You Gotta SIP, Not Slurp

I top water in the feed / nutes during the grow cycle, after loading the soil up initially and after each run.

My waterfall SIP system just works. Super easy, and I can leave for a few days and it runs by itself. The 10 gallon bags are still liftable and there is no fooling with the wick after a run. Just take the bag off the wick and put another on for the next run.

flylowgethigh said:

I top water in the feed / nutes during the grow cycle, after loading the soil up initially and after each run.

My waterfall SIP system just works. Super easy, and I can leave for a few days and it runs by itself. The 10 gallon bags are still liftable and there is no fooling with the wick after a run. Just take the bag off the wick and put another on for the next run.

Click to expand...

U remove the root matter in the perlite zone?

I ran three walmart mainstays 17 gal keg buckets, with i think was a 15 gal fabric pot only filled to 10 gal. i was happy with them, an i know i could have done better with addition of a aerated lower water table with nutrient, an the top zone setup with blumats instead of hand watering.

this last run ive spent some time thinking about the sip setups an adapting something for the angles i wish to incorporate. Simplicity an functionalism. a hybrid organic soil upper and a lower zone with an aerated mineral nutrient mix.

Well, simplicity i guess is a perspective. in a weeks time i would like to share.

i still need to figure out a way to get an approx conversion of media water content saturation percent to millibar. I just got a blumat digital water meter. from my previous experience with trolmaster water content saturation meters, in my head i am stuck on wc% an not mbar. example say 5mbar equals 95% wc saturation of media. 300mbar means 0% wc of media, etc etc. i will learn

The water roots usually come out with the bag. I have a 7 gallon plastic pan to set the bag with the dangling roots and attached perlite in to when I remove the bag. Helps reduce the mess. I make sure there is enough wick height above the ‘waterline’, about 2-3 inches, so there is an air gap. This run I also have perlite about 1/3 up the sides of the bag to help the roots.

A 10 gallon bag of moist soil is all I want to lift from the back of the 4x4 tent. The bags of used soil are dumped into a soil bin, re-amended, and the soil reused.

flylowgethigh said:

The water roots usually come out with the bag. I have a 7 gallon plastic pan to set the bag with the dangling roots and attached perlite in to when I remove the bag. Helps reduce the mess. I make sure there is enough wick height above the ‘waterline’, about 2-3 inches, so there is an air gap. This run I also have perlite about 1/3 up the sides of the bag to help the roots.

A 10 gallon bag of moist soil is all I want to lift from the back of the 4x4 tent. The bags of used soil are dumped into a soil bin, re-amended, and the soil reused.

Click to expand...

Today I top watered in some molasses and flower feed. Adding water on top of the soil in the bags pushes the moisture in there down into the perlite wick bed. I can remove a plug that separates the inside and outside of my SIP control bucket, which lets the water in my tubs drain down and get pumped out. Instead of returning the water to the reservoir I pump it into a carboy and dump it on the garden.

Since my system keeps new fresh aerated water going into the tubs, the water in there stays clean smelling. I tried a stagnant SIP when I was growing the hazes and that water would stink up. Being able to pump the tubs out allows fresh water to replace it, and gets rid of the veg nutes that may have washed down. I think the oxygen in my reservoir water is important, plus it stops the stink.

This system is easy and it works. Picking up the used 10 gallon bags of soil and dumping them back in my soil tubs is easy, and the soil is recharged with amendments and recycled.