. i.e a 2 gal pot would get 3-4 gallons poured through. This will ensure you never have buildup causing pH lock out.
@ J.Mystro I’ve seen quite a few comments on various posts’ u have helped give advice on,and I must say Its all love the honest advice and tips/secrets u help out…I hope the newer D.G.C./Growers see the value in that..Wish I had help like this 10 years ago when starting..I’m sure u feel the same with the new technology…lol…anyways ,just throwing u a shout-out and some love…always a pleasure seeing your advice and help…much love andd stay green
I appreciate that droman80. When I offered to be a site admin my only stipulation was I would not be involved in typical forum nonsense and hearsay. I refused to participate in any forum full of assholes and parrots repeating false info. I do my best to keep this site free of trolls. The Dude enjoys trolls on youtube so we don’t remove those comments. 😉 I wish the internet existed when I started growing. But then again…maybe not. I’d probably be a terrible grower if I listened to other people’s advice now that I’ve seen the internet. lol
Lol, man I love you guys.
Jmystro, this is exactly why I simply don’t visit the misinformation Web and hang only here. You guys make my life so much easier save me so much time and money and I have a great time doing it. You guys rock
I already have the pump. I’ll be grabbing the rest of the supplies here later this week. Thanks guys.
OK SO newb grower here with the coco its my 1st run with it i usually run DWC. I myself have been hand watering and i just purchased the blumat starter kit about to install it soon as my pump arrives. wanting to know how yall experience with running multiple additives through them has been? seeing mixed reviews about using a pump vs not using one and now im seeing jmystro mention about flushing which also is key imo when growing in coco. so i just wanna get some overall insight on how yall are liking them and if you would recommend the flora flex drippers instead cause im also looking at getting some of those and testing them out in my veg tent. stay blessed and say true. holyhale out.