A SIP to Mars.

Hey all, I thought I would start a thread about organic sips. I’m a RDWC old timer and have made the move to organic sips.Perhaps some of you have seen my previous posts in the Sip thread.
I wanted a place where I could put my updates for future reference so here it is.
I run a home made soil that’s as simple as I could find. I buy what’s locally available and try to not spend much on my grows. I start with sphagnum peat ,compost and perlight. 40/20/40. I add 3 cups of food and 4 cups minerals per cu.ft. Food is generally one cup kelp one alfalfa and one Gaia 444. One cup dolomite lime to round off my mix. I let cook for 1 month minimum.
I’m now in my second cycle with my soil. I amend with a cup of Gaia 444 per 5 gallon after ea round. So far.
My SIPs are home made from HD totes. 10g/45L 5”hydro net pot per tote. Wick is same soil. They hold about 2 gallons of water with a 4”(same height as net pot) riser/support.
I run clones of various strains.
My lights are new to me as I’m a HPS guy. I have some Mars sp in both veg and flower. Working out well ,pretty darn powerful and give off just enough heat to keep the leaves warm.I have the veg room dimmed down to slow growth. So onto some pics. Veg room is small I usually just keep cloning as plants get bigger to maximize space. I normally put clones in solos then into 2g pots before they go into sips. I’ll keep updating,right now I’m in week 3 flower and various stages of clones. Haven’t picked yet what I’m running next run but I will soon.

Adding in I just top dressed with Gaia bloom at about 6 tbls per tote.I normally add ea week with 444 as these plant consume a lot of N at this stage.

Busy day in the grow room today. Like most of you busy with regular life grow room time can be hard to get. Was able to remove a bunch of leaves and add a second trellis. Got rooted clones into solos. Finally get to sit back and rest.

The entire top container is full of soil then? Looking awesome! I have been thinking of something similar. Thanks for some inspiration and do you have the soil up to the lid or a few inches below??

green_machine_two9er said:

The entire top container is full of soil then? Looking awesome! I have been thinking of something similar. Thanks for some inspiration and do you have the soil up to the lid or a few inches below??

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I start with about 7/8 full. With ea topdress I add EWC. So by week 4-5 their full this pic was aug 24.Day before flip topdress some Gaia 444

I planted the 2 gallon pots much lower this time. Trying to get roots in the res quicker. Seams to have worked. Timing stretch with the sips really makes them take off. Only bad thing is they need water every day now or at least every second day.

Well a little more work done today. First round in these sips I had a good population of soil bugs. Hypos miles,spring tails and a bunch of un named bugs. Was hard to look at the dirt as it freaked me out lol. Anyway I scrape the topsoil at harvest and transfer to the new so I keep the bugs. This round however I don’t see them. My worm farm doesn’t seem to have them anymore just gnats and black soldier flies. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been fighting gnats. BTI water yellow sticky’s spray etc. Today I’d had enough ,bought 50KG of play sand and covered everything. Clones sips the works.
Had to topdress at the same time since I won’t be lifting these lids again for 2 weeks at least.
Die gnats!!!!!
Covered the fill pipe with sticky’s. Only other place is the gap between the two totes. God I hope I don’t have to seal that up. Fingers crossed the sand does the job.

these gnats can be so anoying, what speaks against nematodes in your organic enviroment?
wont they be the ideal fit?

cobshopgrow said:

these gnats can be so anoying, what speaks against nematodes in your organic enviroment?
wont they be the ideal fit?

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Probably yes,havent looked into them I will though thx.I wanted immediate action,sand has worked for me in the past.Pretty cheap too.

whatever works, last time i had the gnats my BTI wasnt so good and the nematoes where way better.
think their main benefit is that they acitively searching for larvae,

nice grows man, one can learn some if going organics from you.

myke said:

Well a little more work done today. First round in these sips I had a good population of soil bugs. Hypos miles,spring tails and a bunch of un named bugs. Was hard to look at the dirt as it freaked me out lol. Anyway I scrape the topsoil at harvest and transfer to the new so I keep the bugs. This round however I don’t see them. My worm farm doesn’t seem to have them anymore just gnats and black soldier flies. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been fighting gnats. BTI water yellow sticky’s spray etc. Today I’d had enough ,bought 50KG of play sand and covered everything. Clones sips the works.
Had to topdress at the same time since I won’t be lifting these lids again for 2 weeks at least.
Die gnats!!!!!
Covered the fill pipe with sticky’s. Only other place is the gap between the two totes. God I hope I don’t have to seal that up. Fingers crossed the sand does the job. View attachment 4992325View attachment 4992327View attachment 4992328

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You ain’t fucking around with your traps. Lol
Maybe add a surface spray Insecticide. Soaking your sand with it. Like spinosad or something.

I just am starting a run testing the sns systemic 209 I think it is. Use five times in veg. Then 5 times 2-3weeks later. Watered in through the Rez, would work with your sips I’m sure as well

cobshopgrow said:

these gnats can be so anoying, what speaks against nematodes in your organic enviroment?
wont they be the ideal fit?

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I’d wager he has lots of nematodes in homemade castings.

myke said:

Probably yes,havent looked into them I will though thx.I wanted immediate action,sand has worked for me in the past.Pretty cheap too.

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also not sure how it works with sips but I always seem to notice s natural reduction in gnats over time. A few recycles into using soil snd the natural predators will increase population to balance out the food web.

green_machine_two9er said:

I’d wager he has lots of nematodes in homemade castings.

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but then he wont have the gnats ? sounds to me there arent any or not enough in the casting.

myke said:

Well a little more work done today. First round in these sips I had a good population of soil bugs. Hypos miles,spring tails and a bunch of un named bugs. Was hard to look at the dirt as it freaked me out lol. Anyway I scrape the topsoil at harvest and transfer to the new so I keep the bugs. This round however I don’t see them. My worm farm doesn’t seem to have them anymore just gnats and black soldier flies. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been fighting gnats. BTI water yellow sticky’s spray etc. Today I’d had enough ,bought 50KG of play sand and covered everything. Clones sips the works.
Had to topdress at the same time since I won’t be lifting these lids again for 2 weeks at least.
Die gnats!!!!!
Covered the fill pipe with sticky’s. Only other place is the gap between the two totes. God I hope I don’t have to seal that up. Fingers crossed the sand does the job. View attachment 4992325View attachment 4992327View attachment 4992328

Click to expand...

My miles crawl out of my SIPS and die when they run out of food.

Btw, every bag of Coast of Maine compost I've ever used came with gnats. When I use my own compost, the miles take care of them before wings. If there are any gnats to begin with that is. Nice thread. Subbed.

I'm using a very similar setup except that I don't have that pipe. Instead I have a "fill reservoir" attached to the main rez via 1" pvc with a float valve. Working great so far. Went on an 11 day road trip and the ladies were perfect when I got back. I'm hoping roots don't clog it... we'll see.

Gnats can be a PITA. I prefer the use of castings and a thick straw and trimmings mulch to combat them (it breaks down and feeds unlike sand). Mosquito bits help too.

I haven't had any gnats for a few months now, so I don't THINK they are coming from between the totes.

Good luck.

friedguy said:

I'm using a very similar setup except that I don't have that pipe. Instead I have a "fill reservoir" attached to the main rez via 1" pvc with a float valve. Working great so far. Went on an 11 day road trip and the ladies were perfect when I got back. I'm hoping roots don't clog it... we'll see.

Gnats can be a PITA. I prefer the use of castings and a thick straw and trimmings mulch to combat them (it breaks down and feeds unlike sand). Mosquito bits help too.

I haven't had any gnats for a few months now, so I don't THINK they are coming from between the totes.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

New room to me. Linking all the totes together has been thought about. Seems like a good plan with a res and a float valve.Will see. Thanks.

I’d wager he has lots of nematodes in homemade castings.

I do have a lot of black soldier flies in my worm bin.Infact their doing right now on my garage tv.Ha.

It's funny because since I started using a sip, I've had no gnats. I figured I'd have more because of the constant moisture. I think it's because of the shower cap.

Hey Myke I used acuabac to help rid me of gnats, fought them for a couple years using all sorts of methods, they never disappeared till I used aquabac, this is my second grow with no gnats. I'm also recycling my soil everytime so this is the third grow with this soil, not sure if that has anything to do with them being eradicated.

Hey myke I like the setup. I'm battling gnats this summer more than any other.
re the play sand. I read years ago when researching using the play sand they recommended using regular sand because it has jagged edges and the play sand has a smother texture for the kiddies. I never used either one just thought I'd make you aware.