DIY Passive Humidifying, Aeration and Organic Feeding of Indoor Soil Pots

[Munchy]

just looking for some feedback on a few experimental techniques I'm testing...
i don't remember seeing or hearing them anywhere else, just my own crazy ideas
let me know what you guys think, if you've ever heard of, or tried any of these methods?


Passive Humidifying:
my rh meter keeps going back to that 10% bs, but it said 49% the other day,
i just need to put it back in a jar with a damp paper towel for a few hours.
but I've been experimenting with these 10 gallons of water, using dollar-store containers,
opening and closing them as needed to help combat low humidity in my 4 x 2 tent, without buying a humidifier,
and it seems to work well, maybe about half of them are usually left open now.

these are Sunset Sherbet, Oreoz, Cheetah Piss and Thin-Mint Jealousy


Aeration:
sometimes with soil pots, due to issues such as ph, over-feeding, and/or flushing, like my soil mix was too hot, so plants may not uptake water normally, and kind of get stuck in an over-watered state for more than a week and won't dry out, so I've begun trying to improve aeration and help them dry out faster, by sinking air shafts into the soil. I found a 12" long x 1/2" thick knife sharpener pretty handy for doing this in my 4-gallon pots, starting in an inner ring about halfway from the plant main stem to the side of the pot sinking 6 holes all the way down to the bottom, and wiggling the tool to make them fairly sturdy. then I added another outer ring of 6 more holes around the outer wall of the pot. the top of the holes can be covered or filled in a little later to help re-normalize watering so it doesn't just pour through, and the shafts may partially fill-in during subsequent watering, but I think even-so the remaining effect of a dozen deep air-shafts would continue to be beneficial?

Organic Feeding:
also regarding feeding with dry organic amendments, wouldn't it work to pre-soak them separately, like 1/2tsp of each into separate capped pints of filtered and de-chlorinated water for like weeks, and then just shake it up, and pour off maybe a half-ounce or so of each kind, such as bat guano, fish bone meal, kelp, bio-live and 420 bloom to mix into a 3/4 gallon bottle of feed water? i've heard that when making a bucket of tea using an air-pump, it should be used within 24-48 hours, but these pint bottles would remain sealed, so it doesn't seem like any of the good stuff could be lost? and i think it would help speed up the plants ability to benefit from the liquid-form amendments in comparison with fresh top-dressing? I just gave each pot about 7oz of this mix (with a bit of molasses and cal-mag) sandwiched between 7oz of straight water before and after.

Pre-Mixing Super-Soil:
i would advise extreme caution and restraint, don't forget that less is always more.
some people say you can't burn your plants with organics, but I'm sorry to say that is some bullshit.
i had too quickly tossed a tsp or so of each of those dry amends (except bloom) in each 2-gallon pot
during transplanting a couple months back and it fucked them up bad.
i had to flush them twice since re-transplanting to the 4-gallon pots for blooming.

[Munchy]

it also seems like all the grow vids say you need air-stones and/or mist action for cloning
but I've been having great success for years, by just using a simple tray and dome,
with small 8oz cups of soil & perlite with holes, sitting in 1/2" of spring water,
just quickly dip cuttings in powder rootone,
then drop in pre-poked holes down to the bottom of each cup, squeeze and pack it down a bit
some strains root in 8 to 10 days, others may take a little longer.

[Lrus007]

a wet towel will add humidity to a room.

poking dirt on pots i dono. i don't even like to
put a bamboo stake into a growing pot of soil.
i water from the bottom with trays.

your bottles of ferts. maybe hit a wine store and get
some argon. then spray into each. no air won't go bad as fast.

i never worked with super soil so no idea.

if way you clone works stick with it. i use rapid rooters myself.

hope this helps in some way

[Prawn Connery]

I don't grow in soil, but generally in hydroponics, including coco coir, most of your humidity comes from nutrient solution evaporation, ie; evaporation in the pots.

One way to increase humidity is to slow down your exhaust fan. You can create all the humidity you like inside the grow area, but if your exhaust fan sucks it out faster than it tops up, you're back where you started.

I have used peat pots/rapid rooters for cloning for decades.

Have you considered using fabric pots for your soil grows? They dry out a lot quicker.

[Solid Gold Butt Plug]

Too many topics in one post.

Your humidity isn’t at 10%, your plants look like they have good turgor, stop trying to add humidity before you give the plants PM.

Aeration: If your RH was 10% your pots would dry out even with no plants in them as long as you have temps over 75….It’s winter I’m guessing your lights out temps are pretty low and causing them to take longer to dry out…..When planting trees air pockets are bad, I imagine they aren’t doing your plants any good.

Organic Feeding: You’re doing too much, find a one part and keep all those amendments for amending soil…keep it simple unless you understand the soil science….Try Flora Nova or Pure Blend Pro

Cloning, there’s a 1000 ways to root a plant, some ways might be faster and more suited for commercial production.

[smokebreaks]

I don't understand the aeration either. ? it's not like growing a lawn or a putting green, you trying to make the soil light and airy or something?

[Intrinsic]

"...and restraint, don't forget that less is always more."
Yer feeding looks like too much love for an already rich organic soil. Particularly if jes feeding the soil ecosystem.
Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you mean by super soil.

is just me or you seem like you have a competing problem you're trying to get your humidity up and you're trying to dry your soil out, they seem competing?

I'd be interested in hearing what your root structure looks like from the aeration technique. did it promote root growth or leave dry spaces. Seems I remember Kendo used to do this with his outdoor plants poking holes called it walking the roots, promoting growth.

[Butcher Bob]

Why am I not surprised that Solid Gold has the answers...pretty much spot on.

I will just add...

Aeration should be covered by the peat/compost/sand component(s) in the soil mix. The real benefit of aeration is on the outside of the root zone, to promote lateral branching of roots by air pruning the tips, which also helps prevent the roots from circling around the inside of the pots.

it also seems like all the grow vids say you need air-stones and/or mist action for cloning

Maybe for hydro, but not for soil.
Seems a lot of folks think it's a complicated process...it's not.