I happen to be a bit tender about water management, having really crashed a crop recently by having bad water metering tools and overthinking it. Bad tools in the form of a defective Hanna Champ ph meter that was 2 points off (which I trusted too long). Overthinking it because plain old tap water had been working fine through my first three sets. After doing all kinds of overkill stuff, commonly reported here incidentally, I just stopped with the over-nuting, stopped with the ph tweaking, stopped with the overwatering already. And guess what: this next crop of clones, raised on unmeasured tap pacific northwest tap water is looking incredibly strong. I expect my next crop should be much better as the tap water clones are looking beautiful, lush, and healthy. Hydrosoiling Myself Another positive thing I discovered is the use of a heated watering reservoir. Man, this has been a killer addition to my grow system! I put a 2 gallon glass jar filled with water in the middle of my plants, which are in a shallow plastic tub(s). The constant warmth radiating from the glass is a very good thing. The thermal carryover through the lights off period is helpful too, I believe. Each plant pot has several holes on the bottom to let water in. In the jar, an aquarium heater (and thermometer) set to 74 degrees (or so). I water the plants by adding regular tap water to the jug, letting it overflow and spill out into the tub. Soon, you really get a sense of when the plants have taken up enough water and they are always getting watered from the roots up, which is better, I believe. Another thing, since you are adding new water to the old in the water jug, any nuting is gradual and somewhat more diluted, two factors that actually seemed to help settle things quite a bit. I like to think of this technique as ‘Hydrosoiling' and myself as the Godfather of Hydrosoiling. But that's another story. This pic is of babies, but I carried this technique forward all the way into the flowering room with excellent results. This thread is based on our rather famous ‘pure artesaian spring water'. You may not have that where you grow, or anything close to it. But the water jug idea- Hydrosoiling- is worth trying, for sure! just sayin' gm
Interesting system gm. Sorry to hear about your unsuccessful crop, but hey, at least you learned something eh? Good luck with your "hydrosoiling" method.
I will post updates and pics every week. So far, it seems to be working really well as the plants are just about to go into the SCROG screens, do their 2 week veg, and the flower. I wonder if anyone else has used the ‘water from the bottom up' technique as a means of insuring the correct uptake. We always watered our houseplants from below, with little soak trays and saucers. Why not the weed? In any case, having the gentle radiant near the roots of the little clones most certainly helped them get a stronger start. Prohibition is over! (If you want it.) gm
I won't contend your points of success. I will, however, point out that if grown outside, a plant would receive a good deal of water from the soil-surface down (reverse hydrosoiling. LOL). While it's true that the ground-water-table typically contains more water the further down you dig, the water table itself relies on rain water to replenish it. I have several house plants that require watering from the trays, but not cannabis. So, as far as your "hydrosoiling" method ensuring correct uptake is concerned, i'd say that it's probably half of the naturally occurring watering equation. I'm not hatin' if it seems like that. I may try your method just for sh!ts & giggles to see what kind of "improvement" may be had. See ya 'round gm.
You could be absolutely correct, too. I can't say it is working empirically, but something is. that is kinda what is the problem with a lot of threads, so it might have served me better if I had waited until harvest to begin crowing. thanks! gm
Please, allow me to disagree. I commend your efforts to "build a better mouse trap" as it were, i was simply playing the advocate. And again, i applaud your enthusiasm and welcome your results.