Question for the sippers out there. When using the sips if your peat based potting mix drys out. Is the capillary action stopped because of peat being hydrophobic or do the added wetting agents assist with resuming the capillary action?
[quote name='"StickyFiskers"']Question for the sippers out there. When using the sips if your peat based potting mix drys out. Is the capillary action stopped because of peat being hydrophobic or do the added wetting agents assist with resuming the capillary action?[/quote] SF This almost reminds me of the thread that someone asked about, "what happens when organic soil gets deficiencies?" It pretty much doesnt dry out. Think of your soil, and its "perfectly" hydrated. When it dries just a little, it sucks up more water as needed. I check my rez maybe every other day or so. In all reality, you no longer water your soil. You only fill the rez. The soil would last about two days or so before drying out. The rez lasts a day or two (for me anyway). So for the most part, if your soil dries out in a sip pot you shouldn't be growing lol. I hope that made sense or helped a little if any. SD
Thanks SD, I was more concerned that my mix was a little dry when added to the pots at the start. I also didn't give them a good dousing of water from the top at the beginning. When I feel the sides of the pots. I can tell where the moisture is by the coolness of the pots water was wicking only about a 3rd of the way up the pot. I dug down about 3" and the top soil way too dry for my liking. I also did notice that the water in the sump wasn't wicking up the last few days, so the question about hydrophobic properties of peat. Growth is not effected. I did give them a good top saturation today. From here on out it will be sub irrigated. We'll see...
I wet mine thoroughly when I set them up and filled the res. Top down and haven't touched them since. I have 10 SIPs.
[quote name='"StickyFiskers"']Thanks SD, I was more concerned that my mix was a little dry when added to the pots at the start. I also didn't give them a good dousing of water from the top at the beginning. When I feel the sides of the pots. I can tell where the moisture is by the coolness of the pots water was wicking only about a 3rd of the way up the pot. I dug down about 3" and the top soil way too dry for my liking. I also did notice that the water in the sump wasn't wicking up the last few days, so the question about hydrophobic properties of peat. Growth is not effected. I did give them a good top saturation today. From here on out it will be sub irrigated. We'll see...[/quote] I actually like the fact that the water is primarily on the bottom half. It promotes the plant to stretch root growth deeper into the soil. By the time my plants finish the roots are growing directly in to the rez its self.
Really, tell us more please! Have you been watering by wicking alone in a smart pot and it works? For how long? I'd love to try this! I've thought about putting a hole in the bottom of a smartie and using a wick system somehow (rope, etc) but this would be soooo much easier!
Tree, you got it. ITG, go back to the page before and you'll see the underpinnings. It's basically a 2x3 mortar pan with 2 #15 smartpots with 10" pond planters inserted at the bottom of the pots. Hydrotron (expanded clay) just supports the pots. You could use lava for a cheaper alternative to hydrotron (I had a bunch left over from my aquaponics setup). Water is delivered via 1-1/4" PVC inserted into the flex drain pipe. The second pic is the air pruning of the roots. noob, it's 4 plants lst for around 50 days. That's 1 week from flip. They drink around 5 gallons a week. I only have to fill once a week with 5 gallons.
Gotcha! Sorry, I am one of those people who reads every post in the thread, but I saw your pic and got excited! That's the setup I suspected-I've been playing around with the idea of a smart pot sip but I love this idea. Kudos to your excellent design! Do you have any issues with algae/slime growing in the water, or does it get funky at all? (I guess being exposed to the light probably helps with those issues). edit: SF, I see the hose thing around the perimeter of the tray. Is that absolutely necessary? I'm not familiar with hydroton so I may just not be seeing it, but is there a reason why you couldn't just pour water into the tray and bypass the hose thing altogether?
[quote name='"InTheGarden"']Gotcha! Sorry, I am one of those people who reads every post in the thread, but I saw your pic and got excited! That's the setup I suspected-I've been playing around with the idea of a smart pot sip but I love this idea. Kudos to your excellent design! Do you have any issues with algae/slime growing in the water, or does it get funky at all? (I guess being exposed to the light probably helps with those issues).[/quote] No worries ITG. No issues with algae or funkiness. When I fill the res I usually fill it until it reaches the bottom of the smartpots just above the drain pipe. Water is usually wicked up off the hydrotron within 12 hours so it stays dry. I water with tap that has been oxygenated with air pump for 24 hrs.
Something cool always catches my eye just after i decide to go with a less successful alternative. just set my pots up in my room. got on here to see this thread. never heard of sips before. gunna have to pull all my pots out and empty them, make them into a sip setup and then replace.
Thanks SF! I edited my post right after you posted your response. Are you available for one more question? I see the hose thing around the perimeter of the tray. Is that absolutely necessary? I'm not familiar with hydroton so I may just not be seeing it, but is there a reason why you couldn't just pour water into the tray and bypass the hose thing altogether? Thanks again!
Gotcha, and thanks for the quick response. I remember you posting that setup and I never would have tied that photo to this last one. Somehow I thought you were going to plant in the baskets, but you used them to hold the clay pellets just to support the pots. Awesome set up! I'll have to try something similar (thought a little less pretty I'm sure! ). Been wanting to try a self watering system but I like to keep my plants smallish so 5 gal buckets are just too big. This would be perfect for me as they're already in smarties Thank you! +rep if'n it'll let me...
[quote name='"InTheGarden"']Thanks SF! I edited my post right after you posted your response. Are you available for one more question? I see the hose thing around the perimeter of the tray. Is that absolutely necessary? I'm not familiar with hydroton so I may just not be seeing it, but is there a reason why you couldn't just pour water into the tray and bypass the hose thing altogether? Thanks again![/quote] I just used the flex drain pipe around the perimeter for air space, so I could stretch the hydrotron and have a easy fill spout. I see no reason why you couldn't just pour it into the tray. When I designed this I saw a video on YouTube that this guy had a shallow trough that he ran water into and the planters were the Walmart non-plastic recycling shopping bags in the trough. All sub irrigated.
Thanks so much SF! I tried to rep you but it won't let me. Hopefully somebody can hit you with some rep for me. I've found a 6" deep trough at Lowe's (I can't have anything wider than 20 inches unfortunately so that rules out the one you linked to) and I'm going to get to it tonight. I'm thinking 6" of depth should be enough to work with. Thanks again SF!
ITG, They have a smaller mortar pan as well as the one I listed at my Lowes. IIRC, it's about 20" x 26".
That's the one. Just an fyi with the pipe it took (1) 5 + gallon hydrotron to fill the res on the big one. Hydrotron is about 1/4" - 1/2" in size. For some reason I keep thinking about Dr. Gericke's hydroponic passive system when I work with these carts. Specifically the air gap.