AspenCultivator
Well-Known Member
Thought I would follow up on @AspenCultivator notes and show a similar issue when running my first SIP. I’m a longtime grower but have very limited time to post a journal. I do greatly appreciate all the knowledge and information I have gained from members and this site !
I’m Peat/Perlite grower (pro mix) and I’ve been using MC nutes the last few years and have great results. I recently switched over to homemade nutes with help from @farside05 and he helped develop a RO version of his mix. I have to use RO water as my well water is extremely hard ! I also switched to his homemade Fauxmix. I just like the hands on ability to make my own when needed. My grow before last was using both of these and the outcome was one of our best ! Below at about 8 weeks.
I liked the SIP flexibility on watering with my work schedule and also the elemination of removing the plants from the GR to water and collect runoff. So we switched this last Spring grow and tried the commercial available system for the 5-gal buckets. Still using Fauxmix and Farsides nutes for RO.
All started out well until about week 6 when a deficiency definitely showed up on all plants. Tried tweaking the mix for another week and half, but knew something just wasn’t working in the res. Switched over to mostly watering from the top and the plants settled back into a decent grow. Of course the damaged leaves did not revert, but new sugar leaves and bud development did improve. I’ve not had a grow go this far south in over 10 years.
After harvest I pulled the plant to look at the roots. They all had decent root mass, and they had grown down well below the overflow level, even though this may have occurred after I switched to all top watering ??
I’m not sure but I feel that there is a buffering issue that develops at some time in the annulus down by the water level where the roots push. There is just so much water passing through this area that the soil loses its buffering capacity and this is where all of the roots are going to. I don’t ph my nute water and haven’t for many years.
I really would like to stay with the SIP as I love the ability to be away for a few days when necessary. But need to figure out how to tackle this issue. Won’t start the fall grow till October due to the weather so have some time to decipher !
Interesting that @farside05 has not had this problem with his switch to SIP ?
Wonder if maintaining the full res water level might also be speeding up the reduction in buffering ?
Thanks for the assessment Flatfish! I also learned annulus from your post, neat.
When I 'primed' my buckets before transplant I used 1 gallon of plain PH water 24 hours beforehand and noticed I needed a lot more time for the res to soak or evaporate down to half full. I was topping them up to maintain the res at full and came to the conclusion less is more, especially after @Azimuth mentioned even tho the res can hold a gallon of water or feed doesn't mean it should. Once I started watering enough in the res to be empty in a couple days that's when this system really started working. Sometimes it was only 1/2 gallon, even 1/4 gallon. Just depended on the rate at which they were drinking at the time.
It's interesting because I only top fed one of my sip containers but continued feeding through the res on the other one. I didn't notice a difference between the two at harvest. Perhaps I got lucky and just didn't experience another lock out though. I just started my new cycle and plan on continuing to use the synthetic bottled nutes...but this time with scheduled flushes. I've revised the design to have a bigger overflow hole, so while I'll still need to move them into the bathtub to accomplish the flush, it won't take as many hours to run water through them. It's indeed a gamble, but until my current nute supply is exhausted and I buy more, it's what I'll be doing.
Yes, blue buttons, or at least what they are attached to, could do it.
