I have searched this forum for info on growing hot peppers in SIP/ Global Bucket style containers. All the topics seem to be old with the exception of frosty's glog which looked like he had pretty good results. I have made a bunch of these and Earth Box style 27 gallon totes. Does anyone use this method with success? I have roughly 55 plants for this setup. I'm also planning on hooking up a reservoir style gravity drip irrigation system. Any disadvantages to using SIP over a straight 5 gallon bucket?
-
Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.
5 gallon SIP vs 5 gallon bucket
- Thread starter OCD Chilehead
- Start date
Nobody.
I have another 25 or so of Annuum varieties. And I'm sure I will have some more along the way. This seems like the easiest setup for me. Last year had a hard time watering do to heat. More than a few times I would check the weather and no rain in the forecast. Until I watered. So with this setup the buckets are covered ,the drip system fills the reservoirs and the plants take up what they need from wicking. No more overwatering, under watering. In theory. Thanks for the reply.
I guess I am over thinking things as always. Never used this method before. Was just wondering if anybody else has had success with them. Thanks for the response.OKGrowin said:
They can work very well, but if you've never grown with one, making one from scratch and setting it up so that it's not too wet or too dry can be pretty difficult.
I have been wondering about that. Do you no a good mix specifically for this application?
I made up about 25 of these last year for some of my plants that I ran out of garden room for. They seemed to work out well, as I did not have to water as much, plus they are self draining if it rains a bunch. There are a couple of things I would do different this year if I make more. The first is to either make the fill pipe longer, or make a angles top to it. Last year as my plants got larger, I had a heck of a time getting the hose/watering can down through all the branches. The only other thing is that while 5 gallons seems like a lot, every one of my plants filled the buckets up pretty tightly with roots. When to cut down my plants at the end of the year, I had a 5 gallon root ball.
I am thinking I will try using 10 gallon pots and see if I get better growth. Not that my plants did poorly, cause they didn't , but I figure they might do better with more room to grow.
A plus side to using these self watering pots, is that I could have the plants sitting on the pavement driveway and they did not over heat.
I am thinking I will try using 10 gallon pots and see if I get better growth. Not that my plants did poorly, cause they didn't , but I figure they might do better with more room to grow.
A plus side to using these self watering pots, is that I could have the plants sitting on the pavement driveway and they did not over heat.
Thanks bpwilly for your input. Do you remember what kind of mix worked for you? I also have 4 heavy duty totes I plan to put 2 plants per tote. Thanks again.bpwilly said:
I used a home made mix. I have one of those cheap Harbor Freight Cement mixers that I used to mix up my soil. What I put in was
one 5gal bucket of peat moss
one 5gal bucket of Pro-mix
one 2gal bucket of Pearllte
three 5 gallon buckets of fine bark.
I mixed this up well and used it to fill my self watering buckets. Just kept making a bunch with this same ratio, and it seemed to work out well. I did put a handful of Bone meal in each bucket when I repotted the peppers to them.
The bark I got at the local place that sells top soil. Had them bring in 20 yards, so I mixed up a bunch in my garden to help keep it light and drain well. Up here in the Pacific NW, the soils seem to get heavy due to all the rain.
Found the buckets on Craigslist. Some kid worked at the local dairy Ice cream place and had loads of buckets for sale at 1 dollar each. That made it easy to buy a bunch.
Forgot to add. I originally got info about the mix based on one that is one the web It is called 5-1-1 and is credited to a guy called Al Tappa. You will see that several of these mixes add garden lime to the mix and I think it is a good idea, since this stuff is pretty neutral and could use something to get minerals like calcium in the soil. I know once my plants were growing, the bone meal seemed to last, but then the plants were small and under lights, they needed cal-mag pretty often.
here is a YouTube video on it. It is a bit different from mine, but the idea is similar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPOATQ3nxXY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixp_UI6AfwU
Here is a link to a discussion on using this as a base and calculating cost
http://gardenish.wordpress.com/tag/5-1-1/
The main idea is to just get light and self draining soil.
one 5gal bucket of peat moss
one 5gal bucket of Pro-mix
one 2gal bucket of Pearllte
three 5 gallon buckets of fine bark.
I mixed this up well and used it to fill my self watering buckets. Just kept making a bunch with this same ratio, and it seemed to work out well. I did put a handful of Bone meal in each bucket when I repotted the peppers to them.
The bark I got at the local place that sells top soil. Had them bring in 20 yards, so I mixed up a bunch in my garden to help keep it light and drain well. Up here in the Pacific NW, the soils seem to get heavy due to all the rain.
Found the buckets on Craigslist. Some kid worked at the local dairy Ice cream place and had loads of buckets for sale at 1 dollar each. That made it easy to buy a bunch.
Forgot to add. I originally got info about the mix based on one that is one the web It is called 5-1-1 and is credited to a guy called Al Tappa. You will see that several of these mixes add garden lime to the mix and I think it is a good idea, since this stuff is pretty neutral and could use something to get minerals like calcium in the soil. I know once my plants were growing, the bone meal seemed to last, but then the plants were small and under lights, they needed cal-mag pretty often.
here is a YouTube video on it. It is a bit different from mine, but the idea is similar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPOATQ3nxXY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixp_UI6AfwU
Here is a link to a discussion on using this as a base and calculating cost
http://gardenish.wordpress.com/tag/5-1-1/
The main idea is to just get light and self draining soil.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and then some. I also appreciate the links. I will post progress when I get there in my glog. I am going to do a couple plants in regular buckets as a test comparison. Thanks again.bpwilly said:
This is just about it. You end up with a tight 7gall rootball by the end of the season. Extermely efficient with water and it is harder to screw up. I gave my plants away when i left phx. The only plants that didn't get killed by people were the ones in SIP buckets.bpwilly said:
When I made all those sip buckets I was (am?) a complete gardening noob. It was hard to screw up. I was freezing, pickling, drying, selling, giving away pods.
I'm looking forward to buying a new house in DE and becoming a regular poster again. I've got some experiments I want to try.
Thanks for posting. I like your glog. Hope the move works out and we see some more of your ideas. Your SIP pepper grow is what made me decide to go ahead and try it. Thanks again.frosty said: