SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Greenthumbs256 said:
Sips are a very simplistic design. You can make them more complicated but bottom line, it needs a place for water to sit, and something to act as a wick to suck up the water into the soil and plant. Not much to it.

Here's some of the designs I use, I stopped using the ones with the plastic floor, i now use the vermiculite bc the roots can grow right into the reservoir, and wont get blocked.View attachment 4437163View attachment 4437164View attachment 4437165

As you guys can see, its works more then Good enough for me, but I'm always tweaking the design.

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I love your design I read your whole thread a while back just need to save up some funds to get it going. I'm just in straight coco and jacks 321 right now cause it's cheap startup but want to go back to organic sips eventually.
 
Gemtree said:
I love your design I read your whole thread a while back just need to save up some funds to get it going. I'm just in straight coco and jacks 321 right now cause it's cheap startup but want to go back to organic sips eventually.
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To be honest their isnt a cheaper way to grow, once everything purchased. Only things I ever have to buy is em1 and kashi (which can be made) and some basics like kelp, neem, amite, you know the basics for recycling soil. But that's it, and it last for ever! What most ppl spend to run a single cycle, I could prolly run 5-10 cycles! My soil only gets better, and amendments are dirt cheap
 
Greenthumbs256 said:
To be honest their isnt a cheaper way to grow, once everything purchased. Only things I ever have to buy is em1 and kashi (which can be made) and some basics like kelp, neem, amite, you know the basics for recycling soil. But that's it, and it last for ever! What most ppl spend to run a single cycle, I could prolly run 5-10 cycles! My soil only gets better, and amendments are dirt cheap
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Oh I know it's just that initial purchase I need money for. Mines like 30 bucks a cycle right now but they started charging me for water so multi feed dtw with ro is pretty wasteful for me. Definitely switching over to your style in a couple more rounds.
 
Gemtree said:
Oh I know it's just that initial purchase I need money for. Mines like 30 bucks a cycle right now but they started charging me for water so multi feed dtw with ro is pretty wasteful for me. Definitely switching over to your style in a couple more rounds.
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To be honest with you, before I stumbled onto this I was going to quit. Just too much work and wasnt paying off. Now I couldn't dream of doing anything else.
 
Greenthumbs256 said:
Sips are a very simplistic design. You can make them more complicated but bottom line, it needs a place for water to sit, and something to act as a wick to suck up the water into the soil and plant. Not much to it.

Here's some of the designs I use, I stopped using the ones with the plastic floor, i now use the vermiculite bc the roots can grow right into the reservoir, and wont get blocked.View attachment 4437163View attachment 4437164View attachment 4437165

As you guys can see, its works more then Good enough for me, but I'm always tweaking the design.

View attachment 4437166
Click to expand...
The vermiculite pic reminds me of the hempy buckets
 
Tim Fox said:
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To say I am impressed with your water clarity is an understatement! When my sips start smelling, I like to shop vac them out (through the fill hole) and my water looks as bad as it smells. The sips hold 8 gallons and I use activated EM-1.

What is your magic sauce? You say you don't have aeration but damn there must be another trick. Compared to my water, I would drink DRINK from your sips! Granted my plants have been vegging for around 6 months and suffered a time or two with out em1 and they look like they need help...

1576535813706666250826.jpg
 
Jesusgrowsmygrass said:
To say I am impressed with your water clarity is an understatement! When my sips start smelling, I like to shop vac them out (through the fill hole) and my water looks as bad as it smells. The sips hold 8 gallons and I use activated EM-1.

What is your magic sauce? You say you don't have aeration but damn there must be another trick. Compared to my water, I would drink DRINK from your sips! Granted my plants have been vegging for around 6 months and suffered a time or two with out em1 and they look like they need help...

View attachment 4438150
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LOL @ magic sauce, you got me man, I load up the sip with my super soil mix ( varies but usually fox farms ocean forrest with some dry amendments mixed in) dampen the soil as your loading it up, cover with plastic , put the plants in, and fill the res,, and then go to the bathroom sink , fill the watering can with well water , walk back to the grow box and top off the Res when needed, I usually let it get about half or better empty before adding more, lately they drink about half the res per day, and its a 4 gallon res, you can see air stones in my res picture, but i didnt like how the air pump sounded so i didnt run the air stones but they are too big to pull thru the fill port on the SIP, so they are just laying in there for this grow, , i have done this on every grow for several years,, sometimes i have added cal mag to the res, but my soil has enough mixed in that they havent needed any thing but water, the
 
My SIPs had a definite funky smell after last run even with running EM in there. This time around I'm trying to decide at what strength that EM should be for my rez which if filled all the way was several gallons iirc - but I normally just refresh with 2 gallons at a time here & there when I remember to check with my dipstick. Last time I topped off with 2 gal I used a full cup of activated EM but wasn't sure really how strong that would be given the bottom feed/wicking nature and the goal being both plant health/benefits and knocking down any funky odors.
 
NewGrower2011 said:
My SIPs had a definite funky smell after last run even with running EM in there. This time around I'm trying to decide at what strength that EM should be for my rez which if filled all the way was several gallons iirc - but I normally just refresh with 2 gallons at a time here & there when I remember to check with my dipstick. Last time I topped off with 2 gal I used a full cup of activated EM but wasn't sure really how strong that would be given the bottom feed/wicking nature and the goal being both plant health/benefits and knocking down any funky odors.
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My 30g can hold around 8 gallons of water, I like to add around 3/4 of a solo cup.

The way I tell if I need more or less, is by looking at my "sight gage" that shows my water level and looking at the color

And yea it can stink, but if your doing it right, it's more than worth it
 
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Greenthumbs256 said:
My 30g can hold around 8 gallons of water, I like to add around 3/4 of a solo cup.

The way I tell if I need more or less, is by looking at my "sight gage" that shows my water level and looking at the color

And yea it can stink, but if your doing it right, it's more than worth it
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So I'd take that as you use approximately 1 oz. of em1 per gallon of water.?.
And I thought I read somewhere on one of your threads you also add extra dolomite lime to your soil medium due to the extra acidity that em1 brings with it.
 
Imbald said:
So I'd take that as you use approximately 1 oz. of em1 per gallon of water.?.
And I thought I read somewhere on one of your threads you also add extra dolomite lime to your soil medium due to the extra acidity that em1 brings with it.
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Around that yea.

And I use too, not any more, I do add a little extra oyster shell for that same reason but stopped using dol. Lime simply bc of how long it takes to break down
 
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