Blumat system advice?

TheRealJPeterman said:

Piggybacking off this thread rather than make a new one...

I want to do four 7 gallon pots (fabric) in a living soil (KIS mix). There doesn't seem to be a consensus on number of carrots per pot, one or two for a 7 gallon (I've even seen 3 suggested). If I went two, would I still need distribution drippers? Is it better to just do one carrot per pot and then 4 drippers? I'll be using a gravity system around 4-6 feet off the ground.

Lastly,for anyone who ordered the 12 tropf kit, did it come with everything you needed for a similar setup? I'm wondering if it would be easier or cheaper to just customize it for my grow rather than buy a kit that may or may not have everything I already need.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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2 would be ideal but I bet you could get away with one in a 7g. Can confirm the 12pk tropf carrots has mostly everything you will need. Like I say above I just ordered an extra shutoff valve because kit only comes with one. Never used the distribution style drippers just the single carrot drippers. Really works great for living soil.

NeWcS said:

When you say 10:1 are you saying for every 10ft of hose in the system you need 1 feet(or maybe you're talking meters?) elevation on the reservoir?

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Read it somewhere that for optimum gravity feed you need your reservoir to be a minimum of 3 feet higher than the level your carrots are. I don’t think it needs to be much higher if you add longer feeding hose. I was able to add another 5 carrots for a separate grow area on the same reservoir without repositioning. Flow remains the same; gushes right out when you pull a carrot valve off the feeder line.

Richard Drysift said:

Read it somewhere that for optimum gravity feed you need your reservoir to be a minimum of 3 feet higher than the level your carrots are. I don’t think it needs to be much higher if you add longer feeding hose. I was able to add another 5 carrots for a separate grow area on the same reservoir without repositioning. Flow remains the same; gushes right out when you pull a carrot valve off the feeder line.

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Well that sucks. I wouldn't have room for that. Don't really wanna use a pump..

NeWcS said:

When you say 10:1 are you saying for every 10ft of hose in the system you need 1 feet(or maybe you're talking meters?) elevation on the reservoir?

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Interested in this as well. I'm going to set mine up this weekend and planned on elevating mine at 4 to 5 feet based on what I had read others suggest. I have 25 feet of tubing, but, not sure if I'll use it all or not.

I assume that hanging it too high is better than too low, but, wondering if there is a sweet spot based on how much tubing you use. Got a lot of reading to do over the next couple of days to prep.

NeWcS said:

Well that sucks. I wouldn't have room for that. Don't really wanna use a pump..

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Yeah I ended up putting a source bucket low with a pump inside to bring water up to the reservoir. Using a stick and a patron cork as a float gauge; drilled a hole in the lid so it tells me when I need to top it off. It works fairly well; I have a recycle timer I can add. Fills the res every day for a min or two so I can go away for a week+ without worrying about watering them.

Richard Drysift said:

Yeah I ended up putting a source bucket low with a pump inside to bring water up to the reservoir. Using a stick and a patron cork as a float gauge; drilled a hole in the lid so it tells me when I need to top it off. It works fairly well; I have a recycle timer I can add. Fills the res every day for a min or two so I can go away for a week+ without worrying about watering them.

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Any pics of that and how it works? Be cool to see

Actually there’s a thread I posted some pics on....

Richard Drysift said:

Actually there’s a thread I posted some pics on....

Show Me Your Watering Systems

Looking to get some different ideas on watering systems for indoor organic style growing. Automatic timer on a schedule, constant drip, how to leave the grow unattended for a week or 2 if needed.

www.rollitup.org

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Thats awesome!! The way you're setup is what I would have to do. And could do. I gotta think about this...

This thread has me really interested in Blumats. I'm going to do some more reading, but if i can figure out how to handle all of the tubing runs, I made need to give this a try

I've seen several people mention salts can clog up the lines. Does water with cal-mag only cause any problems?

So I installed the blumats today. Followed all the directions, yada yada yada. I feel like I'm missing a piece here. 8mm to 3mm elbow I think? The water just runs out the end pictured below.

All the carrots are installed and I won't be able to get the piece until Monday. Will I need to reset the carrots or will they be ok as long as the soil stays moist or the system is shut off?

I believe they make a cap for that exposed barb. It shouldn't be left uncapped and dripping

They do make a cap, but, the only one I'm seeing is for the 3mm tubing. I ordered a 8mm to 3mm elbow piece instead, should do the trick.

Not sure about resetting the carrots but I'll probably end up doing it anyway just to be safe.

Fairly new to Blumats over here as well but loving the carrots combined with Blusoak Tape on beds.
If I were to do a 10 gal pot I would most likely run 1 carrot and a length of the Blusoak circled around the pot rather than all the distribution dripper bs. They are selling kits set up with the Blusoak for pots. Most confusing website on the internet is www.sustainablevillage.com
Take your time wading through that site and familiarize yourself with the components

I must be an idiot because I can't get these to work properly. Everything is connected but only the first pot will drip from the dripper's. I thought maybe there was air in the lines so I went around and disconnected each point where the 8mm hose connects to the 3mm line, one pot at a time, and water flows out of the 3mm hole no problem. As soon as I reconnect the line the water stops. Carrot valve wasn't closed so that's not the issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

TheRealJPeterman said:

I must be an idiot because I can't get these to work properly. Everything is connected but only the first pot will drip from the dripper's. I thought maybe there was air in the lines so I went around and disconnected each point where the 8mm hose connects to the 3mm line, one pot at a time, and water flows out of the 3mm hole no problem. As soon as I reconnect the line the water stops. Carrot valve wasn't closed so that's not the issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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are the lines kinked in the carrots..if so pull them out to see and roll around with your fingers to get the kink out
hope that helps

I'll give that a look, I did tighten down the valves pretty good originally so that could definitely be it. Thanks.

JustBlazin said:

are the lines kinked in the carrots..if so pull them out to see and roll around with your fingers to get the kink out
hope that helps

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Success!! 3 of the 5 had kinks from tightening the valves too tight during the initial installation. Thanks bud!!

rkmcdon said:

I've seen several people mention salts can clog up the lines. Does water with cal-mag only cause any problems?

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You can run soluble nutes no problem w/blumats, just add a little drip-clean to your rez. Just make sure your nutes are 100% soluble.

FYI, sustainablevillage.com is one of the best sources of any blumat accessory, fitting, shut off valve, etc. you could possibly need.

waterproof808 said:

FYI, sustainablevillage.com is one of the best sources of any blumat accessory, fitting, shut off valve, etc. you could possibly need.

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Thanks for sharing that!