A New and Improved Self Irrigating Pot System

A very cool improvement on the self irrigating pot (SIP) idea from Larry Hall of Minnesota. Rather than the two bucket system we’ve blogged about in the past (see a roundup of our SIP resources here), Hall uses one long rain gutter to supply water. He’s even got a clever double rain gutter system for growing strawberries that I’m tempted to try on our back patio.

I spotted this video on Inside Urban Green always a good source for SIP related news.

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11 Comments

  1. I foresee major mosquito problems with something like this, more than with the two-bucket system which is easier to add mesh-exclusion to, but I’d still LOVE to see that strawberry/lettuce/etc set-up planted out and in full production! I think this is similar to something I’ve seen done with aquaculture systems before- essentially, pumping fish waste-water through that lower rain gutter would provide plenty of liquid fertiliser to the growing plants.

  2. To address mosquitos, would be neat to have a mosquito fish system in place.. though on that note, doesn’t the water get pretty gunky from the soil coming out of the little basket? Or is there a period where fine stuff gets out, then after that it’s pretty clear?

    • PVC is Carcinogenic. Need to use only polypropylene containers and pipes or gutters.

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