SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[CaptainSnap]

Any of you having issues with the top 3 to 4 inches drying up on you? Are you top watering to help with the issue? I just noticed yesterday how dry my large 20 gallon sips are in the top 4 inches of soil. Im assuming this could be causing some of my issues. Although I still feel like high levels of phosphorus or high pH is also playing a roll. Just curious as to what y'all are experiencing in the top layers of your sips containers! Thanks All and Happy Spring To All

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Any of you having issues with the top 3 to 4 inches drying up on you? Are you top watering to help with the issue? I just noticed yesterday how dry my large 20 gallon sips are in the top 4 inches of soil. Im assuming this could be causing some of my issues. Although I still feel like high levels of phosphorus or high pH is also playing a roll. Just curious as to what y'all are experiencing in the top layers of your sips containers! Thanks All and Happy Spring To All

I have a top dressing of leaves that i moisten, I know some other folks on here cover with black plastic or other mulch as well.

 

[Humanrob]

Any of you having issues with the top 3 to 4 inches drying up on you? Are you top watering to help with the issue? I just noticed yesterday how dry my large 20 gallon sips are in the top 4 inches of soil. Im assuming this could be causing some of my issues. Although I still feel like high levels of phosphorus or high pH is also playing a roll. Just curious as to what y'all are experiencing in the top layers of your sips containers! Thanks All and Happy Spring To All

Yes, I’m having the same issue. I first discovered it around the time I flipped to flower (4 weeks ago), so I wet down the top and covered it with plastic. I’ve been having other issues and checked it again and under the plastic it was dry again. So I removed the plastic and moving forward I’ll be wetting down the top as often as necessary, I expect it will be about every other day. Losing the top 3-4 inches of soil the roots could be using is unacceptable.

The only cause I’ve hypothesized so far is that maybe I didn’t compact the soil enough when I originally filled the fabric pot and that’s why it’s not wicking efficiently.

 

[PDX Joe]

Check out the mycelium blooms under the plastic. Extra fuzzy.

 

[PDX Joe]

Okay, enough with the dirt photos...here’s something a bit prettier to look at.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Check out the mycelium blooms under the plastic. Extra fuzzy.View attachment 4116335

I think your dirt is pretty Joe (-; dang thats some great fungi growth there!

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

and of course beautiful buds!

 

[PDX Joe]

and of course beautiful buds!

Thank you.

 

[Humanrob]

These pics were taken about a week apart, 3 days before and 3 days after the 4 week mark of flower. She looks pretty at first glance, but without being too dramatic I'd say she's running out of nutrients, or another way of saying it, dying prematurely.

 

[PDX Joe]

These pics were taken about a week apart, 3 days before and 3 days after the 4 week mark of flower. She looks pretty at first glance, but without being too dramatic, I'd say she's not so slowly running out of nutrients, or another way of saying it, dying prematurely.

View attachment 4116659 View attachment 4116660

I like the colors you're getting. Are your night temps. relatively cool? I'm going to need to start running my ventilation fan through the night to keep the humidity down now that I'm into mid flower. That should also drop my temps. I'll see if mine start changing colors a bit.

 

[Humanrob]

I like the colors you're getting. Are your night temps. relatively cool? I'm going to need to start running my ventilation fan through the night to keep the humidity down now that I'm into mid flower. That should also drop my temps. I'll see if mine start changing colors a bit.

I had been letting it get down to 60 at night, now it’s only going down to 65.

I’m experimenting with very lightly feeding through the res, first time I’ve done that.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Evening SIPers! Added a couple gallons to the ladies today containing some cal mag, molasses, aloe and worm bin run off... next time i will probably brew a tea or possibly some ferments. Also thinking I want to figure out a better way for water measurements (thinking a whine cork on a dowl that is down the watering hole to act as a float and have it marked at the top where it is at when full, half full, and empty... The ports on the bottom just are not working for me. And I also will then add an air hole between the water full line and the soil line to ensure i get that nice air gap everyone talks about. If I was to try some ferments would i just add them under the mulch? I would not think I would want to add that to the rez? Cant wait to get some flowers showing on these gals to show off! For now here are a few pics even if not fun yet. Smoke em if ya got em all!

 

[PDX Joe]

Evening SIPers! Added a couple gallons to the ladies today containing some cal mag, molasses, aloe and worm bin run off... next time i will probably brew a tea or possibly some ferments. Also thinking I want to figure out a better way for water measurements (thinking a whine cork on a dowl that is down the watering hole to act as a float and have it marked at the top where it is at when full, half full, and empty... The ports on the bottom just are not working for me. And I also will then add an air hole between the water full line and the soil line to ensure i get that nice air gap everyone talks about. If I was to try some ferments would i just add them under the mulch? I would not think I would want to add that to the rez? Cant wait to get some flowers showing on these gals to show off! For now here are a few pics even if not fun yet. Smoke em if ya got em all!

If you use a cork then use a synthetic cork and not real cork. I found they float better. The real cork can get a bit water logged over time and not float as well.

Yeah, add the stuff to the top of the soil and not the res. Just don’t use too much liquid where it can wash down into the res.

 

[Humanrob]

I like all the variations on how to run sips, it's good to see that there are lots of ways to make this work. @meangreengrowinmachine and @PDX Joe -- you've both got some very healthy looking plants!

For me, this run is the most maintenance I've ever had to do, so this sip is losing some of it's appeal in terms of being super simple ('just add water' was one of my favorite benefits of sips). I guess the final results will determine whether or not it's worth it. I've been lightly keeping the soil on the top moist (originally I thought that might need to happen frequently, but its turning out to be about every 5 days), and adding small amounts of nutes to the res. There is no way for me to flush my system, so I have to be careful about any build up in the res -- but that said, these changes seem to be working, the fall colors that were increasing on a daily basis seem to have slowed down.

A day shy of 5 weeks...

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Hope all had a good weekend! I decided it would be a good idea to stick a knife damn near through my foot but hey things must move on! The garden has been tricky (and painful) to deal with this weekend, but got a gallon of fresh worm castings under the leaf mulch on the 3 SIP's gave "stretch" a bunch more plain water AND.. clones are starting to root! WOO HOO! also had to order up a new 6 inch inline fan from amazon hopefully the one I got is not junk. Decided to stay away from the flashy vortex and all that high end name brand stuff. Seems to be one that has decent feedback on RIU. Hopefully this stretch will end soon and will have some nice tasty flower pics to post soon! In the mean time smoke up all!

 

[PDX Joe]

Entering week 6...

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

Entering week 6...
View attachment 4120717

looking gorgeous man!

 

[Tim Fox]

Entering week 6...
View attachment 4120717

very nice,, buds everywhere,, such a good grow,,,
sorry i have been kinda quiet,, i harveested , hung them for 5 days, then paper sacked them another 5 ,, now they are in jars,, so humid here in oregon,, so i am burping 2 times a day,, tonight the jars are open a couple of hours and i wave a fan over them ever 1/2 hour to exchange the air in the jars,, i have one of my meters dropped down into a jar,, if they are still hoving around 80,, ill take them out of the jars tomororow and spread them and let them air a while before going back into the jars,,,,
I got to test hit both strains,, its now my strongest weed in my stash,, that Jack Herer is sure living up to its name,

 

[Norby Grown]

Doing some experimenting. Running Tahoe OG. Mother went in 2 weeks earlier in the far back right. I used strait FFOF and Just right, since it has all coco peat and no peat moss. I'm using MSR greenleaves, which is a synthetic fertilizer, I usually do all organic with jus ammendments but had problems with the FFOF. I think it was the composting of the peat moss that dropped the pH as I had problems with nute deficiencies which I think were from lockout. I didn't fertilize thru the top but have half strength ferts in the res that are pH'd to about 6.5.
I'm thinking I could use coco peat base soil and lime it well and put in nutes to the res which are in the range for hydroponic feeding and it would be buffered and raise the pH to uptake levels in soil, since they differ. We'll see how it goes next grow. This one I'm keeping the pH higher in the res than what you'd want for hydroponics.
Have 6 being aerated in the res and 3 that aren't. Haven't wavered from my organic grows in a long time but used to use MSR greenleaves 25 years ago and got top of the line meds so I figured I'd give it a try.

 

[Norby Grown]

Already figured out that once you start aeration that you shouldn't stop aeration. One sip that had the reservoir full of roots started to brown a little. Added another pump and all 9 now have airstones. I lowered the pH to 6 with nutrients and upped the levels to half strength. Fingers crossed.
I used to do a 5 gallon bucket nested inside another to catch runoff. I had roots dip down into the runoff bucket before and do real well without any aeration. Bright white roots at the end of the grow. For some reason this isn't the case with these plants?