Hey all, first off great show! Gets me through my day. I was wondering if anyone out in DGC land had some tips on a sub irrigated planter/hempy.
My current set up Is 2 bags of roots organic soil, top dressed twice and fed lots of mammoth p + recharge. I am under a luminus gen 4 cob @100 watts in 3500k temp. I gave it too much nitrogen, and plan on starting over as soon as both the photo and auto finish. Watering has been my biggest hang up, generally just not enough to soak the whole pot @1 gallon, but a little run off @ 2.5 gallons now that I stepped it up. But as I’m on carpet controlling run off is a huge deal to me right now. A SIP with a single drain hole is really appealing to me.
My thought is to mix another batch. This time coco and geoflora nutes for my base, with a 1/3 aeration and 1/3 compost. Fill the bottom 4 inches with grow stone and perlite, with a hole 3″s from the bottom hempy style and a single drain hole I can run a tube from to a decent bucket for catching overflow on watering. I plane to use a PVC pipe to the bottom for filling. I plan to plant 3 autos in the bed, from peat plugs and will top dress and water as necessary. Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea?
My main concerns are the few inches of water go bad, there wont be enough oxygen in the root zone, and top dressing might not be as effective.
Thanks for the help, much love, Mr.Evergreen. ( included is a pic of current low budget setup.)
Check out the earthtainer and raybos 321 mix. In that design the drain hole is lower than the platform the soil sits on to allow a layer of air all along the bottom of the soil. Also, the mix is 2/3 aeration (using perlite as 1/3 and partially composted pine bark fines as 1/3) so that it does not stay too wet. Also, there is a plastic much layer so that the soil will stay consistently moist and the microbes in the dry fertilizer, like biolive, can do their job efficiently and top dressing works great. I ran a few of these I built myself and it was so easy and had to be some of the best plants I’ve grown.
Awesome! Thanks doc, I really appreciate the input! I’m definitely going to do some thinking on it. I haven’t totally ruled out a blumat type situation either, as the cost is looking about the same as an earthbox. I know there is a potential for run away, but I’m sure I can mitigate that. When watering an earthbox/SIP, do you stop as soon as you get some run off? Or is it better to over fill a bit to let some water flow up, and then drain out?
(As a side note, I didn’t think this posted as I was having some wierd internet issues apparently. I hope I didn’t just spam the entire message board)
The blumat system would be awesome as well! I believe some sip designs include a long tube held vertically on one end to indicate water level in order to avoid overfilling. JustCoolin reminded me of Larry Hall’s rain gutter grow system. It’s basically a few buckets of soil on a rain gutter that has been modified to hold water with float valve on one end that fills the gutter when the plants take up the water. This allows a single reservoir to water a number of plants instead of having to build individual reservoirs for each. It will make more sense when you YouTube it. Good luck!
Ive attached a bigger tube to a side smaller bucket instead of just a small drain tube. Use rain barrel connectors. This way i could see the water level, fill the bucket instead of the tub, and you could easily hook up a float valve to auto fill it to a certain height. I threw an air stone in the side bucket but just because i had one. Not required as the water won’t last long. The mulch is key in keeping top layer moist but bigger risk of fungus gnats. Earth box uses a sheet of plastic to cover their sip style bucket. Also earthworms will help bring the top dressed nutrients into the mix.
Good luck with SIP, I’ve had exceptional results with an earthbox style planter. Two very important aspects of using an earthbox or similar style planter: plain, pure water in the reservoir and nutrient trenches. I can’t stress those enough.
I make my own with a 14 gallon soil tote that fits inside an 18 gallon reservoir tote. I use a base soil (pro mix)mixed with compost and other things, on the surface, and always use a dry organic mix in my trenches. And never add nutrients to my reservoir.
SIP’s seem to be making a comeback and in the near future I will post my method.
Look up earthbox on YouTube, the old timer who invented them gives some short talks on how to use them.
Good luck!
Subirrigation is my grow style as well with coco autohempys with a growstone layer in the bottom, but your setup is a bit different in that you are only adding water to the bottom layer via top watering. I am currently running synthetic nutrients that I bring from a reservoir to the bottom layer via a control bucket/float valve that maintains a 1.5″ liquid level in the 2″ of growstones and a half inch air layer to insure the media isn’t sitting in standing water (IMPORTANT!). The liquid wicks up through the growstones by capillary action, past the air layer, and into the media. I have no overflow hole. I have done pretty well with this setup, but want to switch it to organics, more specifically a no-till bed. I’m going to replace the coco with build a soil oly blend premix and subirrigate with plain water in the rez. I will also top water at least once a week with a tea or recharge, to pull the top dressings down into the media. Plus, I will add worms and mulch and let them work the amendments down that way as well.
But to address your concern about the liquid going stagnant, as long as your “hempy hole” is at the top of the stone/perlite layer (NOT at the bottom of the soil layer) then you will have an air layer at the top of your stone layer that will keep your roots from drowning while wicking the liquid through… If the liquid level is set too high and allowed to directly reach the media and settle out, it renders the whole hempy setup useless and will be like setting traditionally potted plants in a giant puddle of water… and we all know that cannabis hates getting wet feet!
Whoa! Thanks for this amazing info all. @sircoughsalot, that sound exactly what I think I will be trying in the coming weeks, minus the worms at this time. As soon as my auto finishes, this bed will dumped out and I’ll build my new one. I’ve been working on a soil recipe with someone local for myself that will be peat based and I’m very excited to see what happens.
I think I’ll re use this container as a control with blu mats and fresh soil eventually as a comparison for myself and I hate the idea of wasting a perfectly good “pot” too.
Thanks again everyone for the awesome input!