self watering probes...do they work?

Hey guys. I am planning some vacations coming up and looking for watering solutions. After going 6days without water over Thanksgiving(see my grow for pics) I need to figure something out. Do these work? I'm growing in 5 gal airpots with promix.
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Watering-Probes-Package-of-5/dp/B0002VAHXC

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someone linked a whole system that auto does it... i remember being apart of the discussion let me see if i can dig it up for you

Don't know about those but the blumat probes work well, I've tried a couple recently, you just have to adjust how many probes to the pot size. If you search blumat within the forums there are many growers in here using them for various purposes. Mine is I travel for work, sometimes in spurts and need something to keep them going. Doubt I'll use these to replace watering as it's when I spend time with the plants but they are handy for when you're going away for a few days.

Beyond the blumats you'd probably want to look at a res/drip-based system that can be used to top-feed and probably cheaper if you're looking at any quantity. I have one which I'll setup if I'm going for more than a couple of days made by Claber, up to 20 stakes/drippers which covers anywhere from 6 to 10 plants for a week or so. Bigger than that it's cheaper to build your own.

Just two plants and I don't have water in that room so it has to be osmosis or gravity fed

texasjack said:

Just two plants and I don't have water in that room so it has to be osmosis or gravity fed

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Yeah, those probes would cover you for that, much easier to setup too. I'd just be careful with no-name e-bay stuff, some can be good but a lot of it is crap. I know quite a few growers are using the blumat branded probes and they seem to be fairly reliable, like a year +. If you can find the blumat's for a reasonable cost they're probably your best option. Would be a bitch to come home to a plugged up non-functioning probe because you "saved" $10

i cant find the thread
but i did find this http://www.amazon.com/Claber-8053-4-Programs-Automatic-Watering/dp/B000U5YFR4 which is exactly what the person linked

I got the blumat self watering carrots. I'm testing it in two ornamentals till we leave Wednesday for Fort Collins. It better work because I got 2 plants day 16 of Flower alone for 10 days. I'm scared.

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I'm not sure they were drawing properly in my ornamental plants and I figured I probably should be expirementing in the conditions they'll be in during my vacation. Water ph'd to 5.9 and calmag is all I'm giving during this trial.

I covered the bucket with a plastic bag for evap.

I am trying to put together a setup like this that hooks directly to my filter on the faucet. My current plan is to have an adjustable nutrient pump to tune in the ppm's, on a digital cycle timer, along with a digital sprinkler timer. PHing is not neccesary, so that hurdle is not an issue. I would rather not have a bucket or resivoir, like I said I want it to be fresh. Any ideas on this. would any of these probes help? it seems like they might be the tail end of the project, assuming I need to fine tune feed for each plant. Are these type of probes gravity fed, or is ther a pump pushing those?

These are siphoned as far as I can tell. The reservoir can be under the pots.

Blumat makes drippers and carrots run off a faucet but you need their pressure regulator. I don't have any experience with it.

There are two distinct types of Blumats. The "Jr" siphon model and the gravity Tropf (drip) model. The gravity type can work off of a tap water supply with a pressure reducer. You would need a Dosatron or something to inject nutes if you had an inert medium instead of soil.

this reminds me of olla ceramic irrigation container

http://www.plowhearth.com/small-olla-ceramic-irrigation-container.htm?aff=6443&CAWELAID=530007710000049981&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=530007710000069784&cadevice=c&gclid=CPLQpbTq6MkCFQ8taQod6gUP_Q

they even have something similar to what yall got going on here maby a drip line into one of these ?

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+plant+nanny&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=85128529039&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11837460097888990753&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6xgboi8pi7_b

I am trying to eliminate the need for a dosatron, or any Massive $$ product. what I am doing is simple enough. if I can find the right pump, or an adjustable one, I am hoping I can fine tune the dose. my filter does all the pressure regulating I need, so its just a matter of feeding the nutrients in the line at the right rate.
Then we get that right, we need to distribute it evenly between plants, which may be the more difficult part of this project. I have watering rings, but I fear that if I put them in series, the pressure will drop from the first one to the last one on the line. running a separate line for each plant may fix this, but thats a lot of volume in water that will be sitting in the lines, some of which will drip off into the plant after the pressure is turned off. Which probably doesnt matter, it should be similar for each plant.
Nobody's tried just pumping nutrients directly into a line carrying water?
I realize there are ready made systems that do this and can be fine tuned to mix 15 different bottles at precice ratios, but I am trying to do the same thing without spending many thousands of dollars, since my nutrient mix is so simple

According to Blumat, 150ml max water per 24 hrs per carrot. Even with 2 in a pot that's less then 1 gallon per plant over the 10 days we're gone. I'm fucked right? I water one gal every 3 days now.
halp



@ttystikk

Relatively few people use the siphon style Blumat Juniors on cannabis.

sanjuan said:

Relatively few people use the siphon style Blumat Juniors on cannabis.

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I guess that's why I couldn't find good info. Shit, I shouldn't have cheaped out. I wonder if I could find the hose kit in Chicago area. I have access to a faucet.