Ok,I got the grain barley. When I made soil, I only used 1/2 of the MBP powder, so I need to add more, is it ok to use only half of grain MBP? or full amount since I used powder? Also, I couldn't return powder, what should I do with it? I got my sip tray dialed in with the float valve and res. I put an adjustable overflow in tray also. I'm gonna put a perlite blocker in front of in and outtakes, tape over clear water lines.
You could still use the powder but its not gonna be as effective as freshly ground, and it will expire faster. It's really good in vanilla milkshakes, homemade bread or other recipes. Recipes | Yummly
When I was a kid I worked at an ice cream shop during the summer vacation. My favorite "snack" was a vanilla milkshake with a tablespoon of malt...simple yet so tasty.
Heya Scooby hope all is well with you! This is some great conversation. Soil water management is so important. I am really surprised to be reading this! I recently set up a small indoor garden and have been pondering whether or not I want to try setting up a blumat irrigation system. I had a lot of success with the swick method a few years ago, but I really like the idea of being able to leave the grow for a longer period of time. I like this idea of using the blumats to refill your SIP tray--I think you tested this a few years ago for clones or something with success? I'll be interested to see what your setup looks like now.
Heya DNT! It's been a while, how are things with you? I tried a few things, ill dig in my journal later and find the pics and explain but in a nutshell I use surface blumats and just put it on top of a shower drain cover that sits on top of the media.
So here's what it looks like, surface blumat sitting on top of the media. I used this perforated plastic lid to place under the blumat, otherwise the sensor can wick water from the media and it will take a lot longer to trigger the valve to open. As you can see, the water fills up to where the blumat sits, and stays there. Now, if you wanted more of a wet/dry thing going on, you can either place the blumat directly on the media (longest time to trigger opening of valve), Or you can use something like "scotchbrite" dish scrubber as it can hold a little water but dries out faster than the wicking media (or other types of cloth). This will create a faster cycle, but the water level in the sip will still fluctuate. If you go with the latter options I recommend using drippers next to each plant because if you dont, most of the water will get sucked by the plant thats closest to the drip point. If you go with the first option where the level is constant then the drippers are no needed. I did also do a test with a normal blumat, it also works. In fact, it doesnt really matter how you place the sensor. As soon as water touches the sensor (any sensor) its enough to shut the water valve, you could litterally just toss a normal blumat and lay it on the media and it will work. Or place it in a cup with drainage holes.
Dude thank you for digging that up! That is very cool. Good tip about having multiple drippers for large trays with multiple plants, that makes a ton of sense. I will look into it more. It would be pretty easy to automate something like this with a water depth sensor, relay and pump. I liked using the swick method but it's not totally fool-proof. For some, it keeps the bottom part of the root zone too wet--perhaps this can be fixed with additional coarse media like perlite or w/e. If the pots are too tall, then you may need to top water or the plant roots will really only occupy the bottom 2/3 of soil or so. I also had issues where the outside of the fabric pot got very dry, so the outside inch or so of the pot had very little rooting--the new grassroots fabric pots seem to have fixed this issue. Sorry for going on a diatribe. Blumats have been on my mind a lot lately and I was really surprised to read your recent posts lol. Things are good here. GF and I recently bought a house which has been exciting, and I'm working through my last field season of grad school. Staying busy. I've really missed my friends here so I'm glad to see you folks still posting. How have you been? Anything else I missed in the last couple years? Lol
You could also have it with a float valve, that's how I had my very first iteration of the swick in my mother cabinet. I had setup the float valve inside a milk bottle (to keep it separate from the media) Drilled a bunch of hole on the bottom of the container so water can go in but not the lava rock. The valve sits very low so this way it can hold the water level at about 1" Plastic bits (cut from a square plastic pot) as anchors to keep the whole bottle from floating It's pretty simple and worked great, the only reason I eventually switched to blumats is that they take up less space in the tray, but If i didn't care about the space I would have left it with the float.
You're a crafty sob, Scooby haha I like how the plastic anchors use the media to hold everything in place. That's probably smarter than relying on a piece of Frankenstein code to not flood my grow tent lol.
So you put the valve in the tray , my tray has no room on top so I put the valve outside the tray, my bed covers the tray completely I got an adjustable overflow on tray, which is making me think I don't need the valve if I can control water level with overflow,? Does that make sense to you? The local beer place carries these 3 barley, which one do you like ? 60 lbs lava rock just came in
That's also a good way to add a float valve, much easier to make adjustments too. IDK about if you need it though, If you are running a closed system the overflow might be enough? It's easy to test just force the valve open and see how it works. As for the malted barely, get the lightest one, the one least toasted.
Havnt been updating much lately as I'm getting ready to remod the main flower area, But I got a round of Temple of Apollo on day 18 in the mini SOG I set up in the shower. these are in 3gallon pots, started with 12 but a few went tits up so I just kept the best looking 6 and put them in the middle with some training
Hiya Scoob, so I got everything running, ( I think ), I covercropped w/ crimson clover and some straw mulch, how long should I wait to put the girls in the dirt?
If you used the no-till recipe you don't need to wait but if you added anything, especially anything that's high in Nitrogen, I would wait at least a couple of weeks.
Day 33 Temple of Apollo. Really happy with this grow, the setup seems to be working really well with the smart pots and the wicking tray. I meant to install a blumat but have been hand watering about a gallon a day. I even add all the regular inputs (neem, silica, kelp, fish fertilizer etc...) to the water straight into the tray with no issues!
you're crushing it, Scooby! Plants look vibrant and they are chunking up beautifully. It seems like the wicking tray really allows you to take full advantage of that small soil volume. Way to debunk the whole idea that you need a ton of soil to pull off a successful organic grow I just noticed in your last set of pics it looks like you're using some sort of DIY LED? There are so many strips and things for DIY'ers now it's kind of overwhelming.
Thanks for the kind words Yes the lights are DIY I made from quantum boards. I've been building my lights for quit some time now, it's fun and pretty simple to build. Prices for boards are pretty cheap these days too, you can build a kickass lamp for about $1 per watt, or even less if you go with older board models (which are still very good compared to newer models). These are basically two 120w lamps I built from older boards I took out of my main flower space (where I have a newer lamp with more recent board models) The front lamp is actually made out of boards that I have cut in half lengthwise, they used to be part of my main flower space light and were cut to fit in the edge of the fixture. (as you can see, a couple were even cut into quarters) This is what I have in the main flower no-till space. If you ever want to build your own I'd be happy to walk you through it.