Hi Azi.
The aloe is used as a wetting agent when adding to your sprayer after the JMS is made. To do that add a chunk of aloe leaf and water to a blender and let her rip. It will be foamy and you'll need to play around with water to aloe ratio to get it thin enough to go through your sprayer.
Thanks, @Bode !
Geez Azi. Just sprayed some dandelion tea on my little ones. Been in the bottle for a week now and....piewee! So stinky!The aloe is used as a wetting agent when adding to your sprayer after the JMS is made. To do that add a chunk of aloe leaf and water to a blender and let her rip. It will be foamy and you'll need to play around with water to aloe ratio to get it thin enough to go through your sprayer.
Then strain it and the JMS into your sprayer and use it immediately.
Thanks, @Bode !
Starch, microbes, non-chlorinated water and a little sea salt for extra minerals is all that's called for, although I don't always add the sea salt.
We mind the stink, not the plants. And it just gets better with age. Eventually it will mellow a bit to what I call a "springtime horse barn" smell, or sometimes like a bokashi bucket smell.
You can add the aloe to the extract bucket to let it breakdown, or simply add it as a surfactant by blending a chunk just before use.
I have not, but am interested. There doesn't seem to be much info out there on this pot structure. Jeremy over at BAS makes the comment that "this is a very good design for rookie growers" or some such, "but once you get the hang of the wet/dry cycle you can get as good or better results that way." I don't know, I'm getting much better results using this method than anything else I've ever tried, and watering is brain dead simple.
Very good question. I think maybe it's not all that widely distributed as a concept although the original version is many decades old. Having seen the results I'm getting, I'll likely never grow with another process unless there is some downside later on in the game like root rot at the end after the container fills with roots or something. I've got a couple of SIPS in flower now as my first try at the entire cycle and so far, no issues.
Your comments earlier in the thread on Mineral salts as fertilizer should address that issue. Plenty of growers use Hempy with great results, but that is all chemical fert based. I'm trying to do it with organics and so have to use the soil as the place to fertilize. But, either way, this isn't much different from a regular way to grow except I don't have any over or under water issues. Ever.
This has been the most forgiving process I've ever used, but it certainly is unconventional.
I think that's all still in play, it's just that this format is so much more forgiving, but tweaking the nute schedule can still be done. I'm still trying to dial in my organics so that doesn't go away.
Maybe, but I would think most growers just want healthy, happy plants and they either follow a tried and true method or try a few until they find something that fits them. I think that's why Geoflora and Grow Dots are becoming more popular since it's super easy.
Same for me this year. I'm trying a bigger version in the vegetable garden and I've never had plants this good. Part of that is I have pretty crappy soil in the garden, but whatever. The plants in those SIPs are bigger, healthier, and much more productive than anything I've ever grown. And, by keeping water in the reservoir the plants don't droop even on the hottest days.
Yes please. I feel like I'm groping around in the dark with this stuff. I've read some theory and am trying some experiments to try to dial some stuff in, but would love to accelerate my learning curve.
I'll describe it in detail this weekend after I finish build it. I've got one already built but am changing the design and materials used so still working some things out.
Interestingly, the major SIP threads on ICG and grasscity are all organics only and in fact probiotic/living soil-centric also.
Good to know. Makes me even more interested in reading thru.
Interesting. That does actually match my experience both with Hempy and now my SIPs. Even my fish fertilizer didn't have any impact thru the reservoir. Much better from above thru the soil, and even better when combined with extra microbes.
That's great. Glad to know this isn't virgin ground we're plowing.
To me, this is just a very simple and alternative watering process that produces far superior results to anything else I've tried. Now, can you get similar results by expertly applying a wet/dry cycle or by setting up an elaborate hydro system? Maybe, but this setup brings consistently great results with very little knowledge or investment.
Good tip. I'll have a look.
Interesting point. Although the standard design is almost always based on some sort of wicking approach, I don't set mine up with that element.
I appreciate that!
Awesome set-up, RD! Looking forward to seeing the blue clay drainage and the rosemary infusion is interesting.Hi Azimuth, I’ve been away from the forum a couple of weeks dealing with life and thankfully I had put some plants in my 27gal SIPs (sub irrigated planter) just before the hubbub. Good thing, I wasn’t able to provide daily care and a DWC plant would’ve died from the heat and lack of attention. I’m going to show you some pics here and describe.
My matrix is 60%peat, 40% perlite as recommended by Octopot. Mixed in is 4 cups WC, 1 cup slow release tomato organic fertilizer, 1 cup aged dried chicken manure and 3 cups Dolopril (a soluble, pelletized dolomite product I use in the veg garden raised beds).
I also did something a little unique, I discovered, during a recent low tide, that about 12 inches under the brackish creek/estuary/upper harbour floor that my place backs onto there is a large deposit of blue clay. Blue clays found under rivers and lakes are used in beauty industry to clean pores etc. It’s remarkably good at this because it has the highest Cation exchange sites of any natural soil type. It’s flooded with the things. Cation sites are a bit of a liability with peat, and is why coco grows faster. I dug up a bunch and have buffered 100 gallons of peat with this blue clay, flooding it with cation exchange sites. I have plenty left if a recharge seems needed down the line. This should turbo charge nutrient pickup by the plants and so far that is what I’m seeing.
So far growth rate in the SIPs is remarkable and no burning. Even though I added light organic ferts I am filling the res with Mega Crop 2 part, with 150ppm nitrogen at about 10-5-10. Will adjust this at flower. I like mega crop for its amino acid based chelates. I’m not dogmatic about grow media or ferts, but I refuse to drain to waste, use synthetic chelates, or air condition my crops. So it’s not that I’m unprincipled, on the contrary my red lines are very specific. I grow my own ferts and conditioners now thanks in part to yourself and anticipate using them next run. I’m excited about the blue clay also.
The idea is to slowly morph the matrix into an LOS after a couple of grows in it.
The res holds 6 gallons fertigation. The planter and wick “foot” are total 19gallons of matrix. I’m growing 2 plants in each container.
I have a small aquarium pump in each res that runs 15 min every 4 hours just to keep nutes stirred. I attached a Venturi with airline running down the fill tube for some O2, both are unnecessary. I can always pinch off the Venturi air supply if I simply wish to stir without O2 added. Too much aeration in SIPs is known to swing pH. I have a pump that allows me to monitor pH and so far so good. Pics:
The white PVC overflow keeps the water level 1 inch below the bottom of my planter, which is a second, shallower tote that nests inside and has holes in bottom so it can mate up with this large net pot that acts as the wick, yet maintain air space between itself and reservoir. It holds 25-6 litres/ 6 gallons which is great. This system could easily and passively be fully automated if watering once every ten days is too much for you by attaching control bucket for level and large reservoir. No pump needed. Because optimum moisture level is maintained and conditions never change plants rocket along at growth l level I believe comparable to DWC. A test I’ll record in near future. Indiv scrog scan be built, this run will have single tent-wide nets.
I watered from the top once only and wick has maintained ideal moisture since, there will never be need to top water and thus little compaction can occur. Plants have just taken off in these things. For pests I made a rosemary infusion that I mix with the ferts in res, also sticky traps and diatomaceous earth. Fungus gnats will be the bane of this system and when I can get a better pest control product I likely will, if proved to be necessary.
I've been rereading some of the 'classic' posts in the thread, knowing my predisposition to overlook important details when encountering new and exciting ideas. True to form I am picking up some new things that are helping me form new questions to be answered either in future research or experiment.
This experiment was done before my transition over to the SIP model so I was still in the wet/dry mode for the soil mix. However, in the SIP model I think your thoughts on starting a SIP with moist CSPM and not letting it dry likely overcomes the hydrophobic concerns with that medium I had at that time. It still has pH issues but in living soil that gives you the opportunity to add some lime and Oyster shell as a buffer which brings some calcium to the mix.
Your grow bag idea can also help with the aeration issue and maybe that is why some have gone that route. Also, coco/perlite/worm castings might be a great combination with this structure.
This looks like an interesting Topic. I'll be reading it over the weekend. Thanks for posting it !
