A drip irrigation system that takes the worry out of watering

I had an old ¼” drip irrigation system I installed last year when I was going away on a 2-week vacation. As I plan to go on vacation next week I wanted to upgrade the irrigation system to handle the new extended garden I have this year.

So I got some ½ pipes and set up a new system that has been working well the past 2 weeks. I will have a more detailed blog on how to set up a drip irrigation system for your tote planters soon. It costs me in the range of  $60 and took less than half a day to get it all done. So look forward to a detailed step-by-step guide soon.

Planting Guide for Tote SIPs

Through trial and error and through reading various blogs and forums I put together a planting guide for most of the plants I have been growing in my 18 gallon tote box. The picture below shows the detail.

There's one learning over the past 2 years I learned when following the sequence below. Say you planted, 4 cabbages in 2 rows, and due to some reason, a few of them die. Just let it be and don't try to fill the spots with other plants. I once replaced zucchinis that died with bell peppers. The zucchinis that survived over powered the peppers completely. Did the same when a few cucumbers died in the frost in April this year and I replaced them with zucchinis. The surviving cucumbers just ran over the zucchinis. The zucchines yield was very poor.

Bugs gatecrash the party!

It’s been a good season so far. The weather has not affected productivity of the crops. While many traditional gardeners in my area are waiting for rain, I don’t have to worry. Except, fill the 5-10 gallon reservoir in my SIPs every morning. It’s been really hot and the plants have been using up a lot of water.

But it has not been without events.

Caterpillars attacked the broccoli, cabbage and mesclun salad mix. First reaction was to cut the infected leaves. But I soon found an organic way to take care of it. I used a biological insecticide called Bacillus Thuringiensis or BT for short.

The way BT works is simple. The bacterium produces a crystal protein toxin that kills the cells lining the caterpillar’s gut, which in turn causes an infection in the body cavity of the insect.

The interesting thing about BT, is that only certain insects digest and are affected by the protein toxins. In most insects, as well as people, birds, fish, and other animals, the BT proteins have virtually no measurable effect.

Just spray on the leaves of the infected plants and when the caterpillar eats the leaves, they die within 20 mins. Now, the garden is virtually caterpillar free.

But I do have some issues with the roma tomatoes. The tomatoes on one of the plant started to develop brown rings at the bottom. It looked like the tomato had blossom end rotting caused by lack of calcium. But that couldn’t be true because I always add 2 cup of garden lime or dolomite anytime I grow tomatoes. All the tomatoes quickly developed brown rings and the plant withered and died within days. I tried adding garden lime to the root system but that didn’t help.

The bottom part of the plant and the root system looked very infected. I still have no idea what went wrong. I posting the pictures so if you spot the problem do email me.

Let the harvesting begin

It’s my second year experimenting with sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). And it’s been a patient 4 months. In mid-February, I started with planting seeds of swiss chard, celery, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, basil, eggplants, green chilies, and bell pepper.

I planted them in SIPs created with 2-liter pop bottles. I also used traditional cups. I tried a version of SIP called “the ultimate growing system” sold by Burpee. They all turned out good. I prefer the pop-bottle SIPs (more later).

By late April, when it was getting warm, I moved them outdoors to harden them. A couple of frosty nights in mid May killed many of the basil and green pepper plants. I quickly moved the whole lot indoors. For a while, it was a sight to see all the SIP planters lined in the kitchen, by the French window, in the safety of 72 degrees indoor temperature.

By early June the plants were out again. They started to bloom.

The cherry tomato took the lead, followed by the eggplant and zucchini. Swiss chards were late bloomers. Celery never budged. They grew about a foot tall but never progressed. Have to look into this. If any of you have ideas about growing Celery, please drop me a line.

Since late June we have been harvesting regularly.

On June 26^th, my deck was open to the West Windsor Garden Tour and people were amazed at how much can be grown with such little space, in such small containers.

Given the success of the tour, I decided to quickly update my website and add DIY manuals to help many who showed interest.

Please continue to visit for regular updates to this blog.

Hello World!

The idea has been almost two years in the making. It's finally here now. Like all ideas, good and bad, it needed some incubation time.

What's the big idea? This site is all about my experiments with Sub-Irrigated Planters also known as SIPs. The idea of a Sub-Irrigated Planter is surely not mine. Google the term and you will find the idea dating back to early 19th century. People have been exploring this form of growing plants and vegetables for a while now.

As to the website, it’s been a collective effort to get this thing going. First, Brian Phillips who came up with a winning name for the website and designed the logo. Brady Jacobs who did the infographics of the planter for the DIY guide. Last but not the least, Bhavana Joshi who designed the landing pages and got the first version of this site up and running.

I plan on regularly updating this journal/blog and keep everyone posted of what’s going on with my farming and the latest developments in building new and improved planters.