SIP Club - Getting Hydro/Coco Results In A Soil Based Medium

[Azimuth]

Ever sacrifice a plant when your deficiencies arise and disect the rootball?

No, but I did just do a rootopsy on my first plant with my dome reservoir design. This was a CBG seed to final pot and it was quite robust in growth.

My pots are 2 gallon buckets and about 9"/23cm high, and I fill them about 7.5"/19cm with my organic soil mix. What I found was kind of interesting. There were three distinct types of roots I could identify.

There were:
(1) an upper, quite dense mat of very fine feeder roots about 3"/7.5cm thick,

(2) 4-5 thicker, white roots of the type we normally see in a wet/dry cycle grow including the tap root, all of which stopped at the bottom of the thicker mat but all of which sent small, thinner roots down to

(3) a lower group of clumps of fine feeder roots in the very bottom say 2"/5cm of the bucket which corresponded to the water reservoir level.

I dissected it a bit caveman style by trying to shake, bang, and scrape out the soil which I want to reuse but I think the next round I may take a hose to it to spray out the soil to be able to see a truer representation of what they actually look like in the container.

I thought it was interesting that the tap and 3-4 other "normal" roots all stopped growing fairly shallowly and then morphed into the fine feeder type roots we normally see. I suspect this matches up nicely with the 2 week transition period we typically see with SIPs and that must be what is happening during that stall period.

The roots all seemed healthy with no sign of root rot.

 

[Gee64]

No, but I did just do a rootopsy on my first plant with my dome reservoir design. This was a CBG seed to final pot and it was quite robust in growth.

My pots are 2 gallon buckets and about 9"/23cm high, and I fill them about 7.5"/19cm with my organic soil mix. What I found was kind of interesting. There were three distinct types of roots I could identify.

There were:
(1) an upper, quite dense mat of very fine feeder roots about 3"/7.5cm thick,

(2) 4-5 thicker, white roots of the type we normally see in a wet/dry cycle grow including the tap root, all of which stopped at the bottom of the thicker mat but all of which sent small, thinner roots down to

(3) a lower group of clumps of fine feeder roots in the very bottom say 2"/5cm of the bucket which corresponded to the water reservoir level.

I dissected it a bit caveman style by trying to shake, bang, and scrape out the soil which I want to reuse but I think the next round I may take a hose to it to spray out the soil to be able to see a truer representation of what they actually look like in the container.

I thought it was interesting that the tap and 3-4 other "normal" roots all stopped growing fairly shallowly and then morphed into the fine feeder type roots we normally see. I suspect this matches up nicely with the 2 week transition period we typically see with SIPs and that must be what is happening during that stall period.

The roots all seemed healthy with no sign of root rot.

Interesting. I need a guinea pig. Gotta get home and start some seeds and hopefully be able to cut some clones.

In my cloth pots I generally only get feather dusters of feeding roots when I top water. I wonder what will be in my Swicky-Mat cloth pot?

 

[Azimuth]

hey @Azimuth I've always gone on the lighter side of nutes, but since I've been using the wicks I have had some deficiencies. Now I add more nutes and haven't had any problems.

Thanks @Hash Hound . Are you using synthetic or organic nutes? And if synthetic are you exceeding the manufacturer's recommendations or more moving up to full throttle?

 

[ReservoirDog]

Sorry @Buds Buddy and @Azimuth , and friends, I’m having some internet/pc issues it would seem.

Buds, you def gotta have that perlite or equivalent (%40 by volume) in there. I don’t think you can say for sure what the issue is with something that important undone, sounds like you’re on it though. Your plants can’t feed if water isn’t pulling up and through the system fast enough and perlite will speed that up so it might solve all of your problems.

A word about MaxiGrow/Bloom… I’ve used MC 2pt and Maxi(both grow and bloom) in my SIPs and because I also play with DWC I have blue lab ppm and pH pens… with my SIP design I can take samples quite easily, and the results have led me to favour the MC as the maxi nutes struggled to maintain pH balance sitting in my reservoir. The Maxi doesn’t pose an issue if used directly, in a normal bed or pot, so I still use them elsewhere.

These instabilities always led to deficiencies, or so I presumed since changing feed got rid of the issue.

I also found that it was very easy to overfeed with with Maxi. When I fed as little as 6g/gal I suspected my Peat/perlite started setting up a nute retention issue and, in an act quite similar to Gee’s description, I successfully used Calcium(phosphate) to shake some sense back into my dirt/roots. Certainly 6.5 g/gal was too much as my canna suffered burns at that rate.

Sorry if you’ve just bought huge bags of Maxi… the stuff isn’t useless, but I have to say that given a choice I wouldn’t use it in my Peat-filled SIPs. I’m not familiar with all of what’s in FFOF, but it is a proper “soil” is it not? I would think that would work to your advantage with the GH Maxi, as my Peat is more susceptible to retention - although with either GH flora (LUCas formula) or MC 2pt I have total pH stability (both measured in the rez and with my slurry tests of the matrix, both of which I do quite regularly).

As for rez levels and long term exposure… we’ll, as mentioned, pH stability is a concern so you want yer nute to have good word of mouth on that front (I put it that way b/c all the companies say they have the “most” stable pH and if they don’t, then they claim, “class-leading” pH stability so I gave up taking them at their word on that one.)

Having a gravity-fed rez setup doesn’t mean one is required to have a full reservoir in your Grobucket all the time. However, if your bucket’s onboard reservoir is only a gallon or two then it would be more finicky to setup. The key is use of a control bucket, same size as the grow buckets is easiest, with inflow from the large Rez controlled by a 3-position float valve mounted in the control bucket to give you three possible levels that you could choose from that will be fed to the grow buckets. Indiv. lines then lead out, one for each growbucket, simple gravity-fed will equal them out to be same as control bucket level setting, which when drained will trigger float valve, letting more water in until control buckets and grow buckets are equal again. I don’t think more than 5-6 growbuckets per control bucket would be wise as the system takes a little time to level out. One large rez is fine, but you just need another control bucket in the system. 3-position float valves are the key.

Do not ever let the rez go dry in a SIP for 24hrs. Drying from the bottom will kill roots and mess with pH. The benefit we see from the air gap is critical, but if the dirt can no longer draw water to balance against the gaseous mix we call air, it dries fast and speeds up pretty quickly.

Of course, the more ‘wick’ that is submerged, the more water it draws upward - but only to a point. However I suspect that with your design in particular that it draws a lot more water at full than it does at half-full due to the large increase of surface area ‘wick’ actually touching water in your case, given the design. The wicks function based on surface area touching water and the medium’s flow rate, however flow rate has a ceiling, and I don’t know if you’re hitting your, though I expect not. I’m probably just confusing you… apologies. I’m still learning too.

Buds, My soil has been feeling like freshly watered for over a month, res was also filled over a month ago and now at 1/3. And now with the plant a bit bigger it's finally speeding up.
I should wait a bit once it's empty?
But I'm wicking through hydroton should I really let that dry out? as now it's pretty much in motion.

Don’t let it stay empty, certainly not 24hrs as drying from bottom causes nightmares. Also, black out all containers, especially white and light coloured plastics. Roots really can tell and light makes them very, very shy. I hope you’re cats are getting too stoned Fender! (I remember from an old journal of yours) Always loved your setup, it looks like a proper religious monument as setup in your flat.

it could be a need for more calcium to help offset other things so I increased that and, while still early, looks like it maybe is helping.

What kind you using, A?

In my case, it could be that I don't have my feeding mix dialed in yet (which I think is definitely contributory to my issues), but it also could be other things as well.

What is your feed process BTW? I know you have your “crumble”, served a la carte atop the soil… and now Jadam/KNF in the rez too? So glad to hear it. Have to start trying my simpler ones again from below. You know I made a mix my plants love but it’s too much to feed from the bottom - it’s fermented frass (and water), primarily, with a scoshe of amino acids and humates (which I added for micro nutrient chelation, I think), RWEC, and bull kelp (hand picked). Fermented for almost 6 months and if you think it sounds like it smells bad, well, gotta say, I thought it’d be worse… I didn’t even pass out when I smelled it.

I had something similar on a plant a few rounds back and it was certainly odd. I had dry, brown patches in the middle of some buds that started mid bud and didn't go all the way to the top of the bud, nor progress around the other side of it. I sprayed it with my JMS solution and it didn't seem to spread to other buds or get worse on the buds that had it.

That is exactly like the necrosis I get when I add too much PK booster. It’s dry, not fungal, in my case. Looks similar.

Earthbox makes an auto fill system for their system Buds. It should be ok to keep it full. I've been topping every day in mine.

Love Earthbox, not the price though. Over $100CAD on Amazon. Yes, so long as there’s 40% perlite a full reservoir shouldn’t bother a mature plant. Keeping the top uncovered keeps the cycle moving more quickly that having it covered, too. I mean top of the soil. Young plants can suffer while adapting, so I recommend prepping SIP before planting by soaking up a rez worth when building SIP, then let top go dry, plant into a half-fill rez. Some sort of procedure like that to prep rez really helps. So does bottom watering your seedling if raised in a small pot before SIP. Just little amounts everyday is best, unless you can make mini SIPs - esp in those nursery baggies I like to go on about!

If you're wicking through hydroton you should have hydro roots well established in that layer by now. My original SIPs were all built that way and worked fine. I would  not let that layer dry out, although with hydroton that could take a while since the clay balls seem to hold onto water for quite a while.

Don’t let bottom dry out, like he said.

My theory is that as long as there is some water down there the plant has access to all it wants so there is little advantage to keeping the res maxed out, and there are potential negatives that could be associated like a higher perched water table and the potential for the reservoir water to go stale

Differences in our SIP designs really impact this, making specifics difficult to recommend. Generally, a reservoir full to its overflow will, on many designs, mean a wetter grow matrix. However, provided aeration (perlite) is mixed in at 40% by volume most concerns are well mitigated. A very important element contributing to planter moisture level is wick efficiency, elements of which are its inner volume and outside surface area (the surface area of the wick shape that is in contact with water - - the surface area figure goes up (in most designs) with fill level.

As for perlite, think of it as a reef in the ocean, its a place that things (microbes) can hide and establish themselves into, but if you are using something else for aereation, such as rice hulls or whatever then you are still achieving the reef effect.

Perlite is inert so it goes round and round in my soil reammending without interfering so thats why its my preference.

Awesome metaphor… and if, like my mother, you object to perlite for aesthetic reasons, I have found that one can dye perlite with black tea! Very strong black tea.

I bet running that thru a worm farm would be fantastic EWC!

Ching Ching! Yes indeed, and I can confirm it works a hot damn. I have a 6 tote farm and I feed my worms only Kelp (fresh), horsetails, stinging nettles, comfrey, dandelion, bamboo leaves and banana peels - sometimes banana fruit. Oh, and flowers, lots of juicy, phosphate and potassium rich flowers… and cannabis clippings. Oh, and I dump a whack of mycorrhiza in each bin too. I read earlier on this thread that it doesn’t like WC but I believe this to be in error. There are some specialty WC products that have mycorrhiza fed to the worms as well. See my pics this post, below. I’m working towards using this special WC as the sole nutrient added to my soil in the future, if possible. I also make WC tea every week now and feed mature plants 500-1000ml weekly. Soon I’ll try using this WC tea in the reservoir.

That is actually an interesting idea, but no, never tried it, knowing the stuff was time released. I'm thinking what a potent tea that would make though, and how easily I could get it beneath the surface

You should see it Emily, the day after EC tea my plants have grown an inch taller and glow green. Do it! It’s really the very best input I’ve ever seen, even store bought packs a wallop.

I dump it in the toilet. If the worms don't want it neither do I.

Leechate scares me too!

The Jadam microbes, on the other hand, are almost entirely anaerobic and therefore are quite at home in that wetter than normal environment. And the smell bothers us but the plants seem to love it.

Many important microbes are not ‘obligates’ (require aerobic or anaerobic conditions strictly. Many are comfortable in either. I believe LABs are one.

Check out this cool Mycorrhiza-infused worm castings product.

 

[ReservoirDog]

I think somebody asked me for a pic when I was talking about miniSIPs recently and I didn’t have one immediately available. Some people use a shoelace wick with these but it’s better to just cap off the ‘top’ (after making holes in it). You can also poke (melt) holes in the curved neck portion also but these are for air and you will need to keep the water level below those holes. An overflow hole(s) is recommended as it also oxygenates the water/soil.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Sorry @Buds Buddy and @Azimuth , and friends, I’m having some internet/pc issues it would seem.

Buds, you def gotta have that perlite or equivalent (%40 by volume) in there. I don’t think you can say for sure what the issue is with something that important undone, sounds like you’re on it though. Your plants can’t feed if water isn’t pulling up and through the system fast enough and perlite will speed that up so it might solve all of your problems.

A word about MaxiGrow/Bloom… I’ve used MC 2pt and Maxi(both grow and bloom) in my SIPs and because I also play with DWC I have blue lab ppm and pH pens… with my SIP design I can take samples quite easily, and the results have led me to favour the MC as the maxi nutes struggled to maintain pH balance sitting in my reservoir. The Maxi doesn’t pose an issue if used directly, in a normal bed or pot, so I still use them elsewhere.

These instabilities always led to deficiencies, or so I presumed since changing feed got rid of the issue.

I also found that it was very easy to overfeed with with Maxi. When I fed as little as 6g/gal I suspected my Peat/perlite started setting up a nute retention issue and, in an act quite similar to Gee’s description, I successfully used Calcium(phosphate) to shake some sense back into my dirt/roots. Certainly 6.5 g/gal was too much as my canna suffered burns at that rate.

Sorry if you’ve just bought huge bags of Maxi… the stuff isn’t useless, but I have to say that given a choice I wouldn’t use it in my Peat-filled SIPs. I’m not familiar with all of what’s in FFOF, but it is a proper “soil” is it not? I would think that would work to your advantage with the GH Maxi, as my Peat is more susceptible to retention - although with either GH flora (LUCas formula) or MC 2pt I have total pH stability (both measured in the rez and with my slurry tests of the matrix, both of which I do quite regularly).

As for rez levels and long term exposure… we’ll, as mentioned, pH stability is a concern so you want yer nute to have good word of mouth on that front (I put it that way b/c all the companies say they have the “most” stable pH and if they don’t, then they claim, “class-leading” pH stability so I gave up taking them at their word on that one.)

Having a gravity-fed rez setup doesn’t mean one is required to have a full reservoir in your Grobucket all the time. However, if your bucket’s onboard reservoir is only a gallon or two then it would be more finicky to setup. The key is use of a control bucket, same size as the grow buckets is easiest, with inflow from the large Rez controlled by a 3-position float valve mounted in the control bucket to give you three possible levels that you could choose from that will be fed to the grow buckets. Indiv. lines then lead out, one for each growbucket, simple gravity-fed will equal them out to be same as control bucket level setting, which when drained will trigger float valve, letting more water in until control buckets and grow buckets are equal again. I don’t think more than 5-6 growbuckets per control bucket would be wise as the system takes a little time to level out. One large rez is fine, but you just need another control bucket in the system. 3-position float valves are the key.

Do not ever let the rez go dry in a SIP for 24hrs. Drying from the bottom will kill roots and mess with pH. The benefit we see from the air gap is critical, but if the dirt can no longer draw water to balance against the gaseous mix we call air, it dries fast and speeds up pretty quickly.

Of course, the more ‘wick’ that is submerged, the more water it draws upward - but only to a point. However I suspect that with your design in particular that it draws a lot more water at full than it does at half-full due to the large increase of surface area ‘wick’ actually touching water in your case, given the design. The wicks function based on surface area touching water and the medium’s flow rate, however flow rate has a ceiling, and I don’t know if you’re hitting your, though I expect not. I’m probably just confusing you… apologies. I’m still learning too.

Don’t let it stay empty, certainly not 24hrs as drying from bottom causes nightmares. Also, black out all containers, especially white and light coloured plastics. Roots really can tell and light makes them very, very shy. I hope you’re cats are getting too stoned Fender! (I remember from an old journal of yours) Always loved your setup, it looks like a proper religious monument as setup in your flat.

What kind you using, A?

What is your feed process BTW? I know you have your “crumble”, served a la carte atop the soil… and now Jadam/KNF in the rez too? So glad to hear it. Have to start trying my simpler ones again from below. You know I made a mix my plants love but it’s too much to feed from the bottom - it’s fermented frass (and water), primarily, with a scoshe of amino acids and humates (which I added for micro nutrient chelation, I think), RWEC, and bull kelp (hand picked). Fermented for almost 6 months and if you think it sounds like it smells bad, well, gotta say, I thought it’d be worse… I didn’t even pass out when I smelled it.

That is exactly like the necrosis I get when I add too much PK booster. It’s dry, not fungal, in my case. Looks similar.

Love Earthbox, not the price though. Over $100CAD on Amazon. Yes, so long as there’s 40% perlite a full reservoir shouldn’t bother a mature plant. Keeping the top uncovered keeps the cycle moving more quickly that having it covered, too. I mean top of the soil. Young plants can suffer while adapting, so I recommend prepping SIP before planting by soaking up a rez worth when building SIP, then let top go dry, plant into a half-fill rez. Some sort of procedure like that to prep rez really helps. So does bottom watering your seedling if raised in a small pot before SIP. Just little amounts everyday is best, unless you can make mini SIPs - esp in those nursery baggies I like to go on about!

Don’t let bottom dry out, like he said.

Differences in our SIP designs really impact this, making specifics difficult to recommend. Generally, a reservoir full to its overflow will, on many designs, mean a wetter grow matrix. However, provided aeration (perlite) is mixed in at 40% by volume most concerns are well mitigated. A very important element contributing to planter moisture level is wick efficiency, elements of which are its inner volume and outside surface area (the surface area of the wick shape that is in contact with water - - the surface area figure goes up (in most designs) with fill level.

Awesome metaphor… and if, like my mother, you object to perlite for aesthetic reasons, I have found that one can dye perlite with black tea! Very strong black tea.

Ching Ching! Yes indeed, and I can confirm it works a hot damn. I have a 6 tote farm and I feed my worms only Kelp (fresh), horsetails, stinging nettles, comfrey, dandelion, bamboo leaves and banana peels - sometimes banana fruit. Oh, and flowers, lots of juicy, phosphate and potassium rich flowers… and cannabis clippings. Oh, and I dump a whack of mycorrhiza in each bin too. I read earlier on this thread that it doesn’t like WC but I believe this to be in error. There are some specialty WC products that have mycorrhiza fed to the worms as well. See my pics this post, below. I’m working towards using this special WC as the sole nutrient added to my soil in the future, if possible. I also make WC tea every week now and feed mature plants 500-1000ml weekly. Soon I’ll try using this WC tea in the reservoir.

You should see it Emily, the day after EC tea my plants have grown an inch taller and glow green. Do it! It’s really the very best input I’ve ever seen, even store bought packs a wallop.

Leechate scares me too!

Many important microbes are not ‘obligates’ (require aerobic or anaerobic conditions strictly. Many are comfortable in either. I believe LABs are one.

Check out this cool Mycorrhiza-infused worm castings product.

I picked up some perlite today. Going to up-pot today. Hope it helps.
I have MC, but only the 1 part stuff. You think it's better than Maxi Grow / Bloom ?
If you get a chance, take a look at the SIP I built & will be using for this grow. LMK what you think. It just has the Grow Bucket Float they sell on Zon.

My build is on page 13. Bud's Does A SIP Featuring The ViparSpectra KS5000

 

[Gee64]

Check out this cool Mycorrhiza-infused worm castings product.

Interesting! I wonder how they protect the myco through the process. I have never been able to keep it alive. It spawns nicely but by about 3 weeks in its all eaten.

I wonder if they introduce it later in the process. I find once all the seeds in my food scraps have sprouted and then died the myco does too.

Maybe its the dormant spores they are referring to and not the live myco?

I must figure this out!

Thanks RD

 

[Fenderbender]

Don’t let it stay empty, certainly not 24hrs as drying from bottom causes nightmares. Also, black out all containers, especially white and light coloured plastics. Roots really can tell and light makes them very, very shy. I hope you’re cats are getting too stoned Fender! (I remember from an old journal of yours) Always loved your setup, it looks like a proper religious monument as setup in your flat.

Aha! Thanks! So when it gets close to minimum I can add.. I'm gonna let it use up as much as it can as well I want loads of fresh water in there after a month.
I don't think I have to fear light penetration, it's grey but very thick walling.
Cats are fine! only hungry for non flowering leaves
And yes! since the setup is in my music/living room I've set it up as neatly and part of the furniture as I can

 

[chinchillin]

Have any of you had some issues with having too big of a reservoir when it comes to watering? I found a 27cm tall 20ish L bucket to use as an internal reservoir, to sit a 30-40 L fabric pot on, to ensure longer watering intervals. There are 25cm tall 'skinny' pots that could sit as the center hole wicking baskets filled with soil. Assuming a couple of cm would be used for an air gap, would that much soil submerged in water cause any water logging or soil issues? You think that type of set up would need more perlite than soil in the wicking cup?

Thank you.

 

[Azimuth]

The other thing I'm going to do is start misting the top of the soil daily with my calcium water. I mist it everyday anyway (and twice a day in veg) to try to keep my mulch layer moist and working so this will give a light dose, frequently, of calcium. I'll do that for a while and see if there are any negative effects.

What kind you using, A?

I'm using my WCA - Water Soluble Calcium

 

[Azimuth]

Interesting! I wonder how they protect the myco through the process. I have never been able to keep it alive. It spawns nicely but by about 3 weeks in its all eaten.

I wonder if they introduce it later in the process. I find once all the seeds in my food scraps have sprouted and then died the myco does too.

Maybe its the dormant spores they are referring to and not the live myco?

I must figure this out!

Thanks RD

I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons Coots uses leaf mold in his worm bags. My leaf mold seems to readily produce the white fuzz shortly after applying as a mulch layer.

My castings V2.0 that have had leaf mold added to them are still a couple of months out from being finished but maybe I'll be better able to tell then.

 

[013]

You’ve got me curious Azi, does the white leaf mold you are talking about disappear after a few days? Seems to dissipate with light?

reason I ask is twofold… this was one of the features reported by the high brix crew, they would drop a few fan leaves on top of the soil and pretty quickly a white fuzz would grow up from the soil to encase the leaf, seriously it looks like faint webs from the borg…

second reason is I’ve noticed is the dry fert by down to earth 5-4-2 causes similar white fuzz when you first add to the pot and water it in, fuzz appears a day or two later but quickly vanishes from I guess light or air exposure

 

[bluter]

reason I ask is twofold… this was one of the features reported by the high brix crew, they would drop a few fan leaves on top of the soil and pretty quickly a white fuzz would grow up from the soil to encase the leaf, seriously it looks like faint webs from the borg…

second reason is I’ve noticed is the dry fert by down to earth 5-4-2 causes similar white fuzz when you first add to the pot and water it in, fuzz appears a day or two later but quickly vanishes from I guess light exposure

it's mycorhizae forming.

 

[Gee64]

I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons Coots uses leaf mold in his worm bags. My leaf mold seems to readily produce the white fuzz shortly after applying as a mulch layer.

My castings V2.0 that have had leaf mold added to them are still a couple of months out from being finished but maybe I'll be better able to tell then.

Thats a great point Azi. I guess I could always run leaves thru the WF and if there were any unruly pests the worms would deal with them.

I'm not too worried though I keep my myco going thru my used soil, and quite possibly the spores survive the ewc process.

Leaf carbon is special tho, the best in my humble opinion.

I don't have a problem getting the babies to link up with myco spores, and every so often when one doesn't link up its pretty obvious so I cull it.

You can myco drench it too but it ends up behind the others.

Plus being in a desert leaves aren't as abundant as you would think so I keep them for my outdoor beds and compost pile.

From the reading I have done this morning its the spores that survive the ewc process, not the mycellium, and I like the myco strain I have in my indoor soil.

I really like @ReservoirDog idea of feeding the worms flowers for the P content tho, thats a good one.

That being said, my worms eat a lot of cannabis flowers. Gives 'em the munchies to eat more faster

 

[013]

it's mycorhizae forming.

yes totally agree Bluter, I was remembering this thread from while back White fuzz… which led to another one Scientific cultivation data

pretty confident the fuzz is still active in the soil but it can’t survive above ground when exposed to light, air or the combo of both…. at least that’s my theory

 

[Gee64]

I have a 6 tote farm and I feed my worms only Kelp (fresh), horsetails, stinging nettles, comfrey, dandelion, bamboo leaves and banana peels - sometimes banana fruit. Oh, and flowers, lots of juicy, phosphate and potassium rich flowers… and cannabis clippings.

Fresh kelp...do you collect it in Victoria? Do you rinse it or just toss it straight in? I'm in Vic atm, where do you get it from? I would like to grab a bit to try.

 

[Emilya Green]

That is actually an interesting idea, but no, never tried it, knowing the stuff was time released. I'm thinking what a potent tea that would make though, and how easily I could get it beneath the surface.

Here is the first step in the new experiment, to see if it even dissolves in water completely. This morning I put 1/3 of a cup of GeoFlora bloom into a solo cup of water and stirred well. I am curious how long it's going to take for it to break down completely.

 

[Emilya Green]

Here is the first step in the new experiment, to see if it even dissolves in water completely. This morning I put 2/3 of a cup of GeoFlora bloom into a solo cup of water and stirred well. I am curious how long it's going to take for it to break down completely.

The next step will be to dilute it and use it to feed one of my yellowest plants, to see if I can notice the difference

 

[Azimuth]

Have any of you had some issues with having too big of a reservoir when it comes to watering? I found a 27cm tall 20ish L bucket to use as an internal reservoir, to sit a 30-40 L fabric pot on, to ensure longer watering intervals. There are 25cm tall 'skinny' pots that could sit as the center hole wicking baskets filled with soil. Assuming a couple of cm would be used for an air gap, would that much soil submerged in water cause any water logging or soil issues? You think that type of set up would need more perlite than soil in the wicking cup?

Thank you.

I would think that may be a bit too tall of a wicking column. With fabric pots you could more easily do something like a dish washing basin, low and wide with a shorter, say a 15cm column. I'd be concerned about the ability of the water to wick high enough in your proposed setup.

Also, keep in mind that the cloth bag has to sit directly on the soil column with no gap between the bag and the media to ensure good wicking.

You’ve got me curious Azi, does the white leaf mold you are talking about disappear after a few days? Seems to dissipate with light?

reason I ask is twofold… this was one of the features reported by the high brix crew, they would drop a few fan leaves on top of the soil and pretty quickly a white fuzz would grow up from the soil to encase the leaf, seriously it looks like faint webs from the borg…

second reason is I’ve noticed is the dry fert by down to earth 5-4-2 causes similar white fuzz when you first add to the pot and water it in, fuzz appears a day or two later but quickly vanishes from I guess light exposure

Yes, it dissipates after a few days with light but also water. It's a very thin, wispy almost cotton candy type structure. I don't typically get it with leaves, but I do with malted barley when topdressed.

 

[bluter]

going through this thread has informed on why my tomato buckets didn't do like i wanted last yr.
they are a sips type design.