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NoobwannaB's Fabric Pot SIP method (works with hard pots too)
- Thread starter noobwannaB
- Start date
radmichelle
New member
I know this post is a bit out of date but I just want to express my excitement in trying this growing medium out, i'm about to transplant some new clones and final pot some teens, and was considering buying some smart pots instead of the traditional nursery pots when I stumbled upon this thread. I was wondering, i'm still researching more but I see this focuses on organic soil with requirements of water only through the wicking of the smart pots... and I did see you mentioned taking out the pots from the system to add nutes and occasionally flush...
I usually run a FF or GH line on my plants, but was considering slowly moving into organics this run, (i'm on a 4 week perpetual) would you say I could use some FF soils mixture and maybe some "teas" as a feeding and top water method, that's all i'm kind of hung up on right now is how am I going to feed as i'm not too familiar (yet) with the organic teas.
anywho off I go to research more, learning all I can till payday lol, I wanted to do a side by side comparison of my plants so i'm pretty stoken on this. thanks again
I usually run a FF or GH line on my plants, but was considering slowly moving into organics this run, (i'm on a 4 week perpetual) would you say I could use some FF soils mixture and maybe some "teas" as a feeding and top water method, that's all i'm kind of hung up on right now is how am I going to feed as i'm not too familiar (yet) with the organic teas.
anywho off I go to research more, learning all I can till payday lol, I wanted to do a side by side comparison of my plants so i'm pretty stoken on this. thanks again
Update on the Grocery bags; They held up well,,, until I went to empty the dirt and rootballs out.
The fold that got major UV exposure from the sun deteriorated quite a bit. When I went to pick up the almost dry rootball, the top 2-3 inches of the bag just ripped off. So they are indeed not reusable in this context.
Grocery bags are good for one run and done. So I think we're back to either Smart Pots or landscaper cloth,,, maybe.
I'm looking forward to everyone's results on those.
The fold that got major UV exposure from the sun deteriorated quite a bit. When I went to pick up the almost dry rootball, the top 2-3 inches of the bag just ripped off. So they are indeed not reusable in this context.
Grocery bags are good for one run and done. So I think we're back to either Smart Pots or landscaper cloth,,, maybe.
I'm looking forward to everyone's results on those.
noobwannaB
Member
The DIY landscape fabric smartie I used worked flawlessly! Held up well and ready for the next round
Thx for the update Noob....
I even dug out an old roll of landscape fabric, for the next run.
I even dug out an old roll of landscape fabric, for the next run.
noobwannaB
Member
Hey Seaf0ur
I try to stop by whenever I get an email saying there's a new post
Not frequenting any boards lately...grow room is shut down waiting on friendly legislation (VERY 'cautious' spouse) and lots of winter projects to keep me busy.
tejashidrow
Active member
Hi
This is excellent!1
Ii have been doing a mud bucket with cocoir forever and time to change!!
Next run using your sip, in a BIG kitty litter tray, 3 fabric planters using age old organics nutes.
Miracle grow organic potting mix for container growing, with added worm castings, and mychrozzia (sp?)
THANKS!!
Cant wait to get this rolling!!
PEACE!!!
This is excellent!1
Ii have been doing a mud bucket with cocoir forever and time to change!!
Next run using your sip, in a BIG kitty litter tray, 3 fabric planters using age old organics nutes.
Miracle grow organic potting mix for container growing, with added worm castings, and mychrozzia (sp?)
THANKS!!
Cant wait to get this rolling!!
PEACE!!!
I suck at soil... this definitely looks interesting though.
As long as there's landscape fabric covering any potential perlite dust sources... I'd call it a win.
Keep it Clean!
As long as there's landscape fabric covering any potential perlite dust sources... I'd call it a win.
Keep it Clean!
i had this same idea only with air-pots or rootmaker pots.
i've been wracking my brain to try and figure out how to do recycled/no til soil while still doing sub-irrigation...
i'm probably just being anal as all get out, but, this was more or less where i came to, this same conclusion put forth in this thread.
however, i know soil, know soil reeally well, in nature we have all the depth roots need, not so much indoors, not to mention area for mico life to make it happen...
hmm... maybe impossible to have the best of all worlds, root pruning, SIP, and no til.... ugh...
my first thought is just to say screw it, sub-irrigate in a 40 gallon tote and call it a day and forget trying to work with root constriction... hmm..
see, the idea i had in my head was to use a roll of air-pot material and run it in a like 4x2' area and put a bed of fired clay down in a tray, felt material in the bottom of the air pot barrier between the fired clay and that would at least keep roots from circling, but i'd never be able to deal with anything coming out the bottom...
i'm over thinking this...
wwwhhhhyyy ccann'tt ii haavee peerfeecttioonn... xD
i've been wracking my brain to try and figure out how to do recycled/no til soil while still doing sub-irrigation...
i'm probably just being anal as all get out, but, this was more or less where i came to, this same conclusion put forth in this thread.
however, i know soil, know soil reeally well, in nature we have all the depth roots need, not so much indoors, not to mention area for mico life to make it happen...
hmm... maybe impossible to have the best of all worlds, root pruning, SIP, and no til.... ugh...
my first thought is just to say screw it, sub-irrigate in a 40 gallon tote and call it a day and forget trying to work with root constriction... hmm..
see, the idea i had in my head was to use a roll of air-pot material and run it in a like 4x2' area and put a bed of fired clay down in a tray, felt material in the bottom of the air pot barrier between the fired clay and that would at least keep roots from circling, but i'd never be able to deal with anything coming out the bottom...
i'm over thinking this...
wwwhhhhyyy ccann'tt ii haavee peerfeecttioonn... xD
tejashidrow
Active member
i have a 24 x 18 inch flowering chamber flowering Reddy1 ChemDog x M.A.T.
I went ahead and am doing three 2 gallon smart pots in a extra large kitty litter tray i got from petsmart, using a basic organic soil mix for newbies mix i made.
(i am going with Lady Bug Vortex Soil Next time...)
The bottom inch or so of the kitty litter tray is filled with vermiculite because i didn't have enough perilite to fill the tray and had some vermiculite laying around also. I DIDNOT mix the two. Layered first the vermiculite then topped with perilite.
I used a heavy duty BLACK garbage bag as a perilite cover, cutting it to fit to cover the perilite in tray and cutting holes for the smart pots to sit on.
****TIP****** If using a nonporous perilite overlay as i do (i.e. black garbage bag) cut the holes that the smart pots sit on 25-40% SMALLER than the smart pots. This kinda throttles down the moisture wicking up. I found i was getting TOO MUCH moisture for my soil, and you can always enlarge the holes if your results differ from mine.
With my smart pots in place you cannot see any white from the perilite.
I then BOTTOM FEED through my watering port (I.E. water bottle with a red party cup covering it) once a week with Old Age Organics Bloom mixed with rain water at a rate of 1-3 teaspoons per gallon (the tray holds a gallon) This is a weak mix more akin to a Tea.
All i use is Old Age Organics Bloom NO OTHER ADDITIVES
I did get a rash of fungus nats but that's cuz i was TOP FEEDING... Once i stopped top feeding the top soil dried and all the nats died.... (YIPPEEE!!!)
I went with a NONPOROUS perilite tray cover (black plastic bag) to try to cut down on the evaporation of the liquid and lower the humidity in my cab to lessen chance of mold.
AND , i can LEAVE the chamber for at LEAST 2 weeks UNATTENDED if need be.
I still need to tweek a couple things but this may be the way i go from hydro hempy to a organic soil grow.
Be Kool....
I went ahead and am doing three 2 gallon smart pots in a extra large kitty litter tray i got from petsmart, using a basic organic soil mix for newbies mix i made.
(i am going with Lady Bug Vortex Soil Next time...)
The bottom inch or so of the kitty litter tray is filled with vermiculite because i didn't have enough perilite to fill the tray and had some vermiculite laying around also. I DIDNOT mix the two. Layered first the vermiculite then topped with perilite.
I used a heavy duty BLACK garbage bag as a perilite cover, cutting it to fit to cover the perilite in tray and cutting holes for the smart pots to sit on.
****TIP****** If using a nonporous perilite overlay as i do (i.e. black garbage bag) cut the holes that the smart pots sit on 25-40% SMALLER than the smart pots. This kinda throttles down the moisture wicking up. I found i was getting TOO MUCH moisture for my soil, and you can always enlarge the holes if your results differ from mine.
With my smart pots in place you cannot see any white from the perilite.
I then BOTTOM FEED through my watering port (I.E. water bottle with a red party cup covering it) once a week with Old Age Organics Bloom mixed with rain water at a rate of 1-3 teaspoons per gallon (the tray holds a gallon) This is a weak mix more akin to a Tea.
All i use is Old Age Organics Bloom NO OTHER ADDITIVES
I did get a rash of fungus nats but that's cuz i was TOP FEEDING... Once i stopped top feeding the top soil dried and all the nats died.... (YIPPEEE!!!)
I went with a NONPOROUS perilite tray cover (black plastic bag) to try to cut down on the evaporation of the liquid and lower the humidity in my cab to lessen chance of mold.
AND , i can LEAVE the chamber for at LEAST 2 weeks UNATTENDED if need be.
I still need to tweek a couple things but this may be the way i go from hydro hempy to a organic soil grow.
Be Kool....
tejashidrow
Active member
From What i read...
MOST ALL the living soil things are concentrated in the root ball. so even if you have a SMALL container the root ball will still have a micro nursery.
If you don't have to move the pots don't worry about the roots coming out.
Smart pots are supposed to stop root circling
Don't sweat about the roots Let em do there thing and just give em a good home to ... Well you know. Lay Down Thier roots.
BUT in my opinion.. a 2 gallon pot is the minimum size because much smaller and your turning it into a mud bucket/hydro hybrid... In my opinion..peace out
Rocketman64
Member
a couple suggestions
a couple suggestions
I, too use a similar wicking system for my plants. I do things a bit different but the concept is nearly the same. I stole the general idea from Delta9's PPK system. Using a wick protruding from the bottom of my planters inserted into a tray of water or in my case a small container allows the plant to use just what it needs without ever top-watering. There are a couple very important forces at work here. The most import is hydraulic pressure created by keeping the water level below the planter at the proper level (or somewhere close). The wick is using it's capillary action to move water up while gravity is pulling down. The higher the level of water in the lower reservoir, the lower the pressure. Lower water levels allows more water to be pulled down by gravity. That's a very brief explanation of what is actually happening. The idea is to reach a balance between the capillary action of the wicking from the wick as well as the grow medium and gravity pulling water down the wick. My wick is a rolled up microfiber towel rolled to be about 1.5" thick for a 1 gallon pot. Smaller for smaller pots, obviously. The wick sticks in the lower reservoir aprox. 4" and an air gap between the bottom of the pot and the surface of the water in the reservoir is 2.5" Perhaps the most important feature of this type of wicking is the removal of the perched water table from the root zone. This keeps roots moist without drowning the roots and will never dry out providing you keep the reservoir at it's proper level. There's many ways to achieve the constant level in the reservoir including using a float valve to a larger holding tank to deliver water just when it's needed. Trays didn't work for me because they aren't deep enough to cause the hydraulic effect we're after. A container taller than wider seems to work better. As far as root pruning goes: I use MicroKote on all my pots and have never, ever had a root spin-out problem. This is a coating that chemically prunes the roots as they reach the sides of the containers. It's a latex-based material, water soluble and goes a long way. Here's a link to the product:
http://www.microkote.com/shop/microkote-liquid-8oz/
If anybody is interested I can post a couple pics to clear things up. Didn't mean to hijak the thread, just wanted to add to an already interesting method of growing.
a couple suggestions
I, too use a similar wicking system for my plants. I do things a bit different but the concept is nearly the same. I stole the general idea from Delta9's PPK system. Using a wick protruding from the bottom of my planters inserted into a tray of water or in my case a small container allows the plant to use just what it needs without ever top-watering. There are a couple very important forces at work here. The most import is hydraulic pressure created by keeping the water level below the planter at the proper level (or somewhere close). The wick is using it's capillary action to move water up while gravity is pulling down. The higher the level of water in the lower reservoir, the lower the pressure. Lower water levels allows more water to be pulled down by gravity. That's a very brief explanation of what is actually happening. The idea is to reach a balance between the capillary action of the wicking from the wick as well as the grow medium and gravity pulling water down the wick. My wick is a rolled up microfiber towel rolled to be about 1.5" thick for a 1 gallon pot. Smaller for smaller pots, obviously. The wick sticks in the lower reservoir aprox. 4" and an air gap between the bottom of the pot and the surface of the water in the reservoir is 2.5" Perhaps the most important feature of this type of wicking is the removal of the perched water table from the root zone. This keeps roots moist without drowning the roots and will never dry out providing you keep the reservoir at it's proper level. There's many ways to achieve the constant level in the reservoir including using a float valve to a larger holding tank to deliver water just when it's needed. Trays didn't work for me because they aren't deep enough to cause the hydraulic effect we're after. A container taller than wider seems to work better. As far as root pruning goes: I use MicroKote on all my pots and have never, ever had a root spin-out problem. This is a coating that chemically prunes the roots as they reach the sides of the containers. It's a latex-based material, water soluble and goes a long way. Here's a link to the product:
http://www.microkote.com/shop/microkote-liquid-8oz/
If anybody is interested I can post a couple pics to clear things up. Didn't mean to hijak the thread, just wanted to add to an already interesting method of growing.
tejashidrow
Active member
I have done some excellent runs with this setup.
But now I want to change mutes from old age bloom to something else.......
Any ideas??
But now I want to change mutes from old age bloom to something else.......
Any ideas??
tejashidrow
Active member
A also
Do you think coco will work with this system.?
Do you think coco will work with this system.?
tejashidrow
Active member
Bump
Well going on my 3rd run with the smartpot sip system
I went down to a 1 gallon smart pots with the medium being 50/50 coco perilite.
This is great as a passive hydro!!
My next run will be auto flower in smart pot sip in 3 gallon smart pots
Organic living soil.
Will keep those abreast that are interested
Pax
Well going on my 3rd run with the smartpot sip system
I went down to a 1 gallon smart pots with the medium being 50/50 coco perilite.
This is great as a passive hydro!!
My next run will be auto flower in smart pot sip in 3 gallon smart pots
Organic living soil.
Will keep those abreast that are interested
Pax
Last edited:
keingrower
New member
great thread!!
I had some perlite and some plants (in hardpots and in smart pots). so why not trying that out. I will keep them in 1 gal smarties till I go in flower with them. then pot up in 3gal and I plan to use this SIP method up to harvest.
no nutes added to the reservoir. only RO water
I had some perlite and some plants (in hardpots and in smart pots). so why not trying that out. I will keep them in 1 gal smarties till I go in flower with them. then pot up in 3gal and I plan to use this SIP method up to harvest.
no nutes added to the reservoir. only RO water
