SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

[Tstat]

Have you looked into probiotics to go with the SIPs? I'm trying to look out for a fellow Bodhi-head.

So, my plan is to buy 10 Growboxes next week. I’m going to mix up some Greentree Ultimate, coco, lime, lobster compost, verm, perlite, and maybe some Happy Frog.

I do have some questions, of course.
Grokashi... I’ve seen the videos and I guess I’ll use some on top. Speaking of tops, would the Earthgrow covers fit the Growbox? They are on sale right now for cheap.
Dry fertilizer trench- what fert (and how much) should I use?
What else do I need?

 

[MustangStudFarm]

So, my plan is to buy 10 Growboxes next week. I’m going to mix up some Greentree Ultimate, coco, lime, lobster compost, verm, perlite, and maybe some Happy Frog.

I do have some questions, of course.
Grokashi... I’ve seen the videos and I guess I’ll use some on top. Speaking of tops, would the Earthgrow covers fit the Growbox? They are on sale right now for cheap.
Dry fertilizer trench- what fert (and how much) should I use?
What else do I need?

The topdress would be compost and that would be after you get a mycelium mat started. I really wasn't impressed with dolomite lime because it would just cause K def, but you are using coco coir. Still, I would rather use azomite, greensand, basalt, or glacial rock dust because of the added micronutrients.
The dry fert trench was for an inert soil, but that is not the case here so a topdressing of compost is all that's needed. I'm not sure if the covers are interchangeable, but I'm sure that you can find the dimensions online.
The only other thing that you would need is the probiotics and you can do it DIY a lot cheaper than buying everything. I started by buying EM1 and Grokashi, but I am making my own Grokashi now and it's easy. Finding the Wheat bran was the hardest part and that wasn't too bad, it was at a feed store for $14/25gal.
The guy to listen to is Hyroot, he is the one that got me into this and things have been looking up since I started. The same soil that I was having trouble with in 8gal square pots are doing amazing in the Earthbox. Hyroot just isn't on here that often. You should check out his thread in the organic section...

 

[1shaggyDude]

Hey guys, i'm new to the sip gardening but have read this thread and quite a few others to get as much info as possible before getting my hands dirty. I am not at all new to growing, but all my experience is from outdoors. After losing the battle vs fusarium at our new house the last two years i am forced to take the show indoors for the 1st time.
My setup to start off consists of...
3x3 vivosun tent
6 inch a/c infinity cloudline t6
Sunsystems 315w lec
2 earthboxes
Soil is big rootz with some ewc and a little added perlite.
So i set everything up 9 days ago just like good ol' Al taught me on youtube with gro-kashi on top and em1 in the rez. Saw the mycellium start to take off in about 2 days. Put the showercap back on and when i went to check a couple days later it was all gone except for a little at the edges. Tried google but there isn't much info there about the mat not growing.
Do any of you experienced sippers have any ideas what would cause the mycellium to basically disappear in just a couple days?
I sprinkled on about a half cup more kashi yesterday hoping for the best and am waiting for results. Just hoping to figure out how i screwed the pooch on this so i don't do it again.
Temps have stayed between 70-83 and rh 45-70 the whole time. Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Saw the mycellium start to take off in about 2 days. Put the showercap back on and when i went to check a couple days later it was all gone except for a little at the edges. Tried google but there isn't much info there about the mat not growing.

I noticed that the white fuzzy will disappear after a while. From what I understand, you are supposed to get the mycelium mat and then topdress with Compost or EWC. I chose Malibu because they used nettle, borage, and some other plants that have micronutrients. I was impressed after I looked into Malibu, I ignored it for years.

 

[1shaggyDude]

I have the Malibu on standby. The way i understood it i need the mycellium to really get going like in your pic before applying any. Do you think i should just pop in a couple girls and give 'em a malibu top dress now or wait untill i can really get the fuzzy mat going?
Nice stang by the way..i've got a couple foxes myself.

 

[NewGrower2011]

Question on getting this mat going first angle - can the cap/cover be lying on the surface or must it be elevated with its own air-gap between it & the soil? Recommended min/max gap?

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I have the Malibu on standby. The way i understood it i need the mycellium to really get going like in your pic before applying any. Do you think i should just pop in a couple girls and give 'em a malibu top dress now or wait untill i can really get the fuzzy mat going?
Nice stang by the way..i've got a couple foxes myself.

From what Alan Adkisson said, the mycelium is going to carry the nutrients to the roots. So, I think that it is important. I'm still kind of new to this, but I'm impressed with my results so far. I feel like I need a serious screen/SCRoG for these. I get a much bigger plant out of the container and it needs support. I have a floppy strain to begin with though.

I'm still making payments on my Fox. I saw it at a car lot and had to have it. It was having engine trouble, but the body was very nice. It also had an engine "Top end Kit" but the block/pistons were OEM. Someone dropped some major cash on cosmetics but fell way short in the mechanical area. There were several bugs that I had to work out that was tricky, like a burned ECM. The burned out ECM caused backfire and the previous owners sheared the woodruff key on the crankshaft, so the timing marks wouldn't line up with the valves. Shit had me feeling retarded for a while, had to think about what was going on. I'm in Oklahoma, so I found the "Street Outlaws" garage and they hooked me up. Not finished yet, but hopefully my new(12) earthboxes will help fund my engine/trans. Sorry, stoned rambling...

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Question on getting this mat going first angle - can the cap/cover be lying on the surface or must it be elevated with its own air-gap between it & the soil? Recommended min/max gap?

I don't know man, I just left enough room to be able to topdress later... It's an anaerobic bacteria, so I don't know if the air gap is important?

 

[smokinokie]

@MustangStudFarm do you expand your em-1 as well as making grokashi? If so do you do it just like on the teraganix website? Thanks in advance. Having trouble with mine I think.

 

[NewGrower2011]

I've activated my EM before and followed their directions, all went well but if temp range is off it can go slowly. Got 2 gal activating right now myself.

I was wondering if you can sort of expand bokashi like the EM itself. Can you take some materials (i.e. the barley I plan to use in my soil mix in a week or so) and mix with some purchased bokashi and have it inoculate things that way?

 

[smokinokie]

I've activated my EM before and followed their directions, all went well but if temp range is off it can go slowly. Got 2 gal activating right now myself.

I was wondering if you can sort of expand bokashi like the EM itself. Can you take some materials (i.e. the barley I plan to use in my soil mix in a week or so) and mix with some purchased bokashi and have it inoculate things that way?

Thanks, hopefully mine will turn out ok then. Temps been kinda low.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I've activated my EM before and followed their directions, all went well but if temp range is off it can go slowly. Got 2 gal activating right now myself.

I was wondering if you can sort of expand bokashi like the EM itself. Can you take some materials (i.e. the barley I plan to use in my soil mix in a week or so) and mix with some purchased bokashi and have it inoculate things that way?

With the EM1, you can only expand it one time from the bottle. Bokashi can be expanded endlessly. You want to save the barley and bokashi for a topdressing. I think that the barley is added after the mycelium mat is formed and before you add the compost topdressing. Does that make sense? The layer would the base soil/bokashi then wait like 5 days then add the barley then compost.
Hyroot started adding Photosynthesis Plus to his Grokashi recipe. It appears to have myco fungi along with other bacteria and fungi. It was very hard to find info about this product...
https://www.amazon.com/Microbe-Life-Photosynthesis-Plus-Quart/dp/B00BID0BOI

 

[Jesusgrowsmygrass]

Anybody have one of these SIPs from costco?

https://www.costco.com/Self-watering-Elevated-Garden-Planter.product.100424059.html

 

[NewGrower2011]

I have that Photo Plus and man does it stink to holy hell. Sulfur based and those photo specific bacteria are what led me to use it in conjunction with others since it was truly redundant and did have something specific to offer (or at least as I currently understand things). Diversity can't hurt they say...

I have a bit of biochar left from prior soil mix prep and was thinking of charging it with all the different goodies on hand and how to work things in conjunction with all the recent purchases. One more order outstanding and then it's down to figuring out my re-amending plan/amounts of each and then allowing for any cook/prep time for the various inputs. And of course a final wait/cook time once all mixed.

 

[NewGrower2011]

Anybody have one of these SIPs from costco?

https://www.costco.com/Self-watering-Elevated-Garden-Planter.product.100424059.html

Interesting amount of wicking surface area on their design comparing to others where you don't see as much material down in the rez.

 

[Tstat]

So I was at Lowes today picking up some grass seed when I spotted this:

They are $20 and are called Patio Pickers. They seem like an Earthbox knock-off. I bought one just to try, so now I guess I need some Grokashi...

 

[Chunky Stool]

So I was at Lowes today picking up some grass seed when I spotted this:

They are $20 and are called Patio Pickers. They seem like an Earthbox knock-off. I bought one just to try, so now I guess I need some Grokashi...

We bought one of those for our deck!
Never used anything like it.
We will probably run a side-by-side comparison with a 10 gallon cloth pot. (tomatoes)

 

[NewGrower2011]

I saw those at Lowes myself, on sale even! I hesitated as I have these brute totes and wanted a bigger rez to minimize the topping-off frequency as that's a big part of my goal here. I was also aiming for my design to ensure you get a little air down in the rez which I believe if I'm not mistaken I had seen in some other design that their pvc pipes were both for filling the rez as well as leetting some air movement to get down under the roots and promote o2 availability in root zone.

 

[NewGrower2011]

So when trying to get that initial mat growing with some bokashi, would it be helpful to put the pots over seedling heat mats? I have a pair that covers the entire 4x4 floor with temp probes for each so easy option if it's wise to do so. Right now things are sitting in the same original 7 gal smart pots so I'll be reamending in them for some cook time before I prepare the new totes for an attempt on the SIP run. I'm trying to figure out my amendment amounts/ratios based on the test results after last run and otherwise went ahead with getting the bokashi going a little ahead of the actual amendments.

 

[natureboygrower]

Just moved two earthboxes up into my flower cab,and the growth is absolutely insane.Huge in the one week since 12/12,two weeks since transplant.I did zero research,made up a modified coots mix and away I (the plants) went.I will say I've got a few leaves looking funky,but Ima roll with it.Any of you guys use bubble stones in your reservoir? My roots are for sure gonna grow into the water.