SIP - Pity Do Dah, SIP - Pity A

[Buds Buddy]

Buds just harvested his last grow, 1lb+ in the 5 gal bucket. Don't think he did a living soil but the yield was above what he typically gets in his buckets.

My concern with doing this with an organic mix is I don't want it constantly sitting in water. That seems like a bad combination so I went with hydroton clay balls, but I'd imagine perlite or coco would also work for the connecting bridge since any of those handle constant water much better.

Wouldn't SoHum Soil & Re-Charge be considered organic ? If so, we will find out how organic works in water. I didn't add anything in the bottom. It's all soil. I only have one bucket that way, as I wanted to see the difference.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Go check out Octopot. That's how a multi-P system ought to be setup in my opinion, thus far. Could do it outdoors or in, from collected rain or tap. Also, download their user manual for something to lean on when you need to figure something out. People grow soiless, organic, and living soil in those. You can also build one with a single large reservoir by just plopping a 5 gal softpot on top of a 17 gallon tote with lid. attach "wicking foot" to bottom of softpot, hole through tote lid. Bish, bash, bosh. 17 gallon rez SIP with soft pot dendritic root structuring. From what I've seen roots don't fill rez, prefer soil and you gen. speaking you don't need, or want, a huge root system to grow huge trees SIPs. That's a strange paradoxical element, but a routine observation I'm making from many examples around the internet. Different plants, all with smaller roots than growers anticipated, esp. considering huge size of plant they end up with.

 

[Buds Buddy]

nice grow you have going Buds. I didn't read why you're using nutes and not pain water in the sips especially with organic soil..
I was wondering if I should be adding light doses to the bottom water of my swick/wick hybrids and skip the topdress or teas.

The organic bucket only gets Recharge every other feeding at 5 gr. per gal. I'm not using RO Water, just straight from the Tap after it sits 24-48 hours. From what I understand, I have to use ReCharge because of using Tap Water to keep the microbes going.
All the other plants get Mega Crop.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I'm starting to feel like we are hijacking Buds' thread with the design options of these things. His journal is about his grow, not our exploration of the various elements. So, @Buds Buddy just say the word and we can take these tangents over to either my or @ReservoirDog 's thread.

That said, I'll answer a couple here while we wait for Buds to provide direction.


I know, right?! Comfortably over a pound. Was quite a plant.


I built my outside vegetable garden sips with the 4" drainage pipe and it works great. You just need something strong enough to support the weight of wet soil above while also providing for an air gap between the water and the soil, and also some way to bridge the two.

With hers, soil is packed down around the drainage pipe, and her garden cloth placed on top and then soil on top of that. The air gap is made by drilling a hole in the container wall at about 3" from the bottom so that when water is added it only partially fills the pipes. Then, the soil packed around the pipe will absorb and wick the water to the layer above the cloth. I've used sand, hydroton clay balls, etc. but lots of things will work for that connecting material.


Lol. This is yet another design option and is how I build mine. In this one, there is a false floor in the bucket with a 4" pot (tall and wide) in the center filled with the connecting material. The rest of the area below this false floor is the reservoir. It's usually built with two nested buckets, but I had to make do with one because of height issues in my veg space. In this one, again, the hole is made at a level about an inch below the false floor to create the air gap,

I'm enjoying what you guys are saying. Helps me understand these buckets a little more. It's good to see all the variations on how people are doing this. Keep on posting. It's all good & beneficial to all of us learning about these things.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I pulled a little over 20 oz. off one plant on my 1st go at it. I don't expect that every time, but I do think the yields will be bigger than just growing in a fabric pot.

Wow, that's great. Did you use LST or anything like that?

 

[GreenFingaz]

You can easily build your own diy for the cost of a 5 gal bucket with a lid, a 4" plant pot or salsa container, a short section of pvc pipe, and a few drill bits.


A combination. Soil roots above, water roots below.


That seems to depend on your connection medium. I use hydroton clay balls in my connector pot and the water roots completely fill it, but I saw Buds' pic of his recent harvest and the soil roots did seem to stop about at the water line.

Thanks azi think I got it basically same design as the grobucket. So the pot goes inside the bucket upside down have the gap for the pipe pack the soil round the pot and feed the water in from the top?

 

[GreenFingaz]

I'm starting to feel like we are hijacking Buds' thread with the design options of these things. His journal is about his grow, not our exploration of the various elements. So, @Buds Buddy just say the word and we can take these tangents over to either my or @ReservoirDog 's thread.

That said, I'll answer a couple here while we wait for Buds to provide direction.


I know, right?! Comfortably over a pound. Was quite a plant.


I built my outside vegetable garden sips with the 4" drainage pipe and it works great. You just need something strong enough to support the weight of wet soil above while also providing for an air gap between the water and the soil, and also some way to bridge the two.

With hers, soil is packed down around the drainage pipe, and her garden cloth placed on top and then soil on top of that. The air gap is made by drilling a hole in the container wall at about 3" from the bottom so that when water is added it only partially fills the pipes. Then, the soil packed around the pipe will absorb and wick the water to the layer above the cloth. I've used sand, hydroton clay balls, etc. but lots of things will work for that connecting material.


Lol. This is yet another design option and is how I build mine. In this one, there is a false floor in the bucket with a 4" pot (tall and wide) in the center filled with the connecting material. The rest of the area below this false floor is the reservoir. It's usually built with two nested buckets, but I had to make do with one because of height issues in my veg space. In this one, again, the hole is made at a level about an inch below the false floor to create the air gap,

This sounds awesome. Is there any chance of a pictoral on this I sometimes can't picture things in my head lol. Thanks in advance

 

[Buds Buddy]

Wow, that's great. Did you use LST or anything like that?

Yes. I Topped at the 4th Node & removed the bottom 2 nodes, leaving 4 main branches. LST on the 4 main branches.
Same way as in the last pics I posted. A week before the 12/12 flip, I Defol. & remove any small branches I don't want.

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks azi think I got it basically same design as the grobucket. So the pot goes inside the bucket upside down have the gap for the pipe pack the soil round the pot and feed the water in from the top?

We're talking three different designs here. Buds' is the commercial version of the upside down vented dome to create the reservoir, Em's is the drainage pipe to create it, and mine is the false floor with the connector pot right-side up through the false floor into the rez like the Grobucket.

The original design is The Earthbox from many decades ago and the others are all spinoffs of it.

And watering is done from the top through the filler tube to keep from overwatering the soil. I find I do have to top water the soil periodically in my set-up otherwise it starts to pull away from the sidewalls. But my connector pot is different in that I don't use compacted soil like most do.

 

[GreenFingaz]

We're talking three different designs here. Buds' is the commercial version of upside down dome to create the reservoir, Em's is the drainage pipe to create it, and mine is the false floor with the connector pot right-side up through the false floor into the rez like the Grobucket.

The original design is The Earthbox from many decades ago and the others are all spinoffs of it.

Thanks azi I shall explore this masterclass

 

[Azimuth]

Wow, that's great. Did you use LST or anything like that?

@cbdhemp808 , Here's a group shot of Buds' last grow showing the differences in his sip plant compared to others in grow bags. It was with still a couple of months to go, but highlights the material differences between the plants.

And here it is finishing up.

 

[cbdhemp808]

@cbdhemp808 , Here's a group shot of Buds' last grow showing the differences in his sip plant compared to others in grow bags. It was with still a couple of months to go, but highlights the material differences between the plants.

And here it is finishing up.

Oh daaaaaamn! !@&!%&@^

 

[Buds Buddy]

I can't believe how fast these plants are growing. Seems like they're growing 6 inches a day. At this rate I'll be in Flower within 2 weeks. I'm going to wait a couple days to post pics so you will really notice the difference. It's damned near like when I did DWC.
Some of you seen my Testing journal & realize I run higher temps in Veg than most people. I'm usually Vegging in the Mid to High 80's. From what I see doing this, the plants drink more & the plants grow bigger, faster. When I had my RH & Temps all dialed in, as they say, it took twice as long to grow a plant to the size I can grow in just a few weeks with higher Temps. I grow with Mars Hydro LED's though. I wouldn't do this with MH, HPS, CMH, etc.
So I'm running the High Temps again with an RH around 50% in Veg. Once I get to Flower I try to keep things 75 - 82F.
The last 2-3 weeks I'll add AC & bring the Temps down to 68F. I didn't do the AC part on my last grow. But these "Cherry On Top" get a real pretty Red & Purple with the cold.
Anyway, just finished harvesting plant #4 in a row. Getting ready to check the Trichs on the next one. Looks like I have 2 more that should be ready in about 2 weeks. I'll get a short break from trimming at least.

 

[GreenFingaz]

Hey everyone if you would like a better idea of these sip bucket ideas I found a vid on youtube hopefully it helps . It explained tuings a lot easier for me

 

[GreenFingaz]

We're talking three different designs here. Buds' is the commercial version of the upside down vented dome to create the reservoir, Em's is the drainage pipe to create it, and mine is the false floor with the connector pot right-side up through the false floor into the rez like the Grobucket.

The original design is The Earthbox from many decades ago and the others are all spinoffs of it.

And watering is done from the top through the filler tube to keep from overwatering the soil. I find I do have to top water the soil periodically in my set-up otherwise it starts to pull away from the sidewalls. But my connector pot is different in that I don't use compacted soil like most do.

Just coming back to this point.... would top watering last all the way thru veg until the root system is established then watering from the reservoir afterwards?

 

[Azimuth]

Just coming back to this point.... would top watering last all the way thru veg until the root system is established then watering from the reservoir afterwards?

You only need top watering for 1-3 weeks for the roots to find the reservoir, depending on how you design your container.

 

[GreenFingaz]

You only need top watering for 1-3 weeks for the roots to find the reservoir, depending on how you design your container.

So with the setup with the vid I posted and as buds is going about it in a 5 gallon bucket wouldn't it take longer than that for the roots to reach the bottom? Im considering this for the start of next year to try this out and get myself a soil mix so I only have to water and not measure bottled nutes out and ph etc. Thanks azi

 

[Azimuth]

Hey everyone if you would like a better idea of these sip bucket ideas I found a vid on youtube hopefully it helps . It explained tuings a lot easier for me

Thanks for posting this @GreenFingaz ! This is essentially how I built my 2 gal versions, except I had to use a single bucket because of height issues, so I built the false floor from a bucket lid.

I've built three different styles of these containers in 1L, 2G and 17G containers, but most of mine have been the 1L version in clear containers so I could see what was happening with the roots, soil and water. With those I've tried two different set-ups, one I call the "cave" structure similar to the one in the video, and the other I call the "gravel bed" version that more closely matches the commercial version that Buds is using.

I've found with the cave version it takes a lot longer for the roots to engage the water reservoir, but I also don't use soil in the connector cup. I'm going to build a couple of larger 2G versions of the gravel bed structure this weekend to compare with the two cave structure containers I have going in flower now.

But, both structures work great, especially later in flower when water usage increases markedly.

 

[Azimuth]

So with the setup with the vid I posted and as buds is going about it in a 5 gallon bucket wouldn't it take longer than that for the roots to reach the bottom?

I don't follow your question.

I've found the roots from a seedling reach the water quite quickly, usually within the first week or so. For plants that I've converted from an all soil based pot, it took 2-3 weeks for the plant to convert soil roots to water roots, although you probably wouldn't have that issue if you used all soil throughout.

Im considering this for the start of next year to try this out and get myself a soil mix so I only have to water and not measure bottled nutes out and ph etc.

This structure should be thought of as a very effective watering structure, but that is independent of what you use for a medium. Buds is using MC? I believe, but it will also work well with an organic soil. But, either way, you still have to feed it with the stuff you normally would. If you used a Coots mix, or The Rev's organic mix you might be able to get away with just water if your container was large enough, but I don't think a 5G bucket would be.

I think the absolute easiest would be Geoflora and tap water which I think is what Emilya will use for her new SIPs she is building. No pHing, no fussing with worrying about chlorine etc.

But, lots of media will work. I have yet to find an account of someone who was dissapointed with their results using these things.

 

[GreenFingaz]

Thanks for posting this @GreenFingaz ! This is essentially how I built my 2 gal versions, except I had to use a single bucket because of height issues, so I built the false floor from a bucket lid.

I've built three different styles of these containers in 1L, 2G and 17G containers, but most of mine have been the 1L version in clear containers so I could see what was happening with the roots, soil and water. With those I've tried two different set-ups, one I call the "cave" structure similar to the one in the video, and the other I call the "gravel bed" version that more closely matches the commercial version that Buds is using.

I've found with the cave version it takes a lot longer for the roots to engage the water reservoir, but I also don't use soil in the connector cup. I'm going to build a couple of larger 2G versions of the gravel bed structure this weekend to compare with the two cave structure containers I have going in flower now.

But, both structures work great, especially later in flower when water usage increases markedly.

Nice one azi they sound awesome could you take pics when you do it too that would be great. Im thinking possibly for my 3rd grow im guna grab some equipment and try it out. Is there a lot more top watering with the cave version? Im just trying to cut out me overwatering or underwatering lol my life is that busy [kids] i can't think strate most days and always in a hurry lol. Thanks again buddy