SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
Sub-irrigated planter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Sub-Irrigated Planter
Sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a generic name for a special type of planting box used in container gardening and commercial landscaping. A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from the bottom, allowing the water to soak upwards to the plant through capillary action.[1] It is possible to automate the watering and thus SIPs are popular with professional landscapers in buildings or urban settings. SIPs are available as products, under brand names such as Planter Technology[2] (commercial) and EarthBox[3] (consumer), Ollie Plant Sipper[4](consumer), The Refuge Garden (www.urbanrefugegardening.com) (consumer/commercial) or as do-it-yourselfprojects made from plastic buckets and boxes.[5]



Would love to hear about your experiments, projects, failures and successes. :)
 
dubekoms

dubekoms

Well-Known Member
I was thinking of purchasing a earthbox myself, a sub irrigated planter. I just don't know how well it would do with organics. I brew a lot of aacts and use shit like fish hydrolysate. I don't think that would go over well sitting at the bottom for more then a day. I guess if you had some really nice soil and used only plain water it would do very well.
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
I'm doing a couple right now. One is based on a 14 gallon Rubbermaid container inside of an 18 gallon. The other is tall narrow #7 pot mated to a 5 gallon bucket. Both still need to have their drain holes drilled -- btw, how much (in inches) of an air space should I leave between the water line and the bottom of the soil container?

sip_18g_apart.jpg sip_18g_wick.jpg sip_18g_wick-bottom.jpg sip_18g_open.jpg sip_18g_closed.jpg sip_5g_inside.jpg sip_5g_wick.jpg sip_5g_done.jpg
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
dubekoms said:
I was thinking of purchasing a earthbox myself, a sub irrigated planter. I just don't know how well it would do with organics. I brew a lot of aacts and use shit like fish hydrolysate. I don't think that would go over well sitting at the bottom for more then a day. I guess if you had some really nice soil and used only plain water it would do very well.
Click to expand...
Being that I'm still in the process of building mine, I have no first hand experience yet, but I've been reading as much as I can on them. Hopefully @hyroot will join in, I believe he uses an organic soil mix in his. There are a lot of people experimenting with them, I've read bits here and there on different threads and journals, maybe we can focus the information here.

I know @Tim Fox just ordered an Earthbox, but I think he's going to grow some tomatoes outside with it this summer, and do an indoor grow with it next fall or winter. Tim pointed me to some great online resources, like the instructions in the attached file from http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/ I based a lot of my bin design on their instructions, but instead of using two 18 gallon and cutting one up, I used one 14 and one 18. I will definitely use their water level indicator design though.
 

Attachments

Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
dubekoms said:
I was thinking of purchasing a earthbox myself, a sub irrigated planter. I just don't know how well it would do with organics. I brew a lot of aacts and use shit like fish hydrolysate. I don't think that would go over well sitting at the bottom for more then a day. I guess if you had some really nice soil and used only plain water it would do very well.
Click to expand...
Yea man ,I just ordered a earth box, it's going to fit my grow box really well, I will put some pictures up when it gets here, @Humanrob those diy sips look really good, maybe hyroot can shed some light on your wick choice, of there is enough slots?,
Everything I have read said one inch air gap
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
Yea man ,I just ordered a earth box, it's going to fit my grow box really well, I will put some pictures up when it gets here, @Humanrob those diy sips look really good, maybe hyroot can shed some light on your wick choice, of there is enough slots?,
Everything I have read said one inch air gap
Click to expand...
Thanks, couldn't remember the gap. My previous design had too much air, this one might have too little, but that's easy to change.
 
dubekoms

dubekoms

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
Yea man ,I just ordered a earth box, it's going to fit my grow box really well, I will put some pictures up when it gets here, @Humanrob those diy sips look really good, maybe hyroot can shed some light on your wick choice, of there is enough slots?,
Everything I have read said one inch air gap
Click to expand...
I'll definitely keep an eye on that. I was thinking maybe you could top feed with compost teas, just making sure not to go overboard so it doesn't reach the resivoir at the bottom. Its also perfect size for my area and I think holds nearly 2cft of soil? I might run 2 plants in it.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
No teas. Just add ewc and compost and malted seeds (instead of sst) to the soil and you're fine. The only need for compost teas ever is if the soil gets dried out and the microbes die off.


Mine

18 gal and 5 gals. Gorilla glue 4 and quantum kush

20160402_225003.jpg

20160402_225011.jpg

Kona sunset f2

20160402_225022.jpg

Guard dawg f3

20160402_225043.jpg
 
Last edited:
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
dubekoms said:
I'll definitely keep an eye on that. I was thinking maybe you could top feed with compost teas, just making sure not to go overboard so it doesn't reach the resivoir at the bottom. Its also perfect size for my area and I think holds nearly 2cft of soil? I might run 2 plants in it.
Click to expand...
Yes , the earthbox holds exactly 1 bag of soil product, 2 cubic feet, or around 17 gallons, Chose some type of living soil, I know in the octopots they ad nutes right to the res, I am going run Water only the whole ride in my earthbox,,, my last grow was water only the whole ride in 3 gallon containers with FFOF
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
dubekoms

dubekoms

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
more earthbox from buildasoil on vimeo
Click to expand...
lol, I laughed in the video when he said at 13:50,, it works like using an airstone ,,so why go thru the cost and trouble of appling anerobics?,, So i chuckled and said,, then why not just use the air pump, save the trouble, save the money, ya
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
lol, I laughed in the video when he said at 13:50,, it works like using an airstone ,,so why go thru the cost and trouble of appling anerobics?,, So i chuckled and said,, then why not just use the air pump, save the trouble, save the money, ya
Click to expand...
Go 15:45 in (+/-) and you'll also hear him advise to let the res get completely dry between fillings. So apparently these can be used simply as an alternative method of watering, without any hydro-hybrid pretensions. I plan to keep my wicks moist, but that's just me.

Edit: but it is an interesting video, and it is good to know that if for some reason it runs dry, its not the end of the world.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top