Ziggy, to keep the pots above the perlite during seedling stage, when you want the wet/dry cycle. These are drain covers. I find them in the plumbing section of the big box hardware stores.
DrZiggy's 1st Journal Featuring High Brix - LEDs & Cool Strains
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Sue, Thank you. Im going to try the 2nd SWICK without anything extra. I think I can get the roots to do their thing with just the prelite and small waterings at first. 
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Happy Mother's Day to all that it applies
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SWICK #2 has 3 plants sprouted...ACE Mix..plus an unknown not in SWICK..
I gotta get me some SWICK pretty soon.
Doc - how does a SWICK mesh with your philosophy of letting the plant dry out between drenches?
For anyone doing a SWICK: What is the advantage to this method of watering as opposed to just using a wick?
I'm thinking for bloom. You'll notice I recommend NOt letting them dry out in bloom.....at least after the first weeks or so. It's cool to build roots during early bloom, but later on you'll want to keep them slightly moist.
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The SWICK allows less frequent waterings...like a reservoir. The wick allows the pot to drain due to the perched water table being lowered.
Thanks DZ!
I wonder if anyone has tried a wick to add water from a reservoir. Seems like it would work.
Sue, Thank you. Im going to try the 2nd SWICK without anything extra. I think I can get the roots to do their thing with just the prelite and small waterings at first.
I'm thinking you're right about that. I've had the pots sitting on the SWICK for a couple days now and they seem to be very evenly hydrated and have maintained that all along.
How often do you water the SWICK that's furthest along? How much do you think it's drinking a day?
Doc, do you know of any studies that show faster and denser root growth using the wet/dry cycle as opposed to an evenly hydrated one? I'm beginning to wonder if the wet/dry choice is born of tradition and not science. It occurs to me that a healthy seedling will grow roots and it would be the friability of the medium that would influence that first. The roots grow to the pot sides first and then down, and I know from my own experience that an evenly hydrated pot produced roots that filled the pot and grew right out of the bottom.
If there's science behind this I'd like to read it.
Wicking pads do essentially the same thing but offer a broad wicking surface for the pot bottoms. They would be an excellent alternative and they get fairly decent reviews.
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Sue My SWICK#1 gets watered 1 out of 2 days now.
I gave them 3 CAT drenches in a row. The 3 Bubblegum and 4 WW are becoming a little frosty. Very smelly tent too
The other plants the 5 Unknowns, are doing well too. Interestingly the plants positions to the other plants and light have different sizes and buds..I am growing SWICK#2 with 1 less pot. Maybe next even 1 or more less..
I gave them 3 CAT drenches in a row. The 3 Bubblegum and 4 WW are becoming a little frosty.
Very smelly tent tooThe other plants the 5 Unknowns, are doing well too. Interestingly the plants positions to the other plants and light have different sizes and buds..I am growing SWICK#2 with 1 less pot. Maybe next even 1 or more less..
I could swear when I up-pot my plants, it appears the roots go to the bottom first, then out to the sides and begin climbing back up the sides of the pot. I have roots growing out the bottom, but near the top of the pot, there are no roots out toward the edges.
Thanks so much for this!
on topic of the SWICK.
2 or 3 runs ago, I used 420 Grow pots that were supposed to do exactly what the SWICK does.
there was approximately 2 gallons of perlite on the bottom of a pot with a reservoir,
Unfortunately the roots grew into the perlite which had become almost like cement at the end of the grow.
What prevents the roots from growing through the holes in the pots and into the perlite in a SWICK?
And does using fabric pots work well with SWICK?
2 or 3 runs ago, I used 420 Grow pots that were supposed to do exactly what the SWICK does.
there was approximately 2 gallons of perlite on the bottom of a pot with a reservoir,
Unfortunately the roots grew into the perlite which had become almost like cement at the end of the grow.
What prevents the roots from growing through the holes in the pots and into the perlite in a SWICK?
And does using fabric pots work well with SWICK?
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Hashhound, nothing is preventing it. Im hoping to see lots of roots...
I would imagine s fabric pot would work great. Im rated a pre K in SWICK tho.
SweetSue will answer that when she sees it I'm sure.
SmokeyMcFly
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I think the question you should be asking HH is why did your pearlite turn to cement...
No, mostly just folklore and superstition. You know me; short on science.
Well, you could go ahead and read it then, if you really want to. There are so many studies that people don't need to study it anymore. It's become basic gardening now.
Hashhound, nothing is preventing it. Im hoping to see lots of roots...
I would imagine s fabric pot would work great. Im rated a pre K in SWICK tho.
SweetSue will answer that when she sees it I'm sure.
Yes, indeed I will. I've never seen the pots you describe hashhound, so I can't begin to understand why they failed. I had copious roots in my perlite that grew right through the walls of the fabric pots. At the end of my grow I simply knocked the roots off, sifted them out of the perlite, which I then tossed back into the reservoirs. My perlite is still as loose today as the day I put it in the basins.
We're careful with the SWICKS to keep the reservoirs and perlite unpolluted. I imagine having it in the bottom of a pot there would be much pollution going on. That may explain the perlite becoming like concrete.
Now Doc, I asked a simple question, hoping for a helpful response. In my kindest voice may I suggest that the attitude didn't help. I'll just google it.
Considering how easily things can be misinterpreted without the nuisances of facial features, voice and body language to guide you, is it possible you thought I was questioning you or being smarmy? If so, please be assured I wasn't intending any such thing. I seriously wanted to read up on the science and hoped you might know of some recent studies.
I could be reading already in the time it took to type this. Let me go seeking.
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