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

[Emilya Green]

Showoff.



Jk, of course. Any changes you're making to your design, Em?

Yes I've simplified things quite a bit. Seeing that no roots grew down into the water even though I provided holes for them, I didn't put all those holes in the lid that is my false floor. I also didn't use the plant cloth as a barrier and realized I didn't need all that much soil in the top, just enough for a foot for the bags to sit on. I've also used less 6 inch vertically placed spacers in the bottom and allowed each end to rise up just a little bit to help center the soil and keep everything in place,. I think it'll work because I still have a 1 inch air gap and everything else is the same. I am working on an electronic dipstick that I can just stick in the fill hole and it'll show me where the water level is and that will help a lot in figuring out daily water usage, when to refill, and just make me feel better about things.

 

[Emilya Green]

@Azimuth , may I suggest putting some tags on this thread so that it can be found in search and via the web a little easier?

 

[bluter]

I don't think we've set a standard size yet, but my last round in here was with 27 gallon sips, and they were too big. I could only get three of them under my light's footprint. This actually gives more room to the plants and a little bit more flexibility for me as to how to present them under the light. Both directions work as I can put them oriented vertically as you see here or put two of them side by side horizontally in 3 rows. I also considered 12 gallon containers, but realized that the reservoir that would result would still have me watering manually every couple days. I wanted a little bit more reservoir than that so that if I wanted to leave for a week, I could get away with it.

i got one 4x4 flower room to work with. currently i run 5 5L hempy buckets trained through cages. i'm thinking i might only get the one 20L sip in the same space, probably done in a quad or the like.

 

[Azimuth]

what would be a standard size for a sip ? i'm actually wondering how small they can go and still bring a healthy plant to finish. i'm weighing this against running hempy next fall. the two systems are near identical, but less frequent feeding, and feeding in place could be an advantage.

The standard, or at least most common size, would probably be the 5 gallon bucket size since that's what two of the commercial options are, and many of the DIY builds are based off those.

@Buds Buddy regularly gets more than a pound off his 5 gal buckets. But that said, they seem to be quite scalable, both up and down. I suppose at some point a really small cup might be too small to do a plant justice all the way through flower, but that might depend on how big the reservoir is that it's attached to.

I think of it like this is just like Hempy but in soil and without the hassle of hydro, but similar process and outcomes. Might be interesting to do a side-by-side grow with both and see.

 

[Azimuth]

@Azimuth , may I suggest putting some tags on this thread so that it can be found in search and via the web a little easier?

Great idea. What tags would be useful?

 

[Emilya Green]

i got one 4x4 flower room to work with. currently i run 5 5L hempy buckets trained through cages. i'm thinking i might only get the one 20L sip in the same space, probably done in a quad or the like.

I am having some good luck with my 5g bucket sips too... I have 3 of them.

 

[Emilya Green]

Great idea. But don't know how or what tags would be useful.

SIP, DIY, AIR GAP, WATERING, I'm sure we could come up with more

 

[Azimuth]

i got one 4x4 flower room to work with. currently i run 5 5L hempy buckets trained through cages. i'm thinking i might only get the one 20L sip in the same space, probably done in a quad or the like.

I grow in the 2g Lowes buckets if you're looking for smaller containers to fit more plants in a space. And, of course, veg time will matter as to how long you let them go before flip.

 

[bluter]

I think of it like this is just like Hempy but in soil and without the hassle of hydro, but similar process and outcomes. Might be interesting to do a side-by-side grow with both and see.

i'm thinking of trying it hybrid style using straight perlite as the media.

i currently pull something like 12oz out of the 4x4 on a decent grow with the 5 hempys. i like them as the buckets clearly punch well above their class, similar to the sips.

hempy is primarily a micro growing system though, it was intended for 2L and under, ive flowered plants in 750ml shampoo bottles. you can do macro plants in hempy if you want, @FelipeBlu grew massive outdoor hempys in 20L/5gal.

sips is aimed straight at macro grows, and i'm kinda guessing it enjoys a couple advantages there from reading through this thread. less frequent feeding primarily one, and i love the stability i've seen in the plants. i'm a little concerned over what ph would do in the longer standing res, but i'm not seeing any folk with problems.

I grow in the 2g Lowes buckets if you're looking for smaller containers to fit more plants in a space. And, of course, veg time will matter as to how long you let them go before flip.

what size space are you in and how many plants are you running ? will have a closer look.

 

[Emilya Green]

@Azimuth the tags look great! Thank you.

 

[Azimuth]

@Azimuth the tags look great! Thank you.

Thanks for the new skill acquired.

And, now that I know how, keep 'em coming. Whatever we think might be useful.

 

[Azimuth]

i currently pull something like 12oz out of the 4x4 on a decent grow with the 5 hempys. i like them as the buckets clearly punch well above their class, similar to the sips.

@Buds Buddy regularly does over a pound in his 5 gal pots and one can pretty well fill that space. He's gearing up to do an even bigger grow with a longer veg time. Here's a link to his current grow.

sips is aimed straight at macro grows, and i'm kinda guessing it enjoys a couple advantages there from reading through this thread. less frequent feeding primarily one, and i love the stability i've seen in the plants. i'm a little concerned over what ph would do in the longer standing res, but i'm not seeing any folk with problems.

Yeah, I don't know about that. Maybe aimed, but they certainly scale way down as well. I'm converting over most of my houseplants as well and many of them are in 1L takeout containers.

what size space are you in and how many plants are you running ? will have a closer look.

My flower space is 3'x3' wide and tall x 1.5' deep. I do 2 side-by-side, harvesting every 6 weeks.

 

[bluter]

the tags make me hungry. i want a sub sandwhich now

 

[Twalte]

Hey @Twalte ,

I didn't want to influence your decision but I'm glad you chose the Octopot. We don't have anyone growing with them that I know of and it will be great to hear your impressions of that product. It does seem to have some advantages over the buckets but the proof is in the pudding.

And being able to compare and contrast the various options with hands-on experience can only help all of us be better growers. @ReservoirDog and @Emilya Green use DIY versions of it but your's comes with a website and actual science results and directions from PhD's. That can only be a good thing.

I am excited to test out the 2 octopots…..almost a perfect fit for my 2x4 tent (each pot is 18” x 18”). I will do an Octopot journal and share anything I can about them.

Unlike the GroTech GroBucket, Octopots steer the user into soilless mixes. The two that are highly recommended are Sunshine Mix #4 (Peat based product) Bush Doctor Coco Loco (coco coir based product). Hopefully this soil-grower can adapt to the new medium. Anyone have a strong recommendation here between the two?

Expect to see some updates in March. Until then, I’ll be following along here for tips. Thanks again…..can’t wait to get started!

 

[bluter]

I am excited to test out the 2 octopots…..almost a perfect fit for my 2x4 tent (each pot is 18” x 18”). I will do an Octopot journal and share anything I can about them.

Unlike the GroTech GroBucket, Octopots steer the user into soilless mixes. The two that are highly recommended are Sunshine Mix #4 (Peat based product) Bush Doctor Coco Loco (coco coir based product). Hopefully this soil-grower can adapt to the new medium. Anyone have a strong recommendation here between the two?

Expect to see some updates in March. Until then, I’ll be following along here for tips. Thanks again…..can’t wait to get started!

they're near identical. sunshine could use a little more perlite and is not buffered as well. promix is the more expensive option normally. i know a lot of growers on both, and have used both. either would be great in sips.

 

[Azimuth]

i'm thinking of trying it hybrid style using straight perlite as the media.

Isn't that just a straight-up Hempy? I see SIPS as more of a soil based alternative but with the watering and air advantages of Hempy, hydro, and coco.

That way one can grow organically or bottled nutes, but still get the other benefits.

 

[bluter]

@Buds Buddy regularly does over a pound in his 5 gal pots and one can pretty well fill that space. He's gearing up to do an even bigger grow with a longer veg time. Here's a link to his current grow.


Yeah, I don't know about that. Maybe aimed, but they certainly scale way down as well. I'm converting over most of my houseplants as well an many of them are in 1L takeout containers.


My flower space is 3'x3' wide and tall x 1.5' deep. I do 2 side-by-side, harvesting every 6 weeks.

i'm more and more interested. i've changed growing styles a number of times over the years and i'm getting bored with hempy. i need to run out this perlite though. i've got three different types of media stockpiled, each
could run 2 -3 years, so i've kinda committed to grow for a decade or so

 

[bluter]

Isn't that just a straight-up Hempy? I see SIPS as more of a soil based alternative but with the watering and air advantages of Hempy, hydro, and coco.

That way one can grow organically or bottled nutes, but still get the other benefits.

hempy is open res, where sips is closed. there's less frequent watering with the sips, at least i hope. everything else is almost the same.

edit : i have other media i can go to. the perlite is more to make other people happy.

 

[Azimuth]

i'm more and more interested. i've changed growing styles a number of times over the years and i'm getting bored with hempy. i need to run out this perlite though. i've got three different types of media stockpiled, each
could run 2 -3 years, so i've kinda committed to grow for a decade or so

Might as well hop on the train and at least give it a go. We'll add more train cars as needed. Don't think there's an upper limit.

 

[Azimuth]

hempy is open res, where sips is closed. there's less frequent watering with the sips, at least i hope. everything else is almost the same.

edit : i have other media i can go to. the perlite is more to make other people happy.

How so? I thought hempy was all contained in one bucket with perlite at the bottom to at least the level of the overflow hole.

And talk to @Buds Buddy about the watering. He does his twice a day in flower.