BT took clones as soon as he could, rooted, flipped, and determined the sex of his plants without having to go through the whole reveg thing. He journaled that here:
Oh don't you sound all grown up now!
What reserve water tank? I am probably confusing myself, but there is no reserve water tank. The 'root aeration chambers' have lots of holes drilled in them and are located about half way to the bottom third of the pots, so any water poured via the downpipes should leak out into the soil below and around in less than a minute. If I drilled really tiny holes then in theory it would leak out very slowly but I think in practice holes too small would risk getting clogged so the size I have drilled them should mean that even if half were to become clogged the rest should allow any poured water to rapidly empty. Perhaps for going away I should have buried a fat rope to leave in a 'wicking tank', but alas I didn't and there is no 'reserve tank' for those times.
This sounds like an interesting idea. Would one rope be enough to wick the amount of water the plants would need? I put clones into a wicking setup and the base of their pot sits in a bowl, or in my case the lid of the upturned storage container, with water in it with the container used as a dome. The medium (Ive tried it in coco, soil and perlite) seems to wick the water as needed and it has worked nicely for me. I still don't fully understand SIP because I haven't done enough homework yet, but am wondering if it is a similar to that. You could bury your rope and use the root aeration chambers in the same pot for different conditions, couldn't you?
Hi Carmen, I have never tried a wicking setup myself but it looked like it might be a workable way to get enough 'survival water' to the plants if I was away and there was no rainfall etc. But it won't be something I'll do this grow.
Using a wicking method sounds like it needs a bit of playing with to obtain the best results. But the results that growers are getting from SIPS suggests it is an even better way.I tried the swick thing a few years ago and I found that having one end of the rope in the water and the other dead-ending in the soil mix moved more water than a loop with both ends in the water. Which I guess is pretty obvious once you think it thru, though took me a few tries to figure that one out.
No worries, it indicates that you've got some really good testing going on from your harvests - looking forward to the report!
I most likely will, but since I am undertaking a change to my watering by using the 'aeration chambers' this grow, I will play it by ear but I would very definitely like to initiate at least some light droughting. Because 2/3's of my plants are sativas I want to be careful I don't screw up the grow considering that sativas need much longer to flower.
Thanks Stinker, it is nice to get past the slow seedling stage!They look so nice and are growing fast.
Fingers crossed that you get 3 and 3!
Thanks so much for the mention, Stunger!
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Super-interesting grow Stunger!
To me, however, it doesn't seem like your water chamber innovation is in line with keeping the plants from peeping eyes!
Looking forward!
Thanks GDB! You are quite right, this grow I will have to be stricter than ever to ensure that the plants don't grow too high where they become visible to neighbours.Moving right along they are Stunger! I predict the two big ones on the right are males. And since my predictions are nearly always wrong that means you'll have at least two big, hearty fems!
Cheers Shed! Last year it was apparent mid December, these plants were kicked off a couple of weeks earlier than last year's, so hopefully the signs will be showing very soon. I'll soon be looking to take some node closeups for that.
Thanks Carcass! The Carhooks are ideal, heaven knows why I couldn't click on to their benefits sooner! Cheers!Those plants are looking great, Stunger!
Fingers crossed that you get 3 and 3!
Thanks so much for the mention, Stunger!
Those were my thoughts too- why poke 2 holes, when one will do the trick!... (and...I had lots of kebab sticks and wire "in stock"
And when the ladies get a little older, if a branch starts to droop, you can just turn the hook over and use it to hold the branch up to help keep that canopy nice 'n flat....
Here's a thought, @Stunger. As we know, late-flowering sativas are also late to pre-flower if you rely on the natural day length. For example, while my NL5 x Haze (50% indica) showed her sex in early July, my 100% sativa Purple Haze x Malawi (which typically would finish in Dec, or after 16 weeks) did not reveal himself until September! Up until that point, there were nodal signs in my photos that led me and others to think he was female. I had even removed other PHxM plants from the grow, thinking he was my female.
