Blumats And Topdressing Dry Amendments

[Comermac]

Hi everyone,

After my current run I am getting a bigger tent so I am starting a living soil grow in my current tent. I plan on topdressing dry amendments and having a layer of staw ontop. I would also like to use Blumats to handle the watering of the plants.

Will spot dripping on the top of the soil work or do I need to use a 360 degree or 180 degree sprayer? On the one hand it seems like blumats is a lower pressure system so spot drippers would work best. On the other hand I am concerned about amendments only staying on the surface since the emitters are just dripping a few spots.

I was thinking I could give them a hand watering after top dressing then letting the blumats take over again.

 

[ONalliance]

there is a wonderful podcast Cannabis cultivation and science where you will get these answers best i think. but from those I could chime in. your growing in soil so you want it to be full of organic life. The microbes and mycoculture will make the nutrients available to the plants. They are the ones that will work with that top dressing of nutrients and make the available. so I'd say make sure your making a vermicompost tea of compost tea regular, and start with and/or use fungal innoculants, especially when transplanting or germinating. for watering Blumat will work perfect , but set it up right so that its set at the water level you want. learn how to do it. they interview the NA dealer and he goes into details over two episodes. oh, get the soil tested or get a very clear sense of what is in it before you be adding anything to it. too much of something is a bigger issue then not enough!!!!!!

 

[Comermac]

I did a bunch of research into amendments. I think have a pretty solid list. I mainly wanted to see if the dry amendments need to be watered directly over them to absorb into the soil or will it absorb even if just the surface is damp.

With blumats the drops are only falling on one spot vs over the whole area.

 

[Perception]

I’m setting up my first blumat dripper system today, and was wondering the same thing.

I’m pretty sure that outdoor veggie Gardner’s top dress under drip lines, so I was just planning to make my piles under the drippers. Alternatively, you could just get a pump sprayer and try to water the top dressings in over several days.

I don’t have a real answer - these are just ideas, but that’s what I plan to do.

 

[ONalliance]

lsitening to those podacasts is not about knowing which amendments, its about hearing directly from the blumat dealer. for fast info. Blumat is not a dropper system. it will not top water!!! it keeps the medium hydrated.

 

[Comermac]

I’m setting up my first blumat dripper system today, and was wondering the same thing.

I’m pretty sure that outdoor veggie Gardner’s top dress under drip lines, so I was just planning to make my piles under the drippers. Alternatively, you could just get a pump sprayer and try to water the top dressings in over several days.

I don’t have a real answer - these are just ideas, but that’s what I plan to do.

I was thinking of hand watering right after so it seeps in initially. I'm meeting up with a local grower today who has been growing in soil since before I was born. I'll let you know what he thinks.

 

[Perception]

lsitening to those podacasts is not about knowing which amendments, its about hearing directly from the blumat dealer. for fast info. Blumat is not a dropper system. it will not top water!!! it keeps the medium hydrated.

It depends on which type of blumat system you set up. The Blumat Classics just suck water through the carrots, and distribute water through the carrots - under the soil surface. The classics are just for small pots though (probably less than a gallon).

The bigger kits actually have above-ground drippers, and the carrots are only used a sensors, which pull the water to the dripper system. The team at Sustainable Village (North American Blumat distributor) recommended that I used 1 carrot-sensor + 3 drippers per 5 gallon pot.

 

[Comermac]

It depends on which type of blumat system you set up. The Blumat Classics just suck water through the carrots, and distribute water through the carrots - under the soil surface. The classics are just for small pots though (probably less than a gallon).

The bigger kits actually have above-ground drippers, and the carrots are only used a sensors, which pull the water to the dripper system. The team at Sustainable Village (North American Blumat distributor) recommended that I used 1 carrot-sensor + 3 drippers per 5 gallon pot.

So even though the water is only dripping in about 3 spots will top dressing still be an effective method? My only worry is that only the amendments right under the dripper will be absorbed into the soil since that's where the water is falling.

 

[Perception]

I’m in the same boat as you! Not sure - we’ll have to figure it out.

I did top dressing on my outdoor plants this year, which had dripper hose around them. I would make little piles of my top-dressings directly under the drippers, and nowhere else. All seemed to work out great! Plant was amazing.

Now, my top dressings are concentrated fertilizer, like 50/50 guano and kelp. So I want them to become diluted a little before absorbing in to the soil. If you are doing something like EW castings or compost over the whole surface, I guess that would be different. If i was doing compost or EW castings, I’d just cover the whole surface (or scratch in), and give it an occasional top water by hand.