And so far non-LOS.
Gee explains it better than I so I'll paraphrase.
A synthetic SIP grow is like a restaurant with an open buffet where the plants can help themselves to all the food and water they want and because of that they grow almost non-stop, just like hydro.
An LOS grow is more like a high-end restaurant with table service. The wait staff are exceptionally qualified and attentive, but they're also primadonna's, only willing to work in near ideal conditions. Too cold or wet or dim or whatever and the servers go on strike until working conditions are restored to their liking.
They are super good at what they do if the owner provides the proper environment, but like a high performance race car they have "certain needs." That's not necessarily a bad thing if the owner understands and provides the environment the staff requires.
Thanks for that... very helpful. So in my case in the current season outdoors, the big one is light. Fender is indoors w/ SIP and soilless w/ WC and organic nutes and getting big stems and from what I can tell, pretty good results.
So, even in your extended cycle example, the microbes are on strike for long periods of time until conditions end up in the sweet spot in the cycle, specifically a tight range of soil moisture content (really more a tight range of open hallways for O2). Those hallways are available to both air and water, with water displacing air in the soil mix. So during the cycle when the hallways are filled with water (and therefore lack of air), the waitstaff sit it out until air returns. So the patrons (plants) can ask for whatever they want, but the staff are sitting it out until things improve.
I hear you. Yep, this is another factor. What comes to mind is just put a lower drain hole right at the bottom of the sidewall, and then the SIP becomes like a normal 4-gal pot with aeration in the root zone. When the sunlight is pumping and the plant is old enough (large root mass), the lower drain hole could be plugged with a stopper. Then top-fertigate and catch some runoff in the rez, which then gets recycled up into the soil as needed. But then we are back to the waterlogged hallways. Unless... the plant is drinking up the fert-water rapidly. It seems sufficient light will drive this pump.
Now I'm thinking... wait... what we want are lots of available nutrients. In the SIP, due to the small container size, the nutrients must come from fertigation, so then you've got this problem with too much water, because water is needed in order to feed the plant. Too much water, because the rez water gets wicked up.
Now I'm thinking... how about a membrane covering the domes that allows air to circulate, but interrupts the wicking. I'm thinking a circular piece of the weed cloth I used for my DIY fabric pots, with a limited number of holes in it that would allow some deep roots to reach the "R zone" (water-saturated soilless zone). With my 3-dome design, the membrane could have large holes, one for each dome top. And then a few smaller holes so deep roots can reach the R zone.
With the membrane design, and no lower drain hole, we've got a 4-gal pot with aeration in the root zone, restricted wicking, and roots able to reach the fert-water in the reservoir. The hallways would be the same or similar to normal wet/dry cycle in a pot. Benefits are aeration in the root zone and deep roots can reach water and nutes. Fert-water can be checked for pH in the good range, 6.5?