SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[Tim Fox]

Thanks, why leave out the lime? I've always added lime

just google how long does lime take to break down in soil,,, its months and months before it begins to really work, and there are better / faster acting things to ad for cal mag,

if your a no till grower,, or someone who re uses and amendents their soil, then lime would be a great thing, as the older stuff would be releasing into the soil

 

[Plant Lobbyist]

just google how long does lime take to break down in soil,,, its months and months before it begins to really work, and there are better / faster acting things to ad for cal mag,

if your a no till grower,, or someone who re uses and amendents their soil, then lime would be a great thing, as the older stuff would be releasing into the soil

Any recommended ratio?

Lime also helps breakdown biologicals and offsets the acidity of peat.

 

[PDX Joe]

What kind of powder nutes do you use?

So far I have always used EB Stone in my SIPS. I use their Tomato & Vegetable Food 4-5-3 in the fertilizer trenches. I also mix in some of their Sure Start 4-6-2 throughout the grow medium around the root ball in addition to dolomite lime (growing in peat). But, what I have found with the tomatoes and also the cannabis is that they use the nutes in the soil toward the middle to end of the grow and then I need to supplement with a light feeding of liquid nutes in the reservoir. I typically have used Fox Farm Grow Big or Fox Farm Big Bloom at 1/2 strength or less. Although, I wonder if one might be able to get through an indoor grow without the supplemental liquid nutes because the plants won't be giant 8 foot outdoor plants.

And I will supplement with Cal-mag in the res if I see a deficiency. My last few summers I have even added a very light amount of worm castings to the grow medium without adverse effects.

Last year I added a bit of bark mulch throughout the medium to increase aeration and soil structure, but I don't think it's necessary. The previous six years I didn't do that and I haven't seen a difference. I think the bark might be more useful in a no till type system to avoid compaction.

I'm very interested in the Buildasoil craft blend powder nutes and mineral mix. They look like they may be similar to EB Stone with possibly higher quality ingredients dialed more for cannabis. Also, their mineral mix may provide more readily available calcium than dolomite lime. Dolomite sometimes takes awhile to break down. I saw Pedro's Grow Room on YouTube using Buildasoil with SIPS and it looks like it works for him.

 

[PDX Joe]

just google how long does lime take to break down in soil,,, its months and months before it begins to really work, and there are better / faster acting things to ad for cal mag,

if your a no till grower,, or someone who re uses and amendents their soil, then lime would be a great thing, as the older stuff would be releasing into the soil

I agree, the dolomite takes awhile to break down, but it is nice to use if you're reusing the soil. My outdoor containers go about three summers before I change out the medium.

I'm really interested in the Buildasoil mineral mix for peat. It looks like it has ingredients that with supply calcium quicker than dolomite. They have one for coco too.

 

[PDX Joe]

Any recommended ratio?

Lime also helps breakdown biologicals and offsets the acidity of peat.

Usually about 1-2 tbsp of dolomite lime for every gallon of grow medium. But, you can be generous with dolomite lime and still be okay because it does break down slowly.

 

[PDX Joe]

I am trying a DiY sip-like run consisting of 102l tough boxes as the res using 3g re-usable grocery bags as the wick and 7g fabric pot for growing sitting on top. 2 for each toughbox.

Wick material is recycled pro-mix hp with some added perlite, vermiculite, epsom, dolomite, rock dust and biologicals. Growing medium is the same + mykos and azos. Plan is to run a few strains to get the hang of it.

First thing I noticed is the wicking function exceeded my expectations. Growing medium might actually be too wet. I have been letting them run under lights for two weeks without plants to get an idea of the base evaporation rate and help offset the low humidity from the cold temps.

The 3g wicks are probably overkill but they make a solid base for the growing section. Has anyone had good experience using some sort of air exchange or injection system? I was thinking just putting in some drinking straws down 6" to get more air into the medium. Pros? Cons? Good? Bad?

In the meantime I am going to let the res almost completely dry out.

Watch out with adding biologicals to your wicks. That could potentially cause some bad stuff to grow in the reservoir. Also, introducing air down low is usually a good idea. As the reservoir water drops it sucks in air and almost acts like a lung so long as you provide a way for the air to enter. It may also help prevent anaerobic bacteria down in the reservoir.

I'm currently trying out Autopots on my indoor grow and I lost a plant to pythium root rot because I believe there isn't enough air down at the bottom and too much moisture. I'm going to convert the Autopot to have a wicking basket in order to introduce an air gap between the growing medium and water reservoir.

 

[a senile fungus]

Do y'all prefer to use the dolomitic lime or could something like oyster shell flour be used? I have both, but my dolomite lime is granulated, and I'm wondering if powdered might be better for quicker availability. Or maybe a healthy mix of both...

I'd like to build a tester SIP and run it side by side to see if I'm switching from my current system.

 

[PDX Joe]

Do y'all prefer to use the dolomitic lime or could something like oyster shell flour be used? I have both, but my dolomite lime is granulated, and I'm wondering if powdered might be better for quicker availability. Or maybe a healthy mix of both...

I'd like to build a tester SIP and run it side by side to see if I'm switching from my current system.

I've never used powdered dolomite lime, only pelletized dolomite. I've looked for the powdered stuff, but have had a hard time finding it in the past. I do believe the powdered version will work faster.

I think oyster shell flower might also work faster, that is why I'm interested in the Buildasoil mineral mix.

 

[Jp.the.pope]

I agree, the dolomite takes awhile to break down, but it is nice to use if you're reusing the soil. My outdoor containers go about three summers before I change out the medium.

I'm really interested in the Buildasoil mineral mix for peat. It looks like it has ingredients that with supply calcium quicker than dolomite. They have one for coco too.

I love it

 

[Plant Lobbyist]

Watch out with adding biologicals to your wicks. That could potentially cause some bad stuff to grow in the reservoir. Also, introducing air down low is usually a good idea. As the reservoir water drops it sucks in air and almost acts like a lung so long as you provide a way for the air to enter. It may also help prevent anaerobic bacteria down in the reservoir.

I'm currently trying out Autopots on my indoor grow and I lost a plant to pythium root rot because I believe there isn't enough air down at the bottom and too much moisture. I'm going to convert the Autopot to have a wicking basket in order to introduce an air gap between the growing medium and water reservoir.

I left my res open air plus I am using tap water (chloramine) and h2o2 to cull the biologicals in the res if they become an issue but so far they haven't. Not sure if that is due to competition or some other elements in the mix.

I have expanded on my drinking straw idea to include a small trellis in each of the pots. The legs of the trellis fit into the drinking straw then into the medium providing an airway through notches in the straw. Trellis legs will keep the straw anchored.

Will let you know how it goes.

 

[PDX Joe]

I love it

You love the Buildasoil? Do you use it instead of dolomite?

 

[Jp.the.pope]

You love the Buildasoil? Do you use it instead of dolomite?

Yessir. I have half a garage filled with soil and amendments from BAS. I have used the mineral mix on my raised beds outside. Planning on adding it to my new SIPs I'm working on this week.

No actual SIP related use yet :/

 

[PDX Joe]

Yessir. I have half a garage filled with soil and amendments from BAS. I have used the mineral mix on my raised beds outside. Planning on adding it to my new SIPs I'm working on this week.

No actual SIP related use yet :/

Let us know how you like it in the SIPS. I may start by trying their stuff in my outdoor SIPS this summer.

 

[Jp.the.pope]

Will keep yall posted.

@PDX Joe I saw your many sips, what's the largest amount of soil you've used, and how'd you set up the wick.

I'm leaning towards a 45 gallon sip similar to the ones on albopepper.com

I'm just having trouble deciding on the best way to integrate an airstone.

 

[PDX Joe]

Will keep yall posted.

@PDX Joe I saw your many sips, what's the largest amount of soil you've used, and how'd you set up the wick.

I'm leaning towards a 45 gallon sip similar to the ones on albopepper.com

I'm just having trouble deciding on the best way to integrate an airstone.

The large Earthtainers use 31 gallon totes, but the soil capacity is 24 gallons. The half water barrel SIPS are 27 gallons, but probably about 21 gallons of soil.

The wick on the Earthtainer is a 5" net pot filled with peat/ perlite mix. Here's the design I used by Ray Newstead. His manual rocks and he has a great non-profit to help areas of the world with poor growing soil.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pdfs/EarthTainer-Construction-Guide.pdf

For the water barrel I used a 4 - 5" layer of clean agricultural sand for the wick. I coil a 4" perforated ag pipe with a drain pipe sock around it to prevent sand from getting into the pipe. This acts as the reservoir. The sand fills in around the pipe and covers it over.

In both designs I like to use a couple layers of weed barrier between the growing medium and wicking medium to prevent roots from growing into the reservoir. I don't like roots in the res. I think this might be the flaw with Autopots which I will be attempting to remedy.

 

[Jp.the.pope]

You sir are amazing. Just the build I was looking for

 

[Tim Fox]

The large Earthtainers use 31 gallon totes, but the soil capacity is 24 gallons. The half water barrel SIPS are 27 gallons, but probably about 21 gallons of soil.

The wick on the Earthtainer is amy5" net pot filled with peat/ perlite mix. Here's the design I used by Ray Newstead. His manual rocks and he has a great non-profit to help areas of the world with poor growing soil.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pdfs/EarthTainer-Construction-Guide.pdf

For the water barrel I used a 4 - 5" layer of clean agricultural sand for the wick. I coil a 4" perforated ag pipe with a drain pipe sock around it to prevent sand from getting into the pipe. This acts as the reservoir. The sand fills in around the pipe and covers it over.

In both designs I like to use a couple layers of weed barrier between the growing medium and wicking medium to prevent roots from growing into the reservoir. I don't like roots in the res. I think this might be the flaw with Autopots which I will be attempting to remedy.

Have you seen all the roots that grow in the octopot sips ? On my last earth box tomato grow I had allot of roots in the res and they were huge tomato plants , my mj grow just finished week eight so we will see later this week when I harvest if my earthbox has water roots this time or not? But the air gap is vital to success

 

[ttystikk]

Have you seen all the roots that grow in the octopot sips ? On my last earth box tomato grow I had allot of roots in the res and they were huge tomato plants , my mj grow just finished week eight so we will see later this week when I harvest if my earthbox has water roots this time or not? But the air gap is vital to success

I see no reason why roots in the res would be anything but beneficial.

 

[Tim Fox]

So far I have always used EB Stone in my SIPS. I use their Tomato & Vegetable Food 4-5-3 in the fertilizer trenches. I also mix in some of their Sure Start 4-6-2 throughout the grow medium around the root ball in addition to dolomite lime (growing in peat). But, what I have found with the tomatoes and also the cannabis is that they use the nutes in the soil toward the middle to end of the grow and then I need to supplement with a light feeding of liquid nutes in the reservoir. I typically have used Fox Farm Grow Big or Fox Farm Big Bloom at 1/2 strength or less. Although, I wonder if one might be able to get through an indoor grow without the supplemental liquid nutes because the plants won't be giant 8 foot outdoor plants.

And I will supplement with Cal-mag in the res if I see a deficiency. My last few summers I have even added a very light amount of worm castings to the grow medium without adverse effects.

Last year I added a bit of bark mulch throughout the medium to increase aeration and soil structure, but I don't think it's necessary. The previous six years I didn't do that and I haven't seen a difference. I think the bark might be more useful in a no till type system to avoid compaction.

I'm very interested in the Buildasoil craft blend powder nutes and mineral mix. They look like they may be similar to EB Stone with possibly higher quality ingredients dialed more for cannabis. Also, their mineral mix may provide more readily available calcium than dolomite lime. Dolomite sometimes takes awhile to break down. I saw Pedro's Grow Room on YouTube using Buildasoil with SIPS and it looks like it works for him.

I did the trench nute on my tomato grow it worked well I don't know why I didn't do the trench on my mj grow? My marine cuisine is comingon allitle hot here in late flower

 

[Tim Fox]

I see no reason why roots in the res would be anything but beneficial.

Roots in the res makes it like a Hempy bucket and the lungs thing with air breathing in and out as the res goes up and down