Blumat Runaway in Living Soil - Flooded Pot with 4 Gallons

[Laredo7mm]

Hi all. Had an issue yesterday with my Blumat watering system. It was probably my fault as I have been struggling for a few months trying to dial it in. My issue is that I could never get it to hold a consistent moisture level and I tried just about everything to no avail. Monday night I decided to add another Blumat carrot inserted into the side of the pot about six inches below the top of the soil. Needless to say it didn’t work well. I woke up to my reservoir being drained and the 3 to 4 gallons was sitting in my containment tub. My pot was flooded 1/3 of the way up from the bottom and all those gallons of water ran through my soil.

I have saved the runoff and have it in a bucket with an air stone and air pump running in it in case I need to use it. The plant in question just started her third week of 12/12 on Monday and is showing flowers nicely. She is 43” tall and about 5 feet across. She is in a 5 gallon smart pot that has 5 pounds of “Kind Soil” (that is the name brand of the soil) in the bottom of it and the rest is filled with Roots Organic Original. She was in veg for almost 8 weeks.

Did this flood wash away all my nutrients and good stuff from my soil? Should I add that saved runoff water back into the pot by hand watering it a few cups a day? The plant looks fine, but I have no idea how this incident will affect the next 6 to 8 weeks of flowering since this is a water only set up. No extra nutrients are supposed to be needed.

I do have the GH flora trio nutes, and Jack’s 321 in case I need to supplement later on down the road. Have any of you ran into this situation? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[cloudyhelads]

I personally wouldn’t worry about it. You may have washed away some stuff, but if you’re running a living soil, most of your life in that soil should survive. The soil is forgiving. Let it come back to proper moisture and then try to keep it there. I have also had blumat malfunctions. They are hard to dial in, but once you do they are game changers for sure. I hope your garden prospers.

 

[Laredo7mm]

Right on, I will keep an eye on it. I used a few cups of the flood water to top water but I sent the rest down the drain. The plant is looking good and seems to be doing well. I disconnected the Blumats and have been using a SIP set up for the past few days. It seems to be working very well.

Not sure why I had so many issues with the Blumats. I tried everything and had high hopes. Messed with them for almost two months and could never get it dialed in. The moisture readings on the Blumat digital were all over the place. I was basically hand watering with it. It would get too dry, so I would open the valve until it caught up, then stop the flow by closing the valve, wait for the ideal moisture content, reset the carrot, and then the next day, do it all over again.

I talked to the people at sustainable village a few times and took their advice. Removed the carrot and moisture meter, filled the holes with coco and reinserted the probe and carrot. I guess there are known issues with soils that have a lot of perlite where it causes dry spots on the ceramic tip that messes up the function. That didn’t help.

Instead of distribution droppers, I tried the soak tape...same behavior. Then instead of using just gravity flow, I set up a pressure tank and pump to provide a 15psi water supply. Still no improvement. Maybe I will try it again on my next grow, but this rigged up SIP thing that I have going on is working well, so I may just stick with it.