Live Stoners Live Stoner Chat - Jul-Sep '21

[Cave Dirt Cody]

@arty zan - I have found that coco doesn't wick/spread they way soil does so it did not work with my blumat carrots. I think as long as your dripper system covers the whole area you should be good.

Probably my first and last coco grow. I always been a promix guy. Haven’t seen anything out of the coco that would make me change to it. But plenty of things to get away from it. I will give it a fair chance.

 

[DCLXVI]

Thanks bro, that is a good point!
I will have either a drip ring with multiple drip points, such as a Hydro Halo or use 4 drippers per ring to get an even spread of nutes!

I always loved the look of the blumat drippers.
Have you had any problems with the valves sticking open?
I ask because I have seen reports of that happening.

I went to a hydro halo on a timer and it worked well.

I have not had an issue with the blumats aside from getting them adjusted. The valve won't stick if you prep them carefully. You really need to set them up and tweak the valves for a couple days which I think a lot of the issues are from a set it and forget it implementation. (Which I did and had one run a lot. Mini flood.)

 

[DCLXVI]

Oh I was pumping 1gal/day through the hydro halo and it was one of the large ones. I also had it set a few inches above the surface so the streams could spray a bit. Had decent coverage I thought. I don't know if the small ones don't spread nicely.

 

[Dr Fluff]

I got them hydro halos and returned them as they don’t put out an even flow of water so pots had mad dry pockets in the soil! Had to hand water afterwards and then immediately took em out and cleaned em up and sent em back! Didn’t seem like near enough holes in them distributing the water!

Awesome reply!!!
I was looking at spending £60 for four of them (6").
So that is £60 saved
I'm now thinking a high pressure system is the way to go, in order to get a uniform watering!

 

[Dr Fluff]

I went to a hydro halo on a timer and it worked well.

I have not had an issue with the blumats aside from getting them adjusted. The valve won't stick if you prep them carefully. You really need to set them up and tweak the valves for a couple days which I think a lot of the issues are from a set it and forget it implementation. (Which I did and had one run a lot. Mini flood.)

Sound advice on the carrot drippers.
Mini flood was exactly I was referring to!
Good to know a little bit of fiddling pays dividends!

Now to the Hydro Halos, you said, you had good success with the Hydro Halos?
@Fermented_Fruitz just posted that they were a disaster, with unequal watering and dry pockets.
I wonder if you have some more morsels of wisdom, to share about Hydro Halo's because I liked the look of them!
I would hope a high pressure system with check valves at each watering site might ameliorate this problem?

 

[Dr Fluff]

Omg is arty stepping out of the micro realm

I'm not sure what the micro realm is @mohawk warrior
I will still be in my annoyingly small grow spaces 2' x 3' & 2' x 2' a total of 10sqr ft.
The drip system will be for 4 plants.
I need to water the plants when I'm away on weekends and when at work! (job pending)

 

[Fermented_Fruitz]

Oh I was pumping 1gal/day through the hydro halo and it was one of the large ones. I also had it set a few inches above the surface so the streams could spray a bit. Had decent coverage I thought. I don't know if the small ones don't spread nicely.

I will say mine were the 12” and I think the 6”-12” all have same number holes so may get better dispersion from the smaller sized ones!

 

[Fermented_Fruitz]

If u are using a lot of water where u can flood your pots may not be a problem but I am in living soil fabric pots so had to use water sparingly and that’s another reason they sucked! By time pump had gone thru 1/2gal for the pot u could literally see stripes on the surface from below where each strip of holes were!

 

[DCLXVI]

Oh I had a 3.5gal pot with a high pressure pump to one plant. I ran a timer for 1 minute and it put out about a gallon. The halo sprayed most of the surface but I kept it elevated to allow the angled holes to distribute better.

It may have worked just because of the volume.

 

[DCLXVI]

Yup, just like @Fermented_Fruitz said, flood. I was in coco so runoff was fine.