Sub-irrigation Ideas...?

[ThePhiloStoned]

I need some ideas, tips, best practices, etc. for ways to sub-irrigate this roughly 30" × 36" SoG I'm going to be running next...I've no idea the plant count yet, could be anywhere from 81 Solo cups to 6 Fifteen gallon fabric pots (depends on the amount of clones I can harvest & successfully root from these two mother's I'll be topping drastically, soon)...it will be organic living soil w/ organic nutes & lots of regular microbes (alá ReCharge, Mammoth P, compost teas, etc.)

I once saw those guy build a bed with grow bags in it & pea gravel, with a float valve assembly that would fertigate the bed to only an inch in water level, and only refill as the plants/soil/bags "drank" the nutrient water...now that seems a little too involved for this closet grow...I also remember the Earth Boxes having a manual overflow spout/hole that came from the concealed gallon reservoir underneath the planter, so you could completely displace the reservoir with fresh, non-stagnant, nutrient water regularly...however something of that sort would cause a whole host of other secondary drainage issues that might require some kind of larger drain tray that catches said runoff.

Anyway, I need an idea that does not require a in-depth build (like a concealed float valve within an analogue water chamber controling an elevated reservoir) or using the shopvac on a ton of standing water post feed or dealing a ton of runoff to manage. The person that helps me with this grow, that is there to man the grow far more than I, is handicapped and cannot be top watering 81 separate Solo cups by hand, she needs the ability to water the whole grow fairly simultaneously without much due effort on her part.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[Legalcdn]

Google Alaska grow buckets.. you can connect lots of sub irrigated bucjets..auto watering too.

 

[Legalcdn]

Also checkout blumat trop system.

 

[CrushnYuba]

What about sub surface dripline?

Bury it in your beds. Not sure why you specifically want it. You can plumb it like a grid and then cover it in soil. I would use the emitter every 6" line and stagger it.

 

[ThePhiloStoned]

Google Alaska grow buckets.. you can connect lots of sub irrigated bucjets..auto watering too.

Oh shit, I've seen those before, always wondered what they were called...I even heard of someone making a modified version for a singular bucket, where you displace the reservoir every few days, and fill the rez with a vermicu-perlite mix or coco-perlite mix (similar to a hempy bucket...adding some biochar would help populate bennie-microbes down there too) then the fabric bag wicks fertigated-fluid through the perlite rez...the guys grow looked vigorous af for very little irrigation labor.

P.S.: I could be mistaken, but I believe I heard Scotty Real of the Dude Grows Show mention using a similar setup, a modified Alaska/Hempy Bucket setup.

 

[CrushnYuba]

I wonder why small pot growers are so against using standard agriculture stuff. So hell bent on recreating the wheel and mcguyvering.

 

[Legalcdn]

I personally went organic soil the first 4 grows to get my feet wet.. i pulled about 3 oz per plant i gave 2 friends sub irrigated buckets for outdoor..they grew trees.. i am trying coco now.. and 2 promix hand water with megacrop..

What do you consider agri stuff?

 

[one Q]

I wonder why small pot growers are so against using standard agriculture stuff. So hell bent on recreating the wheel and mcguyvering.

most likely to not pay the cost of turn key systems.

 

[Legalcdn]

Turn key = premium..over priced..for a small pot grower.. i like to figure things out..

 

[CrushnYuba]

I'm not talking about some expensive hydro store turnkey thing. I'm talking about every day hardware store stuff for landscaping and vegetable gardens.

Drip equipment is sold everywhere.

 

[Legalcdn]

I'm not talking about some expensive hydro store turnkey thing. I'm talking about every day hardware store stuff for landscaping and vegetable gardens.

Drip equipment is sold everywhere.

I can only grow indoor due to other factors..
Well..i am in the midst of getting a drip system for my coco.. any info you have would be appreciated.. pm me.. any help is better than no help.. thinking of 400gph sub pump..to pvc manifold..to drippers or open ends with valve?

 

[ThePhiloStoned]

I wonder why small pot growers are so against using standard agriculture stuff. So hell bent on recreating the wheel and mcguyvering.

Why exactly is a SIP system reinventing the wheel? I like SIP more than drip, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel...both are very well established practices.

 

[CrushnYuba]

I'm not singling you out. I am saying in General small cannabis growers make things more complicated then they have to be.

What are you trying to accomplish? What is the easiest, cheapest, most reliable way to do it? What you are describing sounds overly complicated and just doesn't seem like plants are going to love it.


It just doesn't make allot of sense to me. You want to have an inch of standing water? How are you expecting the rest of the soil to get water? You think the organic soil it's going to wick it up? It won't really. And the standing water at the bottom is a recipe for disease.

You want to have a grow space that it doesn't matter how many plants you run? Build a bed. Lay some drip line over it. Plant however many plants You want.

 

[thailer]

i have an auto top off sub-irrigated planters that i love. it was totally worth the extra effort to make the system, but if you just want to use it for one run, there's a system called SWICK which works similar to SIPs. its super simple to set up and only works with small containers like five gallons and below.

basically you get a container like a shallow pan or tote. you place 3" of perlite in it and an inch of water. you will need fabric pots to put your living soil in for this to work. now take you potted plant and put in on the perlite making sure to push id down a little so about an inch of perlite covers the bottom of the pot and ensures that the perlite has contact. now water you plant so the soil is fully saturated and you get a little run off. the perlite will wick moisture from the water line, up through the perlite into the fabric bag and keep the soil moist. all you have to do is make sure that water stays in the reservoir. if it or the soil dries out, you'll need to get it moist again so the wicking action will work right.

 

[ThePhiloStoned]

What are you trying to accomplish? What is the easiest, cheapest, most reliable way to do it? What you are describing sounds overly complicated and just doesn't seem like plants are going to love it.


It just doesn't make allot of sense to me. You want to have an inch of standing water? How are you expecting the rest of the soil to get water? You think the organic soil it's going to wick it up? It won't really. And the standing water at the bottom is a recipe for disease.

I am severely confused as to why you think SIP systems don't work? Earthboxes have been around forever, and perform excellently, and are Sub-Irrigated Planters that have several inches of a water reservoir & a 1- inch air gap, it uses soil & soil-only as the wicking mechanism and the plants get fed on-demand via capillary-action...the only difference between that & the floater-valve design is that the it feeds the reservoir automatically from a larger reservoir...Sub-Irrigation is just as valid a horticultural application as top fed drippers and I'm completely sure why you do not realize that.

On the subject of this thread I decided to go with a couple DIY Earthbox planters made from 30-gallon totes that hold ~gallons of soil per planter.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Its not that i don't believe you can grow a plant with it. I just haven't seen them work that well. It doesn't seem like the upper layer of soil really gets that wet. I tried mulching and preventing evaporation. The bottom layers stay soggy. Plands didn't develope the feeder root system that did with top feed and growth just wasn't as fast. With top feed, you get full saturation and then a dry out period that forces oxygen in. Plants establish root systems faster with dry cycles. I just don't see it as ideal.