SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[Humanrob]

Already figured out that once you start aeration that you shouldn't stop aeration. One sip that had the reservoir full of roots started to brown a little. Added another pump and all 9 now have airstones. I lowered the pH to 6 with nutrients and upped the levels to half strength. Fingers crossed.
I used to do a 5 gallon bucket nested inside another to catch runoff. I had roots dip down into the runoff bucket before and do real well without any aeration. Bright white roots at the end of the grow. For some reason this isn't the case with these plants?

Nice looking grow room!

In one of the first sip runs I did, I didn't realize until almost the end of flower that one of the two bubblers had a kink in the feed line, and that res was barely getting any air. As I recall, that plant had about 1/3 as many roots as the other. In my first run, 90% of the water roots grew within the bubble stream coming off the air stone. I'm having a similar phenomenon this run, where I have a 10" long air stone on one side of the res, and about 70% of the roots are clustered around it. So I've always used them, the roots seem to like them.

I can't speak to the roots being whiter or browner, having never researched or done Hydro I don't know enough about root health to know that one is better than the other. I have seen both in my grows. Halfway through and again towards the end, I add a little Hygrozyme to my res to clean it up. I really don't know if it's doing anything, but the bottle it came in is very confident that it's helping

The more I grow the more impressed I am with the hugely different way different strains react to the same environment. I think some strains will take to sips better than others, some will grow lots of roots, others not so much... and it might also speak to the roots being white or brown. Given the choice of just picking one or two strains and mastering a grow environment for them, vs. trying different strains all the time and perhaps never growing any of them to their full potential, I've gone for variety. So there are lots of things I'll never know for sure.

 

[Evil-Mobo]

Nice looking grow room!

In one of the first sip runs I did, I didn't realize until almost the end of flower that one of the two bubblers had a kink in the feed line, and that res was barely getting any air. As I recall, that plant had about 1/3 as many roots as the other. In my first run, 90% of the water roots grew within the bubble stream coming off the air stone. I'm having a similar phenomenon this run, where I have a 10" long air stone on one side of the res, and about 70% of the roots are clustered around it. So I've always used them, the roots seem to like them.

I can't speak to the roots being whiter or browner, having never researched or done Hydro I don't know enough about root health to know that one is better than the other. I have seen both in my grows. Halfway through and again towards the end, I add a little Hygrozyme to my res to clean it up. I really don't know if it's doing anything, but the bottle it came in is very confident that it's helping

The more I grow the more impressed I am with the hugely different way different strains react to the same environment. I think some strains will take to sips better than others, some will grow lots of roots, others not so much... and it might also speak to the roots being white or brown. Given the choice of just picking one or two strains and mastering a grow environment for them, vs. trying different strains all the time and perhaps never growing any of them to their full potential, I've gone for variety. So there are lots of things I'll never know for sure.

I like you grow variety but look at it this way brother, if you did grow one or two all the time and master them how much more you wouldn't know or experience with the different strains out there.

half empty or half full?

 

[Humanrob]

Today is 6 weeks for the GG4. I'm hoping the buds fatten up a bunch in the next two weeks. I'm really glad that I didn't defoliate this one, it was a conscious choice and now that the plant has used up a lot (or most?) of the available nutrients, it will have those leaves to cannibalize to carry it through. That said, for the last few res fillings I've added nutes to the res, but I'll stop now. I don't have any way to test the water for anything but pH, so I don't want to overdue it. Also, not having a second plant next to it that I don't feed, I really have no idea if it's helping. I do think the spread of "autumn colors" in the leaves slowed down, so I'd do it again if I were faced with the same situation.

 

[Humanrob]

I like you grow variety but look at it this way brother, if you did grow one or two all the time and master them how much more you wouldn't know or experience with the different strains out there.

half empty or half full?

Very true. Instead of mastering one, I'm getting a broad spectrum of possible outcomes that will allow me to adapt and respond to a variety of issues and conditions. That is if I'm not too stoned to write it all down, since there is no way I'll remember it all. hahaha

 

[Evil-Mobo]

Very true. Instead of mastering one, I'm getting a broad spectrum of possible outcomes that will allow me to adapt and respond to a variety of issues and conditions. That is if I'm not too stoned to write it all down, since there is no way I'll remember it all. hahaha

That's why I do my logs and because I like pics to go back and look and compare etc. And yes you're right you get a broader experience which makes you a better grower ( IMO )

 

[Humanrob]

That's why I do my logs and because I like pics to go back and look and compare etc. And yes you're right you get a broader experience which makes you a better grower ( IMO )

I take a ridiculous amount of pictures, it's almost embarrassing sometimes because I'll be trying to find a picture of something *not* pot related on my phone to show someone, and I'll have to scroll through page after page of grow pics to find it! I also have a calendar system that I use to record milestones and I make notes on it, and I've got some hidden grow journals here that I have for my own records. Those things have saved my butt a few times.

In the beginning I grew indoors year round, so I always had my hands in it and was always building my knowledge linearly. This winter I did two indoor grows, next winter I might just do one. It means I have to break open the journals and give myself a refresher course each time, it's amazing how many details I forget after being away from it for a couple of months.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

well today marks day 16 since the flip to 12/12, decided to even things out by putting some blocks under some of the sips. When I took them out I also took off a TON of sucker branches (I am not used to defoliating so I am stressing a bit). I am still stressing that I took too much... because it seems like I took a LOT. But I am still seeing a lot of tops way up in the canopy level. so pretty sure I will be fine. Pics should start getting much better now (-: here are some new canopy pics

 

[Humanrob]

well today marks day 16 since the flip to 12/12, decided to even things out by putting some blocks under some of the sips. When I took them out I also took off a TON of sucker branches (I am not used to defoliating so I am stressing a bit). I am still stressing that I took too much... because it seems like I took a LOT. But I am still seeing a lot of tops way up in the canopy level. so pretty sure I will be fine. Pics should start getting much better now (-: here are some new canopy pics

They're looking great

I'm often shocked both by how much I've taken off a plant and how well the plant responded. It does have to be done right, but you can really go to town on them when you know your goals and use the right methods. This last grow I played around with mainlining, which seems brutal to me, but I ended out with a couple of well shaped plants that each had a handful of nice colas (and very few small popcorn buds). I'd bet your plants will be much better for having been trimmed back.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Thanks @Humanrob ! I am hoping they respond well and yeah trying to minimize that popcorn bud for sure. I must have taken 50 - 100 "sucker" branches. Hoping it will result in the 15 or so tops left per sip filling out and swelling nicely. Finally to some fun stuff with the flowers starting to show!

 

[Norby Grown]

Getting some pretty good root growth in some of the reservoirs.

 

[Evil-Mobo]

Getting some pretty good root growth in some of the reservoirs.

Looking good!

 

[PDX Joe]

Day 43 and I did the final stripping. This opened the canopy up a bit to hopefully bulk up those lower buds.

 

[Jaybodankly]

hmm so as I am getting the flower room set up and looking to make a giant scrog screen (57" x 57") a thought occurs to me... how the hell am I going to reach the back of the thing... any suggestions? Just go under? lol

rolling cart

 

[Humanrob]

Tomorrow will be 7 weeks, this one has about another week to go before we cross the finish line. This plant has had things happen that I've never seen before, it's like nutritionally speaking it has "micro-climates". Some parts of the plant are lush and green, some so dark it almost seems like too much nitrogen, other parts are showing cal-mag deficiency, others are just changing colors. All of these pictures were taken this morning, for me it's hard to believe they are from the same plant.

 

[Humanrob]

Day 43 and I did the final stripping. This opened the canopy up a bit to hopefully bulk up those lower buds.
View attachment 4124357

My next grow is going to be more like yours, I'm not going to flatten it out so much. One of the things I did on this run was to flip and keep training under the scrog for the first 7-10 days of flower. It seems like the plants put a lot of energy into their primary branches during that period, and by continuing to train them it evened out the canopy, allowing the other secondary branches to catch up. The downside of this, I think, is that it seems to make the colas shorter.

I'll know more when I cut it down, but that's what it looks like to me in comparison to other times I've grown GG4. Speaking of cutting it down... in this late night sleep deprivation/pain killer/cannabis cocktail, I'm thinking I'll disconnect the scrog from the corner bars of the tent, and then cut the plant at the base and lift the whole thing out still completely attached to the screen. I might try to hang the screen vertically from the ceiling while I take branches off to trim them down. LOL or something completely different might happen, I won't know til I get there.

 

[Tim Fox]

Day 43 and I did the final stripping. This opened the canopy up a bit to hopefully bulk up those lower buds.
View attachment 4124357

very nice PDX

 

[Tim Fox]

ok we took the GrowBox Sip from my cab today,, the res was half full, the soil near the top was damp!! the trunks /stalks had big huge roots right near the top of the soil like, some ran straght into the Nute trenches, the water roots filled the res and were bright white and this was without airstones,,, this thing worked so very well

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

@Chocolateak47 here is the SIP thread I had mentioned to you. Might want to pose some of your questions here. Lots of knowledge between the peeps here.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Day 23 since moved to 12/12....Well.. I suck at cloning it seems, but hey got some flowers coming in! Seems like the stretch is mostly done time for the fun to start and things to start bulking up! Think I am going to prop up the C99 in the middle some more to get it on level with the others canopy. Also I am seeing something weird I wanted to see if any of you have experienced. I have 2 of the same strain (Money Maker from strain hunters) one is directly under a 600 HPS, the other is directly under the 250W 3500K 5 cob bar (with the C99 in the middle getting both). The MM under the HPS has the usual white hairs, but the one under the COB seems to have a lot of purple hued pistils shooting out of it... do you think this could be caused by the lights or is this just different phenos?

 

[Humanrob]

Day 23 since moved to 12/12....Well.. I suck at cloning it seems, but hey got some flowers coming in! Seems like the stretch is mostly done time for the fun to start and things to start bulking up! Think I am going to prop up the C99 in the middle some more to get it on level with the others canopy. Also I am seeing something weird I wanted to see if any of you have experienced. I have 2 of the same strain (Money Maker from strain hunters) one is directly under a 600 HPS, the other is directly under the 250W 3500K 5 cob bar (with the C99 in the middle getting both). The MM under the HPS has the usual white hairs, but the one under the COB seems to have a lot of purple hued pistils shooting out of it... do you think this could be caused by the lights or is this just different phenos?

My guess would be phenos, but that's only a guess.

What are you spraying them with?