Runoff is a tad hot

larf

Well-Known Member
Add more water it will go down. Oh wait what am I saying , runoff don't tell u jack shit. Read your plants. They tell you EVERYTHING!
I agree to a certain extent with EC and definitely with PH. But this runoff was telling me I need to water to runoff more often. I'm experimenting with Blumats and roughly 1/2 gallon pots of coco, and something went sideways. I noticed that the plants looked a bit burned so I investigated. I was feeding them 1.2 EC, but apparently that was too hot for no runoff. The truncheon maxed out, so I grabbed a meter and it was reading between 2000 to 4000 PPM depending on the plant. I spent the day flushing half of them down to a non catastrophic level. The pots are all dramatically tilted from scrogging, so it was a very, very slow process. I have to do the rest tomorrow.
 

Heisen

Dont Need One
Admin
Forget the runoff, your plants were already telling you that u fucked up. Check the roots first, always . Like visibly make sure there not rotten or dried out. Than make adjustments and take notes. Your never gonna learn a schedule if you change up your grow every other water. Runoff is the mother of all fuckups. It's going to give you nothing useful ever. Make changes one at a time so u know what u fixed.
 

larf

Well-Known Member
Forget the runoff, your plants were already telling you that u fucked up. Check the roots first, always . Like visibly make sure there not rotten or dried out. Than make adjustments and take notes. Your never gonna learn a schedule if you change up your grow every other water. Runoff is the mother of all fuckups. It's going to give you nothing useful ever. Make changes one at a time so u know what u fixed.
I agree, but the thing is I caught the problem before signs expressed how dire of a situation the plants were actually in. I used almost 30 gallons to flush 9 half gallon pots back down to a safe level. I don't usually check my runoff, and with Blumats there is no runoff to check. Normally if I see a burn developing I give the plants a decent flushing, reduce the EC and watch until something happens. If I had done that I probably wouldn't have flushed enough, so they would have gotten worse, and I would have been further confused.

I'm not sure how low I need to take the EC with this setup, so I'm just going to hand water with plenty of runoff every few days to keep them happy. They were doing great until I let the Blumats takeover watering duty fulltime.
 

VAHomegrown

Active Member
I couldn’t imagine using blumats for anything other than an water only type of grow.
Exactly-I would ditch those blumats and go to a hand watering routine ASAP. You probably have layers of salts built up from the slow watering process & its going to wreak havoc on the plants root zone. Blumats are great for living soils/organic soils but running nutes through them is inviting problems.
 

larf

Well-Known Member
Exactly-I would ditch those blumats and go to a hand watering routine ASAP. You probably have layers of salts built up from the slow watering process & its going to wreak havoc on the plants root zone. Blumats are great for living soils/organic soils but running nutes through them is inviting problems.
I'm using 1/2 gallon pots, and like I said they are tilted from scrogging, so it's a very slow process. I would basically have to dedicate my entire life to watering for the next month.

A lot of people use Blumats with coco / synth nutrients. I'm not really sure how they figured out the EC without burning their plants down though. I used them during my last grow, but I periodically hand watered because I didn't trust the no runoff concept. Which I guess I still don't.
 

larf

Well-Known Member
The bottom of the tote doesn’t. Look like it’s freshly cleaned either so run off will be skewed.

I don’t check run off myself. I put in what’s needed and don’t worry about anything else.
I was expecting the EC to be high at first from evaporated buildup on the leach trays. But the meter maxing out was a shock. It took me over 30 minutes per plant to flush back down, so the coco was definitely extremely hot.
 

larf

Well-Known Member
Yeah floraflex is the only way to go for artificial mediums. Leave the blumats to them organic hippies that have a little more patience.
I have a Floraflex system that I bought like 4 years ago, but never setup. I've made a few attempts at automating, but they all had their own headaches.

How's your new system working, BK? Obviously it's doing its job because your plants look nice, but have you had any issues? Would you buy it again after running it a cycle?
 

bk-og

Moose cocks, or bust
I'm using 1/2 gallon pots, and like I said they are tilted from scrogging, so it's a very slow process. I would basically have to dedicate my entire life to watering for the next month.

A lot of people use Blumats with coco / synth nutrients. I'm not really sure how they figured out the EC without burning their plants down though. I used them during my last grow, but I periodically hand watered because I didn't trust the no runoff concept. Which I guess I still don't.
They only ones I’ve ever seen boasting about blumats with coco either have cooked shitty looking plants like justblazin or xtsho who refuses to post pics taken this decade.
 

bk-og

Moose cocks, or bust
I have a Floraflex system that I bought like 4 years ago, but never setup. I've made a few attempts at automating, but they all had their own headaches.

How's your new system working, BK? Obviously it's doing its job because your plants look nice, but have you had any issues? Would you buy it again after running it a cycle?
Not a single hitch at all, and I have bought again now since he’s come out with the F-20 system. I can now feed up to 20 plants whatever they need independently
 

bk-og

Moose cocks, or bust

larf

Well-Known Member
They only ones I’ve ever seen boasting about blumats with coco either have cooked shitty looking plants like justblazin or xtsho who refuses to post pics taken this decade.
This is a fair point now that I think about it.

As it stands I think they are good watering apprentices, but don't give them your magic hat and leave because they will destroy your castle.
 

bk-og

Moose cocks, or bust
This is a fair point now that I think about it.

As it stands I think they are good watering apprentices, but don't give them you magic hat and leave because they will destroy your castle.
Great for a vacation or work get away. Wouldn’t touch them with a 10’ pole otherwise.
 
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