SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Hawg Wild

Hawg Wild

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Working on finalizing my next batch of soil for my SIP(s) and curious of the pros' & cons' of running light aeration vs heavy aeration in the mix when it specifically comes to running SIPs. Furthermore, the wick itself and the amount of aeration/material. I think we're in a little different shoes than some of the other traditional advise so wondering what this crowd thought.

I think last time around I ran a few variants on the wicks which amounted to how much perlite was used and where in the wick it was used. I think, but have no real data to support it, that the ones where the wick had a lot of aeration didn't work as well.

My current batch is a bit heavy on the organic material (ewc, bu's/ancient forest compost, a little peat, some old leftovers bud material from an aborted run for some greens). I have added some montmorillonite clay this time as well with a dash more perlite. Now I'm trying to decide how much more aeration to use.

Previously I ran open-top without any 'shower cap' and think that hindered things so this time around I have some heavy duty epmd pond liner (0.045mil) to make my covers. So with a cover I won't be getting passive aeration from the top like I did before and that has me thinking about it even more.

I do plan to use EM again as I did before so from that angle I'm covered either way. I even contemplated using air stones not so much for anerobic rez but knowing I have a moderately snug seal around my totes I'm thinking it'd make it up through the soil to some degree and that might help offset the difference of having a cover this time. The air would leak out around the cover but that may also push moisture up right under the plant - which screams of mold issues in flowering, etc. So that leads me back to passive and run anaerobic - just make sure there's a small air gap under the cover.
Click to expand...
Man did you make some Double Strawberry Diesel f2s some years ago? Just wondering because they're in my bean stash labeled as 'Newgrower'.
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Working on finalizing my next batch of soil for my SIP(s) and curious of the pros' & cons' of running light aeration vs heavy aeration in the mix when it specifically comes to running SIPs. Furthermore, the wick itself and the amount of aeration/material. I think we're in a little different shoes than some of the other traditional advise so wondering what this crowd thought.

I think last time around I ran a few variants on the wicks which amounted to how much perlite was used and where in the wick it was used. I think, but have no real data to support it, that the ones where the wick had a lot of aeration didn't work as well.

My current batch is a bit heavy on the organic material (ewc, bu's/ancient forest compost, a little peat, some old leftovers bud material from an aborted run for some greens). I have added some montmorillonite clay this time as well with a dash more perlite. Now I'm trying to decide how much more aeration to use.

Previously I ran open-top without any 'shower cap' and think that hindered things so this time around I have some heavy duty epmd pond liner (0.045mil) to make my covers. So with a cover I won't be getting passive aeration from the top like I did before and that has me thinking about it even more.

I do plan to use EM again as I did before so from that angle I'm covered either way. I even contemplated using air stones not so much for anerobic rez but knowing I have a moderately snug seal around my totes I'm thinking it'd make it up through the soil to some degree and that might help offset the difference of having a cover this time. The air would leak out around the cover but that may also push moisture up right under the plant - which screams of mold issues in flowering, etc. So that leads me back to passive and run anaerobic - just make sure there's a small air gap under the cover.
Click to expand...
I would not ad things to the soil to attempt aireation , the air gap gives the roots all the air they need, I started compacting my soil to maximize the soil density, having grown flood drain and hempy buckets the air roots will supply the plant with all oxygen the plant can possibly uptake,
 
bodhipop

bodhipop

Well-Known Member
What's the longest you folks have left your SIP alone after filling up the res? I've read that one guy on here did not add water for over 20 days and counting which is insane. This is my main focus. I've loved living soils for a long time but have also enjoyed DWC runs for their growth rates (not the soul-less buds) I'm just trying to decide how big of a tote I'm going to need to leave them be for around 10-12 days at a time for two plants filling up a 4x4. I'm guessing the 14-16 gallon totes aren't going to make the cut. The earthbox says it holds 1 cubic foot of soil. Is there two sizes? Please feel free to throw up a link of any earthbox/growbox you recommend if there's a deal out there.

Plastic leeching really does come to mind with these setups. No synthetics or heat would keep any leeching to a minimum but if there's an expert on plastic.. I'd love to hear from you.

Most walmart Totes are PP and LDPE, which is more safe? My DWC buckets are HDPE which is what I thought was the best. I would love to find a BRUTE Rubbermaid food grade tote but am not sure what type that is.. but they look dope.
 
CannaOnerStar

CannaOnerStar

Well-Known Member
bodhipop said:
What's the longest you folks have left your SIP alone after filling up the res? I've read that one guy on here did not add water for over 20 days and counting which is insane. This is my main focus. I've loved living soils for a long time but have also enjoyed DWC runs for their growth rates (not the soul-less buds) I'm just trying to decide how big of a tote I'm going to need to leave them be for around 10-12 days at a time for two plants filling up a 4x4. I'm guessing the 14-16 gallon totes aren't going to make the cut. The earthbox says it holds 1 cubic foot of soil. Is there two sizes? Please feel free to throw up a link of any earthbox/growbox you recommend if there's a deal out there.

Plastic leeching really does come to mind with these setups. No synthetics or heat would keep any leeching to a minimum but if there's an expert on plastic.. I'd love to hear from you.

Most walmart Totes are PP and LDPE, which is more safe? My DWC buckets are HDPE which is what I thought was the best. I would love to find a BRUTE Rubbermaid food grade tote but am not sure what type that is.. but they look dope.
Click to expand...
Biotabs are spec'd for autopots, which are this sort of SIP technique. The point of biotabs is that they are basically supersoil incredients you can mix with for example coco or soil or coco-soil mix. So you could basically make a super soil coco SIP grow with them and only have to feed water(altho some PK boost and maybe some supervit etc in res tank could give you some extra). However if you only use coco and no soil at all, there isnt material for the microbes to turn into nutrients if the biotabs run out(over a really long veg for example). So with long vegs it might be good idea to mix some soil in there and not pure coco-perlite/clay pebbles mix.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
I would not ad things to the soil to attempt aireation , the air gap gives the roots all the air they need, I started compacting my soil to maximize the soil density, having grown flood drain and hempy buckets the air roots will supply the plant with all oxygen the plant can possibly uptake,
Click to expand...
That makes sense; I think the aeration in my wicks actually hindered the wicking effect and I was planning on sticking with a denser material in the wicks for sure. Was even considering using pure coco or coco mixed in with my current soil batch.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
bodhipop said:
What's the longest you folks have left your SIP alone after filling up the res? I've read that one guy on here did not add water for over 20 days and counting which is insane. This is my main focus. I've loved living soils for a long time but have also enjoyed DWC runs for their growth rates (not the soul-less buds) I'm just trying to decide how big of a tote I'm going to need to leave them be for around 10-12 days at a time for two plants filling up a 4x4. I'm guessing the 14-16 gallon totes aren't going to make the cut. The earthbox says it holds 1 cubic foot of soil. Is there two sizes? Please feel free to throw up a link of any earthbox/growbox you recommend if there's a deal out there.

Plastic leeching really does come to mind with these setups. No synthetics or heat would keep any leeching to a minimum but if there's an expert on plastic.. I'd love to hear from you.

Most walmart Totes are PP and LDPE, which is more safe? My DWC buckets are HDPE which is what I thought was the best. I would love to find a BRUTE Rubbermaid food grade tote but am not sure what type that is.. but they look dope.
Click to expand...
Using the Rubbermaid Brute Totes like I used I ended up with approx 6-7gal rez and the top tote was a 14gal so that's a good bit of soil and water. I know I could easily leave mine be for many days but I just kept fucking with things so that's on me.

Also, those Rubbermaid Totes specifically are food-safe I believe; That was a big plus for me. Sure they cost a bit more but I wanted durable and safe. This time around I dropped a bit to buy a big ass sheet of that EPDM pond liner as my research leads me to understand/believe it is food safe as well. That just leaves the PVC pipes, the corrugated pipe and the PVC flanges I used as the only non-food safe parts.

If you really wanted to be damn sure you could leave for like 14 days all you really need to do is have a large enough rez on the bottom that you can install a float valve. Then you can have an external rez (gravity fed) to keep things topped off.
 
Deadhead13

Deadhead13

Well-Known Member
I’m usually sure to top my EBs off every other day, same with the grobuckets, and I check daily as it gets hotter and or the plant grows.
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Using the Rubbermaid Brute Totes like I used I ended up with approx 6-7gal rez and the top tote was a 14gal so that's a good bit of soil and water. I know I could easily leave mine be for many days but I just kept fucking with things so that's on me.

Also, those Rubbermaid Totes specifically are food-safe I believe; That was a big plus for me. Sure they cost a bit more but I wanted durable and safe. This time around I dropped a bit to buy a big ass sheet of that EPDM pond liner as my research leads me to understand/believe it is food safe as well. That just leaves the PVC pipes, the corrugated pipe and the PVC flanges I used as the only non-food safe parts.

If you really wanted to be damn sure you could leave for like 14 days all you really need to do is have a large enough rez on the bottom that you can install a float valve. Then you can have an external rez (gravity fed) to keep things topped off.
Click to expand...
You can also have an external res that doesn't require a float valve by just putting a second container next to the sip and put a small hose between the two and water will seek level, I think I posted videos on this earlier in the thread
 
bodhipop

bodhipop

Well-Known Member
NewGrower2011 said:
Using the Rubbermaid Brute Totes like I used I ended up with approx 6-7gal rez and the top tote was a 14gal so that's a good bit of soil and water. I know I could easily leave mine be for many days but I just kept fucking with things so that's on me.

Also, those Rubbermaid Totes specifically are food-safe I believe; That was a big plus for me. Sure they cost a bit more but I wanted durable and safe. This time around I dropped a bit to buy a big ass sheet of that EPDM pond liner as my research leads me to understand/believe it is food safe as well. That just leaves the PVC pipes, the corrugated pipe and the PVC flanges I used as the only non-food safe parts.

If you really wanted to be damn sure you could leave for like 14 days all you really need to do is have a large enough rez on the bottom that you can install a float valve. Then you can have an external rez (gravity fed) to keep things topped off.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your insight! I'm going to spend the extra on the Brute's and EPDM for sure. Where did you snag your Brute's? I hear they are at some Lowe's but that's it.
 
N

NewGrower2011

Well-Known Member
That's how it was for me, one Lowes has them and the other does not. So far (knock on wood) they've continued to carry them so there must be local demand like a restaurant or business or something. And there's always the online ordering path but items like that shipping can kill if you don't have something like Amazon Prime or etc.

Also companies like ULINE carry a lot of useful stuff that might be worth eyeballing. Order a catalog, it makes good reading material for the porcelain throne room.
 
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