SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Evil-Mobo said:
My main thing is just to be able to incorporate and gravity fed res to the bucket or other style sip if I could soon to not have to water as often.
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Evil I like this set up for multiple sips with a single res,, all gravity fed,, uses cheap easy to get plastic tubing parts from home depot, the float valve is like 15 bucks on amazon, and uses a control bucket, to set water height,,
you can use the 5 gallon buckets,, drill holes, use the round rubber groumets i think you have worked with tubing like this in your hydro days?8 Way Octopot System Octopot Grow Systems.png 8 Way Octopot System Octopot Grow Systems 2.png
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
Evil I like this set up for multiple sips with a single res,, all gravity fed,, uses cheap easy to get plastic tubing parts from home depot, the float valve is like 15 bucks on amazon, and uses a control bucket, to set water height,,
you can use the 5 gallon buckets,, drill holes, use the round rubber groumets i think you have worked with tubing like this in your hydro days?View attachment 3957789 View attachment 3957790
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Ooh, that's the type of float valve container I was wondering existed. If I decide to build larger SIPs for my closet then I will use that valve container so I can still use my remote reservoir. Cool, thanks for this info! Who is the maker or do you have a link to Amazon?
 
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PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
T-Time said:
I'm still hesitate what to do with the nutes. I would rather stay with what I know wokrs best (obviously) but on the other hand like to experiment a lot in my zen garden :)

I've seen photos of Your plants and they seem healthy. Any chance You could share Your mix ? I prabobly missed that.
Are You adding anything mid run ?
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Yes, I have a grow journal for this grow you can check out. It has all the info and yes I amend a couple times through the grow.
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
i suppose if you purchased the float valve, you could just use plastic water connections in drip irragation at home depot, and then just get a plastic container to a size you like for the float valve,,, just has to be barely big enough for the valve as a control bucket
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Evil-Mobo said:
I'm going to have to buy an octo pot and test it out lol .............been going back and forth between them and the auto pots though............
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from everything i have seen, i would say they are the best commercially made sip,, especially for what we do, the sips rob and someguy and hyroot build at the same, but time effort and labor go into them to save some money,, I do really like the float indicator on the octopot,
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
from everything i have seen, i would say they are the best commercially made sip,, especially for what we do, the sips rob and someguy and hyroot build at the same, but time effort and labor go into them to save some money,, I do really like the float indicator on the octopot,
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Yeah, time and money. I've been experimenting so much that I've rarely used the same SIP twice (this summer I have tomatoes growing in my first pair, and one from last year has an auto growing it, the rest are just sitting around). While DIY is a great way to learn, there are definite advantages to using materials they way they were designed and intended to be used. The commercial manufacturers do the R&D (if its a good design) and make it durable and easy to breakdown/clean/set back up again (for instance).

From what I've seen on the manufacturers websites, one nice thing about the Octopot is that it appears to be designed to be used indoors and seemed to have the cannabis market in mind in terms of component expandability. Many of the other Earthbox type designs are always depicted outside, where overflow is not as big an issue, and they are not thinking about modular expansion and/or connecting them to each other.
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
Humanrob said:
Yeah, time and money. I've been experimenting so much that I've rarely used the same SIP twice (this summer I have tomatoes growing in my first pair, and one from last year has an auto growing it, the rest are just sitting around). While DIY is a great way to learn, there are definite advantages to using materials they way they were designed and intended to be used. The commercial manufacturers do the R&D (if its a good design) and make it durable and easy to breakdown/clean/set back up again (for instance).

From what I've seen on the manufacturers websites, one nice thing about the Octopot is that it appears to be designed to be used indoors and seemed to have the cannabis market in mind in terms of component expandability. Many of the other Earthbox type designs are always depicted outside, where overflow is not as big an issue, and they are not thinking about modular expansion and/or connecting them to each other.
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agree,,, the overflow on the earthbox was my prime complaint on my last indoor,, i thought i had it figured out, but water travels underneat things as it clings,, GRRRRR,,, hahaha,, the new sip i can see the level and ad as neccasary, big improvment, kinda like the flaps on your lids Rob, makes knowing whats going on so nice,,, I love the huge res on the octopot,, and your DIY sips, your cloth sips could do the single gravity res pretty easy,
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
Evil-Mobo said:
The auto pots seems to be better suited for coco and hydro nutes while the octopot seems to be better suited for those using soil................maybe I am just seeing it wrong.............

The autopot XL looks appealing to me too though.........
http://autopot-usa.com/products/1pot-xl/product/57-1pot-xl-system-using-6mm-pipe
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The Octopot is more of a true "SIP" design with the wick and air gap. The nice thing about the Octopot is you won't need to modify it. But get the 6 gallon pots if you want to use organic nutrients in the soil. The Autopot is more of a hempy design. So, in order for the Autopot to function more like SIP and less like hydro you do need to modify it. I did not like the Autopot with synthetic nutrients. The salts built up way too much over time and I was feeding very light. I'm sure I could eventually get it to work, but I didn't feel like ruining multiple crops trying to figure it out. So, I made the mods and use organic nutes in the soil.
 
Evil-Mobo

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
PDX Joe said:
The Octopot is more of a true "SIP" design with the wick and air gap. The nice thing about the Octopot is you won't need to modify it. But get the 6 gallon pots if you want to use organic nutrients in the soil. The Autopot is more of a hempy design. So, in order for the Autopot to function more like SIP and less like hydro you do need to modify it. I did not like the Autopot with synthetic nutrients. The salts built up way too much over time and I was feeding very light. I'm sure I could eventually get it to work, but I didn't feel like ruining multiple crops trying to figure it out. So, I made the mods and use organic nutes in the soil.
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Perfect I'm going to order a 6 gallon octopot today then to try out. Then I have one on hand to observe as well and might be able to come up with a DIY setup. I'm gonna have to search for your thread to look through it as well. Appreciate the input.
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
My indoor is in the stretch, a few days shy of 2 weeks @12/12. I have a few inches of room left to raise the lights, we'll see if that will be enough. I've been keeping the lights at about 16" over the canopy. As a side note, I added a bunch of cal-mag to the water that I used to drench the soil with when I transplanted them into the SIPs, but have not added any since (previous runs I've added it to the res), and I've had no cal-mag issues so far.

It's only a hypothesis, but I think it might have to do with keeping the lights higher than most COB growers do (it seems 12" is more common), and running this at a relatively low 36w/sf. I think that cal-mag issues with COBs may be influenced by how hard/intense we drive the lights. But I have no definitive proof, could just be this particular strain is happy with what I'm doing and another might not be.

One of my SIPs is showing a LOT more water roots than the other, but that might be partially from a fk-up on my part -- last time I filled the res's there was a bunch of pressure in the hose when I turned it on, and I may have blown the roots off or to the back of the res... ya, won't let that happen again. So far both plants look equally healthy, so that's all that matters.

06.09_3x3.JPG 06.09_more-roots.JPG 06.09_less-roots.JPG 06.09_water-roots.JPG

I am having fun putting the corner of my phone into the res access opening and taking a blind pic. It seems to be hit or miss on focus and lighting, but I've gotten lucky on a few of them.
 
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buddss

buddss

Member
Hey Guys

Best Thread DAYUM!
no serious, very informative.

I actually planned indoor wicking beds as well. but im not really sure which medium(s) i should use. in my thread here:
https://www.rollitup.org/t/soil-wicking-bed-which-nutes.941974/
someone pointed me to this super thread here. another person said there is maybe the risk of mold etc.

My layers are like this (is actually in the test in my garden with tomato plant):

7-8inch - SOIL (like 20% perlite)
~1inch - SOIL & Hydroton together .
Root Fabric which covers the drainpipe as well
~3-4inch - Hydroton (as spacer and wicking material)

im a little bit uncertain if this works indoors with babies. the tomato looks pretty good for now (is in test since the last weekend). and we have like 28° C (82 F) the last days!


pretty happy about every tip!
cheers!
 
Humanrob

Humanrob

Well-Known Member
Since this is a learning thread, I want to update something. Someone asked before if we cover our SIPs, and I think my answer was 'only if I'm having gnat problems'. Well, I've found another reason to cover them.

I'm having high RH issues, it's been around 70% for most of the grow. If summer ever gets here and is anywhere near normal for Oregon, everything will dry out and this issue will disappear. But in the mean time, to try and avoid PM I've got a ton of air movement going on in there, and I have one of my intakes connected to a dehumidifier (and with all that and the room being @55%, the humidity is still high in the tent). I poked my finger into the edge of the soil, usually around 2" down I'll feel moisture -- this time I sunk my whole finger in and it was bone dry. So, I think the combination of air movement and dry air coming in is over-drying my fabric pots and all that moisture is going into the air.

Beating PM is all about not letting it start. So, as an additional precaution, this morning I cut up some 'tall kitchen' garbage bags and covered the pots and the top of the soil. Before doing that I took the opportunity to top water, and added a bunch of tea and some cal-mag. The canopy is way too thick, I just did another trim of small branches. Canopy density lends itself to PM, but with all the other precautions I've taken (including spraying GreenCure), removing bud sites will only happen if PM actually shows up. Summer here usually comes like someone flipped a switch, and then we have 3 months basically without rain. Looks like that is happening on Saturday so hopefully after that everything will even out.

These are a 10 week/flower strain, but it might be a short grow if they don't stop stretching. I can take out the final links above the lights and zip-tie them directly to the top bars of the tent, but that couple of inches is all I have left to raise them. After that I can super crop the tallest branches, and hope that is enough. Whatever will be, will be.
 
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PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
Humanrob said:
Since this is a learning thread, I want to update something. Someone asked before if we cover our SIPs, and I think my answer was 'only if I'm having gnat problems'. Well, I've found another reason to cover them.

I'm having high RH issues, it's been around 70% for most of the grow. If summer ever gets here and is anywhere near normal for Oregon, everything will dry out and this issue will disappear. But in the mean time, to try and avoid PM I've got a ton of air movement going on in there, and I have one of my intakes connected to a dehumidifier (and with all that and the room being @55%, the humidity is still high in the tent). I poked my finger into the edge of the soil, usually around 2" down I'll feel moisture -- this time I sunk my whole finger in and it was bone dry. So, I think the combination of air movement and dry air coming in is over-drying my fabric pots and all that moisture is going into the air.

Beating PM is all about not letting it start. So, as an additional precaution, this morning I cut up some 'tall kitchen' garbage bags and covered the pots and the top of the soil. Before doing that I took the opportunity to top water, and added a bunch of tea and some cal-mag. The canopy is way too thick, I just did another trim of small branches. Canopy density lends itself to PM, but with all the other precautions I've taken (including spraying GreenCure), removing bud sites will only happen if PM actually shows up. Summer here usually comes like someone flipped a switch, and then we have 3 months basically without rain. Looks like that is happening on Saturday so hopefully after that everything will even out.

These are a 10 week/flower strain, but it might be a short grow if they don't stop stretching. I can take out the final links above the lights and zip-tie them directly to the top bars of the tent, but that couple if inches is all I have left to raise them. After that I can super crop the tallest branches, and hope that is enough. Whatever will be, will be.
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Please, please, please let summer arrive already in Oregon!

Anyway, I noticed this too with having my pots indoors uncovered. It appeared a lot of moisture was evaporating from the top of the pots. The top of the soil would get too dry and the reservoir would deplete quickly. But, with the plastic on top the water was definitely used more efficiently.
 
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