faster root growth means.. root pruning more often.. more work.. sigh.. 

I'm using the same mix I use for everything else.  MG potting mix, a little cow manure compost and perlite. roughly 40/20/40 ratio.  It works well in bigger SIPs, but I guess it just wicks too much for these little ones.   Like I said though, once the leaves are out and it starts drinking, it takes off like a rocket.  My Joe Dark can drink about 280cc a day, if i let it.  The reservoir is empty every morning.

oh.. i'm happy with figs. i've made some mistakes and learned from them. i know what i need to do to keep my figs happy. i'm just looking for simpler, less labor intensive way to keep both trees and me happy. i guess i could just plant them in the ground and forget about them.. but what fun in that? some degree of fussing over the figs is good for me. 

I haven't read this entire thread so my question may have been answered and I didn't see it yet. Great thread BTW Frank....... 

So, is no one using a humidity chamber in junction with these little SIPs? If not, I'm just thinking how nice that would be to by-pass using that step.

I used this mini-SIP last year to start some Papaya plants. It worked fantastic but I won't be starting any more Papaya plants until I get my greenhouse built............one of these years.

I used some small peat pots set inside of clear plastic cups. The clear cups were nice for monitoring what the roots were doing. I didn't use the standard wicking system. I simply used yarn and it worked quite well. Here are a couple pics of my set up and the results. Note the dates on the plants. The smaller ones, in the plain peat pots, were started a few days before the larger ones:

    

Thanks for the info Bill.  That looks very interesting.

I don't use a humidity dome unless a plant is in trouble but this is Florida so humidity we have.  In the plant room the humidity is always above 50%.

Bill, me gusta mucho, the use of peat pots!

What is the wicking yarn made of?
No overflow hole needed?

Wills, I agree that the "humidity dome" is over-rated, especially in non-arid environments.

De nada, Frank. Hablo un pocinto de espanol :) . Guess you need a spanish speaking computer to make it look right though LOL.

Yes, the little clear cups do have 3 or 4 holes in them just below the peat pots. I think you can see them if you look closely at the second pic. I used a syringe type medicine dropper to water them. One of those large turkey/meat injectors from Wally World might work even better (hold more water per load). 

Not really sure what the yarn is made of. It feels like one of those with some polyester or nylon in it. Maybe a cotton blend. I imagine this would make some difference. But maybe just the open, loose, weave is more of a factor than the type of fabric. Just haven't fully experimented with that yet.

Whatever the material, this one just happened to work very well.

I may stick to using my covered aquarium on my more valuable cuttings. But I will experiment without the humidity chamber on some cuttings I have a lot of.

My sips are thriving in a fairly dry environment, so far. It is a heated basement, 70-75 F, and T5 hydroponic lighting 24/7, there are about 4 leaves on each of my cuttings but I am starting to see them slow down over the last 7-10 days. The boiler is nearby, keeping the temperature warm and dry. I am feeding a nutrient enriched water into bubble-tea sized extra fat straws, straight out of a pitcher with no liquid lost in the pouring. Am watering every 2-3 days. I mistakenly rigged one SIP with a regular straw-I think a syringe might work best with that one. I hope the SIPs survive to make it into the greenhouse in March!

Forgot to reply to a couple other folks:

James; Yes, I really like this little set-up. I would call it a successful experiment with positive results ;) . It worked so well I just have to try it for getting some tomatoes started in Feb. Oh, and for fig cuttings too :) . 

Wills; I really like your set-up pictured in post #70. Looks like a real custom job just for the mini-SIPs. I also like how you have the flex straws coming out of the side of the cup instead of straight up. Gives you the option of watering even with a cover on the cup - no need to pick up the cover to get to the straw. Cool!

Rafael; Thanks for the info on having yours in a fairly dry environment. Gives me more confidence to try this without the humidity chambers I've been using. What kind of "nutrients" are you using in your water? I agree, larger straws would make for easier watering. But the little syringe droppers work pretty good for the smaller straws too.

Hi Bill

The nutrients are Cornucopia Plus X Formula, complete nutrition recommended by the hydroponic guys. Great stuff. 1/4 tspoon in a gallon of water.

Thanks Rafael. Nice tip! I'll go look the stuff up.

I fabricated and tested a few 2 liter Soda Bottle SIPs for use with fig cuttings (the simple build sequence is located at the first hyperlink in post #69 above)... I will be starting a few dozen cuttings early (next week), just to test these SIPs. They work quite well, once the correct wick size was figured out. The wick is 1 inch wide 6 inches long for the standard single bottle SIP and 8 inches long for the 10 inch tall 2 Bottle SIP, they are also split lengthwise except for the bottom 1 inch. The split is to direct the water away from the bottom of the cutting and to the perimeter of the container. With these wick sizes the top one inch of potting mix remains dry, which should help reduce or eliminate fungus gnat problems.
   

The wick also has an added benefit as mentioned by WillsC in one of his posts, it will wick out excess moisture if the cutting is accidentally over watered. To accomplish this the container has to be removed from the reservoir temporarily and placed in a tall cup to create an air gap between the wick and the standing water. I don't usually use humidity domes once the cuttings have grown leaves, but they can be added to these SIPs very easily.
   .

I may have missed this Pete, but what is the wick material made of? Source?

Bill,

Ed,
Yes, the planter section is simply lifted off the base (reservoir) and about 1 inch of water is added.
A straw could be inserted between the planter and base, inside the planter and through the planter bottom or a hole could be made in the side of the base for adding a straw or for filling the reservoir.
I have used a 2 gallon garden sprayer with the sprayer tip removed from the wand, to quickly water several dozen non SIP containers, but a simple flood and drain or individual automated fills could also be installed easily : )

Thank you Pete. Haven't read every post so missed that. 

I really like the idea of using these SIPs for rooting cuttings. I'm still having a hard time getting past the thought of the cutting possibly getting too much moisture though. I guess the idea of not allowing the very top to get wet might help though.

Hey Bill I find the top of my styrofoam quite dry, in fact I have drizzled a little water down the top out of concern for the top level roots and shoots present at the time I placed the rootings in the cups. I will allow more roots to develop in my second round of trials, which are currently underway. I also see a little bit of humidity trapped in the top of the cup on some of them, so there are varied results, but nothing bad to report as yet. My worst complaint is that some leaves are green and others are quite pale. And leaf growth seems to have slowed to a crawl.

Ok time to go dumpster diving in our recyclable bin.  Let's do this!

I made up 4 mini-SIPs last night with plastic Moe's cups and Panera water cups.  I used spackling screen tape to cover the grooves I cut in the bottom inner cup to keep mix from entering the reservoir in large quantity and spray painted the exterior except a small piece if tape at the bottom that ill peal off to have a window into the reservoir. Also I wasn't sure how y'all secure the straw coming out the side for overflow, so I used duct tape around it to hold the straw in place and prevent leakage. One question I did have is do you need holes up the bottom side of the straw that feeds the reservoir? The only thing I did was make a diagonal cut at the bottom so water could flow freely.

Timmy, the overflow straw doesn't need duct tape around it but it wouldn't hurt.  You get a little seapage between the straw and the cup when the water level gets high enough but that isn't a problem.  Putting a diagonal cut in the bottom of vertical straw is a good idea as it allows the water to flow out of it more rapidly but I've done it both ways and works either way. For more input you might want to provide photos of your system.  Good luck.

I was going to post pics but my phone battery was dead and now they're painted so it'll have to wait until the next time I drink one of those famous NY big gulps.  Will post pics when I find some more containers to modify.

Dear Frank and All who have followed this interesting thread:

I am posting these pics of my up-potting today from 32 oz Sip to 1-Gallon pot, root growth looks vigorous, and this particular plant was sucking up the water really fast, so I wanted to get it into a container fast.  The others will probably have to follow suit real quick!
Edit: it's been around 45-50 days they've been in the Sips.

 The roots at the bottom appear very close to swallowing up the wicking chamber (i.e. the 8 0z cup at the bottom).  I was able to detangle the bottom roots with minimal damage, fortunately the styrofoam is rather flexible.

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