SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[Xsan]

Yes sorta. I have 1 in a 4x4, 3 in a 4x8 and 1 in a little room I built in the basement during prohibition that measures 5 x 6 inside. The room used to have a 1000w HPS/MH but my magnetic ballast finally gave up the ghost and been running the room with the 600 every since spring.

Currently I only have 1 light on in the 4x8 flowering a couple of AKBB's NL5 x NL1 x NL1 down at one end. The 4x4 is in veg with some Blue Orca Haze in my sips planters and the room has a blue orca haze sativa stretch pheno, a chocolate thai, a C99 pineapple funk pheno, and my much loved Black Poison Skunk cut in flower.

I'm leaning hard on putting 2 of these in the 4x8 which has 4- 50 gal no till beds in it that act just like a sips in so many ways. https://sonofarm.com/product/sonofarm-spider-farmer-sf4000-led-grow-light-full-spectrum-samsung-lm301b-diodes-meanwell-driver/

for the room I think I've decided to do something more Macgyver in style for now. I have an old single socket Raptor xxl air cooled hood that I've cobbled a second socket into and am going to try a 400w hps and a 315w CMH and see what results I can get from 700w of mix spectrum with 2 points of origin.

Not sure on 4x4 yet. I really only use it for last stage veg and breeding, but on occasion like now, those blue Orca Haze in the sips are staying in there for the duration so I need something capable of pulling off a decent flower run when pressed into service that way. I'll leave the 600 in there for this winter as it'll need the heat, but down the road I'd like to get something more efficient electricity wise. In the end that's what this is all about. I've always been extremely happy with my results from my HPS lights but the cost to run them is just to much anymore. I'm trying to save juice without sacrificing quality.

how are you managing the environment for each? keep basement in general vicinity and small units to dial each tent/room in?

 

[Robar]

Day 64 flower......

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So I'm thinking of chopping next Saturday. Is my thinking wrong? Lol

Kinda hard to tell by pics but they look darned close if not ready, already. I'm the type that would rather take em a bit early than late. Racy verses welded to the furniture is how I roll, though I prefer the ever elusive happy medium. Mostly my loop just sits in the top of my tool box. I judge them the way I have for almost 40 years just spend time with them every day and then one day they just kinda scream pull me! So I do, simple as that. lol

I

 

[Robar]

how are you managing the environment for each? keep basement in general vicinity and small units to dial each tent/room in?

Nothing that complicated I have air cooled hoods and can usually keep the tents around 81-82 through the summer except when the heat spikes bad then I've seen them as high as 88 or 90 a couple times but with ventilation and lots of air movement I survive it. I also try not to do any late flowering in august and never in the 4x8 with all 1800w running in it. I'm not high tech at all I'm very old school and low tech. I have a dehumidifier to keep basement humidity at 60 percent in summer. In winter if I'm running full with all 3 spaces there is enough water evaporating from all the plants to keep it around 50% humidity. I don't supplement ac in summer though when it's real hot I put a small blower blowing air out a window drawing cool ac air from upstairs. It helps a little but nothing earth shaking. Like I said very low tech

 

[Xsan]

Nothing that complicated I have air cooled hoods and can usually keep the tents around 81-82 through the summer except when the heat spikes bad then I've seen them as high as 88 or 90 a couple times but with ventilation and lots of air movement I survive it. I also try not to do any late flowering in august and never in the 4x8 with all 1800w running in it. I'm not high tech at all I'm very old school and low tech. I have a dehumidifier to keep basement humidity at 60 percent in summer. In winter if I'm running full with all 3 spaces there is enough water evaporating from all the plants to keep it around 50% humidity. I don't supplement ac in summer though when it's real hot I put a small blower blowing air out a window drawing cool ac air from upstairs. It helps a little but nothing earth shaking. Like I said very low tech

Thank you, hopefully within the next year I will have a few more tents and have been trying to figure out how I am going to manage the environmental side of it

 

[Robar]

Thank you, hopefully within the next year I will have a few more tents and have been trying to figure out how I am going to manage the environmental side of it

originally I was going to set it up so I could pipe air from outside through all my hoods then back out for the warm season. the 4 x 8 tent and the 5 x 6 room's hoods are connected with ducting and run off the same blower but the 4 x 4 where I sometimes do the nasty is at the other end of the basement. Having it's own little system going down on the other end keeps pollen contamination in my main flower areas to a very low and doable level.

 

[Robar]

I run kingbrite 240 watt quantum’s. 120 watts per board. Two 240W lights per 4x4. They were about 200 shipped from China.
Kingbrite light link

In other news it was day zero of flower today. Had an extreme amount of growth after 13 hours light/11 hours dark with 15 minutes of far red in the first part of flower. The huckleberry diesel was super praying!
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she grew so much I was able to move her to the next set of squares. I thought it would take a few days.
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Props Shiggity, that is a very pretty girl! love the 2nd shot with the hands praying!

 

[Xsan]

I am going to ask this one here and see what everyone thinks. I am doing a new grow with a new light and let my seedling get a little too tall(was afraid of having the new light too close) well it toppled on me today so I quickly threw the straw around the base to stand her up but my question is this. Can i burry it down a bit with a combo of bus and ewc without doing damage? I have those bags open but dont want to open a new bag of soil just to burry the stem a bit

 

[weedstoner420]

I am going to ask this one here and see what everyone thinks. I am doing a new grow with a new light and let my seedling get a little too tall(was afraid of having the new light too close) well it toppled on me today so I quickly threw the straw around the base to stand her up but my question is this. Can i burry it down a bit with a combo of bus and ewc without doing damage? I have those bags open but dont want to open a new bag of soil just to burry the stem a bit

Dunno about burying it with straight compost/ewc...it probably wouldn't hurt, but if it were me I'd dig up some dirt from elsewhere in the planter and use that, then replace what you dug out with the compost/ewc

 

[Xsan]

Dunno about burying it with straight compost/ewc...it probably wouldn't hurt, but if it were me I'd dig up some dirt from elsewhere in the planter and use that, then replace what you dug out with the compost/ewc

Not a bad thought, trying to avoid disturbing the mycellium i have going on in the bin

 

[Shiggity]

Props Shiggity, that is a very pretty girl! love the 2nd shot with the hands praying!

Thanks man she is performing so well!

 

[Xsan]

removed the bag covering the soil, drained the water in the tray, and tried scraping some soil from the edges. I am not sure she will make it through the night. This was a test for me so I am not entirely surprised. I will do the next seedling with normal top watering until she is stable enough to go into the sip

 

[GrassBurner]

She should be fine

 

[GrassBurner]

Here's the first seedling I put into the sip 14 days ago. Took a little longer than I was expecting, but it seems she is off to the races.


Trifol seedling didn't make it. Have had a replacement in that planter for a couple days. Seems to be acclimating quickly.
Food container sips are almost finished, just need to paint them. Got a 288 on the way to light the 2x2 area for them, and a fresh batch of soil mixed up. Almost time to party

 

[Xsan]

She is still standing this morning

 

[Slim Piggens]

On a different topic than old cars and a bit closer to being on topic for this thread. I have 5 of those sips I built in a 4x4 tent with an 600w HPS. I've been looking into led's and still suffer a bit of sticker shock at the higher end stuff. I have also been looking at the option of building my own but having to source and purchase all materials, then build the lights has very little appeal at the moment.

A younger friend of mine runs a spider farmer sf-4000 and said it does a great job and produces rock hard buds. The sf-4000 is 529.00 on amazon with a 50.00 coupon so 479.00 with free shipping. I have 5 - 600w HPS and would like to convert over to LED. I can't do it all in one shot but I have about 1200 I can play with right now.

What do you guys that run LEDs have? And what's your experience with them? what's good about them, what's bad? What to stay away from? I love my HPS's but I get a frown from my wife every time the electric bill shows up. I'm trying to find a proper replacement for my HPS's that don't break the bank. Weed is purely a hobby for me. I don't sell any of it so every dollar I spend, is out of my pocket and not generated by my hobby. 500 dollar lights put me off but the 500 dollar electric bills are becoming an issue.

HLG is running a great sale right now, 15% off selected lights and they have a lot of refurbished units for sale as well. I picked up a 350R for the 3x3 and a 600Rspec for the 4x4 and couldn’t be happier. I’m running 4 Roc Bud Purple Dodgers in 4 earthbox juniors and they are loving it. Good luck, lots of great lights out there no matter who you go with but the customer service at HLG has been excellent so far.

 

[JimmyJackCorn]

As awesome as SIPs are, they won't solve my fertilizer problem! Ha!

This plant is the biggest hog ever! I grew its mother, so I know it wants lots of N.

I uppotted from 5g to 15g at first sign of flowering. Soil was hot, so I didn't fertilize for a couple weeks (it went from regular plant green to deep, dark green in a few days).

Then I started to load it up on top. First week of feeding, 1/4 cup 4-4-4. Next week, fresh alfalfa top-dress. Next week, 1/4 cup 4-4-4. Then 8 oz. FPJ (made from mother trimmings). Then 1/4 cup 4-4-4. Then 8 oz. compost tea. I followed this "pattern," feeding about every week--until week eight when the fade started. It wasn't bad at first, so I let it go. Week nine brought a faster fade, so I gave it some compost tea in stronger concentration. No noticable difference!

This is week ten. Four days ago, in mild annoyance, I pulled out all the stops and dropped one full cup of 4-4-4. I also began giving it 16oz. of even stronger compost tea. I have been giving it this compost tea every day for four days.

Today the leaves have perked up a bit. The fade seems slowed, but I'll need a couple days to monitor and be sure.

This plant need ten times the fertilizer I have given any plant ever!

 

[Robar]

HLG is running a great sale right now, 15% off selected lights and they have a lot of refurbished units for sale as well. I picked up a 350R for the 3x3 and a 600Rspec for the 4x4 and couldn’t be happier. I’m running 4 Roc Bud Purple Dodgers in 4 earthbox juniors and they are loving it. Good luck, lots of great lights out there no matter who you go with but the customer service at HLG has been excellent so far.

Thanks for the heads up! Was going to get 3 of the sonofarm sf4000's however the 3 days between me asking my wife to order them through her prime account and her actually getting her ass around to it the price went up nearly a hundred bucks each. So I'm back to square one. The new price is probably fair but thats not the way I do business. Probably going back to thinking seriously about 315 cmh again. Even that will wait till spring I'll just run my HPS through the winter. light shopping has been frustrating and to finally settle on what I felt was best for my budget and needs and then have the rug pulled out from under me was pretty disheartening. I have spent hours, days, and weeks for over a year trying to find more economical lights in MY budget to appease SHE who can't get off her ass to order them. I'm over it! Love my HPS and always have they are just expensive to run and maintain.

 

[Shiggity]

Thanks for the heads up! Was going to get 3 of the sonofarm sf4000's however the 3 days between me asking my wife to order them through her prime account and her actually getting her ass around to it the price went up nearly a hundred bucks each. So I'm back to square one. The new price is probably fair but thats not the way I do business. Probably going back to thinking seriously about 315 cmh again. Even that will wait till spring I'll just run my HPS through the winter. light shopping has been frustrating and to finally settle on what I felt was best for my budget and needs and then have the rug pulled out from under me was pretty disheartening. I have spent hours, days, and weeks for over a year trying to find more economical lights in MY budget to appease SHE who can't get off her ass to order them. I'm over it! Love my HPS and always have they are just expensive to run and maintain.

Kingbrite on alibaba gives you a very good light for the money. I am a fan of their 240 watt quantumish board lights on separate heatsinks. One will do a 2x4 for about 200 shipped. I got the waterproof covers so my foliar feeding isn’t an issue.
They have lm301h as well. Very satisfied with the connectors and hardware. Quality light.
Kingbrite link

 

[Slim Piggens]

Thanks for the heads up! Was going to get 3 of the sonofarm sf4000's however the 3 days between me asking my wife to order them through her prime account and her actually getting her ass around to it the price went up nearly a hundred bucks each. So I'm back to square one. The new price is probably fair but thats not the way I do business. Probably going back to thinking seriously about 315 cmh again. Even that will wait till spring I'll just run my HPS through the winter. light shopping has been frustrating and to finally settle on what I felt was best for my budget and needs and then have the rug pulled out from under me was pretty disheartening. I have spent hours, days, and weeks for over a year trying to find more economical lights in MY budget to appease SHE who can't get off her ass to order them. I'm over it! Love my HPS and always have they are just expensive to run and maintain.

If you wanted the SF-4000, a refurbished HLG 600 Rspec with an additional 10% off is extremely hard to beat at $539.10. Discount code Dude. Rollitup has a code too, I just don’t remember it. My plants look GREAT under the 350R for early veg but they are quickly growing too big for the 3x3 space, so I will transfer them to the 4x4 this week under the Rspec.

Good luck. I understand the frustration but I am thrilled with these UL Listed, built like a tank lights.

 

[weedstoner420]

Popped some clones in the other day, with a bit of great white in the holes for good measure



The clover did not make it unfortunately...