Bottom Watering...
- Thread starter speedwell68
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green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
What is the medium, not all wick the same
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Just regular compost with some farm manure mixed in.
I have just tried it. I poured 500ml of plain water in to each of their drip trays and they all sucked it up until the drip trays were virtually dry. Judging by the pot weight now, they are all about as moist as they need to be.
I will continue with bottom watering and see how it goes.
Also, as a side note, after 4 days of no watering and putting out many sticky traps, I didn't see any fungus gnats. I have decided to hit them with some Nematodes, as I can get them easily from Amazon. I am setting up a new grow space and I have invested a lot of time and many £££ to radically improve my weed. I have taken time and care in training the plants through veg and I am not going to have it fucked up by fucking fungus gnats.
weedstoner420
Well-Known Member
SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)
Sub-irrigated planter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sub-Irrigated Planter Sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a generic name for a special type of planting box used in container gardening and commercial landscaping. A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from...
www.rollitup.org
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but investing in a proper soil will bring much better weed than whatever you spending money on in your space. Yes environment is important but growing in compost and farm manure seems like the cheapest snd least effective way to take care of cannabis plants.
compost is invaluable but more at ratios of 30-40 percent of a peat based soil with plenty of aeration as well. Straight compost is good for garden beds outside and topping / rejuvenate old soil/beds.
xtsho
Well-Known Member
You don't need anything fancy to get rid of gnats.
I don't know if using a root drench of citric acid would be a good idea due to it's low pH. Some people even use it as a pH down. I'm a big proponent of citric acid due to its effectiveness when used as a foliar application for mites, thrips, etc... I've never used it for a root drench.
But gnats are really easy to get rid of. Daily spraying of neem, sesame oil, or even just plain vegetable oil solution will get rid of them in under a week.
I don't know if using a root drench of citric acid would be a good idea due to it's low pH. Some people even use it as a pH down. I'm a big proponent of citric acid due to its effectiveness when used as a foliar application for mites, thrips, etc... I've never used it for a root drench.
But gnats are really easy to get rid of. Daily spraying of neem, sesame oil, or even just plain vegetable oil solution will get rid of them in under a week.
weedstoner420
Well-Known Member
I think in the UK "compost" may refer to the same thing as "potting mix" in the US...I could definitely be mistaken though...
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Ahh gotcha. It’s like spongy snd has perlite? Among other additives?
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Peat is being banned in the UK from 2024. Most of the suppliers have exhausted their stocks of peat based products and they are impossible to get hold of. Plus with the pandemic and Brexit chucked into the mix I was very limited with what I could get. So I used some garden compost and manure, because that is all I could get. I mixed in with some Perlite for aeration. TBH it worked very well all things considered.
I get your point though. There are a few proprietary peat free soil mixes becoming available now, so I am trying them with my next grow. One is a simple "Tomato" mix, to which I will add Perlite. The other is a mix made by a local company, it seems very similar to Fox Farm. Before that I was using a soil mix called Jack's Magic, which was superb, but alas it contains peat and is no longer available.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
You aren't. What the North Americans call soil we call compost. Ironically most mixes sold as compost rarely contained much actual compost.
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Time to start making leaf mold I guess… i don’t know how I would grow without my promix base.
conor c
Well-Known Member
You know unless your plants are in flower id give em a wee dunk in ice water for 5 to 10 seconds depending on how established your plant is vs infestation level obviously they don't like it but a healthy plant will bounce back faster than ud expect and water less after they dry out fungus gnats love over humid soils or coco etc
Milky Weed
Well-Known Member
I use mosquito dunks to great effect with fungus gnats. I have to make sure I mix the dunks into my root drench water though. I can’t just dump them on and water ontop of them it dosent work as well. I have also filled up a mixing cup with the dunks and soaked them in water for abit, before dumping the seeded water into my watering mix, keeps the actual dunks from building up ontop of media if you like.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Taking away my Jack's Magic has really fucked me up. They announced the ban last spring. I figured I would have at least a couple of years to adjust before stocks started to dwindle. But the suppliers just stopped stocking it. As I said there are some new peat free products appearing, I will try the ones that are readily available and stick with my favourite.
Ironically a nearby national chain bought up all of the remaining supplies of Westlands "Big Tom" peat based grow bags and were punting them out at £1 (£0.80) for 55L, so I stocked right up on that, as it was too cheap to ignore. Westlands are the company that made Jack's Magic and this stuff is very similar.
