Blumat gravity flow irrigation

[bovine421]

 

 Since I'm a gardening hobbyist I get advertisements for irrigation but this was new to me. Anyone using these ceramic valves reminds me of ceramic valve on irrometer Galatians schools me on in another thread. May experiment with these Blumat ceramic valves attached to a 5 gallon bucket with bulkhead 8 mm Spaghetti hose on container grown tomatoes just for fun.                                                                         For those not familiar with Blumats, they utilize a ceramic actuated valve... when the ceramic drys up, the valve opens, then once the ground is wet again, the ceramic soaks the water back up, swells, and shuts off the valve.

[Daintree]

So, you take your standard drip irrigation system, and for some/all pots, you substitute a little clay cone for the drip emitter?
I am not sure what the advantage would be, and more parts to clog.
But, I only use my drip system when I am on vacation so my "sitter" can water without needing to know the complexities of who gets what. Other than that I water by hand, and check out each plant as I go.
Maybe a system like this would be handy for things that need their water very, very slowly?

Carolyn

[mbmango]

I used them on a bunch of indoor pots when we went on a long winter vacation a couple years ago. It works, but can be very finicky to setup. Need good contact of the cone to the soil, so very gritty mixes don't conduct enough water to the cone. I had to pack extra peat around the cones to help with that. Might need some thought on inserting them into smaller or already dense pots. Doesn't need much head height on the reservoir. I think a foot or so was enough. The valves can be a little sticky, but the tension eventually operates them. Be prepared to make some mistake during setup and have 1 valve stick open and drain the whole reservoir overnight. That said, I'd still use them again, if I had to. Otherwise, easier to just move everything outside with some timed sprayers.