SunShine#4 Users... Let's Chat

Oh okay, 1\4 gallon five times a day sounds much more like it. I'll that a shot once they are big enough to handle it... going to be careful with the clones when I get em in the next few days.

yeah that would corelate with me using about 2 gal every other or 3rd day.

I would imagine something like a three gallon mexi. Seems pretty similar to what I do by hand. So using that model you would need close to five gallons a day but remember a big pot is going to take longer to dry out than the smaller ones. I have friends who keep their SunShine literally sopping wet at almost all times, and have reported no root problems at all and showed great results - kind of interesting.

what water pH do you guys use for SunShine#4?

bump

I,ve been talking to a guy who says he runs 4x8 trays filled with SS#4 w/ no drains and waters once every 4-5 days with about 25g of nutes. and claims to get 2 -2.5 lb per light thats right at 1 gpw. Does any one have advice on this mix I've never tried it, only used hydroton and straigth soil guess its kinda like both?????

anyone using this method ^^^^^^^

ya its great shit. i use the compressed bags mixed with 2 bags of ff light seed warrior. drains very well. i use it in pots. 3 gallons and 10 gallon pots. u do want to water alot, thats why your using a soilless mix. almost every other day in flower. top shelf nutes works the best with this product.

Just started with this 3 days ago. Transferred 3 well rooted clones into 3 gallon pots and they all died. Not sure what the hell is up. Then checked the runoff since I didn't before and it was 1800ppm! I guess this stuff needs to be rinsed a few allows through it beforehand or what?

Prim not mixing it with anything else at all. Just planning on using Maxibloom like I do in my Coco grows.

why the hell not, yearly bump.


Also, anyone have any knowledge in Sunshine#4?

always lookin for some help with it, going to use this mix next run:

My mix per cubic foot.

Sunshine #4 / Perlite (70/30)
Dolomite Lime, 1 tbsp
Gypsum Pellets, 1/4 cup
Vermiculite, 2/3 cup
Sand, 2/3 cup


Feeding lucas formula with General Hydroponics Flora series, some liquid karma and Bushdoctor Microbe Brew/Kangaroots

We have found that we really need to add 20-30% Perlite to the Sunshine in order to get it to dry out in an appropriate timeframe. Otherwise if watering to runoff its about 5 days between waterings. We like to shoot for 2.

Lucius Vorenus said:

We have found that we really need to add 20-30% Perlite to the Sunshine in order to get it to dry out in an appropriate timeframe. Otherwise if watering to runoff its about 5 days between waterings. We like to shoot for 2.

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you ever ammend your sunshine with anything like i have in my list? also thinking i should pull the vermiculite, or does the vermiculite hold water in such a way its beneficial?

69Bandit said:

you ever ammend your sunshine with anything like i have in my list? also thinking i should pull the vermiculite, or does the vermiculite hold water in such a way its beneficial?

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Never messed with Vermiculite. It holds more water than Perlite and we need to go the other direction

Figured, will pull it. What about sand? ever hear anyone use it? i was shocked when he suggested sand for drainage but i figured that would make the soil heavy....

did some research, apparently adding sand to soil is a fad from the 1960's......

Well I skimmed through a little and wanted to add that I use straight coarse grade premium perlite. I don't mix it with anything took a page from a fellow member's grow and it's sort of a flood and drain/dwc set up.



Plant's are about 2 weeks in there now. Took about a week for them to root but showed no signs of stress during that time. I feed on water stakes set for 30sec on and 5 mins off. I have constant run off. I have one smaller dirt 3gal bucket with holes in the bottom and a light layer of grow stones so perlite stays in and roots don't clog drainage holes. Inside a 5gal bucket with holes about 2in up from bottom and another light layer of grow stones to keep roots in and holes unclogged.

So far I am liking it. Plants took off great and seem to be growing very fast now. Its another 3gal or 5 gal bucket for a reservoir I use with a 160gph pump. No need for nute changes or chiller's and I'm never wasting a bunch of nutes and money to do a res change. Also the system is configurable anyway you want to grow. I have plans to grow in this hempy style system and go vertical.

Evo8Emperor said:

Well I skimmed through a little and wanted to add that I use straight coarse grade premium perlite. I don't mix it with anything took a page from a fellow member's grow and it's sort of a flood and drain/dwc set up.

Plant's are about 2 weeks in there now. Took about a week for them to root but showed no signs of stress during that time. I feed on water stakes set for 30sec on and 5 mins off. I have constant run off. I have one smaller dirt 3gal bucket with holes in the bottom and a light layer of grow stones so perlite stays in and roots don't clog drainage holes. Inside a 5gal bucket with holes about 2in up from bottom and another light layer of grow stones to keep roots in and holes unclogged.

So far I am liking it. Plants took of great and seem to be growing very fast now. Its another 3gal or 5 gal bucket for a reservoir I use with a 160gph pump. No need for nute changes or chiller's and I'm never wasting a bunch of nutes and money to do a res change. Also the system is configurable anyway you want to grow. I have plans to grow in this hempy style system and go vertical.

Click to expand...

I like that. I did similar before but not in Flood and Drain. I just hate having all the little hoses everywhere. I think just flooding the table and keeping the plants in their containers would be suffice. Would pure Perlite wick from the bottom up?

Yah seeing them and having them looks like a mess but there easy to deal with and no hassle really. Still though I seen some dripper rings that I want to look into to maybe keep it a bit simpler.

I'm not sure about the perlite wicking from the bottom. Its a lot of perlite to go through in that first bucket. lol. Here's a better picture for ya of what's going on.



The main reason I would deal with the lines and the mess is the ease of not watering and worrying to about it. I can easily change out the res bucket with a new nute solution or just fresh water by changing buckets. It really is simple.

Are you just running those off a manifold or 3/4" hose?

Well I have the flood table up on a table I built along with some poly walls for a veg box and I keep the reservoir underneath with a 160gph and that's just 1/2" hydro farm hose actually.

The only reason I went with the flood table was just for ease of not having to buy more 1/2 hose and connectors to connect all the buckets thru a single drainage hole and back into the res.

I am going to do that for the vertical racks I built for this hempy bucket set up. Based off dirthawker's aero rack's if you seen them. For vegging in the flood tray though I have been debating on dropping the 5 gal bucket anyway and just using the inside bucket seeing the roots won't reach out until flowering anyway.

Leaning towards the hempy and vertical after spending all the money at first on the UC. lol. Thought I was doing good building an UC to go with but with my space, the money in nutes to deal with I'm not so sure about now but I'm not giving in yet. lol. I'm trying a 4'x8' scrog with 4 plants in the UC. I have a 1000w hps and a 300w led that's supposed to be the same as another 1000w. So we'll see.

here's some better pic's for ya.