Anyone ever grown in Earthtainers?

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Chocolateak47

Active Member
What's up RIU?!
So I'm looking for a way to automate watering in the indoor garden. First I was looking into top feed drip systems but what I'm really looking for is simplicity. Something gravity fed or self feeding like an earthtainer seems ideal. The less moving parts the better!
So as I dig deeper, SIPs are really catching my eye. So if anyone has insight to growing cannabis in SIPs or Earthtainers, can you give me some insight and advice on how it's working for you?
 
Wickedkultivator

Wickedkultivator

Active Member
I used sip beds for awhile but switched to gravity fed blumat drippers and will never look back. They seem complicated but are very simple.
 
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Chocolateak47

Active Member
Hey! I appreciate the response!!! Awesome man! I have looked into blumats and I was also very close to throwing money at autopots. That's what led me to DIY SIPs in the first place.

My only concern about blumats is there's someone on this forum or one of the other grow forums that had to replace his whole ceiling because a blumat got stuck open. I then read a few others who had runaway blumats. That scares me because my grow is on the second floor.

What was your experience with SIPs?

Also, I'm growing in 50/50 coco/perlite mix. That is another big reason I'm leaning towards a SIP. Take advatage of the possible hydro growth rates by letting the coco wick as much as it wants. Because right now I only had water and this is my first grow in coco so I'm not very good at being keen to how closely I can feed them back to back. So I don't feel like I'm feeding them as much as I could.

Thanks for your reply and your time!
 
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Chocolateak47

Active Member
Also, I am currently running Reno nutrients for the first time and they are kinda salt heavy which I am fine with, but I heard that heavy salts are what lead to blumats getting stuck open.
 
Wickedkultivator

Wickedkultivator

Active Member
My experience is all organic with sips and my blumats are only seeing plain water. So I don't have any experience in that. To be honest I think if you are running Coco you should probably do a dripper system with drain to waste. I think you will run into issues with the salts in your sip res. The great thing about top feeding coco is any excess drainage is flushing those extra salts from the media. If there are any other questions I can answer please feel free to ask.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
I use SIPs and will never go back! There is a SIP thread on here with a lot of good people. I actually built Intainers which are just a smaller version of earthtainers. I love that I can actually do things like go on vacation and not have to worry about something breaking for my watering system (since no moving parts or pumps) and killing my plants and possibly causing damage to my grow space.
 
Wickedkultivator

Wickedkultivator

Active Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
I use SIPs and will never go back! There is a SIP thread on here with a lot of good people. I actually built Intainers which are just a smaller version of earthtainers. I love that I can actually do things like go on vacation and not have to worry about something breaking for my watering system (since no moving parts or pumps) and killing my plants and possibly causing damage to my grow space.
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No doubt they were simple. In my setup I like to keep the top of the soil moist for the microbes and worms. When I ran the sip I would end up hand watering the top of the soil to keep everything alive and working. I wish I could go on vacation haha.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Wickedkultivator said:
No doubt they were simple. In my setup I like to keep the top of the soil moist for the microbes and worms. When I ran the sip I would end up hand watering the top of the soil to keep everything alive and working. I wish I could go on vacation haha.
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well vacation usually is just like an hour drive to sit on a lake but hey its something! Any organic live soil mix should always me somewhat moist to ensure the microbes stay active. Personally I use mulch on the top of my inntainers (this time I am trying out leaves to simulate cover in a forest) I do moisten them and will water lightly with teas from the top. Just top watering lightly though as you don't want to get drainage into your rez imo.
 
Wickedkultivator

Wickedkultivator

Active Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
well vacation usually is just like an hour drive to sit on a lake but hey its something! Any organic live soil mix should always me somewhat moist to ensure the microbes stay active. Personally I use mulch on the top of my inntainers (this time I am trying out leaves to simulate cover in a forest) I do moisten them and will water lightly with teas from the top. Just top watering lightly though as you don't want to get drainage into your rez imo.
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I've used hardwood mulch, fan leaves, alfalfa, and gnatnix. I now use a mix of the three and cover that with the gnatnix. Also I have a cover crop! I agree completely that you don't want any run off in your res.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
huh interesting i had never heard of gnatnix I will look into it. Luckily I have not had issues with gnats before and use diatomaceous earth on top in case i do see unwanted critters
 
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Chocolateak47

Active Member
I understand your concerns about salt build up in the coco and that may be something that I have to figure out how to deal with, whether it be having to flush my media and drain the rez or figure something else out but I don't think running a SIP with coco is guaranteed to fail.
Also, I have also read from plenty of coco growers that salt build up is only something that you need to be concerned with if you let the media dry out too much.
Being that I am running 50/50 coco/perlite I don't think I have to worry about t staying too wet, that's kinda the point isn't it? The hydroponic growth rates from the coco being able to stay saturated and still provide enough oxygen to my roots?
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
coco isn't a hydroponic medium, its a soil-less medium. people call it hydro, but it isn't, and if you treat it like one, you'll figure that out yourself, soon enough.
the growers who aren't having problems with salt build up because their coco never drys out? it never dries out because they're using a drain to waste system, daily. which washes the salts out. daily.
people generally use 50/50 coco/perlite in hempy bucket type set ups, which are the pinnacle of drain to waste....the act of watering from the top pulls air down into the coco with the water, which forces out old, de-oxygenated water from the reservoir. sips aren't going to do that. try it and see, then let us know how it works.
 
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Chocolateak47

Active Member
Can you post picture and the design of your inntainers so I can have a look?

Thanks everyone for the input! It's greatly appreciated!

Okay so I'm still trying to figure this out then. Here are the issues I am having with figuring out a drip system. I really want it to be as simple as possible. If I can run it completely gravity fed that's ideal.

The things im struggling to work out with a drip system:
-I bought a cheap aquarium pump to theoretically move the water from a res down drip lines and started messing around with a setup. The issue was I need a pump and then I need a timer and then I have to figure out how long to turn the pump on for and how many times a day and then if I have plants in different size containers or different stages of life it complicates how much time to drip for the different aged plants and deprecate rez for different nutrient solutions. Whereas a self contained SIP I can cater to the individual plants rez.
- another issues I was running into was my pump wouldn't move water after it got down below about an inch in my rez so then I am wasting nutrients and having to mix to account for the bottom inch of waste. Maybe I'm just using the wrong parts but I guess that's the point of this thread. I need lots of help and I appreciate every si for one of you stepping up.

If a SIP is a bad idea can someone help me with a link to a simple drip system or a drip system design thread? I just want it to be simple please.
 
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Chocolateak47

Active Member
I believe you, I'm not trying to discredit your knowledge or even just outright disagree with you, but there has to be an easier way.

I will have to really dig in and research hempy buckets and how they work then because I'm not familiar with their mechanisms, just heard the term thrown around.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
Chocolateak47 said:
Can you post picture and the design of your inntainers so I can have a look?

Thanks everyone for the input! It's greatly appreciated!

Okay so I'm still trying to figure this out then. Here are the issues I am having with figuring out a drip system. I really want it to be as simple as possible. If I can run it completely gravity fed that's ideal.

The things im struggling to work out with a drip system:
-I bought a cheap aquarium pump to theoretically move the water from a res down drip lines and started messing around with a setup. The issue was I need a pump and then I need a timer and then I have to figure out how long to turn the pump on for and how many times a day and then if I have plants in different size containers or different stages of life it complicates how much time to drip for the different aged plants and deprecate rez for different nutrient solutions. Whereas a self contained SIP I can cater to the individual plants rez.
- another issues I was running into was my pump wouldn't move water after it got down below about an inch in my rez so then I am wasting nutrients and having to mix to account for the bottom inch of waste. Maybe I'm just using the wrong parts but I guess that's the point of this thread. I need lots of help and I appreciate every si for one of you stepping up.

If a SIP is a bad idea can someone help me with a link to a simple drip system or a drip system design thread? I just want it to be simple please.
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sip aren't a bad idea, they're just a bad idea for coco. they're designed for soil, and get good results with it. you can try coco, maybe you can prove us all wrong, but keep a couple of big bags of soil on standby, just in case
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
hempies are great, i love them. they do work well with 50/50 coco/perlite, you get faster than soil results, but not as fast as dwc, but they are way more stable than dwc, you have to try to screw up a hempy bucket
 
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