Hi Noob , I got my set up finished yesterday and let it sit over night to see if it wicks the moisture. Its sort of hard to tell still but I snapped some pics. I used the bucket idea with a 5 gallon bucket and 3 gallon geo pot (same deal as a smartie). I filled the bucket to just below the out lip of the bucket and made my drain hole approx 3 inches below that. This being my first set up, I can already see some things that I will do differently with the next bucket. When I whent out last night to check the soil in the pot, I noticed that the water level and the perlite/pot line had increased in distance from eachother. I knew this would happen as the perlite expanded to take in water but I forgot about it when I made the drain holes...resulting in a further distance for the pot to wick, which could be good I guess but I would think that the soil might stand a chance of drying out in places at this rate . Anyhow, I took some of the perlite out to reduce the distance and the bottom of the pot is already more damp. I will add perlite back to the bucket to gauge how much I actually need. Right now the pot is a little lower in the bucket than I planned but there is still a gap around the pot allowing for air flow. Next bucket, I will fill with perlite, wet it and let it sit before I mark off where the drain holes go. I also added a 1/2" pvc pipe that I had left over from other projects. I used it same as a SIP set up, making a cut out. I took a bamboo stake that I have for my outdoor veggies and put this down into the pvc pipe. The stake gives me the capabilty to tell how much water is in the bucket (might be over kill ). The perlite floats up the pipe and sticks to the bamboo telling me the water level. I also noticed that I need to add more soil to the pot...this could be an indication that the soil is compacting a bit from moisture??
Hey DD, good deal! You should be fine where the hole is, but I'd bring that perlite right to the top. Up to you of course, but that's what I'd do. Also, you can make another hole lower if you don't like it being that high. The perlite, as you found out holds a LOT of water! The soil will compact a bit because it's moist. Moist is a good thing though with these smarties, you'll see You can always mix in more perlite with your soil as well to fluff it up a bit more. The pvc and bamboo? Excellent You can tweak this as you go...but I can promise you that as long as it's wicking and you've got a decent organic soil mix going on you are going to LOVE the results!! Put a plant in there and prepare to be wowed
Im going to build my second one sime time today (got some last minute shopping) to do and then I'll bring both buckets inside to let em warm up a bit then its transplant time .
I just sat the Breather pot on top of the perlite and that's all I did. It works perfect with no holes or anything else. I did the same thing with the black plastic growers pot, just set it on the perlite then add enough extra perlite to cover the holes on the sides. Nothing else needs doing, just a deep enough pan to hold enough to last as long as you need it to.
Hi Noob , Here is the set up in my tent. IM sure that things are gonna get super crowded soon. I ran out of perlite so when I get some more, I run em up to the top in the buckets. Thanks for sharing the idea and allowing me to post my pics here.
Hi noob. I'm liking this idea of perlite sips. Pretty soon I won't have to open my tent from seed until harvest!! Lol. Soigné
Exactly! It's that simple....my first one is a dishpan, second a cat litter box. Nothing fancy, it just works (as long as the soil has contact with the perlite). Thanks Fayn I realize some of us want to know where the water level is, especially if you're not using it just for vacation but to maintain a consistent moisture level. There are any number of ways to achieve this, and a hole in the bucket (overflow when it reaches that level) is just one of them. I'd love for everyone to share their methods or ideas! We all benefit from trial and error The pleasure has been all mine DD LOL Soigne! It might help in any case. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. If you decide to give it a try come back and share your thoughts?
So noob, maybe I missed it, but the smart pot sits onto of the perlite, and just wicks the water through the fabric of the pot? Or are there holes cut in the bottom of the smart pot? Man this means I gotta run to the hydro shop again to buy a big ass bag of perlite...
That's all there is to it If you want to cut down on the perlite you can use Sticky's tip and fill the bottom of the container with lava rock, hydroton, even empty water bottles....anything that's waterproof and lightweight really and won't break down. Just make sure you've got a good sized layer of perlite between that and the fabric. The perlite HAS to come in contact with the water though, or no wicking. Pretty sure I posted a pic in the beginning of this thread of the bottom of one of my smarties taken just a few days after I started with roots growing out and perlite attached (grabbed by the roots). No holes
I posted this in another thread about SIPs and self watering containers. Different set up but the principal is the same. You could do this with perlite instead of soil to cut down on the amount of perlite used. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oYZtqs9AlM&sns=em]Self-Watering Planter Saves Time - YouTube[/ame] I should also add that I've personally not tried it. I bought a really BIG bag of perlite....several times
That pic is what sold me on it. I have 4/12 mother plants in smart pots and I'm so sick and tired of watering them all the time... if I miss a day they're so dry, I can almost pull the whole root ball out of the pot. Sounds like I got me a solution. I really wonder if lava rock would wick well enough.... I have loads of it left over from my hydro days and I've been using it for aeration in my soil....
No...the lava rock doesn't wick! It just takes up space so that you don't use as much perlite. The perlite does the wicking....so say you have a 5 gal bucket, and you fill it half with lava rock then top with perlite...if the water level drops below the perlite once that perlite drys out no more wicking!
So you'd be best to take like a paper towel roll tube and put it in the center of the bucket vertically and fill the tube with perlite and the bucket with lava pebbles and pull out the tube and wala! A perlite wick to reach the bottom of the bucket. What's the point of having a 5 gal Res when you can only use say the top 1 gal of water till the lava rock won't wick?
mosesnumb, if your going to use lava you will need to get some kind of wick going from the bottom of the res to the bottom of the smartpots. Lava does not wick.
You could use perforated plastic drainage just filled with soil or perlite. You wouldn't want lava between the soil and perlite. It would break the wick.
Well you could, but then you'd only have a paper towel roll sized wet spot in the middle of your smartie. You NEED perlite covering the whole bottom of the pot, and the perlite HAS to come in contact with the water. Why would you want a 5 gal res if you can only use the top gallon? I wouldn't, that's why I fiil mine with perlite If you watched the video though, you'd see that you could put empty water bottles, milk jugs, whatever...and this is just to take up space for those that don't want to use 5 gal of perlite for whatever reason. Tree I've used reg perlite and a big old bag of mixed size....doesn't seem to matter,
I was just thinking of putting the paper towel roll of perlite a couple inches from the top and then a full layer of perlite. The bottles and stuff don't seem so bad, but use what ya got on hand know what I mean?
Gotcha...that'd work I think! Though maybe a coffee can would be better. Here's a couple of pics I found...the principal again is the same as a self watering planter only we're using perlite instead of soil. The inserts (bottles, jugs, whatever) just take up space...keep in mind for the space you're taking up you're losing water too though. Again, my apologies for my inability to explain things well. I can make a video if I need to...if anyone thinks it would help please say so. It's really very simple and I'd hate for anyone who wants to give it a go to walk away because I'm not explaining it well enough. Sent from my iPad using GC Forum
How important is it to keep the res full? I was thinking about letting it dry out a little bit, its pretty wet.