SunShine#4 Users... Let's Chat

I am also a SunShine#4 user and I have grown with no drainage at all, I am curious if other people do the same thing with #4. Does it work fine because it's so airy? I would think you'd be shunned by other growers for not draining out most soil-like mediums...but for some reason SunShine seems to work fine without drainage. Can anyone else tell us about their experiences with the medium?

Everything I have learned is that drainage is essential for proper flushing, however I just read a huge long thread on another site of a guy who did 14K watts in grow beds, with SunShine#4 and never let a single drop of water out of the grow beds... had no problems.

He said if he over-nutes, he will just give them ph'd water for one feeding, and then go back to normal. Let's exchange experiences SunShine users!

I don't really have a whole lot to add. I am a sunshine user myself. I've had zero problems as far as drainage.

I too do no usually have alot of runoff, Maybe once a month I will give it some extra water. Kinda like a 1/4 leech/ 5-10% volume runoff. Even when I do that there are no signs of over watering, so ya everyone around my area uses the stuff. great reviews! Sure beats have gnat eggs or shroom spores etc like if had before, not to mention ph way out of whack with some other soils.

Right now I'm in sunshine #1. I beieve. but I did add a little perlite cause I think thats the only dif bettween #1 and #4. I added the per mostly because I have about 10% compost that gets a little muddy.

The local greenhouse got a but load of pro-mix bx this year. I would like to try that as well I've heard the name thrown around on this site alot too.

I'm going to use more perlite this time so they dry out quicker and grow BIGGGGGGER. Thanks for the reply... any other SunShine users? I've bumped into a few people now who say you don't even really need to flush when you use SunShine... pretty amazing. It also has some of the properties of soil but you don't have to worry about huge pH fluctuation and also seems to be a pretty forgiving medium.

bump it up.

I don't know about NOT flushing at all, but it sure cuts down on the number of time I have to flush. I mix 1 bale #4 Sunshine mix to 4 cu.ft. bag of perlite. I water 5 times a day for 5 min while the lights are on. Have not had a root problem since I started using it.

Wow, five times a day that's crazy. About how much water do you put in each time... do you know? My buddy wasn't kidding when he told me SunShine could be kept nearly completely wet without root problems eh? I am thinking of setting a drip system this time, so may water several times a day like you do. Thanks!

Guess the more relevant question would be how much water does your pump push through over the course of a minute? Five minutes five times over the course of a 12 hour period seems high to me... but I have never tried. Is the top of the soil-less mix pretty much saturated at all times? I guess the only thing you need to be careful of is root rot with over-watering... other than that, the plant will tell you pretty quickly if it's being over-watered.

The flow is restricted by the size of the tubing (1/4") that feed each pot. Not the limit of the pump. I have measured the amount of fluid with a bucket and it works out to about 1.25 gal.

1.25 gal. in 5 min. = 1.25 gal.

So each plant receives about 1.25 gallons over the five minute period. I may mimic your model and see what happens. How much do you give little clones that are just getting started? Just a minute or two two-three times during their 12.12 cycle I'm guessing?

Sorry for asking such dumb questions, I have never used a drip, it's my first time...and given that we use the same medium I def. want to know what to expect and you are helping me with that.

fatcatzzzz said:

The flow is restricted by the size of the tubing (1/4") that feed each pot. Not the limit of the pump. I have measured the amount of fluid with a bucket and it works out to about 1.25 gal.

1.25 gal. in 5 min. = 1.25 gal.

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Next question would be how much medium is that 1.25 gal applied to?

I'm growing in 9 gallon garbage cans and would like to be able to relate my medium volume with that.

I could easily be wrong, but 1.25 gallons 5 times during a 12 hour period sounds high for anything lower than 5 gallon pots, but I have not done a drip... can only speak from my experience with hand watering.

Going a little further fatcat... I'm going to use more perlit this run through so they dry up quicker. Going a little further fatcat... you said you put 4 cubic feet per bale of SunShine... which bale are you using? I know they have the 70 cubic foot bales as well as 110 cubic foot (dense pack) Thanks in advance.

McGruppsMonsters said:

I could easily be wrong, but 1.25 gallons 5 times during a 12 hour period sounds high for anything lower than 5 gallon pots, but I have not done a drip... can only speak from my experience with hand watering.

Going a little further fatcat... I'm going to use more perlit this run through so they dry up quicker. Going a little further fatcat... you said you put 4 cubic feet per bale of SunShine... which bale are you using? I know they have the 70 cubic foot bales as well as 110 cubic foot (dense pack) Thanks in advance.

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Even that sounds like alot to me 6.25 gallons in a 5 gallon pot each day? maybe I'm way underwatering my plants then? I have zero experience with big pots till now and still trying to figure it out properly. I have been doing about 1-2 gallons every 2-3 days in a 9 gallon pot. At 4.5 weeks flowering.

Also which size bales of SunShine are you using... they have compressed and loosely packed.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the repost above.

Mexi~ yeah quite honestly it sounds like a shit ton of water to me as well but he says he hasn't had root problems...I am curious to hear what type of pots he's doing. Are you using perlite? I use about 25%. But yeah, you are under-watering your plants in my opinion.

I used to give my plants 1.5-2 gallons every other day during bloom and I was only using three gallon pots. SunShine is super airy, and seemingly can take alot of water.

I say give em close to double what you are but that's only my opinion based on past experience. Obviously you aren't getting any run off with 2 gallons right?

When I was hand watering I was doing a few gallons, and then when the surface of the SunShine dried out I would water again. Give more water a shot, they will tell you immediately if you are over-doing it but you are definitely under-watering in my opinion.

Have a buddy who keeps his sunshine nearly completely saturated at all times and never has root problems just to give you an idea of how forgiving this shit can be. Got any pics of your garden mexi?

There is a link to my journal in my sig at the bottom of my posts. The sideways daze. They are two clones that I transplanted on their side 1 week before flowering.

I did add a little perlite, not as much as you tho maybe 10%. I also have about the same % compost in the mix. that seems to keep the bottoms of the pot wet according to my moisture meter but I don't like to rely on that thing too much.

Yes I do agree I have been underwatering. at leat for the last week or 2 only. I did give them a good soaking last week. Early on they didn't use nearly as much water and I had them runoff a few times. Another factor would be that I just upgraded from 400 watts hps to a 1000 watt m/h 4-5 days ago, so a little higher temp and boost in growth is proly drying them out a bit quicker. I will remedy that today. I was kinda in the prosses of watering less amount more often, as opposed to spread out soakings. Just went a little too "less" I guess.

Thanks for the info McGruppsMonsters. Drip system sounds like a good idea! I will have to see what I can come up with, try it myself. Maybe for the next round of clones. They won't be in as much soil. 4 gal.

No problem. She looks healthy.

Ideally you would give her a small amount of water very frequently, that's essentially what drip systems do but because you are doing it by hand and only water every 2-3 days... I say give her a solid shower every single time you are feeding her.

Did you give em more water Mexi? What were the results? I'm guessing they took it just fine?

Yup I did. I don't think I can overwater these things as they are pretty big already. when they were smaller I could soak them and the leaves would show sings for an hour or two and perk right up agian. Because they were getting fairly dry I gave them each about 2 gallons on friday and another 2 gal each on saturday. I spread it out because I needed to feed them and didn't want to feed them when dry. I will probably do another 2 gal each today, and continue with that type of shedule till they are done. they have about 2.5 weeks to go, so the last week I will start to let them dry out agian.

First let me apologize for the error in my first ( I was pretty hammered) post. Should have said 1.25 gal. in 5 waterings, not 5 min. So the actual amount of water at each watering is .25 gal.

McGruppsMonsters said:

Also which size bales of SunShine are you using... they have compressed and loosely packed.

Thanks in advance.

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It is the 3.8 cf. compressed bale.