Hey everybody hope your all doing great just a quick question about one of my ladies. Right now I have a heavy duty fruity in veg (not sure how old she is right now) and she is in a 4 gallon self watering container (it is 2 square cat litter containers). It seems though that she does not get enough water. Everyday before my girlfriend waters her she is very droopy, however, when she gets her water she cheers up again. Now I am just wondering if this will be an issue considering she has not started flowering yet and is definitely going to be taking more water up during flower. Any suggestions or thoughts on this?
Sounds like you got it handled. As long as you are not overwatering I guess. Although I have no experience with self watering containers.
You might want to think about setting up another reservoir to feed the planter res'. A float valve, a couple of bulkhead fittings and some rigid tubing is all you'll need, I think. I can't help with design. I've never built one. Check the DIY forum. I think the guys with large DWC(?) systems utilize this method. And if memory serves, cdphalynx did something like this to keep the reservoirs filled for his SmartPotSIP setup. I'm going to have to check on that.
How large is this plant? If it needs to be watered daily in a 4 gallon SIP it must be pretty large. Is there a possibility that it needs to be up-potted? I'm just thinking out loud here... SD
I water all of my plants daily in SIP buckets, regardless of size (in veg they usually take 2-3 solo cups daily in flower they take about 4 or 5 somewhere in that range), this one is in a smaller bucket than the others were. This plant is also about twice as big as anything else I have grown using the organic/SIP method. I do not know how much it is getting daily but none of the other plants have been droopy. And I would not want to try and transplant this lady the roots are probably insane in the reservoir. I am trying to see what I can do with my buckets. She is going into flower this weekend (or as soon as I figure out the water situation) I was just waiting on a clone to root.
"I water all of my plants daily in SIP buckets" Why bother with the whole self irrigating setup if you still need to water daily? I'm confused... J
Simple, pouring water down a pvc pipe until it drains out the bottom without having to lift and determine if a plant is all set is a lot easier. I don't see why I wouldn't do this everyday how do I know how much water is left in the reservoir without looking. And my plants like it. Right now my girlfriend is pretty much doing this by herself and she would never be able to handle lifting the pots to check to see how heavy they were.