A SIP Grower's Guide To The Galaxy

[Azimuth]

Interesting. I make my own water soluble calcium and wonder if it would work the same. You say it helps with rooting. Is that to get better roots once they've formed, or does it help a cut establish them in the first place?

I've noticed the dried calcium clogs my sprayer after a bit.

Worm castings are great for adding ca to the soil as they are covered in a calcium carbonate slime.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I made the KNF calcium, and the KNF Cal/Phos. Maybe a splash of that wouldn't hurt in a foliar since it's so diluted. Hell, I'm gonna give it a dose tonight and see what happens.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I keep cutting off fan leaves. Lots of them. Got her looking like she was rode roughshod.
Just following thru with the heavy trimming I ran my mouth about.
Bunch of fuzz growing now, getting to the good part of the grow.
They don't look like they'll finish at the same time, but I can deal with that.
Their color hasn't changed much. I hooked em up with some extra Ca and boosted their nute level, we'll see what happens. I'm not stressing it too hard.

It was tough run at the shop, getting to this holiday, but we're here now and I'm feeling good about things. I'm gonna enjoy the day with family and do some swimming. I hope you all have a great holiday too!
Happy 4th of July Friends!

 

[Melville Hobbes]

Happy 4th of July RSR!

 

[LKABudMan]

Hope you had a great 4th RSR. Your girls are looking great. I can tell you've been keeping up with the defol becaue I can see several layers deep, looks like you should be getting good light/air in there. Great job.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

It was suggested to me that I may be Under-feeding my plants, because there are 2 of them living in one SIP...
This can't be though, right?
I fill the reservoir with the same level of nutrients that I'd feed a single plant, but because it's a SIP, there are more gallons of nutrient to feed from, and this is correct yeah? Same nute level, just more of it.
I shouldn't be doubling the amount of nutrients because 2 girls are eating off of it instead of one, should i???
Its not like they are taking the nutrients and leaving the water blank, the proper level nutrients are being delivered in same amount of water as usual, right?
I know I'm high and I shouldn't be doubling the nutes... but I'm the right kind of high to question everything I've ever learned and be unsure of is validity...
Damn CBD Amnesia is really messing with my head.
It would be stupid to double the nutes just because there are 2 plants in the box... and yet my subconscious keeps saying "... you sure about that big dog?"
I gotta start making decisions before I smoke a joint.
Holla if you hear me.

 

[Azimuth]

The reservoir should have the appropriate level of nutes per gallon of water, regardless of the number of plants. So, yes. You are correct. You might have to fill it more often but you don't want your mix at twice the recommended concentration.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

The reservoir should have the appropriate level of nutes per gallon of water, regardless of the number of plants. So, yes. You are correct. You might have to fill it more often but you don't want your mix at twice the recommended concentration.

When the joint wore off, I knew I was being ridiculous.
The power of suggestion is strong... with a proper buzz.

 

[Pondwater]

When the joint wore off, I knew I was being ridiculous.
The power of suggestion is strong... with a proper buzz.

Hahah man after me own words , the ammount of times I have sat there with ten pages wrote down like Einstein only to look in the morning and think what was I thinking lol it’s a pot on a tray ..

But then worse if I run outa smoke lol panic and freaking out sets in then no ideas flow and concentration is out and frustration is in , one spliff and the worry’s gone but ten spliffs and ..well you may be gettin no where but it was fun getting there lol

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

Finally back in town, and came home to a bunch of bullshit. Plants in the basement garden all wilted, and my Flux journal plant is big and out of control now, plus the water went off to my outdoor garden and cost me $1400 in repairs while I was 1000 miles away... but I'm back now and ready to get on top of my game again.
Took a couple quick photos before I put away my suitcases.
I reduced the nutrient levels from what the Remo bottle suggests, based on revised calculations between @farside05 , @LKABudMan , and @InTheShed . I found burning sugar leaves buried at the back of the plant, which tells me that she probably didn't like the full Remo cocktail I gave her before I left...

Other than that, things are good.

I made several rosin carts to take on the trip and they worked beautifully, although as soon as I find a source for 190 proof alcohol again, I plan on going back to trying to properly winterize pure rosin instead of using a liquidizer blend.

I'll be in the outdoor garden all day tomorrow, harvesting vegetables and prepping for fall planting - I have to plant most of my leafy greens and brassicas in the fall, because the summer bugs eat my shit up when I plant em in the spring. I'm debating using row covers next year. Anyone have luck with row covers to prevent Cabbage moths???

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

The Forbidden Fruit smells exactly like the Orange Punch Mimosa I grew last year. Oranges and skunk.
The Columbian Gold smells like a dank greasy kerosene, the wife was not happy when I came in the house after a sugar-leaf rub. She asked me what kind of chemicals I was spraying on "my stuff" (classic non-smoker talk)
I'll take some decent photos tomorrow night, I've been in the outdoor garden in the heat and rain all day and I'm beat to hell. Gotta get those seeds in the ground for a fall harvest, and my shit was full of weeds and overgrown Squash vines.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

... won't you take me back to mullenburg County, down by the Green River, where paradise lay...

Nothing more for me to do but feed the machine and wait. It's at a gallon of water a day. I just wake up and hope the buds are a little bigger than when I went to sleep.
My carbon filter has given up the ghost and weed funk is creeping out of the tent now and my lights are burning the highest plant tops. I'm gonna replace the filter and re-fit the lights to get more height.
As I look at these broads, all I see is foliage that I wish I had cut off. The trim job at the end is going to be a bastard. I promised myself no more 5 hour trim-prison sentences but these heifers are huge and furry, even without fan leaves.
By the looks of the buds, these girls won't be harvested at the same time. The Columbian seems like it'll run a couple weeks longer.
That's all I got tonight, I got vegetables seeds to plant.
Yall take er easy.

 

[Grand Daddy Black]

As I look at these broads, all I see is foliage that I wish I had cut off. The trim job at the end is going to be a bastard. I promised myself no more 5 hour trim-prison sentences but these heifers are huge and furry, even without fan leaves.

You will get closer to what you desire with each grow Rhino! As long as you remember what you didn't like about how this one went and how to change it next time.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

The plants are growing well, but something is wrong.
I think I'm stunting my girls by growing 2 in one tote, even though those heifers have a ton of dirt to explore. (Over 10 gallons each) My daughter's flowers grow half size when they share a container, I think my buds are suffering the same fate. My plants are big and have alot of buds, but not at the typical thickness of Cola that I'm accustomed to - and it's killing me.
In the name of science, I'll be adding a divider in the dirt, hopefully it'll keep all the root grab-ass at a minimum and put the swell back into my herbs.
I'm thinking of just jamming a slice of plastic in there, like cutting the wall out of another tote and sticking it in there. I dunno, something has to give. Having one giant tote also makes it almost impossible to reach the back of the tent, a bunch of branches fell over and I can't get to them to tie em up. I'm frustrated today.
On another note -
I just put my first 2 autos into the dirt! An Original AK Auto and a Cherry Cola Auto. I'm super hype about the Cherry Cola, it's supposed to have a really unique flavor, and one of the best weeds I ever smoked was a cherry - so that shit hooked me from the get-go. I'll dig up some info on the strains and such once they break the surface.

Have some pics!

 

[ReservoirDog]

We cannot Allow a Mineshaft Gap!!

I add a shit load of perlite and I never top water after the uppot into the big SIP, so the top 2 inches of dirt is dry as dust. That helps.
Once you are in flower and she's drinking a measurable amount of water each day you can roughly gauge how long it would take to drain the reservoir and then the soil. My soil holds about a quart of water per gallon of dirt when it's fully saturated, and my plants usually drink a gallon of water a day in flower. So 12 gallons of my dirt would have almost 3 gallons of water in it and take 3 days to fully dry out after the reservoir went dry. Caveman math, but it's effective.


^^^ This ^^^^
Just because the reservoir Can hold 5 gallons of water, doesn't mean that it Should. The only time I ever filled my reservoir to overflow was before I took a week vacation and I was 3 weeks into flower. Keep the reservoir half full and when it goes dry you'll only have a day or two before she soaks up what's in the dirt. I refuse to skip the drought. Reading Martimer's enthusiastic explanations made me try it on a clone grow and the difference was stupid. The clone had twice the kick of the mother plant.

These lads speak truth. A little more planning is needed to get a SIP to drought, it's really just a matter of practising as your grow progresses, watch it with an empty rez for a couple of days just to watch the progression, then give it a quarter fill and keep an eye and make contemporaneous notes - it helped me a lot. Remove any plastic covers and mulch also when getting a feel for things and don't sweat a totally dry top cm.

 

[CaptainLucky]

... won't you take me back to mullenburg County, down by the Green River, where paradise lay...

Nothing more for me to do but feed the machine and wait. It's at a gallon of water a day. I just wake up and hope the buds are a little bigger than when I went to sleep.
My carbon filter has given up the ghost and weed funk is creeping out of the tent now and my lights are burning the highest plant tops. I'm gonna replace the filter and re-fit the lights to get more height.
As I look at these broads, all I see is foliage that I wish I had cut off. The trim job at the end is going to be a bastard. I promised myself no more 5 hour trim-prison sentences but these heifers are huge and furry, even without fan leaves.
By the looks of the buds, these girls won't be harvested at the same time. The Columbian seems like it'll run a couple weeks longer.
That's all I got tonight, I got vegetables seeds to plant.
Yall take er easy.

Love me some John Prine and I also think that it would’ve been like heaven to burn one with him. lol. CL.

 

[ReservoirDog]

With you on the John Prine. Takes me back...
RSR, I tried the divider route but was too fussy so I started dropping two square (circular fine, don't matter much) soft Geo Pots in there. Either two 7-gal softpots or two 10-gal depending whether running fertigation organic/TLO. With this setup, you can also move the plants if you find two different strains want separate feed or one is taking over all the space/light. You can drop the softpot right onto the wicking foot and pull it off anytime too. If some roots grow into it, plants won't suffer by having them tear loose. You can also go in and give each one a lift every other day, or when you fill, just to keep those roots from going too deep into your wicks.

Of course, another solution would be to find some 10-gal totes (approx), build them out with false floors and line them up in that little tent, three to four across. They key is finding smaller totes that are deep enough. I bet you could run 4 rectangular Earthboxes in there, though I prefer DIY for reservoir size and other reasons (incl., but not limited to, cost).

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

With you on the John Prine. Takes me back...
RSR, I tried the divider route but was too fussy so I started dropping two square (circular fine, don't matter much) soft Geo Pots in there. Either two 7-gal softpots or two 10-gal depending whether running fertigation organic/TLO. With this setup, you can also move the plants if you find two different strains want separate feed or one is taking over all the space/light. You can drop the softpot right onto the wicking foot and pull it off anytime too. If some roots grow into it, plants won't suffer by having them tear loose. You can also go in and give each one a lift every other day, or when you fill, just to keep those roots from going too deep into your wicks.

Of course, another solution would be to find some 10-gal totes (approx), build them out with false floors and line them up in that little tent, three to four across. They key is finding smaller totes that are deep enough. I bet you could run 4 rectangular Earthboxes in there, though I prefer DIY for reservoir size and other reasons (incl., but not limited to, cost).

I like that setup, looks clean and corporate.
I might do a 4 plant run. Get myself 4 big main colas instead of 1 and a bunch of mediums. I just hate a SIP with a tiny reservoir, I have to water my vegetable seedling SIPs almost every damn day - infuriating when there are 43 of them on the grow table.
I leave this hole alot too. Leave it in the dust, for days at a time. So I need a reservoir that will last atleast 3 or 4 days by its lonesome before it goes dry. I'll do some thinking and figuring until I find a SIP design that checks all the boxes.
My girls in the box are almost done and I've got 2 autos that are just now breaking the surface, so whatever I'm gonna do, I better get on it!

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I'll be your Lover, I'll be Forever, I'll be Tomorrow - I am Anything when I'm High... flip+49

We're deep in the drought and things are going south. Literally, branches are falling left and right, had to cut that shit short and buy my girls a drink at the bar. I can't reach the back and it's unsettling watching them lay on each other. Gonna have to stand some of em back up or they'll probably get funky from too much moisture.
By next Saturday I'll be itching to wave some iron and hang some branches. 2 weeks maximum. One of their little auto sisters just breached the surface and I want her settled into the big SIP before she gets too comfortable in a seedling pot.
I love the chase, I adore the romance, but I struggle with commitment... please get out of my SIP, my new girls will be here soon.

(Edit: yes, my new light Is burning the shit out of a couple leaves - it's as high as I can get it right now, and I refuse to turn it down)

 

[NickHardy]

We were somewhere near Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold

All caught up, Sunday evening, somewhere in Asia, on the edge of the tropical island, the drugs beginning to take hold I had a lovely read through of the last few pages.

Well worth it! Thanks @ReservoirDog that photo was the missing bit of the puzzle to visualise your builds having read your links through. Have an idea of what I'm gonna build for Outdoor SIP Take #2

Redskin, awesome little corner of Sippery. I'd read the early parts but got distracted, it was a lovely time catching up.

Sweet looking plants!

Nick