Nutes and soil

Gradually switch over to bloom nutes.

 

Maybe follow the directions on the bottle or company website.

 

I think many people falsely assume that they should cut all veg nutrients out of a routine when in flower and only use flower nutes. Most times thats a recipe for a deficiency if you are relying on bottles and not a rich medium that's top dressed and supplemented with teas which is how you should grow in soil.

That will depend on the brand and the way they do things. Some brands have all in one bottles that you switch to for each stage. Some combine bottles for flower stage or add another to the veg bottle routine but usually the veg bottle is preserved in the routine through flower.

I find that a plants need for "grow nutrients" meaning mostly nitrogen heavy compounds peaks some time in stretch and slowly tapers lower as flower continues but it never goes to 0. I go from feeding about 4-6ml/gallon of my nitro heavy component up to about 3-4 weeks in flower then it slowly gets reduced to around 2ml's a gallon at ripening stage, the last two weeks. I never completely remove the nitro component. The Bloom component or the P&K portion of the feed will start out slightly elevated as bloom starts and go to double the amount at ripening stage. I'll go from 4-8-7 at start of bloom to about 5-20-15 at the end. I do a two day flush with florakleen before chop.



I'm not a fan of the hybrid soil/hydro grow method many people employ also I guess known as the "fox farms" method. Buy a rich soil and then just wait until you think the plant is ready then break out the bottles and guess how much it's ready for. I guess you can get used to it but it doesn't seem like the best method to me. Is it soil growing or hydro?

In actual organic soil growing you don't use bottled nutrients. You make a rich medium that only needs to be watered. In order to keep from exhausting it you constantly lightly supplement it with various compost teas and top dressings.

In hydro you place a plant in a barren or semi barren medium and feed with a schedule from bottles from day 1. You have all the control of the feed schedule and amounts. You can respond immediately to a plant issue with exactly what the plant needs in a pure chemical form it can readily uptake and use right away.

 

I do a truly soil / hydro grow using the SIP method. Kinda the best of both worlds and the worst too.

 

I want to make my own SIP setup. I'm curious. One issue is my DWC plants always have such better stem structure then my promix plants. I'm hesitant to go all medium and abandon DWC. I get great yield from using mediums but I'll tell you that if you ever spend a couple of years growing DWC and promix side by side you'll see the difference. I've never had to hold any of my DWC plants stems up from breaking. They're like twice as thick on average. They do grow a little faster too.

 

I have 2 SIPs that are built and finishing up now. They hold #3 smart pots on perlite bed. I'll send em to you for free. All I ask is that you document the grow. I am not sure how you can get me an addy on this site but if you do they will be on the way in a couple weeks. you will need perlite and a couple smart pots #3. I cant imagine shipping costing too much. If its more than $30ish to send, you might only get one though.

 

I appreciate it but I do think that building it may be half the fun. I want to custom make it for hydro.
You don't have problems with the hydro solution staying stagnent in the bottom of the setup in those pipes? You don't use an airstone?

 

I'm about to start flowering as well. I've been slowly adding more bloom nutrients. IE: week 4 5ml grow, 2.5ml bloom feed 2x a week. Week 5 5ml grow, 5ml bloom feed 2x a week. Week 6 2.5ml grow 5ml bloom. Etc etc

Edit: this could help

 

No I don't. It's like the Kratky method when the roots go into the solution. In short for those that don't know the Kratky method, it is like DWC without the airstone. I would like your input on fine tuning nutes and or design etc hence my willingness to send you the sip. I do wonder if am airstone in the rez would make a big diff and or if the rez could then have just compost tea an only nute for the pure organic route. Finally, I wanted to see the performance under the qb light. There is a lot you can bring to this table so if you are curious about sip please include me in your project..

 

You've got that right. I just don't get it myself. Hydro nutrients in an organic " soil like FF or Roots? Why? If you're going to use hydroponic nutrients then use an inert well draining medium like Pro Mix, coco, perlite/vermiculite etc. if you're going to grow in soil then either use an organic soil that contains everything or use organic plant nutrients etc.

My $.02c.

J

 

I was thinking since I use a sip and the roots go from soil into the res, that I would use a tea in the res so that the soil wicks up the tea and the roots use the tea in the res. Thoughts? Would I need am airstone in the rez?

 

I have a thread in the hydroponic section about SIP in hydro. I want to try it but I think the design needs some tweaking for hydro.

Here's my ideas so far. Possibly a blend of hydroton and perlite to add more structure so the perlite doesn't become quicksand. Possibly a layer of hydroton on the bottom in place of piping. No pipes on the bottom. A layer of heavy landscaping fabric across the whole top.

People that run SIP with tomatoes use heavy landscaping fabric to keep the roots from growing into it.

With the landscaping fabric as a lid you could make a tray the size of your tent bottom with a fill and overflow fill indicator. It's basically a giant pot with a place that keeps roots from growing through. Not having the pipes should negate the need for an airstone since there's no stagnant water at the bottom it's all in a media.

An airstone may help the whole setup. I could see one in the pipes being very beneficial. It would help push more nutrients up into the media.

 

When u say pipe do u mean the perlite container. Also
I believe landscape fabric will prevent the vegetative part of a plant from growing through but roots will push through it. I was thinking of an airstone in the perlite bed in the "PIPE" but afraid it would force more water up into soil than natural wicking and create too wet a soil medium. Thoughts.

 

Yeah chkedit...roots can grow through landscape fabric. So why not
Fill res with tea and call it a day?

 

Bang on mate. Most ranges only reduce the veg nutes slightly then add bloom and flower boosters to up the relevant element ratios.
Good info right there.. Nice one man

My latest creation...SOUR DEISEL, STRAWBERRY HAZE first run to test before the gorilla glue #4 go in!
SOUR DEISEL, STRAWBERRY HAZE & GHOST WRECK

 

I think this depends entirely on the "tea".

An organic tea WILL turn anaerobic without bubbled air which defeats the purpose of the perlite SIP - it turns the perlite all nasty and stinky. Now, I don't use one myself but I've seen a lot of folks over in the organics forum use the self irrigating planters for water only just because of this reason ( through trial and error) and add their teas via top watering.

That's about all I know about them lol

J

 

I'll stick to my program that I know works.