Yeah, pretty much. I picked up some 8 oz geotextile fabric via amazon and laid it over the lava rock + perlite I used for my reservoir, though I didn't order enough to drape along the sides like I originally planned. I'll take some pics when I put the other 5 trays together this weekend.
I have to use coco because of cost value, I inherited a shit load of it and i inherited a shit load of hydroponic nuts, otherwise I would just supersoil and water it. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WISDOM AND TIME IN RESPONDING EVERYONE. I APPRECIATE YOU EXPERTS.
No sophisticated shit here. Extra deep run off pans filled with coarse lava rock. The less time i have to spend in the garden the better. Was kind of a must with seedlings and 3g fabric pots.
@wwfjdraw - Capillary mats and salt based fertilizers sound like a recipe for disaster. In every salt based system I've ever run you need to watch for build up. With the tiny pore size you'll need to be flushing the matts constantly to avoid clogging. Blumats have a 3mm distribution line. Not saying it can't be done, it's just that the nature of a SIP works hand in hand with natural forces and organic soils. You could maybe do it with a few dosatron and some monitoring equipment.
I went to the site, and saw the video, from what I can see it is nothing more then a mixer of water and nutrients that after mixing sends back out, but what would I need that for? I already have the blumat surface to deliver the nutrients, I already have the terraponic bed hydroton coco fabric pots net smaller pots nutrients all I need is a mat system to overlay the terraponic bed surface unless maybe I should just do this without a capillary mat of any kind?
In theory NFT mat should be perfect. They are used to grow marijuana in tubes might as well use them to grow on a table.
I think this is awesome the way you want to tackle this. I've been growing for many moons now, and in my world I've have found it much easier to work in conjunction with the forces that surround us. I've run several different systems hydro, aquaponic, and back to my beloved organic soil. I let the microbes provide the nutrition, SIP provide the water, the only points of failure in my terrior are me, the veg lights, and vents. I spend more time improving the humus source for defense these days. The dank takes care of itself, if I don't fuck it up somehow. My mantra is "more equipment more problems". SIPs and soil let Mother Nature do the work. Plus the quality of the finished product is top notch.
In theory, do I even need to use a mat. Can't I just place my Blumat "surface edition" in the bed with the pots and just fill it with nutrient solution from the drip line hovering just over the ledge of the main center slit or trench. The only concern would then be to both oxygenate the water and prevent it from evaporating under the lights. I suspect simply by putting a filler of sorts will do both tricks for me? That way rocks would cover the surface of the bed that is not covered with a pot sitting in it, covering it should prevent needless evaporation right? And the rocks should make for oxygenating the nuts before they get to the bottom of he pots right?
Here's how I did my SIP trays; been loving the simplicity of tending a passively watered garden again.
Are you setting smarties on top of your SIP or you're filling the tub with soil on top of the landscape fabric?
If you are talking about using a wicking medium like perlite/lava rock as in a swick setup, I would advice against it if you are using nutrients in your water, unless you fancy removing all the pots and washing the wicking media every couple of weeks.
Question for you guys and gals. I'm currently growing with a supersoil mix. Can I use SIPs with vermicompost runoff, without too much stink? Or would I need to add an air pump to keep things moving... I don't really know much about these things. I've just used that soil thus far. Sorry to thread jack btw.
Not sure exactly what you mean by runoff? If you have a sip setup you shouldn't be watering from the top much if at all, definitely not so much as to cause runoff.
Don't allow any tea of any kind to fill your reservoir, if you want to apply vermicompost leachate then remove your res and allow to fully drain before attaching the bottom again. You should really try just top dressing with vermicompost and some misc amendments for the Coot "Fix It" mix. HaGGarD AF
Hmmm. Okay. So that's a no to wormbin runoff. Well shet. I don't really have any castings yet. Just got the liquidy stuff from the bottom of the bin.
What about adding amendments? Edit : nevermind! just read a bit further. Top dressing with amendments would be the obvious time to top water. . Atleast that's what I'm gathering
The main reason I was thinking of using a SIP is due to these little flies I keep seeing in my tent. The soil gets watered every 3-5 days. And less than 400ml to about 16L of medium. My plant doesn't look like it's suffering at all. I just don't like the damn flies.
There's some threads about gnats. I was just looking thru them the last couple days. Couple of options, I just got some fly strips and sprayed hydrogen peroxide solution. Seems to have worked so far. But it's only been a couple of days.