Yeah I know no water in the top, I messed up bad, my mix was way too thick, I should have used something like promix HP but I used a Recycled Organic Living soil and it seemed to be so wet the whole time my clone just turned to mush. I got some peat I am going to amend and use for next try. When you amend did you follow the directions and make a "fertilizer trough" ? It also says to lime the soil on mine was your soil limed?
Do you have worms actively at the top? I can't get worms to thrive in the SIPS like the good ol smart pot.
I built it, took me minutes cost me nothing, looking forward to it. gonna cover it up with a garbage bag and see what happens. I am skeptical about things going anaeorobic but Im gonna give it a good water today, cover with a bag and forget about it for probably a month lol.
what if resi always full? like, if you have an over flow hole, can you actually overwater if you top up the reservoir daily? not that I plan on doing this but just curious to know if you can overwater your sip (granted you never overhead water...)
depends on how your sip is constructed,,, the style sip I am using its impossible to over water it, any extra water runs out the over flow hole and drains away, but some sips are constructed with a sight tube , and you fill until it reaches the full line, but if you dont stop filling you will over fill, but there is always a full mark either controlled by you or the over flow hole, there is always an airgap between the res and the dirt, the air gap runs around 1 inch
On the google search results that you link to, I found an image that leads to THIS page, is that the basic design you are describing?Here is how I built it: I cut a 55 gallon drum (plastic) at about 2/3 in height, and I have roughly 15 gallons reservoir and 20ish+ gallons of soil. This is essentially water reservoir, with sand around it:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=corrugated+drainage+pipe&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiJ2LedhqTNAhVJKGMKHQYaBhIQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=corrugated+drainage+pipe+landscape+fabric&imgrc=bG_gFXhuLtDbxM:
Its like 5 ft long, rolled flat at the bottom of the drum, like a donnut and then some, and the center and all around is sand (bags of sand from walmart) filled up slightly above the overflow hole ( so that there is a buffer layer of sand of about half inch+ over the overflow hole, that way none of the amended soil / worm casting are sitting in stagnant water, also the promix soil mixed with vermicompost is separated by a piece of landscape fabric from the sand. Anyway, I am guessing I cannot overwater, I ll keep everyone posted and if it works well I ll build another one right away and post pictures if people are interested.
cool, thanks for the link, yes it is very similar to the design I got from a youtube video (I lost the link) my design includes more sand between the pipes in the reservoir, basically the sand is a big part of my water reservoir. I just built it with what I had on hand, since its the first one I just wanted to dip my toes into it and see if it has potential in my setup. The main thing for me is to keep the soil covered with plastic to hold the moisture in, if it does work well and contributes to lower the humidity in the room while using slightly more soil, and still growing healthy plants, I will be all in...
I look forward to seeing and hearing about how that goes.
i believe @Humanrob has worked with those drainage pipes for sips before,, oh i have also seen whole planter beds with that pipe laid down in them for a long ways, like 6 8 10 feet, and making a huge raised garden bed for a sip,, seems like thhe size can be enlarged to massive things to suit the grower and the space