Small Tent, Big Dreams

xTaps The Caramel Automatic did not germinate. 02.08, installed the DIY Drip Irrigation System. Getting watered 3 times per day, 5L water from the Spider Farmer Dehumidifier with Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Micro, Grow and Bloom. Also some T.A Calmag. 05.08 Day 12, Topped the Do-Si-Dos and the White Widow. 06.08 Day 13, New Nutrient Solution, topped all Easy Buds and the Wedding Cake. This week, I gave only 1.8ml for the 5l, will see what happens if I lower the calmag a bit. Watering times set to 15 minutes for 2 times per week.

xTaps 07.08 Day 14, Topped both Green Gelatos.

xTaps 09.08 Day 16 They liked the topping.

xTaps 10.08 New Week, new nutrients. Adjusted the water level to 8L.

xTaps 15.08 Day 22 Stretch is coming. 17.08 Mixed a new nutrient solution, optimized for flowering. Unfortunately, my tent got a bit flooded last Wednesday (13/08), so I’m still trying to find a better solution for handling the drain in such a small space. I even considered putting her into the big tent for now, just to be on the safe side.

xTaps 23.08 The Drainmaster moved into the tent to control the drain. Defoliated and lollipopped them. 25.08 First run with the drain system. Nutrient Solution (Tank): Volume: 8.5 L EC: 3.05 pH: 5.5 Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients Micro/Grow/Bloom + CalMag Irrigation Run: Pump time: 30 minutes Total Drain: 5.0 L (≈ 60%) Drain EC: 2.6 Drain pH: 6.0 🔎 Observations Drain volume was far too high (target is ~20%). Drain EC lower than input EC → medium was relatively “empty”, plants absorbed nutrients quickly. pH drift from 5.5 → 6.0 shows some buffering effect left in the reused substrate, but limited. Substrate behaves more like coco than soil now (low buffer, fast response). 💡 Insight / Lesson Learned 30 minutes pump time is way too long → resulted in 60% runoff instead of 20%. For 8 × 1 L pots, a single irrigation event should be ~1.0–1.2 L total, with ~200–250 ml runoff. Solution: shorten pump time to ~5 minutes and re-test runoff. Better approach: run shorter, more frequent irrigations (daily) with a lower EC (2.0–2.2), instead of heavy feedings (EC 3.0) only 3× per week. This will keep EC more stable in the root zone and prevent salt buildup in the tiny 1 L pots.