Seth hosted solo this week, and got right to work sharing his insights on a bunch of topics – from the benefits of using slabs and the importance of aeration, to considerations for keeping roots cool in high temps and for managing EC in flood and drain systems! There’s always plenty to learn in the world of data-driven cultivation!
A few of our favorite quotes from the sesh:
“A lot of times when we see that EC not rise dramatically overnight, we're looking at the plant uptaking salt. Because as that water content's going down, if the plant wasn't pulling any salt out, we would see that EC rise much more quickly…But when we see it flatten out, typically that's just a sign that the plant's a heavy feeder. And if I was watching those plants, I'd probably start looking at my runoff samples to make sure that my pH is staying in range in the runoff.” – Seth
“The roots really need to get down to the bottom of…the substrate and absorb water in this area. So that's why we see a lot better success with something like a 36 x 6-inch by 3-inch tall slab or something like the Unislab because we're actually increasing the effective absorption area that our roots have access to. Where if I just, for instance, stack that 3x3 on top of a 6x6, I'm not really increasing the water holder holding capacity of that media, because I need the media to be wider at the bottom where it's actually going to collect a lot of water.” – Seth
“The best practices you can really employ for that are good room control, good airflow. If you can have a white wrap on your slab, that's better. And if you can have white tables, anything to reflect and not absorb the light as much. But part of the reality is that when we have this big wet slab, coco pot, anything, we have a certain mass of water in there that's there 24/7 in the room.” – Seth