Hanging Garden of Babylon SIP

I am building a sip with the intent that anyone can use it regardless of soil type, wick size, air gap, etc. Got done conceptualizing this, took a while but got it together, got some serious symptoms from doing this but I think it's finally hangin and bangin, quite literally.

Ok so I went thru 45 pages of sip thread out of 123, got some major headaches and it became quite apparent to me that everyone has their own build, their own soil, wick is different, the list goes on and on. So unless you replicate the exact conditions, there probably going to be a dialing in with major changes but after a full grow cycle with another round of testing. I wanted to avoid that and well see if this concept proves itself.

So the sip is based on capillary action, it's also based on head, no people not blow jobs here, head is a hydraulic term used to describe the elevation of a column of fluid above a reservoir. Also this capillary action that induces head also fights gravity. It's an opposing set of forces at play, the wick column wants to move fluid up, gravity wants to move it down, where it rests is up to a bunch of variables. These variables are what I hope to design out of the sip, so anyone can build a sip and the design can be modified on the fly to get optimum performance.

How does this work, you change the balancing act of those two forces, head and gravity. You do this by changing the elevation the water has to travel upwards.

So here it is, still untested but looks pretty cool, the hanging garden of Babylon SIP. Now let's see if it works.

It strokes six inches up to control the flow rate and saturation of the soil. Too soggy, then raise height. Everything in design is readily available stuff.

Parts list

17 gal tub - $15
Pot lifter - $4
3" pvc - $3 per tub
Epoxy - $1 per tub ? Had it already
Ratchet straps - $9
2x2 wood - $2 per tub
Screws - $1
Eye rings - $2
Fabric pot 10 gal - $4
Garden stake $1

Total $42

Here's a cross section of it with the vertical adjustment mechanism.

Tub will have at minimum 7 gal rez volume with the intent of being 7 days without water at a gal per day.

is the white pvc full of soil? if so what stops it from coming out the bottom? why can any type soil be used?

Hash Hound said:

is the white pvc full of soil? if so what stops it from coming out the bottom? why can any type soil be used?

Click to expand...

It's full of soil, I am using a heavy rubber band and some landscape fabric on the bottom of tube.

The ability of soil to wick is based on two factors, it's composition and the vertical distance it has to wick. Raising the pvc tube out of the water creates a longer distance the water has to wick which then controls how much water ends up in pot. In other words the liquid column rises by capillary action until there is a sufficient mass of liquid for gravitational forces to overcome the capillary forces.

Are u gonna cover it?

Yes, definitely the fabric pot, not sure yet in between the fabric pot and the tub, it's not spacious but there is a gap.

Humm. U don’t want any light in your rez for sure and with a fabric pot sides will evaporate off... would u be open to a few changes so u can still lift it up and cover it?

And on the other hand, why use the wood rig in the first place? U got a pretty Sweet setup without it! (especially if u add more holes to your pvc wick, a lot more) Then u can cover no problem. All this risk just to lift it up..

still will keep watching either way u go.

The reason i used the wood structure is to lift the wick out of water so i can adjust the soil saturation level, its so I'm not fixed with one design for duration of grow so in my mind it reduces the risk until I figure out what works. It's also that high so that I can maintain 7 gal reservoir regardless of the air gap up to 5".

It would be easy to make a blackout skirt.

I'm definitely open for suggestions.

I've got a second design it's way easier and simpler, will get that up when it's built.

Lol. Im better than monet

Forgot to put the trash bag in-between tube and wood blocking. Just give some slack for however high u want to raise it.

The holes in the tub will need to be covered with tape till u want to raise it. It's also an overflow

Feel free to ripe apart!

I like the design in a couple of aspects, it achieves the same end goal and it's simpler to construct. You wouldn't need the ratchet strap or extra blocks for spacers, you could just use the threaded rod threaded into a tee nut in the top piece of wood use a double nutted wing nut so when you turn the wing nut it raises or lowers. The only downfall I see is that there is overflow and I'd need a pan under it. Also it would take the container and render it semi functional with the slots in it if I wanted to change it up or repurpose it. It locks me in. No ripping allowed, just good discussion.

One of the aspects of your design @Polyuro is that if you need to raise the pot to increase air gap/reduce capillary action then you reduce your reservoir size. This was something I considered and the reason why I went with such a deep tub, so if I need to raise the wick the water level can get raised too to leave the same reservoir size.

This is a cool video showing capillary rise in different types of soil. It's shocking how different sand, clay and silt are. It makes me think the five inches of adjustable air gap may not be enough if I use a silt medium. Might need to use some top soil and avoid a primarily silt medium altogether.

Growth is exploding in these things, not experiencing skinny stalks either, the opposite, some are really thick stalks. Getting upto 2 inches of growth per day and not sure if im going to have the head height to accomodate. Fungus knats are a problem even with poly on top of fabric pot, neem is in order. Waiting on my lab serum to finish brewing to treat water, getting smelly reservoirs. Plants drinking 0.8 litres of water per day.