Working on finalizing my next batch of soil for my SIP(s) and curious of the pros' & cons' of running light aeration vs heavy aeration in the mix when it specifically comes to running SIPs. Furthermore, the wick itself and the amount of aeration/material. I think we're in a little different shoes than some of the other traditional advise so wondering what this crowd thought.
I think last time around I ran a few variants on the wicks which amounted to how much perlite was used and where in the wick it was used. I think, but have no real data to support it, that the ones where the wick had a lot of aeration didn't work as well.
My current batch is a bit heavy on the organic material (ewc, bu's/ancient forest compost, a little peat, some old leftovers bud material from an aborted run for some greens). I have added some montmorillonite clay this time as well with a dash more perlite. Now I'm trying to decide how much more aeration to use.
Previously I ran open-top without any 'shower cap' and think that hindered things so this time around I have some heavy duty epmd pond liner (0.045mil) to make my covers. So with a cover I won't be getting passive aeration from the top like I did before and that has me thinking about it even more.
I do plan to use EM again as I did before so from that angle I'm covered either way. I even contemplated using air stones not so much for anerobic rez but knowing I have a moderately snug seal around my totes I'm thinking it'd make it up through the soil to some degree and that might help offset the difference of having a cover this time. The air would leak out around the cover but that may also push moisture up right under the plant - which screams of mold issues in flowering, etc. So that leads me back to passive and run anaerobic - just make sure there's a small air gap under the cover.