SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
My first car was a Nova, just not a cool one :lol: 78 4 Door. Put a .040 over 350 in, with a .580 lift cam, set of fast burn heads, and a 3k stall. Was a blast to take down the strip
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Was popular to put 350's in Chevrolet Vegas in those days.Our school would build them and raffle them off.All the auto students built them with donated parts.
 

Robar

Well-Known Member
Was popular to put 350's in Chevrolet Vegas in those days.Our school would build them and raffle them off.All the auto students built them with donated parts.
The Chevy Nova was a very popular car back in those days. Seems like one out of every three gear heads were wrenchin on an old nova or chevelle back in early 80's

small cars with big motors? yep chevy vegas with 350's, and ford mavericks with 351's were a pretty popular go too. Had a buddy from high school who had a Maverick as a project but never got it finished. His dad got into building/racing late models at the local oval track and the maverick got sidelined into infinity. He went into the army right out of highschool and never came home after getting out.

There was a pinto with a 302 running around for a while, but I only saw that car for one summer.

Another cousin of mine built a 79 Datson 240z with a 429 out of an old 60's thunderbird but that was after we were out of school and he had more money. It also helped that he lived right next door to one of the many auto salvage yards in and around our town. (Read into that anyway you like!)

I look back on those days and wonder how I ever got so old. GOOD TIMES!
 

Robar

Well-Known Member
On a different topic than old cars and a bit closer to being on topic for this thread. I have 5 of those sips I built in a 4x4 tent with an 600w HPS. I've been looking into led's and still suffer a bit of sticker shock at the higher end stuff. I have also been looking at the option of building my own but having to source and purchase all materials, then build the lights has very little appeal at the moment.

A younger friend of mine runs a spider farmer sf-4000 and said it does a great job and produces rock hard buds. The sf-4000 is 529.00 on amazon with a 50.00 coupon so 479.00 with free shipping. I have 5 - 600w HPS and would like to convert over to LED. I can't do it all in one shot but I have about 1200 I can play with right now.

What do you guys that run LEDs have? And what's your experience with them? what's good about them, what's bad? What to stay away from? I love my HPS's but I get a frown from my wife every time the electric bill shows up. I'm trying to find a proper replacement for my HPS's that don't break the bank. Weed is purely a hobby for me. I don't sell any of it so every dollar I spend, is out of my pocket and not generated by my hobby. 500 dollar lights put me off but the 500 dollar electric bills are becoming an issue.
 

Robar

Well-Known Member

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
I run qb120's, 288's, and a strip light with 10 Samsung Influx strips. All of them diy. Unfortunately HLG is out of stock of the qb120s. But they do have qb288s in stock. You could get 4 qb288s with heatsinks for $338 with the riu10 discount. Their info sheet recommends a Meanwell HLG-600-54A driver for 4 boards. Driver is $186 from TRC. That puts you at $525, for 600 watts of top quality light. HLG has great customer service, and fast shipping.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Do you have a jewlers loop or the like to look close at the trikes? Most will tell you when the majority of the trikes are cloudy with few clear left and a few amber starting to show up is about right. kinda like a 10% 80% 10% sorta thing.
Thanks! Yea, I have a USB scope. I know when they're coming down. I was just looking for other opinions and perspectives. :bigjoint:
 

myke

Well-Known Member
On a different topic than old cars and a bit closer to being on topic for this thread. I have 5 of those sips I built in a 4x4 tent with an 600w HPS. I've been looking into led's and still suffer a bit of sticker shock at the higher end stuff. I have also been looking at the option of building my own but having to source and purchase all materials, then build the lights has very little appeal at the moment.

A younger friend of mine runs a spider farmer sf-4000 and said it does a great job and produces rock hard buds. The sf-4000 is 529.00 on amazon with a 50.00 coupon so 479.00 with free shipping. I have 5 - 600w HPS and would like to convert over to LED. I can't do it all in one shot but I have about 1200 I can play with right now.

What do you guys that run LEDs have? And what's your experience with them? what's good about them, what's bad? What to stay away from? I love my HPS's but I get a frown from my wife every time the electric bill shows up. I'm trying to find a proper replacement for my HPS's that don't break the bank. Weed is purely a hobby for me. I don't sell any of it so every dollar I spend, is out of my pocket and not generated by my hobby. 500 dollar lights put me off but the 500 dollar electric bills are becoming an issue.
The strip leds seem to work well,even light.No heat though.Last winter I ran them with an hps above so lots of light and heat.
All mine are used,kept searching my local buy and sell. Theres always somebody who buys new and decides growing isnt for them.
One thing about strips is you can put them close but to work on plants you have to raise and lower them ea time.
Ill be using both again this winter.
 

Robar

Well-Known Member
The strip leds seem to work well,even light.No heat though.Last winter I ran them with an hps above so lots of light and heat.
All mine are used,kept searching my local buy and sell. Theres always somebody who buys new and decides growing isnt for them.
One thing about strips is you can put them close but to work on plants you have to raise and lower them ea time.
Ill be using both again this winter.
The winter cold has been on my mind as well. I told the wife energy savings in the winter would be a wash with LED's because heat from my lights saved us about 100 a month on the gas bill in the winter and with LEDs I'd need to heat my grow spaces. Thanks for reminding me to check places like Craigs list etc. It totally slipped my mind.
 

myke

Well-Known Member
The winter cold has been on my mind as well. I told the wife energy savings in the winter would be a wash with LED's because heat from my lights saved us about 100 a month on the gas bill in the winter and with LEDs I'd need to heat my grow spaces. Thanks for reminding me to check places like Craigs list etc. It totally slipped my mind.
You run 5 600w hps? All different tents?
 

Shiggity

Well-Known Member
I run kingbrite 240 watt quantum’s. 120 watts per board. Two 240W lights per 4x4. They were about 200 shipped from China.
Kingbrite light link

In other news it was day zero of flower today. Had an extreme amount of growth after 13 hours light/11 hours dark with 15 minutes of far red in the first part of flower. The huckleberry diesel was super praying!
7EEDA34E-1B22-40BB-B602-19073CEC66F0.jpeg
9CE3B0FB-5F62-42C1-8051-0863DCA589CC.jpeg
she grew so much I was able to move her to the next set of squares. I thought it would take a few days.
D910BB6C-4C7B-4094-AF89-CC540D92EC2B.jpegAA4411CC-B582-46A5-AC16-F27C25FAA218.jpeg
 
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Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
I run kingbrite 240 watt quantum’s. 120 watts per board. Two 240W lights per 4x4. They were about 200 shipped from China.
Kingbrite light link

In other news it was day zero of flower today. Had an extreme amount of growth after 13 hours light/11 hours dark with 15 minutes of far red in the first part of flower. Thehuckleberry diesel was super praying!
View attachment 5011147
View attachment 5011148
she grew so much I was able to move her to the next set of squares. I thought it would take a few days.
View attachment 5011152View attachment 5011154
I gotta learn to train them like that. Looks great man!
 

hot_box_enthusiast

Well-Known Member

My initial mix is detailed in the post linked above. Right now I have my first 3 earthboxes going, at 3 weeks each.
Moonshine Haze (Rare Dankness) - this is my keeper cut that I've run in Pro Mix with bottled nutes multiple times. Really excited to compare to the organic soil. So far the earthboxes seem to be growing just as fast as bottle nutes in a 5 gallon. Right now they are taking 10L every two days.

earthboxes.jpg

I have a number of questions now that I am a few weeks into things;

  1. A couple things related to top dressing. Here is what I did. I did a top dress at start of week 2 and start of week 4. I gave each box 0.5 Cup of Gaia Green Power Bloom, 0.5 cup of EWC and 0.5cup compost. This was mixed and lightly tilled into the top layer of soil (where I observed feeder roots coming to surface). I then TOP WATERED
    • The top water was 1.5L per box which had Aloe and Yucca mixed in.
    • When I see Jeremy on Build a Soil mix his water with aloe and yucca I don't see him PH the water, but I noted it drops mine. My water is 7.1 from the tap and drops to 5.9 once the yucca and aloe are added. Should i PH that back up to 7?
    • Is this method of adding top dress sensible? For an 11 week flowering strain when should last top dress be?
  2. Should I have bokashi or anything else on the top layer? Jeremy at Build a Soil puts bokashi on, and gets this great mycelium layer. Is it needed? I was trying to avoid compost teas, and other extras and keep it simple.
  3. I have some products that I bought because I was trying to roughly follow build a soil, but I am not sure if/how I should use them. For example I have Activated EM . Build A Soil says with organic soil in an earthbox to let the box dry between watering (which I do) instead of keeping the rez topped up. But i Have heard other folks use EM1 in the rez with an air bubbler. Anyways, this product seems to have beneficials, so I am wondering the best way to incorporate into what I have set up, or to just ignore it?

basically, I am a bit of a mess, having decent success so far, looking for advice to avoid mistakes and achieve improved results :cool: :blsmoke:
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member

My initial mix is detailed in the post linked above. Right now I have my first 3 earthboxes going, at 3 weeks each.
Moonshine Haze (Rare Dankness) - this is my keeper cut that I've run in Pro Mix with bottled nutes multiple times. Really excited to compare to the organic soil. So far the earthboxes seem to be growing just as fast as bottle nutes in a 5 gallon. Right now they are taking 10L every two days.

View attachment 5011437

I have a number of questions now that I am a few weeks into things;

  1. A couple things related to top dressing. Here is what I did. I did a top dress at start of week 2 and start of week 4. I gave each box 0.5 Cup of Gaia Green Power Bloom, 0.5 cup of EWC and 0.5cup compost. This was mixed and lightly tilled into the top layer of soil (where I observed feeder roots coming to surface). I then TOP WATERED
    • The top water was 1.5L per box which had Aloe and Yucca mixed in.
    • When I see Jeremy on Build a Soil mix his water with aloe and yucca I don't see him PH the water, but I noted it drops mine. My water is 7.1 from the tap and drops to 5.9 once the yucca and aloe are added. Should i PH that back up to 7?
    • Is this method of adding top dress sensible? For an 11 week flowering strain when should last top dress be?
  2. Should I have bokashi or anything else on the top layer? Jeremy at Build a Soil puts bokashi on, and gets this great mycelium layer. Is it needed? I was trying to avoid compost teas, and other extras and keep it simple.
  3. I have some products that I bought because I was trying to roughly follow build a soil, but I am not sure if/how I should use them. For example I have Activated EM . Build A Soil says with organic soil in an earthbox to let the box dry between watering (which I do) instead of keeping the rez topped up. But i Have heard other folks use EM1 in the rez with an air bubbler. Anyways, this product seems to have beneficials, so I am wondering the best way to incorporate into what I have set up, or to just ignore it?

basically, I am a bit of a mess, having decent success so far, looking for advice to avoid mistakes and achieve improved results :cool: :blsmoke:
Looking good. I'm kind of where you are at. Taking it one step at a time and trying to learn as much as possible. The great thing about l.o.s. imo, is if you keep it alive and fed, with the right inputs at the right time, it'll grow the plant for you.

If it were me though, depending on how big you grow them, I'd use something higher in N until after the stretch. I use build a bloom and I got fade when I thought I could just use it without the craft blend early on in flower. Keep your N up until mid/late flower.

I never ph my water and I don't seem to have a problem but that's my experience. I use ro water so it's pretty close to neutral. I usually don't add yucca to the water I add to the res. I've started adding build a bloom to the res and when I do, I add yucca to it then but that's the only time. Otherwise it's just plain water in the res. I do add yucca to my top waterings though.

Cannabis prefers fungally dominant soil. Mycelium is important in living soil. It'll help break down organic material faster. Kashi helps grow mycelium faster. Kashi blend is really good. So is grokashi.

This is what I've learned so far with my grow. Don't mind my shitty grammar. I'm pretty high right now. Lol
 

Robar

Well-Known Member
You run 5 600w hps? All different tents?
Yes sorta. I have 1 in a 4x4, 3 in a 4x8 and 1 in a little room I built in the basement during prohibition that measures 5 x 6 inside. The room used to have a 1000w HPS/MH but my magnetic ballast finally gave up the ghost and been running the room with the 600 every since spring.

Currently I only have 1 light on in the 4x8 flowering a couple of AKBB's NL5 x NL1 x NL1 down at one end. The 4x4 is in veg with some Blue Orca Haze in my sips planters and the room has a blue orca haze sativa stretch pheno, a chocolate thai, a C99 pineapple funk pheno, and my much loved Black Poison Skunk cut in flower.

I'm leaning hard on putting 2 of these in the 4x8 which has 4- 50 gal no till beds in it that act just like a sips in so many ways. https://sonofarm.com/product/sonofarm-spider-farmer-sf4000-led-grow-light-full-spectrum-samsung-lm301b-diodes-meanwell-driver/

for the room I think I've decided to do something more Macgyver in style for now. I have an old single socket Raptor xxl air cooled hood that I've cobbled a second socket into and am going to try a 400w hps and a 315w CMH and see what results I can get from 700w of mix spectrum with 2 points of origin.

Not sure on 4x4 yet. I really only use it for last stage veg and breeding, but on occasion like now, those blue Orca Haze in the sips are staying in there for the duration so I need something capable of pulling off a decent flower run when pressed into service that way. I'll leave the 600 in there for this winter as it'll need the heat, but down the road I'd like to get something more efficient electricity wise. In the end that's what this is all about. I've always been extremely happy with my results from my HPS lights but the cost to run them is just to much anymore. I'm trying to save juice without sacrificing quality.
 
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