SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
I think ideally you cycle the sips,so after cleaning the res out put it a side with water in it and let it cook.You need space though and I aint got it lol.
Jeremy at bas, put in a cover crop, mulched it, chopped the crop, added some ewc, and craft blend, covered it and let it cook.That's probably the route I'll take. I have the space, just not the patience.... but I'm working on that. Lol
 

Nwtexan

Well-Known Member
Ive left the gap between the 2 totes alone,shade from leaves stops light getting in.Keeping my tote lid on I get a small dry spot from the gap where I cut the lid.
I would do 2 wicks in ea,plants will pull as they need.one directly under ea plant.
I’ve got one of each. pretty cheap to make, so if one works(or doesn’t) better than the other, I will go with that. 5FF3EC3A-17B4-4E74-A57A-5251C0C0592C.jpeg70413E3C-2AA9-445C-A094-94697595CB01.jpeg
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Youll like the size of those,hopefully you dont have to move them haha.Mine are drinking 2 gallons a day now.Ill be putting in taller risers next round so I dont have to fill so often.Or dont grow such big plants lol.
 

Nwtexan

Well-Known Member
Youll like the size of those,hopefully you dont have to move them haha.Mine are drinking 2 gallons a day now.Ill be putting in taller risers next round so I dont have to fill so often.Or dont grow such big plants lol.
Trying to come up with a way to fill them. There is a mod on the earthtainer 3 instructions using the earth box aws
 

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
I've got a 2x6" pot set up, tub, valve etc home made effort 2 pots standing in nutrient refills and repeats, I've only used perlite with it previously, I'm planning on using again soon with some coco.
I've no perlite for the bottom 1" of the pot but I've got a bag of hydroton will that work, instead, does it have capillary qualities like perlite?

Without capillary it wouldn't work when the tray is low.
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Did you take a pic of the roots/res?Id like to see that.

Was that just a water rinse?Im thinking of when i make hash doesn't that knock off tricomes?
 

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Did you take a pic of the roots/res?Id like to see that.

Was that just a water rinse?Im thinking of when i make hash doesn't that knock off tricomes?
the water contaned H2O2 ( hydrogen peroxide) and Green Cure ( sodium biocarbonate) its called bud washing,, here is a video Jorge Cervantes: Washing Away Powdery Mildew - YouTube
no i does not removed any trichs,,, its a pretty common practice,, especially with outdoor growers

the Sip is sitting outside, i have not seperated it yet,, maybe on the weekend , and i will take res pics and root pics then, there are lots of them because i could see the roots thru the water fill port the entire grow
 

Nwtexan

Well-Known Member
All right. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out if my soil was gonna cut it. Finally made the jump and have 4 plants in my 2 SIPS.
My Coots style mix had some weird test numbers and being a SIP, I couldn’t easily flush out any excess stuff. I was a little paranoid as I put one of the clones in an early version of my soil and it had all kinds of problems.

I trenched in a little bit of flower girl into each one and have them covered with plastic.

Any reason to mulch underneath this?bokashi? Barley? Anything else to be aware of?
D866B0FE-020B-48A4-8C55-6E5B723BF63D.jpeg2CE392DF-5FE5-4EB2-B7E8-F2289308AD9A.jpeg
 

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
Got everything cleaned and ready for the next round :mrgreen:
20210405_024855.jpg
Made 1 modification to the PatioPicker planters. I cut some landscaping fabric to only cover the plastic shelf with holes, to keep the soil out of the reservoir. It was probably 1/3 full of dirt. That dirt though, was completely full of worms. There were hundreds throughout the planter. Took the old soil, mixed it into my pile of "fresh" soil, and put 12 gallons of that back into each sip. Then mixed in Dr Earth Homegrown at 1/2 recommended amount, kelp meal, agsil, malted barley powder, and big 6. Washed the sips with hot soapy water, and got everything hauled back into the tent. Got 8 regular seeds in the planters, and a couple fems in the dwc tote.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Got everything cleaned and ready for the next round :mrgreen:
View attachment 4871974
Made 1 modification to the PatioPicker planters. I cut some landscaping fabric to only cover the plastic shelf with holes, to keep the soil out of the reservoir. It was probably 1/3 full of dirt. That dirt though, was completely full of worms. There were hundreds throughout the planter. Took the old soil, mixed it into my pile of "fresh" soil, and put 12 gallons of that back into each sip. Then mixed in Dr Earth Homegrown at 1/2 recommended amount, kelp meal, agsil, malted barley powder, and big 6. Washed the sips with hot soapy water, and got everything hauled back into the tent. Got 8 regular seeds in the planters, and a couple fems in the dwc tote.
You always replace after a cycle?
 

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
This will be my second cycle with sips, but I think I'm gonna clean them out everytime. I was losing quite a bit of volume in the reservoir. Alot of the soil had washed out of the soil columns, so I imagine I'm still gonna lose a little space. But I also want to make sure things stay clean.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
This will be my second cycle with sips, but I think I'm gonna clean them out everytime. I was losing quite a bit of volume in the reservoir. Alot of the soil had washed out of the soil columns, so I imagine I'm still gonna lose a little space. But I also want to make sure things stay clean.
I was wondering because Jeremy at bas is running an earth box that he's cycling, he left the root mass in the soil, but I gotta wonder about roots that make it into the res. How would you get them out without pulling the soil? Can you just leave them in there?
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
this is my first round using sips ever. soil is BAS Light mix that I have run a few times before, but i ammended w EWC and made trenches of DTE Vegan mix dry nutes.
My earth box should arrive today. I was thinking of putting bas 3.0 in it, and take it from there. Did you use a cover crop?
 

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
My earth box should arrive today. I was thinking of putting bas 3.0 in it, and take it from there. Did you use a cover crop?
no cover crop. after I took that photo I did a light top watering in of the plants w some horticultural coconut, kelp meal, and a little recharge, then covered the bed like @Tim Fox does with the plastic they provide. I will add water to the sips today.
 

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
no cover crop. after I took that photo I did a light top watering in of the plants w some horticultural coconut, kelp meal, and a little recharge, then covered the bed like @Tim Fox does with the plastic they provide. I will add water to the sips today.
yup, the plastic helps keep the soil moist all the way to the top, i now use big plastic trash bags and just clip them to the edge of the earth box
 
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