saw this post on another forum and thought it was very good, so i figured id put it up here
“A GOLDIELOCKS OF A MOISTURE ZONE
Hand-watered gardens or those on timers go through fluctuations of moisture levels.
If you water in the morning for example, it is likely your plants are over-watered for the beginning hours of the day.
They are not in optimal growth/metabolism, and likely won’t be for several hours.
Then as moisture levels get optimal toward the middle of the day, your plants begin to grow rapidly.
As the soil dries toward the end of the day, plants slow growth as they work to conserve water supply.
Instead of going through a daily cycle where optimal growth is achieved for only a few hours a day,
Blumat systems keep your soil in the “Goldi-Locks” Zone all the time.
That interprets into bigger plants in shorter periods of time, and increased yields.
When you are moving in/out of the Goldi-Locks zone, you are wasting precious time and opportunity.
Blumats minimize moisture swings, and you will see that this translate into constantly-vigorous growth and flowering.”
after using these for my second cycle and i think this post is spot on, plants grow very well with blumats and my plants have never been bigger and healthier
Blumats for the win
And here’s a link to a study on the subject. Seems to me this poster hit the nail right on the head.
I’ve seen similar results with auto pots when I used them, never dry once in its cycle, produced exceptional bud, but just too small I thought. (Now they have many many versions), I may reexplore one day or try blumats as I hear nothing but great things about them.
Thanks.
I also thought it was a super interesting article, I thought for the longest time that you needed dry cycles but now that I use blumats I’m finding that’s not the case.
I’ve been cheating and using an automatic injection watering system I hooked up to a sealed 5 gallon bucket with a huge air stone bubbling all my water with Mosquito dunks in a tea ball.My feed problem fixed itself and My plants have a much better appetite and my leaf tips aren’t burned anymore.They seem less stressed out now they don’t have to hunt for water as much.I have it set every 5 hours for 1 min 30 seconds at a steady drip drip pace not a stream just litteral drip drip drip out of orange adjustable nozzles like an automatic iv of aerated non particular h20 .Nice when you have to get away for a day or two
If you put a little pile of dry amendments under the nozzle it gives them a steady drip feed like a fertilizer spike.The water gets it down in there nice
Yeah, that’s one of the main points that got me interested in Autopots - plants drinking when and how much they want, effectively self regulating their feed. Gotta say it works for me!
3x Mephisto Samsquanch OG in 20L Autopot Smartpots on 7th march and yesterday (16 days later). Getting absolutely humongous, check the power strip in the upper right corner for scale:
Damn straight those look like they are doing Awsome. Congrats, and good job.
Those are autos right? They look pretty beefy for autos. I guess the key to a good yield with autos is autopots , I say it’s a conspiracy
I reckon blumats and autopots/sips are kinda the same thing just one waters from top other waters from bottom. Benefit of autopots/sips is no runaway though which is a huge plus
@MrRevolution Since you have both what would you recommend for a newer grower?
My bro asked me about getting blumats but he’s only had 1 grow under his belt and with how finicky they are I didn’t want him to have trouble with them.
Was thinking maybe tell him to get autopots instead.
I’d recommend the autopots. One thing I do is add about 2 inches of hydroton to the bottom of the fabric pot as I don’t like soil sitting in water. I just use the ones you can put in any tray not the one with the tray and pot combined. @Justblazin
Yeah they are autos, I was and continue to be surprised by their size as well! Something about coco and autopot combination just gets them comfy I guess.
And yeah, autopots, octopots, DIY SIPs, Earthboxes… all function on the same basic principle, but I like the autopot approach with less standing water and storing feed/water in a separate tank instead of in the pots themselves.
Autovalves have their issues though, the silicones have to be just right or the fill/drain cycle wont work properly. I haven’t had a flooding issue in these 2 years of use, but I’ve had plenty of issues with clogging (solved by tank cleaning agent) or always filling to full instead of properly cycling (solved by fiddling with silicones).
, I say it’s a conspiracy 