Blumat -vs- Autopot questions

ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
bk78 said:
Any pics of your autopot grows? That’s the only thing you’ve pretty much discussed since joining here a few weeks ago. You’d almost think you worked for them or something at this point.
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I do not work for them. I am aware that I come across as a fan-boi. Not a problem for me at this point.

I'm not prone to fan-boism, it's just a very well designed system that has worked very well for ME.

Thank you for your attention to my postings. I hope you've enjoyed the content so far.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
ComputerSaysNo said:
I do not work for them. I am aware that I come across as a fan-boi. Not a problem for me at this point.

I'm not prone to fan-boism, it's just a very well designed system that has worked very well for ME.

Thank you for your attention to my postings. I hope you've enjoyed the content so far.
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Ill really start enjoying your grow room pictures with autopots even more.
 
JustBlazin

JustBlazin

Well-Known Member
DaFreak said:
10 to 15 plants in 3 hours? I can deal with that. I'm assuming that doesn't include the actually transplanting time, that's crazy fast for that many plants.
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Well my system stays set up so I can just plug in my new pots. I also only give my pots a quick cleaning if they are super dirty which they usually aren't. That includes potting but my biggest pot is 5 gallon, the time consuming part is setting up the blumats correctly and that time is if you have all your carrots full of water and ready to use.
 
D

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
bk78 said:
Ill really start enjoying your grow room pictures with autopots even more.
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At the end of the day I don’t care. Bottom feeding gravity feed system, like all such systems 5x what they are worth. But I do t have the time or desire. Used to make all my stuff, made some killer systems. Too old now. But anyway, basically it’s a float valve that opens when the tray is empty instead of topping off like a traditional float valve. Kind of ingenious. I love the idea of less sound.
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
DaFreak said:
But anyway, basically it’s a float valve that opens when the tray is empty instead of topping off like a traditional float valve.
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The tray never runs empty as long as there is water in the tank. The float valve continuously feeds water into the tray; the pot sits in a low pool of water at all times. Apart from the valve it is a simple wick system (the substrate itself is the wick).

The Octopot and the Hooch bucket are very similar. The Hooch bucket is the most simple and effective design I've seen so far. When you have the actual buckets, which need to be 3D printed, all you need is some PVC gutters and a $5 float valve for each gutter. Practically Octopots on rails, I absolutely love it. It's demonstrated on YouTube by the maker. Would scale to really large setups at low cost with almost no moving parts (one valve per rail).

The AutoPot valve is patented, so it is a cash cow, but honestly I do not see anything special about it, except for it being really well tuned and of high quality. It's also fair that you can buy all parts separately, even the little silicone cap on the valve which is probably the only part that could wear out or be damaged.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't buy blumats personally to finicky for me,
Autopots don't need any airstone or I never did, I'm not sure what you mean by balanced?
I've never had any flooding or problems with autopots.

The two 6ltr pot systems have a bit of a flaw in the design idk about the bigger ones, the sump @ComputerSaysNo mentioned doesn't empty enough to trigger the valve so you need to hand feed until you get roots out of the bottom.
Alternatively stick 1" or two of capillary mat out of the bottom of the pot into the sump and it's good from day one...

The tray does empty right down before refilling but it won't go dry due to the aforementioned sump.

It's been a time since I've used them but I did like them, I could easily use them in future again.
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
The two 6ltr pot systems have a bit of a flaw in the design idk about the bigger ones, the sump @ComputerSaysNo mentioned doesn't empty enough to trigger the valve so you need to hand feed until you get roots out of the bottom.
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Questions:

Is this the "Easy2Grow" system? The one with two pots fed from a single tray?

Did you put a layer of perlite or hydroton in the bottom of the pots, or just straight grow medium all the way through?
In their docs on the website they point out that you should put a 1-inch layer of perlite or clay into the pot first. That is not in the instruction manual that comes with the pots. They should probably update that, it appears to make a difference.

Where did you put the capillary mat? Inside the pot or inside the tray?

I think one should give the plant plenty of time to grow roots before turning on the feed. They advise 7-10 days, I gave mine 14 days to make sure. There are some root tips peeking out the bottom, but they are pruned by the copper mat. I do not know how many roots there were after 14 days, but it must have been enough because the system was feeding fine from when I turned it on. It's not the Easy2Grow though, it's the single AutoPot (15-ltr pot).
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
ComputerSaysNo said:
The tray never runs empty as long as there is water in the tank. The float valve continuously feeds water into the tray; the pot sits in a low pool of water at all times. Apart from the valve it is a simple wick system (the substrate itself is the wick).

The Octopot and the Hooch bucket are very similar. The Hooch bucket is the most simple and effective design I've seen so far. When you have the actual buckets, which need to be 3D printed, all you need is some PVC gutters and a $5 float valve for each gutter. Practically Octopots on rails, I absolutely love it. It's demonstrated on YouTube by the maker. Would scale to really large setups at low cost with almost no moving parts (one valve per rail).

The AutoPot valve is patented, so it is a cash cow, but honestly I do not see anything special about it, except for it being really well tuned and of high quality. It's also fair that you can buy all parts separately, even the little silicone cap on the valve which is probably the only part that could wear out or be damaged.
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Can you at least toss us a coupon code for your AutoPots mr salesman?
 
D

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
Wait, so 14 days you’re hand watering the auto pots since you’re using coco, at least a few times a day? That’s what I don’t get. With pro-mix I can go 5 days when I first transplant in veg. But my understanding is the preferred medium for autopots is coco. Surely you don’t have to automate the automated system for 2 weeks? I don’t mind hand watering 3, 4 times within 2 weeks but I won’t do 3 or 4 times a day.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
DaFreak said:
Wait, so 14 days you’re hand watering the auto pots since you’re using coco, at least a few times a day? That’s what I don’t get. With pro-mix I can go 5 days when I first transplant in veg. But my understanding is the preferred medium for autopots is coco. Surely you don’t have to automate the automated system for 2 weeks? I don’t mind hand watering 3, 4 times within 2 weeks but I won’t do 3 or 4 times a day.
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He’s on his first grow dude.
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
I have only hand watered once (not much, just a litre around the pot edges) during the 14 days. The transplant was quite small, so it did not use a lot of water.

This is a semi-outdoors grow, so the pot was sitting in summer weather, but even then not much watering was needed at all. Probably in a smaller pot (8 ltr) one would have to water a little more.

I prepared the 15-ltr pot with a 50/50 mix of clay pebbles and coco. The coco was pre-soaked in nutrient solution (from a coco brick). I gave it GHE TriPart nutrients at half schedule for veg, plus Pro Roots as per recommended schedule.

I also sprayed with Pro Roots occasionally to help root development; no idea how effective that is without more experimentation.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
ComputerSaysNo said:
Questions:

Is this the "Easy2Grow" system? The one with two pots fed from a single tray?

Did you put a layer of perlite or hydroton in the bottom of the pots, or just straight grow medium all the way through?
In their docs on the website they point out that you should put a 1-inch layer of perlite or clay into the pot first. That is not in the instruction manual that comes with the pots. They should probably update that, it appears to make a difference.

Where did you put the capillary mat? Inside the pot or inside the tray?

I think one should give the plant plenty of time to grow roots before turning on the feed. They advise 7-10 days, I gave mine 14 days to make sure. There are some root tips peeking out the bottom, but they are pruned by the copper mat. I do not know how many roots there were after 14 days, but it must have been enough because the system was feeding fine from when I turned it on. It's not the Easy2Grow though, it's the single AutoPot (15-ltr pot).
Click to expand...
I've bigger 1.2mtr versions with 4 pots and some 2 pots, the easy grow is the one I'm referring to with the minor flaw in the design, the capillary mat was from the pot to the sump, it doesn't need to be fancy just connected the perlite and in the sump, that'll make it work from day #1.
@DaFreak no you'll no need to hand feed don't worry... I'm about to run out of battery I'll get back to later on.
 

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ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
I will try capillary mats next time as well. Sounds really good. They should add it to their design I guess.

One can probably remove the capillary mats after the plant is fully rooted.
 
MidnightSun72

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
ComputerSaysNo said:
Questions:

Is this the "Easy2Grow" system? The one with two pots fed from a single tray?

Did you put a layer of perlite or hydroton in the bottom of the pots, or just straight grow medium all the way through?
In their docs on the website they point out that you should put a 1-inch layer of perlite or clay into the pot first. That is not in the instruction manual that comes with the pots. They should probably update that, it appears to make a difference.

Where did you put the capillary mat? Inside the pot or inside the tray?

I think one should give the plant plenty of time to grow roots before turning on the feed. They advise 7-10 days, I gave mine 14 days to make sure. There are some root tips peeking out the bottom, but they are pruned by the copper mat. I do not know how many roots there were after 14 days, but it must have been enough because the system was feeding fine from when I turned it on. It's not the Easy2Grow though, it's the single AutoPot (15-ltr pot).
Click to expand...
Interesting how you were demanding pics of blumats working well and a member providing promptly. Yet your autopots you won't stop going on about you have no pics??? Ok then.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
With the autopot easy grow I used around a 1" wide strip of capillary mating spanning the pot and poking out of the bottom, do that and there's no need to hand water after the 1st watering.
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Yeah I know it's not a autopot!

I used perlite in the bottom and tried for a couple of mm above the max water line.

DIY smart valve... A bottle with a slot cut in the rim/neck, cut the slot to the desired water level then it can only let water in once it falls sufficiently, I wouldn't go growing with it but for a long weekend it's fkg perfect coupled with big saucer ;-)
 
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