Experimental grow....

Okay, after reading the thread titled 'deep soil culture' i decided to do an experimental grow using the same sort of idea, but with potted soil plants, i wont be growing the plant in 'The bubbler' just using it to water a plant, with a high risk of over watering i have made drainage one of my main goals, so im using alot of stones throughout the soil and a grid/net idea to keep stones seperate from the main growing medium.
Now, what i hope to acheive from this is a way of watering a soil/pot plant evenly (also hopefully leaving more oxygen in the soil) this will no doubt make feeding easier too and should reduce risk of nutrient build-up.

The equipment i will be using:

2 'Air sponges',
1 peice of hose-pipe,
1 5litre bottle,
1 fish tank,
Plastic grid/mesh,
Fine net fabric,
Old bicycle inner-tube,
Clean stones,
Compost,
Perlite, - I have run out :(

Any other equipment i use will be added later.

It was easy to make, i already had the green air sponge things from an old aquarium, and i found the right size aquarium lying around for it too, the hose pipe and an old innertube made connecting the Air sponges very easy, after connecting them together i cut a hole in the joining pipe, and fitted another peice of hose-pipe into it, this is where the air will go in,
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The pot was just a 5 litre juice bottle cut in half, then the only thing left was to poke the holes in the bottom, so i used a hot poker, to make sure i didnt split the pot, and it worked fine,
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So, with the pot still empty, The next pic is just a rough idea of the setup, I have tested the Air sponges and they work perfectly, hopefully tomorrow I will be able to continue construction by putting everything into the pot ready to start the test, hopefully it works.... fingers crossed....
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Any comments welcome, and any random information which may help would be much appreciated, thnx for your time, and remember to come back and see whats goin on every now and then... peace...

Just quickly posting a blueprint i drew up a second ago, this should give a better idea of the type of setup im making, :) enjoy.
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thats an awesome setup, im not a pro in growing, but i think this should work very well, only thing is will the roots have enough room to spread out?

just to see how well your method works why not plant another plant in normal soil the traditional way to see how well your method does/doesnt work.. would be great for tests.. good luck and keep us updated

lol yeh, i was thinking of having a control plant, but i know how fast the plants im using grow anyway, i just cant be bothered to germinate another two seeds and wait for them to be big enough, if the first test has any success (ie. doesnt kill the plant) i think i will have to do another one with a control just to prove it, till then, im just experimentin :) anyway, im gonna go finish it off in a sec, oh yeh, the roots will have enough room, and if they dont, ill make a bigger pot ;)

Okay, first off i washed a load of stones in boiling water, (to get rid of bacteria) and put them in the pot, then i took some big bits of compost i had and put them on top of the stones, like this;

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Then i cut a peice of plastic grid to size and took some net fabric and wrapped the grid, (hopefully this will stop things getting mixed up, and should improve drainage)

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Then i took a load of compost and mixed in some small stones for drainage and added the pot plant, I plan on watering the plant normally until it is old enough to withstand the experiment, that will take a few days, so sit tight for now... anyways, heres the plant in its new home, its name is dirty harry, whether its a boy or a girl, enjoy,

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just stopping in to say hi. :)
how's it going?

well, i decided i couldnt be fucked lol so i topped it instead, i had a feeling this wasnt gonna work, but at least ive got it ready if i need it in future, just started making an ebb n flow, so i might use it with that, if you wanna see my plants being topped, go to cannabis pictures, three different strains, its on there, ...peace

by topped it you mean your not gontinuing with it? i was interested to see how it turned out.. you should have kept it going

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Abattoir Dream

well, i decided i couldnt be fucked lol so i topped it instead, i had a feeling this wasnt gonna work, but at least ive got it ready if i need it in future, just started making an ebb n flow, so i might use it with that, if you wanna see my plants being topped, go to cannabis pictures, three different strains, its on there, ...peace

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Cool pics :thumbsup: of the plants not the males lol :)

Quote:

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by topped it you mean your not gontinuing with it? i was interested to see how it turned out.. you should have kept it going

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well, I re-potted it and figured topping it would be a better idea, topping is basically cutting off the top of the plant, it will end up bushier if you do it right, and it will end up dead if you do it wrong, like i say the pics are in cannabis pics under 'three different strains,'

nice one for the comment sweetie, tis much appreciated