First off... thanks to
@Tim Fox for pointing to this thread! My idea is to make a large sip bed, I'm using the same 27 gallon tough totes (those with the yellow lids you see on this thread) however instead of using them solely as a water rezoning, and growing in 5-10 gallon fabric pots, I am filling one 27 gallon tote with soil and adding it on top of the rez. I'm using a 3 gallons fabric pot as a wick... homemade organic cooked soil (recipe on request lol) I plan on making many more but this one was on the fly and have a few questions before proceeding.
1. Is my wick too large? I can't seem to find any concrete answer on wick sizing.
2. How many plants do your think I can run in a 27 gallon tote of soil?
3. I have some very rich soil (compost, homemade ewc, kelp, neem, organic tomato tone, rock dust, lime, crabmeal, azomite, alfalfa meal, .... I think that's all lol) how many runs can I use these for before I need to take the soil out and re ammend? Or can I just keep cooking soil and top dressing?
4. Do I NEED to have holes in my upper tote or wick, in order for the roots to get to the rez?
Thanks all! I'll take detailed pics of my next build to add to the thread! As well as pics of plants once they go into the SIPs... they are still babies atm....
Thanks again!
I am going to ask
@Humanrob to help out with some of your questions , I have been around the block with these SIPs, but I have yet to personally construct my own, as I purchased the earthbox,,, But I did go all thru the DIY plans and followed along with everyone elses DIY sip builds,, and here is what I have learned
1. yes your wick is probably too big, other guys have reported,, ( someguy and hyroot) that they experiamented with wick sizing and if the wick is too large the soil is too damp/wet and the plants droop out and the thing is a wash.
2. I have 2 plants going in my Sip and it only holds 10 or 11 gallons of soil,, the plants are thriving, I knowing that the storage tubs are deeper than they are wide?,,, I will go out on a limb and say 2 plants, if indoors,, if outdoors,, maybe 1,, because you will have a monster on your hands,,
@Humanrob had trees in 5 gallon bucket sips last summer
3. your soil sounds awesome,, should be enough for a water only run, hyroot was doing no till in his sips,, and making his own worm castings in a worm bin,, but it sounded like he was dumping his soil out between grows and mixing in new goodies and re packing the sip,, the people growing tomatos on the web shows them simply adding fresh nutes to the sips and making another run,,
4. yes you need the holes in the floor between the upper and lower tubs, this allows not only roots to reach the water res eaiser,, it also allows for allot more air transfer eitehr from the static air space ( like i am running),, or from an airstone if you go that route.
Did you take a good look at the SIP plans on page one that rob posted it shows really good builds for storage tubs, and wick sizing
a fabric pot top is not neccasary ,, a tub in a tub works too, pretty flexable on this stuff
also everyone who did DIY was stating that its easy to make a wick to large,, and with too many holes, most were reporting less is more when it comes to the wick,, the wick has to reach the bottom of the res,