DIY SIP planters

SIP what the heck is that? SIP planters i found out are "sub-irrigating planters".They water the best way, and that's from the ground up. They work using capillary action. now i wasn't the greatest when it came to my physics classes, but this is really not that difficult. actually it's pretty darn easy...


from what i gather it goes a bit like this: you have some containers along the bottom that are hollow and allow for water to fill them, then you have a fill tube to fill up the containers, finally you have a soil-less mix that acts like a wick (pulls up the moisture) from the bottom and distributes it to the top. you can see it here. 

This is one of the DIY planters from the link above (a blog called Inside Urban Green). Its ridiculously simple. it's an alternative to those earthboxes (which i only first heard of today). 


I'm super horrible about remembering to water sometimes or sometimes i'm not home at all. This way i'll know it's taken care of and i'll feel a bit better about myself knowing i reused something i would have otherwise thrown away.




I plan on trying it myself and i'll tell you how it goes. what i'm doing now, top watering with bottom hole pots, seems almost archaic...


The only thing i'm wondering about is once i put a light loamy mix in the bottom to act as a wick, can i fill the rest with regular potting soil? i donno. but you just can't screw up this route. there's no overwatering really and the little drainage hole tells you when you're full of water. You could even put um outside (if the container is weatherproof) and make some pretty wood shell to cover the outside. 

Another neat thing i found, which i'll use next time i take some cuttings to propagate, is using bottles inside bottles. This pic is form another site called pineapplepalace. These guys are from Austin and are doing some interesting experiments to find out things that work. Great for me b/c they live close so i can gauge how my plants should be progressing and learn some of the better ways of doing things through their findings. They're pretty thorough about things too. i wouldn't be surprised if they were involved in a gardening or science profession for a living. The guys from Urban green also employ this method (and about any method using plastic bottles - guy is super dedicated). He gives detailed instructions here via photo flickr sets!!! How nice ^_^

Mothers don't let your children grow up to be top watering plants in clay pots with saucers. They'll learn little about plant science that way. Don't make your kids into drain hole waterers. Their friends will laugh at them.

Too cute.


recycling & healthy plants are a win-win. plus it's super cheap, can't beat that.