SIP Club - Getting Hydro/Coco Results In A Soil Based Medium

[Bud Bokashi]

Good morning my friends
Just a little update on the Dosi Zookies auto in the SIP.
I made a couple tweeks in the Bud Bunker and after giving her a minute with a emptied res she seems to be on the road to recovery.
I raised the room temp to 78°F and brought the humidity up to 61%, I also took the cover off the planter, not much of a tweek but it seems to be working.
I'm going to give it a minute then take the top off and start laying her out if she stays the course.
I'll keep you posted and we'll see what happens..

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Good Morning all!

Day 95 can you tell this chick was bald literally 2 days before?!?

The good bad and the ugly gypsum finally came so i sprinkled a little on the top and watered her in…an update on the damaged side are the last cpl pics my tent is caved in im gonna have to invest in one of those cages

Full shot

thee ugly

 

[ReservoirDog]

Poor Bud Bokashi and the bokashi soil blues.

Bud, did you catch what I said about homogeneous soil mixing? You’d mentioned other seedling burns recently after some normal growth.

So, I mentioned the obvious stuff about mixing amended and especially heavily composted soils. You just have to atomize everything into its tiniest fragments then mix till your arms fall off so there are no high fertility chunks lying in wait for your poor unsuspecting seedlings tender roots.

Dead obvious stuff, I realize, so may not be terribly useful, but I want to help. I would be very frustrated in your position. Congrats on how you handle it.

PS, hey all, I hadda check back into city’s most expensive hotel again, had made it out almost 10 days I think . Nurses have me pointed uphill again already, and I’m very grateful to them. Can’t afford backward steps while in Cancer therapy, but chemo etc. is def a high price to pay, and you will spending the entire time feeling as though you’ve just been Wham Bam Van Damned right in the nut-sack. I can’t feel my feet, I can’t see properly, constant nausea, nerve pain everywhere, The recall function in my brain is on strike.

Please do all you can to avoid cancer, and there is much you can do. You need to catch it before it spreads. You must. So go call your doctor to begin a convo about how to approach this broad and scary topic. Figure out your family traits and cancer victims, knowing your culture/ethnicity is good too. Go check out which cancers are most common for you where you live, and tell your doc you want to start screening for cancers and “how can you get started?”

This is life and death stuff peeps, there are very, very few plausible reasons not to do this but I commiserate with those whose financial scenario may make this an impossibility, or at least much more difficult. I think you can find the help you need if you look hard and commit. You have responsibility to loved ones to look after yourself too. Ok, speech over. I just don’t want you guys having what I got. It is not pleasant and while the perspective is unique and beautiful, it can be rather a lonely perch. Go, embrace life you dope smoking, clued-in growers! Celebrate responsibly, but do it every goddamned day.

Here’s a pic of my almost ready to harvest Barbara Bud x Kryptonite, in week 6 since flip, it was grown in custom worm castings as the sole form of fertility. No fertilizers, just equal parts of my specially fed worms’s manure, peat moss, and perlite. I’ll profile soon and explain better, including what I feed my worms and why.

This plant was assumed to be getting destroyed early in flower when my cancer diagnosis hit. I had decided to shut everything down until I felt better, basically springtime.

But, then suddenly I changed my mind. I was inspired by @Jon and his condition as a parapalegic, a man growing gorgeous flower indoors who cannot use his legs and must move about in a wheelchair. You see, courage is contagious, that’s it’s best trait.

I thought SIPs really offered an ideal self watering scenario and dropping labour by over 50% compared to the simplest hydro system that could hope to copy the biomass provided (way, way less than half the work of DWC hydro but ‘same’ results.). Even traditional dirt pots cannot beat SIPs for simplicity of use and SIPs will outgrow every other passive container system ever made, and a bunch of non-passive ones.

I actually only ammended this pot once during grow and I over did it because I had been in hospital leading up to amending and knew I’d be going back there, and my plants looked starved when I got home from first hosp stint, and so I packed a couple inches of solid worm poo on top and watered in. Turns out my special castings are just ripping with nitrogen because every leaf still alive turned dark green immediately. Was really surprised by that. Def going to send out some lab samples when I can afford it to find out just how special my special castings really are.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Good Morning all!

Day 95 can you tell this chick was bald literally 2 days before?!?

The good bad and the ugly gypsum finally came so i sprinkled a little on the top and watered her in…an update on the damaged side are the last cpl pics my tent is caved in im gonna have to invest in one of those cages

Full shot

thee ugly

Great, actual bud-set, now I can relax about your plant too (been afraid you got stuck in Veg or something!).z,. Most strains I’ve ever grown, as I recall anyway, flipped quite fast for me indoors and show buds quickly. I always include a 36hr dark period before switching it up to 12:12 from 18:6. But I couldn’t tell you whether that dark period helps at all. I do believe it’s possible I’ve grown mostly fast-flipping plants all my life, but just as easily can accept the 36hr routine might be having a positive impact, I just can’t be sure.

I bring it up to try and smoke out any other knowledgeable peeps who’ve experimented here and have some strong opinions. Won’t hold my breath though.

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Great, actual bud-set, now I can relax about your plant too (been afraid you got stuck in Veg or something!).z,. Most strains I’ve ever grown, as I recall anyway, flipped quite fast for me indoors and show buds quickly. I always include a 36hr dark period before switching it up to 12:12 from 18:6. But I couldn’t tell you whether that dark period helps at all. I do believe it’s possible I’ve grown mostly fast-flipping plants all my life, but just as easily can accept the 36hr routine might be having a positive impact, I just can’t be sure.

I bring it up to try and smoke out any other knowledgeable peeps who’ve experimented here and have some strong opinions. Won’t hold my breath though.

Hey res yeah its def in flower now sorry to hear youre having a hard time do you all flip your plants something told me rotate my plant so the side that was under the 400w is under the 1200w side and vice versa? Budsites a plenty here

 

[NickHardy]

I always include a 36hr dark period before switching it up to 12:12 from 18:6.

That is a really really interesting idea.

Reckon you would want to be sure its a super stable older strain, no S1’s, F1’s or anything like but I can imagine how that might work.

Cheers for the insight as ever Res!

Nick

 

[ReservoirDog]

That is a really really interesting idea.

Reckon you would want to be sure its a super stable older strain, no S1’s, F1’s or anything like but I can imagine how that might work.

Cheers for the insight as ever Res!

Nick

Yeah, it does feel a tad aggressive, even still to this day. I started learning light dep. outside, because that was the only place I grew flower. You don’t have to be as exacting with the outdoor, like wit leaks and shit. That made me confident and then in subsequent years I had opportunity to try it out in various conditions and grow types including much indoor. The plant just needs to confidently measure a light decrease of significant enough DLI. I’m sure I’ve run hundreds of plants and dozens of superfly F1s, this way successfully - indoors. Don’t know why I chose 36, other than it’s under two full cycles, it seemed perfect, and I think it is, 48 is too much. That may indeed confuse things more thoroughly, as I agree that in principle that there is danger here to be sure, but it is a very, very good number.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Hey res yeah its def in flower now sorry to hear youre having a hard time do you all flip your plants something told me rotate my plant so the side that was under the 400w is under the 1200w side and vice versa? Budsites a plenty here

Yeah, gypsum is for your soils charge, it’s acidity. This is environmental, not about ‘food’. You add it to change the soil pH, it’s acidity, making it less so- eventually - unless you pour it on your plant like a goddamned moron. Hey, c’mon now mate, time to get serious, not slack around on a sometimes killing spree.

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Yeah, gypsum is for your soils charge, it’s acidity. This is environmental, not about ‘food’. You add it to change the soil pH, it’s acidity, making it less so- eventually - unless you pour it on your plant like a goddamned moron. Hey, c’mon now mate, time to get serious, not slack around on a sometimes killing spree.

I read purple stems mean calcium def and ive been feeding cal mag thru the res

 

[NickHardy]

Some plants are just prone to purple stems. They can present at different times. Never anything to worry about to my knowledge. Our plants get anything up to 2.5ml/L Cal Mag every day (we’re in coco airpots mostly and toppy with it because we run 1400ppm Co2

Some pictures from few minutes ago of some purples and the herd. Some phenos the same strain will present purple, others not. Some strains are way more inclined than others - some of it is to do with how cold you can get them at lights out (We can’t get below 19c in this room at the moment but its always hot outside, even a 12000btu AC running full isn’t getting it colder.

Nick

 

[Bud Bokashi]

Poor Bud Bokashi and the bokashi soil blues.

Bud, did you catch what I said about homogeneous soil mixing? You’d mentioned other seedling burns recently after some normal growth.

So, I mentioned the obvious stuff about mixing amended and especially heavily composted soils. You just have to atomize everything into its tiniest fragments then mix till your arms fall off so there are no high fertility chunks lying in wait for your poor unsuspecting seedlings tender roots.

Dead obvious stuff, I realize, so may not be terribly useful, but I want to help. I would be very frustrated in your position. Congrats on how you handle it.

PS, hey all, I hadda check back into city’s most expensive hotel again, had made it out almost 10 days I think . Nurses have me pointed uphill again already, and I’m very grateful to them. Can’t afford backward steps while in Cancer therapy, but chemo etc. is def a high price to pay, and you will spending the entire time feeling as though you’ve just been Wham Bam Van Damned right in the nut-sack. I can’t feel my feet, I can’t see properly, constant nausea, nerve pain everywhere, The recall function in my brain is on strike.

Please do all you can to avoid cancer, and there is much you can do. You need to catch it before it spreads. You must. So go call your doctor to begin a convo about how to approach this broad and scary topic. Figure out your family traits and cancer victims, knowing your culture/ethnicity is good too. Go check out which cancers are most common for you where you live, and tell your doc you want to start screening for cancers and “how can you get started?”

This is life and death stuff peeps, there are very, very few plausible reasons not to do this but I commiserate with those whose financial scenario may make this an impossibility, or at least much more difficult. I think you can find the help you need if you look hard and commit. You have responsibility to loved ones to look after yourself too. Ok, speech over. I just don’t want you guys having what I got. It is not pleasant and while the perspective is unique and beautiful, it can be rather a lonely perch. Go, embrace life you dope smoking, clued-in growers! Celebrate responsibly, but do it every goddamned day.

Here’s a pic of my almost ready to harvest Barbara Bud x Kryptonite, in week 6 since flip, it was grown in custom worm castings as the sole form of fertility. No fertilizers, just equal parts of my specially fed worms’s manure, peat moss, and perlite. I’ll profile soon and explain better, including what I feed my worms and why.

This plant was assumed to be getting destroyed early in flower when my cancer diagnosis hit. I had decided to shut everything down until I felt better, basically springtime.

But, then suddenly I changed my mind. I was inspired by @Jon and his condition as a parapalegic, a man growing gorgeous flower indoors who cannot use his legs and must move about in a wheelchair. You see, courage is contagious, that’s it’s best trait.

I thought SIPs really offered an ideal self watering scenario and dropping labour by over 50% compared to the simplest hydro system that could hope to copy the biomass provided (way, way less than half the work of DWC hydro but ‘same’ results.). Even traditional dirt pots cannot beat SIPs for simplicity of use and SIPs will outgrow every other passive container system ever made, and a bunch of non-passive ones.

I actually only ammended this pot once during grow and I over did it because I had been in hospital leading up to amending and knew I’d be going back there, and my plants looked starved when I got home from first hosp stint, and so I packed a couple inches of solid worm poo on top and watered in. Turns out my special castings are just ripping with nitrogen because every leaf still alive turned dark green immediately. Was really surprised by that. Def going to send out some lab samples when I can afford it to find out just how special my special castings really are.

Yep I cought it and I'll look into it thanks for the advice.
I'm letting this one go the way she is and I made a couple tweeks to the soil in my Amnesia that just popped.
I really don't get up in knots over a weed so I don't have any issues when I crash and burn.
But the way I see life is "failure isn't a option it's a lesson".
I'll keep playing with it until I figure it out, I refuse to be defeated by a tote of soil.

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Some plants are just prone to purple stems. They can present at different times. Never anything to worry about to my knowledge. Our plants get anything up to 2.5ml/L Cal Mag every day (we’re in coco airpots mostly and toppy with it because we run 1400ppm Co2

Some pictures from few minutes ago of some purples and the herd. Some phenos the same strain will present purple, others not. Some strains are way more inclined than others - some of it is to do with how cold you can get them at lights out (We can’t get below 19c in this room at the moment but its always hot outside, even a 12000btu AC running full isn’t getting it colder.

Nick

That makes me feel better! Im tired of paying top dollar for mediocre

 

[ReservoirDog]

@Azimuth sorry, I responded to you first then erased it by accident. Don’t have it in
me to start again but will soon I hope.

Quickly though, each plant is in 10 gallon Geo pot that sits inside the SIP. Each pot is 1/3, by volume, (3 gal) Super-Ewc. Basically 3gal Castings
3gal peat moss
3gal Perlite

Those 3 gallons supported the plant faultlessly for 14 weeks of life, including a 3-4 weeks period after flip during which it was functionally abandoned by the grower.

Kinda impressive, doncha’ think? To respond so well, for so long. Remember, 3 gallons EWC in there… no less.

While in hosp. Plant finally nosedived and ate every fan leaf on it, just about. Got back, panicked, and packed on two inches of Super-Castings, watered down with some tea, not too much.

Well the green-back was instant, literally, you could see it live in real-time. And it just wouldn’t stop. I mean that plant was almost entirely soaked in yellow, heavily really, and necrosis of the fans had been total. I feel I should have given half of what I did give for amendments as the stuff is abviously a completely different beast to your basic common worm castings. The plant responded as if I’d given it a good dose of urea and DAP, which was alarming in an organic grow. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. Plus I’m here for the exploration part anyway.

My SIPs run quite dry in this setup, Azi. Using the bags gives you control surfaces you can cover, uncover and its enough that it can’t be overwhelmed by the rez water given how I pick it up. My SIPs are rectangular black plastic totes, listed at 27 gallons (for larger of two. Same footprint. Planter is 17 gal, bags sit in these. Using garbage bags you can cover/uncover the soft bag fabric not already tight against the SIP wall or her Sister’s pot, and it makes the plant much wetter if kept all covered.

My observation is that the castings, peat, perlite maintained an effective physical form for a long time. How much to attribute to my “drier SIPs” I could not tell you, but I had the same concern as you in dealing with high proportion of castings in the mix. In this instance it has appeared to succeed, at these ratios. Significant compaction has not occurred through out grow, and soil level remained same. Seems solid down there.

 

[Azimuth]

Res, very interesting, thank you.

I'm surprised, pleasantly, that your mix hasn't settled much from dissolving castings. I know Coot recommended 1/3 of his mix be organic material and no more than half of that to be castings. Your experience seems to suggest that limitation can be ignored. So, couple the higher percentage of castings, with having them be Super Castings, and that seems like a great combination.

I've taken to using compost in place of the CSPM with good success though I use a much smaller percentage of castings in my latest rounds than you do. Very pleased so far, though maybe I'll think about adding a higher percentage of castings. I do like the compost component as well. I figure using a mixture of inputs gives me more variety of nutrients in various stages of breakdown, and I use similar inputs in both my compost and castings. So far, so good.

You had a much longer veg period than I use. I wonder if you'd still have the after-flip issue if you had a shorter veg or whether the issue might be that the flowering period needs a different set of inputs from the castings.

Toward that end, I've started adding a high percentage of flowers (both fresh and dried) into my castings, though it will be several months before I see any benefit from them. Plants apparently start storing P early and throughout the grow so having some available early and covered in worm microbes might help get around the yellowing soon after pistils. I'm having similar issues and am trying to address them more with my WCA (water soluble calcium) than with castings though I do add some of those every week as a top dressing.

As you have, I've taken to running my veg SIPS drier than I used to and am having much better results. So much better in fact that I think I'll probably treat them as normal containers with a little extra on-board reservoir, at least until they get big and healthy.

My older, larger plants handle the constantly moist soil much better than the small ones.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience. Helpful to more than me I imagine.

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Mornin sip’rs! Day 100! Temp dropping at night gonna put the heater in b4 lights off tonight maybe thats the reason for the purple stems etc i see some yellowingon the undercarriage may be flowering till the new year the support bars are up it helps with airflow

 

[Fenderbender]

Nice canopy!
No even stevens over here.
Sipping autos is wild!

 

[TequilaSIPr]

Nice canopy!
No even stevens over here.
Sipping autos is wild!

Thanks i promise you it was help from u guys and dumb luck i cant wait till she gets that big i may have to try an auto my next run i didnt top this one at all

 

[Fenderbender]

Yeah I feel I should have topped.. top autos once at the right time, ensures all the sides take off equally, and I feel with photos as well, if you want perfect uniformity it's also the way to go.. but I got no to time for that.. just push her down make her go wild and indeed with netting you can still get a nice screen going.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Nice canopy!
No even stevens over here.
Sipping autos is wild!

Awww , I’m so happy for you ‘bender!
That’s awesome. You do a nice sip show mate, more than me.

I’m down but not out buddy… definitely down though…. I’m in hospital and now my support system is falling apart, worse it’s my father, late 70s … Atrial fibrillation…. from having to drive me to cancer treatment every day while in pain (both): poor geezer. . He was admitted 3rd floor yesterday, been in hospital 58hrs., emerg . Now my mother is in the crosshairs, also be not good, because she’ll needs the constant checking up on just to make sure she hasn’t fallen. Dominos we’re just dominoes. So working that out but I only have wifi, no cell number, that’s how tight I’ve been running things. I got caught out with this sudden-mortal-threat-cancer-move. In fact it’s become apparent to me that not only does my timing absolutely suck, personally, but it appears also, to be poor timing on historic levels. Storm clouds are here to stay a while friends, don’t be fooled by happy talk, we are in for a real thrashing,

 

[Fenderbender]

Oh wow... that sounds like a very down and bad situation... too much stress for everyone..
And don't want to get into the rest as indeed there too big stress tests are coming as well.