SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[Humanrob]

Yup. Lol. A little Rubbermaid is where I was gonna go w my smaller ones. The big ones work awesome so not changing just improving those.

I'm looking forward to hearing -- as our collective experience increases -- if there are res sizes which can become too big. I'm wondering if at some point X number of standing gallons of water invites its own issues, that a smaller res that is drained (by the plant) and refilled more frequently would avoid? Time will tell. IIRC SomeGuy, you are a big fan of maximum air stones? It seems like its keeping your water clean so that's a good thing, and I think you have the biggest res capacity I've read about so far.

Am I the only one using Pond-Zyme? LOL I can't wait to open these things up and see what's in them....
As it stands my next grow will be a pair of 5 or 7 gallon cloth pots over 10gallon Rubbermaid bins. If I can get a second tent going, I already have two 5 gallon pots over 3.5 gallon buckets that I'll use in that one.

 

[JorgeGonzales]

Earthboxes very cheap on Amazon right now, ~$30 w/free shipping. Limit 3 per customer.

@Tim Fox what are those tomatoes looking like now? I planted two 5 gallon DIY sips at the end of June, really late in the season here. Four cuke seedlings in one, a banana pepper in another and I've already made a couple quarts of bread and butter pickles with them.

 

[Tim Fox]

Earthboxes very cheap on Amazon right now, ~$30 w/free shipping. Limit 3 per customer.

@Tim Fox what are those tomatoes looking like now? I planted two 5 gallon DIY sips at the end of June, really late in the season here. Four cuke seedlings in one, a banana pepper in another and I've already made a couple quarts of bread and butter pickles with them.

the tomato plants grew to be 6 feet tall, and are absolute beasts!! i just picked my first ripe one and its the size of a small baseball , there are probably 20 - 30 tomatos all around the plant and many more bud/blossom sites yet to grow fruit, i have a good feeling there will be lots of salsa and gazpacho around here for the month of august, I have been dealing with some calcium imbalance I noticed it on 2 of the oldest tomatos and google led me to what was wrong, so i am adding Cal mag to my res now, and I am adding some GH flora veg, hahah,, , so its good practice for the sip MJ grow this fall/winter in the sip,, at least i know i can ad nutes to the res if needed I have also been using a trick the hempy bucket guys use and flush the res probably once a week to wash it out , the refill the res with clean water , so far so good

 

[JorgeGonzales]

the tomato plants grew to be 6 feet tall, and are absolute beasts!! i just picked my first ripe one and its the size of a small baseball , there are probably 20 - 30 tomatos all around the plant and many more bud/blossom sites yet to grow fruit, i have a good feeling there will be lots of salsa and gazpacho around here for the month of august, I have been dealing with some calcium imbalance I noticed it on 2 of the oldest tomatos and google led me to what was wrong, so i am adding Cal mag to my res now, and I am adding some GH flora veg, hahah,, , so its good practice for the sip MJ grow this fall/winter in the sip,, at least i know i can ad nutes to the res if needed I have also been using a trick the hempy bucket guys use and flush the res probably once a week to wash it out , the refill the res with clean water , so far so good

That's exactly what I'm doing, Tim. Organic granular ferts mixed into the soil up top, and a weak Dyna Gro mix for the rez the last few weeks just for fun. A flush and fresh water every week or so, just in case. It stayed ~100F for a week straight here and everything stayed healthy, unlike my in-the-dirt stuff.

I ordered half a dozen of the Earthboxes at $29 each shipped for winter, and an extra one to try in my tent inside for my first indoor soil grow. Hopefully they work as well as the buckets.

Did you mix in any dolomite when you planted? Calcium and magnesium, but I wonder about bioavailability.

This was a seedling 8 weeks ago, second big flush coming in. Had a rough start with insect damage, got a bit leggy since I had to bring it inside early on during insane temps, but it just shakes it all off and keeps going:

 

[Tim Fox]

I put straight FFOF into the bottom of the earthbox and put in a good layer of domolite lime, and another layer of ffof and then a row of happy frog flower nute for MJ,, and then topped with final layer of FFOF ,, and where i fell I went wrong was the happy frog nute,, its what i had on hand from my last MJ grow and so i just used it,, now I am paying the price because I think the happy frog didnt really have what the tomato is craving, , live and learn,, next summer I want to another tomato grow and see if there is something better to you,, like maybe tomato tone ?? how is that stuff working out for you?>,,,
i am rotating the cal mag and GH maxi grow about every third watering,,
they are drinking some days 2 gallons,, and other days 1.5 gallons , so i have to stay kinda close to them and or get my son to water if I am out of town,, and since I am not doing an MJ grow this summer I have been really enjoying doing some weekend get aways,
I need to find a way to extend the Res on the earthbox, and there is a video on youtube of a guy using a seperate container next to his earht box and then just putting a small hose out the earthbox over flow slot, and up and over into the other container and gravity keeps them the same level, I want to find a container that will set next to the earthbox inside of my grow cab so i can make the res upwards of 5 gallons??,,, i hope i hope

 

[JorgeGonzales]

The tomato tone has been good, but I'm using it on cucumbers and peppers in the SIPs, top dressing in the dirt, and adding a little extra like I said. The word on the street at the Earthbox forums is that organics ferts might give up a little too early in the season compared to synthetics.

I was planning on doing something similar to extend the reservoir. A siphon will work fine as long as it stays submerged on both ends, just stick something like a 10 gallon rubbermaid next to it and go to town, should add another few gallons. Actually I can try that really easily with what I have on hand here. Just takes some tubing down the fill hole and something to stick extra water in. I'm filling these stupid buckets every morning.

If you wanted to auto-water you can use a float valve in the external container. I was hoping to do that with a gravity fed barrel outside my tent. Outside in the garden, a hose connection and ferts injector to accomplish the same thing. We'll see. But the mini floats are only $10, a cheap experiment.

 

[BM9AGS]

@SomeGuy
Can we get an update on your sip grow room

 

[Tim Fox]

The tomato tone has been good, but I'm using it on cucumbers and peppers in the SIPs, top dressing in the dirt, and adding a little extra like I said. The word on the street at the Earthbox forums is that organics ferts might give up a little too early in the season compared to synthetics.

I was planning on doing something similar to extend the reservoir. A siphon will work fine as long as it stays submerged on both ends, just stick something like a 10 gallon rubbermaid next to it and go to town, should add another few gallons. Actually I can try that really easily with what I have on hand here. Just takes some tubing down the fill hole and something to stick extra water in. I'm filling these stupid buckets every morning.

If you wanted to auto-water you can use a float valve in the external container. I was hoping to do that with a gravity fed barrel outside my tent. Outside in the garden, a hose connection and ferts injector to accomplish the same thing. We'll see. But the mini floats are only $10, a cheap experiment.

if you have multiple sip buckets you could use a storage tub and run a hose to every 5 gallon to the same storage tub and use it like a master res, and you would only have to fill the one external res, and it would satisfy all the other sips, that way if one plant drinks more, it can borrow from the others,, hum,, i like that idea,, for next years outdoor garden,
for now I just need a single container to place next to the earth box for my indoor MJ grow this winter,,
I was telling my wife that if my tomato plant were my indoor MJ the grow would be over, and the nute would have made it,, , but its so good ot know that adding cal mag and or nutes to the res works,
since tomato tone is a organic dry nute,,, what type of synthetic would you recommend,, and is that the same as the salt types?

 

[SomeGuy]

@SomeGuy
Can we get an update on your sip grow room

Yeah. I harvested 3.5lbs from it before summer grow started. . They work awesome. Try and remember to take one of the indoor that just went to bloom a week ago.

 

[Tim Fox]

That's exactly what I'm doing, Tim. Organic granular ferts mixed into the soil up top, and a weak Dyna Gro mix for the rez the last few weeks just for fun. A flush and fresh water every week or so, just in case. It stayed ~100F for a week straight here and everything stayed healthy, unlike my in-the-dirt stuff.

I ordered half a dozen of the Earthboxes at $29 each shipped for winter, and an extra one to try in my tent inside for my first indoor soil grow. Hopefully they work as well as the buckets.

Did you mix in any dolomite when you planted? Calcium and magnesium, but I wonder about bioavailability.

This was a seedling 8 weeks ago, second big flush coming in. Had a rough start with insect damage, got a bit leggy since I had to bring it inside early on during insane temps, but it just shakes it all off and keeps going:

View attachment 3747180

Here it is

 

[BM9AGS]

Earth box or octopots? Which should I get?

 

[JorgeGonzales]

Earth box or octopots? Which should I get?

I'd build something like @SomeGuy before buying octopots. I was picking @Thorhax 's brain too recently, he has one 3 gallon soft pot on each reservoir, 6" netpot in the bottom.

Or something with 5 gallon buckets? It's such a simple concept, you can literally just put one bucket inside another, 3 inch netpot in the inner bucket, maybe drill holes in the floor to let the roots grow out of. The buckets would do best with some sort of larger controller reservoir though, otherwise you only end up with a gallon or less in each, which can get sucked up pretty fast, at least judging by how much a DWC can drink.

The Earthbox is $36 on Amazon right now, good for two plants spaced about 2 feet apart. They are pretty big, 2 cu ft of soil. I haven't seen any grows with them, but I haven't really looked.

 

[BM9AGS]

I'd build something like @SomeGuy before buying octopots. I was picking @Thorhax 's brain too recently, he has one 3 gallon soft pot on each reservoir, 6" netpot in the bottom.

Or something with 5 gallon buckets? It's such a simple concept, you can literally just put one bucket inside another, 3 inch netpot in the inner bucket, maybe drill holes in the floor to let the roots grow out of. The buckets would do best with some sort of larger controller reservoir though, otherwise you only end up with a gallon or less in each, which can get sucked up pretty fast, at least judging by how much a DWC can drink.

The Earthbox is $36 on Amazon right now, good for two plants spaced about 2 feet apart. They are pretty big, 2 cu ft of soil. I haven't seen any grows with them, but I haven't really looked.

Yeah DIY is always better but I'm gonna be away so I handed my lights and plants off to an experienced grower and I still want to experiment even if it's virtually through him. So I'm getting more LEDs and want to try this sip system and don't want to over burden the guy growing my experiments. I put the 16 cxb unit in with a 1k hid and wow 3500 isn't nearly as red as HPS. But the 800w of cobs crushes the foot print of that 1k hid light

 

[Tim Fox]

Earth box or octopots? Which should I get?

I think it depends on the size of your grow space, and what fits in your space shape the best, I would much prefer a larger res, if pot plants drink like the tomato does, there is a good chance a person would need to water daily later when the plants are big, I do believe the store bought octopots have a bigger res than the earthbox? I used to know,, kinda forgot, hahha

I'd build something like @SomeGuy before buying octopots. I was picking @Thorhax 's brain too recently, he has one 3 gallon soft pot on each reservoir, 6" netpot in the bottom.

Or something with 5 gallon buckets? It's such a simple concept, you can literally just put one bucket inside another, 3 inch netpot in the inner bucket, maybe drill holes in the floor to let the roots grow out of. The buckets would do best with some sort of larger controller reservoir though, otherwise you only end up with a gallon or less in each, which can get sucked up pretty fast, at least judging by how much a DWC can drink.

The Earthbox is $36 on Amazon right now, good for two plants spaced about 2 feet apart. They are pretty big, 2 cu ft of soil. I haven't seen any grows with them, but I haven't really looked.

I completely agree, DIY is awesome, I tried and tried to find storage tubs that were short and compact because of my limited height in my grow cab, I ended up with the earth box due to its 11 inch height and the width was perfect for my grow cab, and the glove fit so to speak!!!
but now i will have to extend the res, but that shouldnt be to hard, I just need to get on the band wagon in september and go shopping for the right size container to extend the res, i just dont have allot of left over floor space,, i was considering actually gluing together some plexi / acrylic like they do for fish tanks ,, but not until i have exhausted the search for something already made, I was already eye balling a kitchen trash can,, tall and narrow,, and i could cut off the top and be left with something that might work,
I am really impressed with @SomeGuy and his Res size, the ability to only water once a week or 5 days would be outstanding!

 

[Rocket Soul]

Hi sipers. I think i had this doc from @hyroots thread, quite interesting. What i made from it: u need good access to your ress and the possibility to raise or lower it in comparison to your wick. This may not apply to how people use sips here cause this guy (ppk writer)) tries to avoid water roots, but what he says is the amount of wick under water doesnt really matter, its the length of wick the water needs to traverse to reach the grow pot that matters. Overwet: lower the ress, dry vice versa. Also interesting theory about hydralic distribution, with references so looks pretty kosher. Its a good read.

 

[Rocket Soul]

So this fall when i might finally build a proper growspace: will have a grow tent on top of a wooden stand/table thing, with holes for the wicks in the wooden board. The stand will be about 12-16 inches, and underneath i can access the separate resevoirs, lowering or raising or even exchangeing to diffrent size if i wanna. They will be smaller than most on here, maybe with a automated filling system using pump with a larger separate master ress on the side
+ Can make full change and clean the ress. This will enable me to do teas for organic soil without fear of funny stuff in the ress. Also able to change the size of ress or how effective the wick is by lowering/raising. Also ress is outside grow enviroment.
- need to make holes in the tent for the wicks might lead to smells.AAnyone can see any other drawbacks, please comment, as me's a self-confessed noob.
Also (shoulda said before everything) im after an organic soil system where nutes are in the soil but to have the possibility to add teas and liquid nutes in case the soil runs out. Also looking into high brix which i believe can only be done with nutrient drenches which would hard with no access ress. What you think?

 

[Rocket Soul]

Here it is

Love ur tomato setup, really nice setup with the trellis. Mine are prob dead by now as i left it to less than reliables.oh well,next summer

 

[JorgeGonzales]

@Tim Fox Thats why I like the gravity fed float idea, you can use a space saving water container, something skinny and tall, and just keep the level constant with a small controller res just big enough for the float valve. Actually there's always the earthbox automatic watering system, too. I think that goes straight down the watering pipe.

 

[Rocket Soul]

I think it depends on the size of your grow space, and what fits in your space shape the best, I would much prefer a larger res, if pot plants drink like the tomato does, there is a good chance a person would need to water daily later when the plants are big, I do believe the store bought octopots have a bigger res than the earthbox? I used to know,, kinda forgot, hahha

I completely agree, DIY is awesome, I tried and tried to find storage tubs that were short and compact because of my limited height in my grow cab, I ended up with the earth box due to its 11 inch height and the width was perfect for my grow cab, and the glove fit so to speak!!!
but now i will have to extend the res, but that shouldnt be to hard, I just need to get on the band wagon in september and go shopping for the right size container to extend the res, i just dont have allot of left over floor space,, i was considering actually gluing together some plexi / acrylic like they do for fish tanks ,, but not until i have exhausted the search for something already made, I was already eye balling a kitchen trash can,, tall and narrow,, and i could cut off the top and be left with something that might work,
I am really impressed with @SomeGuy and his Res size, the ability to only water once a week or 5 days would be outstanding!

Im not all that keen on the big ress, but eachone to his own. I think its pretty easy to setup a pump for watering and dial in how much to water everyday with enough precision to be able to leave a few days to a week. Small ress will be easier to handle as above, also i recon a shallower (and maybe wider) ress will have more oxygen for those of us that dont have an option for bubbling 24/7 (nosy neighbours). I think the major benefits with sips is emulating groundwater for emulating nature and letting the plant drink as it needs, no over underwatering (if u can get the wick right). But i guess its up to eachone, and everything should be tried

Edit I do like the idea of master ress just that if you gravity feed it it would have to be very wide to acomodate enough water. Also if you have connected to sorta all share the same water, if you have problem in 1 ress you may have problem in all. Maybe easier with one ress for all of them if they are all part of the same comunicating watermass?

 

[SomeGuy]

Im not all that keen on the big ress, but eachone to his own. I think its pretty easy to setup a pump for watering and dial in how much to water everyday with enough precision to be able to leave a few days to a week. Small ress will be easier to handle as above, also i recon a shallower (and maybe wider) ress will have more oxygen for those of us that dont have an option for bubbling 24/7 (nosy neighbours). I think the major benefits with sips is emulating groundwater for emulating nature and letting the plant drink as it needs, no over underwatering (if u can get the wick right). But i guess its up to eachone, and everything should be tried

Edit I do like the idea of master ress just that if you gravity feed it it would have to be very wide to acomodate enough water. Also if you have connected to sorta all share the same water, if you have problem in 1 ress you may have problem in all. Maybe easier with one ress for all of them if they are all part of the same comunicating watermass?

FYI, A larger rez eliminates root problems for the most part. larger bodies of water stay cooler and administering a zyme product to the rez would help. However, constant addition of new water weekly or every other week as needed helps to freshen up the rez. All mine were perfectly clean and water has a soil type smell to it. The large octopots work very well. In fact. I have some setup with two 5gl smartpots on top and two of those in a 4x4 would produce all you would want.

Ill snap some photos tonight of my setup. I am only running half my setup in summer since i grow outside but what matters is the individual sip tech.