Bluemats
- Thread starter Turpman
- Start date
This is the method I use. Adding a mulch layer will help the top layer of the soil from drying out.
619KGB
PICK YOUR OWN
Get the res as as far up as possible. My totes have screw lids which creates a vacuum and seems help and limits evaporation too. Make sure the bottom of the threaded cap of the carrot is level with the dirt line. Soak the pot and then dial them in. I have three drippers on each carrot (7&15g pots) and have to adj them periodically depending on plants uptake. My setup uses a 6 foot rack with two 35 gal totes on top (backed up to my 5x5 1' from ceiling) connected together with 3/4 pvc. Its great taking the guess work out of watering. I just hit them with a gal of veg/flower teas 3 times a week when the pots start to dry out a bit. Its interesting to see when the conditions in the tent are perfect and they start flowing. Since I top dress twice during flower I found a fine layer of coco or peat works great. Rice hull is also good but hard to top dress.
pinner420
Finally on a roll....
Ive got the hygrometer sitting there waiting for me to play with it however i set mine and have only 2 sites that needed any additional dialage. The initial setting of 2 marks off of hanging drip seems perfect. I'm a week or so off my first run and not sure how much fluxuation is occurring.
Are you talking about the valve on the carrot or the drippers? If you have bluemat drippers then opening them up isn't going to really do anything to the drip rate. They are designed to be fully closed at all times. If you are talking about the valves on the carrots then you really shouldn't need to make any adjustments once you set them up. A full turn open is likely going to cause it to run away on you and flood the pot. Most of the time when I'm checking on my plants I might see the drippers in one of the plants dripping but often times none of them are. They will only drip when the soil needs it.
Turpman
PICK YOUR OWN
Ya the carrot valve. I did the soak fill screw on top under water with no air. Water plants to your max capacity. Install carrot and adjust to a hanging drip. Then 2 triangles closed. They seemed to be too dry so ive opened them a bit. Pot weight seems good now. If I add by hand they seem to stop so I’m guessing they are working. Do you all just leave them after the initial 2 triangles closed at setup? I don’t really have my bucket up high. Maybe that’s why I had to open them a bit. Less head. No one likes that. Haha
You need to have the bottom of the reservoir at least 3 feet above the carrots or you’ll wind up having issues with them not being reliable. I don’t even soak my posts like I used to. I get my soil to field capacity, get the valves set, then mount the caps on the carrots and put them in the soil. When I set the valves I close them off 1 arrow. Then, if I have a pot that seems to run a little dry, I’ll open it up one arrow and give it a few days to see how it changes.
Something I forgot to mention that I’ve learned after years of using blumats is that your soil should never be wet like it is right after you hand water your plants. I used to aim for the pots to be more wet but then learned that the plants didn’t do as well with that. Now I aim for the pots to feel like they do about half way between when you water and when they are dry. Basically right around field capacity. I’ve noticed much thicker root balls since doing that.
I can tell if something is wrong based on the growth stage and how much or how little I have to top off the reservoir each day.
You can see how consistent it is in this log. The water amount logged for each day is the average per plant. I top off the reservoir then divide the amount of water needed by the number of plants.
This makes it easier to see what each column is
Tvanmunhen
Just some dude
Are you using 7 gallon cloth pot?
10 gallon plastic pots. I used to use fabric but had more issues with high humidity when I used them.