SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

H

Hash Hound

Well-Known Member
I'm using the insert from an old SIP Eco Grow Pot, so far so good. It's referred as SWICK over at 420mag (Sub-irrigated WICK)

I used a piece of an old bag for the wick. It's in a blend of 2/3 Promix Organic 1/3 Pittmoss (recycled news paper soil substitute)

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Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Setup for my next SIP run and thought I'd share with this crowd that for this round I'm trying with a new soil mix. Hoping it's not too hot or too high in P as I used seabird guano this time - a little powder form and some pellet for slower release.

The big variable this time is I'm actually packing the soil fairly firm all the way down into the wick. No alternate media for the wick just the same straight soil mix and tamped down really firm into the wick itself. If you look at the 'feet' on my wicks you can see why I wanted this packed so tightly. I meant to put something in there to help prevent soil from falling out - hoping compaction works.

My last run was ho-hum from trying a coco/ewc mix and using other goodies to feed but I slacked - might as well be doing hydro at that point; So back to super soil for me. Same 2 phenos I've been running so it will be interesting to see if I can top my prior best which was a modestly hot soil mix and towards mid/end flower I was dropping goodies from NFTG in there with some teas.

Also for this time around I have my 'shower caps' from EPDM rubber sheets I'm going to cut out and use large rubber bands to secure around the totes to see if I can keep the top of my mix from drying out like I had from going open-air previously.

The plants are actually clones that sat around for over a year in little 2 gal smart pots - which suck to transplant from btw - and have very well established root balls. Didn't destroy them too badly getting them out of smart pots. From now on cloth pots are for moms and final planting only.
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I have been packing my soil into my sips all along after watching the earthbox videos , packing in the soil works awesome, I have been wrapping my top with garbage bags the big black ones yup soil stays moist all the way to the top
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
Okay fellow sip fans, I'm about to finish setup for the next run and I'm finalizing my thoughts on the 'shower cap' to be used which has me pondering a couple things and I thought maybe someone could drop some actual science or facts to persuade me one way or the other.

So I bought heavy 45mil EPDM to make good tough re-usable covers, but now I've got myself second guessing how thick and more importantly how 'tightly' the seal should be made.

If plant roots need their oxygen, if you over do it wouldn't that potentially starve them? I have a nice big pipe going down into my rez but when the waterline is above the bottom that'd be sealed. Plus I packed my soil fairly firm this time so I don't see them getting much if any O2 from the rez.

The next question then, was how much air-gap on top to leave? 1" or 2" is what I'm guessing. Like with the bottom and rez you want an 'air gap' I'm assuming.

I'm looking to use the cap to retain moisture as in prior runs the top was always drying out due to my fans.

I did plan to include some 1/2" PVC piping and T's to make a 'top feed' ring for use with NFTG, SLF-100, Photo+ and the likes. That would have a few holes for those heavier organic nutes to flow through and I'm thinking this might be adequate ventilation under the rubber cap.

Thoughts?
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Okay fellow sip fans, I'm about to finish setup for the next run and I'm finalizing my thoughts on the 'shower cap' to be used which has me pondering a couple things and I thought maybe someone could drop some actual science or facts to persuade me one way or the other.

So I bought heavy 45mil EPDM to make good tough re-usable covers, but now I've got myself second guessing how thick and more importantly how 'tightly' the seal should be made.

If plant roots need their oxygen, if you over do it wouldn't that potentially starve them? I have a nice big pipe going down into my rez but when the waterline is above the bottom that'd be sealed. Plus I packed my soil fairly firm this time so I don't see them getting much if any O2 from the rez.

The next question then, was how much air-gap on top to leave? 1" or 2" is what I'm guessing. Like with the bottom and rez you want an 'air gap' I'm assuming.

I'm looking to use the cap to retain moisture as in prior runs the top was always drying out due to my fans.

I did plan to include some 1/2" PVC piping and T's to make a 'top feed' ring for use with NFTG, SLF-100, Photo+ and the likes. That would have a few holes for those heavier organic nutes to flow through and I'm thinking this might be adequate ventilation under the rubber cap.

Thoughts?
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Personally I have never used a cap. The only reason for one imo is to keep the soil moist and for that I use compost teas top dressed or plain water. I have also done a bokashi mulch as well but was not a big fan, as that has to be kept moist much more so then the soil to continue the fungal growth. Many ways to skin a cat though as they say. Just my two cents :-) welcome to the SIP club!
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
I may consider a mulch instead, I had considered the used coco from my last SIP run but was worried it might actually wick the moisture away even worse if I didn't keep top-watering.

I may do the combination of an automated drip of plain-old-water but I was trying to make damned sure there was zero chances of overflowing & flooding. Luckily these Brute totes give me a big ass rez as long as I leave a couple gallons to buffer any runaway pump or siphoning woes if I don't add an air bleed valve or whatever. If I rig things to allow the manual feed of heavy organic liquids like you'd have with NFTG then making that pull from a bucket & pump would be easy enough.

Maybe I'll just use that cap to get the first heavy mycellium mat going, we'll see how it plays out. Laziness can easily become a factor - the appeal of SIP(s) for me is the ez factor. I'm just looking for those little one-time xtra efforts at setup time that pays off.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
Alternately, I still have more super soil mixed and I can just fill it to the brim and if the top gets dry, so what... When I wet it again that's more nutrients to seep back down where the root mass can access things; It's just the sacrificial layer.

My last planned step is to take some malted barley, EM1 and some Kashi Blend from Build-a-Soil to try and get that fuzzy white beard going but I think my high P content might prevent the fungal growth as when I was letting things cook I had some fuzz from EM1 before I added my seabird guano. After that I never could get the fuzzies back.

Earlier today I gave a nice root drench of Azos & Mycos WP with a little fulvic on top of the prior use of Recharge & some yucca meal in the planting hole so I hope my bennies & fungus are more than kick started. Sometime right before mid-flower I'll look into the P focused microbes and might try the Tribus this time instead of Mammoth P.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Alternately, I still have more super soil mixed and I can just fill it to the brim and if the top gets dry, so what... When I wet it again that's more nutrients to seep back down where the root mass can access things; It's just the sacrificial layer.

My last planned step is to take some malted barley, EM1 and some Kashi Blend from Build-a-Soil to try and get that fuzzy white beard going but I think my high P content might prevent the fungal growth as when I was letting things cook I had some fuzz from EM1 before I added my seabird guano. After that I never could get the fuzzies back.

Earlier today I gave a nice root drench of Azos & Mycos WP with a little fulvic on top of the prior use of Recharge & some yucca meal in the planting hole so I hope my bennies & fungus are more than kick started. Sometime right before mid-flower I'll look into the P focused microbes and might try the Tribus this time instead of Mammoth P.
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Sounds like you have a solid plan man! Keep us up to date how it goes!
 
Lightgreen2k

Lightgreen2k

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Alternately, I still have more super soil mixed and I can just fill it to the brim and if the top gets dry, so what... When I wet it again that's more nutrients to seep back down where the root mass can access things; It's just the sacrificial layer.

My last planned step is to take some malted barley, EM1 and some Kashi Blend from Build-a-Soil to try and get that fuzzy white beard going but I think my high P content might prevent the fungal growth as when I was letting things cook I had some fuzz from EM1 before I added my seabird guano. After that I never could get the fuzzies back.

Earlier today I gave a nice root drench of Azos & Mycos WP with a little fulvic on top of the prior use of Recharge & some yucca meal in the planting hole so I hope my bennies & fungus are more than kick started. Sometime right before mid-flower I'll look into the P focused microbes and might try the Tribus this time instead of Mammoth P.
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You have a lot of ideas over the last few pages. I will say, less is more often times and the plants will do well with a super soil mix and myco's usually.
 
natureboygrower

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
I use a a trash bag stretched drum tight over my EB held by bungee cords. It helps with gnats. Then I cut an x , plant, then tape a yellow sticky card right around my plant stem. I make my own compost which is great, but i do get gnats from time to time when i first bring it in. My last/current run was the best for not having gnats because I blocked all exits out of the soil while I waited for the hypoaspis miles to show up in the soil, which they always do. They also come free with my compost lol.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
natureboygrower said:
I use a a trash bag stretched drum tight over my EB held by bungee cords. It helps with gnats. Then I cut an x , plant, then tape a yellow sticky card right around my plant stem. I make my own compost which is great, but i do get gnats from time to time when i first bring it in. My last/current run was the best for not having gnats because I blocked all exits out of the soil while I waited for the hypoaspis miles to show up in the soil, which they always do. They also come free with my compost lol.
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Adding a little neem meal to your compost might help with that i use that and dimateuos earth to get rid of any of those buggers!
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
After 1 encounter with mites I've started taking preventative actions, and with soil I was paranoid so I've been using neem meal myself. These last couple times I've used the neem + karanja duo.

So far I think it's an awesome amendment and my only hesitation I have had with it was all the discussions around CHS and it's potential tie with neem use. But neem has been used for generations for multiple things so I'm leaning towards the "it's perfectly fine" camp. Same with azomite and the fears around Al being accumulated into the harvested product - but people have used azomite in veggie gardens for a very long time.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
After 1 encounter with mites I've started taking preventative actions, and with soil I was paranoid so I've been using neem meal myself. These last couple times I've used the neem + karanja duo.

So far I think it's an awesome amendment and my only hesitation I have had with it was all the discussions around CHS and it's potential tie with neem use. But neem has been used for generations for multiple things so I'm leaning towards the "it's perfectly fine" camp. Same with azomite and the fears around Al being accumulated into the harvested product - but people have used azomite in veggie gardens for a very long time.
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Yeah i think over use of those 2 products could have ill effects but yeah i am in the camp that they are fine in the quantities I am using both of those in my soils also.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
natureboygrower said:
I use a a trash bag stretched drum tight over my EB held by bungee cords. It helps with gnats. Then I cut an x , plant, then tape a yellow sticky card right around my plant stem. I make my own compost which is great, but i do get gnats from time to time when i first bring it in. My last/current run was the best for not having gnats because I blocked all exits out of the soil while I waited for the hypoaspis miles to show up in the soil, which they always do. They also come free with my compost lol.
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Use mosquito dunks
 
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