SWICK & Organic Soil: A Continuous Journey

[lazylathe]

Welcome to my ongoing journal for my latest style of growing using a contained perlite bed for wicking water to the plants in fabric pots.

After literally months of research, design, planning and eventually fabricating the room and the SWICK bed and purchasing the QB LED, I was ready to grow! I had previously done a quick auto flower grow in the room. Been in and out of growing for a few decades now, all personal.
I have a large unfinished basement for my tool room and wood-shop and my wife agreed to let me build a room as well!
The room was kept small for a reason...I go a bit overboard when growing and it turns into a perpetual grow show, no more of that now.

I designed the SWICK to hold 4 to 5 7 gallon fabric pots but for this first test I just ran some unknown genetics to test my organic soil mix and the SWICK system. I have always had issues with watering my plants and keeping the soil at the perfect moisture level. Away from the plants 12+ hours a day due to work and family and not enough spare time, so this seemed like the perfect idea for me.

The room is about 5 feet wide and almost 20 foot long. I have divided it into a grow area or about 5X5, the rest is storage, my large organic soil container and soon a worm farm and the various supplements etc...

Room construction, I am no carpenter and was born in a country where I learned to use brick and mortar, not wood, gypsum etc...

The partition was covered in reflective foil to create a foil lined box.

A while into the first grow I had issue with temp and RH. I solved this by closing the gap above the door to make it more contained.
You can also see the Meanwell driver mounted outside the room to remove a heat source. I have since added a fan blowing on the driver when the lights are on, I like cool electronics!

And a close up of the boards on my Chinese QB LED.

Once I measured out for the SWICK bed, I realized that I would not have enough room for my fan to be on the floor.
I had to fab a quick wall mount for it and I hung it so that the top few inches of the fan also cool down the QB.

Next up was the SWICK bed, made out of 2X6 boards. This is to have at least 5 inches of perlite for the SWICK.
My oil filled heater fits perfectly between the wall and the bed, a happy coincidence!

And all filled up and ready for water.

Now there are a few things you need to know about these particular SWICK beds before diving in head first.

1- They take a lot of water to fill initially but once the perlite is all damp, adding less water will still keep your pots moist.
2- Add lots of perlite to your medium for aeration and to wick up the water into the medium.
3- I added a yard fabric covering between my fabric pots so that the perlite was protected from the light. You can leave it open but you may have growths of algae on the top surface, not dangerous but not very nice to look at in my opinion.
4- A SWICK this size will take 2 to 3 weeks to dry out completely and then a further week or so for your pots to start to dry out. Plan anything well in advance or have a Plan B!
5- Plan B was to remove any pot with issues from the SWICK to add whatever was required and then replace on SWICK.
6- If you need to water while on the SWICK be careful to not overdo it as your excess will run into your SWICK and cause even more algae blooms.

So far I am week 7 of flower and things have gone amazingly well. I had one issue and it was totally my fault...
With these new QB's I have found that no matter what you add to your soil, you still need a good cal/mag supplement otherwise you will run into issues. Soil always takes longer to correct any issues, so I will be adding this from the start of week 4 flower, so they are not searching for it in week 5.
Apart from that one issue, everything has gone amazingly well and all with minimal input from me!
I do have 2 ladies that have yellowing leaves but the other 3 supposed same strain ladies are all green...very odd. Even added more compost tea for them and nothing stopped the yellowing. The genetics are from an online seed bank that has terrible reviews!! Always Google first...
Decided to grow them out to test the system and the buds look great so far and smell very heavy.

The supposed strains are Pink Kush and GodFather OG. When I looked up the seed banks, they are non existent and only exist on this website.
From some reviews it seems as if they have a large bag of Fem seeds and just grab the right amount and stick what was purchased on the bag.
I can see this now....

Next up will be a germination technique that I also found on 420Magazine.com
It's a bit out there but so far I have germinated every seed I have ever put in them.
Around 15 for 15 is not bad odds!

 

[Green thumb lou]

Hello never seen this done before. It’s interesting. Would love to see some pics of the product. No issues with Root rot? Glad it’s going well

 

[lazylathe]

Hello never seen this done before. It’s interesting. Would love to see some pics of the product. No issues with Root rot? Glad it’s going well

Hello!
This is a very old technique, you just don't see it too often. I also find it gets hot for a bit and then the excitement dies down again. For myself it has been wonderful.
No issues with anything of the sort! Roots are healthy and popping out the sides and bottom of the fabric pots.

I do not have any finished product yet...At week 7 of flower so far.
Here is one of the ladies flowers.

For continuity, The next post will be about the new germination technique I found right here on 420 Mag!
I will be posting a few more updates to bring us up to where they are now.

There is more to the SWICK than meets the eye...

 

[lazylathe]

When I decided to start my SWICK journey, I went through my old seeds and was excited to grow some old school favorites of mine!
Seeds on hand were ; Killing Fields (purple pheno), Sannie's Jack, Pink Kush bag seeds and a few more....
They went into my standard moist paper towel in a DVD case wrapped in a t-shirt on top of the fridge.
Nothing, nada, zilch bugger all happened... I had germinated a few moths before using the exact same technique and all popped...
So I started searching and searching for alternative methods to germinate seeds and learned a lot, so it all helped in the end! Using the technique i have had 100% germination so far. I expect some failures at some point though.

To start with, grab some red solo cups or any opaque cups that you can cut.
Cut/drill an opening about 2 inches from the bottom of each cup, I drilled a hole as you can see in the pictures.
Label the cups with date and strain. Now tape up the hole with some duct tape.

Fill each cup with perlite and leave about an inch and a half gap between the perlite and the rim of the cup.

Using R.O. water or your water of choice, add the required amount of Kelp supplement and stir well.
Add the mixture to each cup until the perlite floats and leave for 3 hours to soak.

Go and choose your seeds now! Have a smoke, some tea/coffee etc...

After 3 hours, remove the tape over a sink or bucket and let the cups drain the excess water.
You will be left with a 2 inch high reservoir of water that will keep the perlite moist.
Leave the cups for a further 20 minutes and then poke a hole in the center of the perlite and place your seed and cover with moist perlite.
Place a clear plastic cup to act as a humidity dome.

Place on a seedling heat mat and wait 3 days.

On the third day, I was told there would be a seedling showing it's head. I thought they were joking...
So far, every seed has germinated in 3 days.

The next part is the fun bit!
Allow the seedlings to grow for about a week, you want a nice long tap root.

Duct tape the hole shot again and slowly add R.O. water to the cups till the perlite and seedling are floating.
using your thumb and forefinger, carefully lift and twist the seedling free from the Perlite. Any perlite that is stuck, leave it alone as it will not cause any harm.

Just before floating.

Before you do this, make sure you prepare your soil and pots.
The soil needs to be on the drier side for now as it is easier on the seedlings.
I use organic seedling mix and find it works well.

A nice and healthy tap root.

Once out, grab a pencil and measure the root and poke the same length hole in your pot. make it nice and wide so that the tap root will go down unhindered.
When correct, gently work in the soil from the sides of the pot to press gently around the tap root.
Once secure, press down around the seedling as normal and water.

You should end up with all your seedlings safely transplanted in their first container!

Water around the perimeter and you are good to go!

I vegged for a short time and flipped to 12/12.

 

[lazylathe]

The thing with SWICK's is they are only great for flowering.
Keeping the whole pot at the perfect moisture during all stages is a huge mistake, as many pioneers before me have found out!

During VEG you want the root system to grow and actively search out water to create a strong and healthy plant.
For the 2nd transplant, they are also kept off the SWICK to establish a strong root system.
This is where I think I messed up a bit as I went from plastic pots, straight to 3 gallon fabric pots.
Transplanting fabric pots is a pain and some started to fall apart, so I stopped. I have a few in 5 gallon bags but most are still in 3 gallon bags... Not ideal in any sense. Next time I will do another set or two of plastic pots and then into the 7 gallon fabric pots.

Still vegging and growing roots off the SWICK.

A few days before being flipped. I had topped them all once already.

Knuckles on the split.

I always foliar feed with a kelp supplement, they seem to love it!
They all get this twice daily until the first sign of flower.

I love this shot of the soils surface!

Things are starting to get interesting now! This was F3

I also believe in healthy stripping before flower and at week 5 of flower.
Strip 1

Strip 2

Next post should bring us up to speed! After that I will go over my first ever organic soil recipe and hopefully get some tips!

Any questions, Just ask!

I also need to spend some time and mention all the amazing members that have helped or just selflessly shared all their techniques! It is greatly appreciated and I continue to learn!

@SweetSue
@Bucudinkydow
@beez0404

All have so much to share and you would spend a lifetime reading everything they have posted!

 

[Green thumb lou]

Beauty!!

 

[SweetSue]

Beauty!!

My feelings exactly. The shot of the worm made my heart go pitter-pat. *sigh* The kelp spray made me want to call in @bobrown14, just to see the beauty of another organic grow. He’s my site guru for Organics, and he and @Van Stank have been keeping an eye on the organic soil thread. They’d be who I went looking for when ready to start that soil mixing.

 

[Green thumb lou]

Haha awesome. I have always thought about worms in the garden. Didn’t think anyone would. So cool

 

[Zincite]

Hey I'm in this looks really interesting. Great job.

 

[SweetSue]

@lazylathe, I had to stop again and thank you for the tutorial you left in hempy germination. A couple things:

You don’t have to let them get very big before transplanting. I’ve transplanted them successfully anywhere from the day after they pop up to two weeks later.

With autos I don’t want the tap root to hit the bottom of the cup, so they get transplanted almost immediately. Photos I didn’t worry about so much, so I usually let them get a start on some roots before switching to soil. You don’t want to wait too long, but then in good organic soil the hydro-style roots they grow in the cup grab the soil quickly anyway.

Cannabis is very adaptable.

You can use the same technique for cloning, with slight modification.

• Fill the cup only half full with perlite that’s been soaked in something nutritious, but only at 1/4 strength. Cuttings need some food while they grow roots, but not very much.
• Settle the clone cutting, dipped in whatever you choose to use to motivate rooting (aloe works well) into the perlite.
• Cap with a clear lid or set cups into a gallon-size ziplock you inflate like a balloon. (so it’s puffy, and full of CO2)
• Leave things alone for about 2 weeks. There’s enough moisture in the cups to keep them going.

@beez0404 uses clear hempy cups inside the red solo hempy cups. That way you can lift the clear cup out and see the roots developing.

Hempy techniques work like a dream for germination or clone rooting. Works like a dream to grow monster plants. I love hempy.

 

[lazylathe]

@SweetSue

Thank you for stopping by! Your wealth of info is astounding and thanks for the corrections and alterations!
Also a big thank you for mentioning other members that I need to stalk as well!
I tried hempy buckets once...Never have I ever grown such large auto's... Crazy stuff!
Somehow I am always drawn back to the taste of soil, done coco, hydro and hempy but always felt something was missing.
I grew up smoking sun and soil grown herb and love it!

@Green thumb lou

I have a large tote of organic soil all mixed up and ready to go in my grow room, left over spoil from missing a transplant into 7 gallon fabric pots...
I have been turning the soil every week and adding a bit of organic compost here and there in the hopes of keeping the worms alive. A few nights ago I decided to add the waste from my masticating juicer to the top of the soil.
Tonight when I opened the tote, the soil was alive with worms!! Quite happy that I can keep worms alive and thriving, my wife on the other hand is not so excited.

One last thing, I lifted one of the pot covers tonight and guess what I saw??
My very own, 100% organic E.W.C mounds!!!
I am amazed to have things living and thriving along with my cannabis plants!

 

[Green thumb lou]

Haha beautiful and amazing. my worms are in the fridge and my wife is still not keen on that These are big giant dew worms. I always wondered if it would help or be bad. But my root ball could use it lol

 

[lazylathe]

And to bring us up to date to this past weekend.
At the start of week 5 the ladies suffered a massive cal/mag deficiency.
I forgot to start adding cal/mag at week 4 due to the QB effect. I corrected that issue but then my two biggest girls starting yellowing suddenly and nothing would help them. Thinking they used up everything in the pot and could not recover correctly. They are still flowering like crazy and pushing out resin glands, smell so stinky and just sparkle in the light. So hopefully they will turn out okay.

At the start of week 5 they were all given a top dressing of Gaia Green Power Bloom, some myco's and a layer of fresh EWC. Lightly water to work in the nutrients and left alone again.

Happy roots growing through the new layer, feeding the plant now and not waiting! LOL!
It's due to my cover on the soil. I am finding this keeps the pot perfectly moist from top to bottom, no dry, hard areas anywhere for the entire period so far.

As of last week, 15 Feb 2020, I am at 7 weeks flower!

These are some of the best looking nugs I have ever grown! The back left plant was back-trimmed to see if it works and YES it does!

And lastly, one of the GodFather OG's

So this brings us up to date! Next one will be this weekend sometime.
I have checked in on the ladies and some have turned a lot of pistils orange already but not curled in yet and glands are still clear. I did spot a few that looked dark brown/black/burst? Any ideas? Forests of clear though!!

I also want to talk about my organic mix and amendments that I have added. I am sure I have missed some...

 

[lazylathe]

Haha beautiful and amazing. my worms are in the fridge and my wife is still not keen on that These are big giant dew worms. I always wondered if it would help or be bad. But my root ball could use it lol

Thanks!
Sorry I was vaping and clicked the wrong button before I was done posting...LMAO!

Keep the dew worms for fishing, they are not what you want in your pots.
You want red wrigglers.

I am hoping to be blown away by this batch with minimal care and unknown genetics as they look and smell amazing.
Really excited to try out some known genetics and see what it can do.

 

[lazylathe]

For this grow I wanted to do it as organic as possible and wanted to only water for the entire grow.
I had to add a cal/mag supplement, General Organics camg+ and it sorted the deficiency out.

To start with I used a base of StepWell soil, an organic soil made here in Canada.
The ingredient list:
Canadian sphagnum peat moss, mycorrhizae, bone meal, blood meal, perlite, kelp meal, fish bone meal, wollastonite, worm castings, basalt rock dust, gypsum dust, alfalfa meal, humic acid, dolomite lime & yucca. All ingredients are organic certified.

I recycled the soil from my Auto grow and added to it to reconstitute it.
Some organic seedling mix was also added at some point. This was store bought Pro-Mix Organic seedling starter mix.

To the StepWell soil I added:
Organic Earthworm Castings
Organic compost
Mike's Myco's
Bone and Blood meal
Perlite
Dolomitic rock dust - Gaia Green
Pelletized hen manure
Perlite
1 brick of coco coir broken up but not wet. (mine comes precleaned from any salts etc...)
Gro-Kashi

I am sure there are a few more that I left out but will add them when I go into the grow room again.

All this started at the beginning of winter, so I could not cook my soil outside for 3 months and had to come up with a plan...
The plan devised was to use my oil heater and a thick plastic blanket to cover the heater and soil container.
Heater was set to 27 Degrees Celsius and the soil began to break down.
Every week I would open the container and turn the soil and add a bit more EWC or myco's and a layer of Gro_kashi Pro Gro. A few days later and there was a nice white fuzz over the soil surface, this also gets turned into the soil after a few days growth. The bran is also a food source for the worms.

All my earthworms were 1mm red things stuck to the inside of one of the EWC bags. I gently washed them off into the soil and they have gone crazy!

I have recently started juicing using a masticating juicer and I decided I would try them with some pulp fiber.
They absolutely love it and the surface is a writhing mass of earthworms.
The last mix they received was made up of carrots, apples, celery and kale. After 4 days it is mostly gone from the surface.

After this grow is done, the soil will be cleaned and added back to the bin for processing for a few months.
It will be amended again and I will boost the amounts I added and I also want to look into a more natural cal/mag source. Possibly Epsom Salts?

I thought it would be more daunting trying to go organic but so far, so good. A few errors on my part along the way but the ladies have pushed through

I was in the grow room a bit earlier and saw some cloudy heads...
2 to 3 weeks to go for a few of them!

Updates tomorrow.

 

[lazylathe]

And a link to @beez0404 who graciously shared the germination technique!
Fully documented way better than me...

Seedsman Sponsored Grow: Peyote Wi-Fi By Beez

Those of you that know me are aware of the fact that I love seeds from Seedsman Seeds one of our fantastic 420 Magazine Sponsors. The seed selection on the @SeedsMan site is vast and incredibly diverse. There are approximately 135 different breeders offering their seeds for sale all on the...

www.420magazine.com

And of course my main inspiration for this project, even though she has veered off to the Hempy side....
@SweetSue

Have a look here and just start reading! Have a note book and pen handy...

https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/sweetsues-threads.347732/

And of course @Bucudinkydow who is on the same but vertical journey and growing some real monsters!

Without you fantastic, sharing people, I would be lost...

 

[lazylathe]

Update time!
And this time it is what is currently happening in the grow room, finally!
We are now at 8 weeks of 12/12 lighting. Some of the resin glands are starting to turn cloudy, so it looks like another 2 weeks or so for a few of them.
The buds are really starting to fatten up nicely now. Lots of red hairs all over but some plants are still pushing out white pistils, so it looks like a staggered harvest. Makes trimming easier but hanging a curing is an issue, will need to work out something.

The canopy shot! I love the nugs forming all over, makes my heart happy!

And a side shot, as harvest gets closer, the leaves get lesser! Some buds looked pretty much trimmed already.
The back left girl was stressed out a lot on purpose to see how she would respond. She had the most severe leaf strip at week 5 and I have continued to strip her down as she grows. So far no issues and she is one frosty gal!

This is a bud from the back left lady.

And a few other buds. Smell is anywhere from kush to bubblegum to a minty smelling one. Think it is going to be an interesting line-up!

I gave the SWICK a few liters of water, just enough to keep the perlite damp.
The surface of the soil is still moist, a few small dry areas around the rim but nothing to worry about. They will still have enough water for another two week just being left alone. This is truly an automated system if you go full organics with a water only schedule!

I am very excited for my next grow at the end of summer.
The routine will be modified to improve results and increase plant size significantly.
I will veg in plastic pots to make transplanting easier and effortless until the are ready to flip to flower. They never use the SWICK and are hand watered.
Before flip, they will be transplanted into 7 gallon fabric pots filled with freshly cooked organic soil to finish on the SWICK.

Strains for the next grow will be Reeferman's Pink Kush and AlphaDawg Feminized Tuna Kush.
Both very heavy hitters!
I will most likely just grow 2 seeds of each as a test and if the plants are quality, I will try my hand at cloning to keep the genetics going.

Lots of new ground to break but spring is just around the corner and that means getting outside!
The grow room will be closed for the summer but will be updated with more ventilation and more air movement as well.

Going to be scoping the ladies every night from now on!

 

[lazylathe]

No update this week, hopefully during the week.
My puppy deeply scratched my right eyeball and I have been unable to open my right eye until today.
Everything is extremely blurry and bright light is painful.

No real updates as nothing much has changed except for more cloudy heads.

 

[lazylathe]

A few weeks with no updates but my eye is healing nicely and I can work in the tent again!
Thank goodness I had the SWICK otherwise I would have run into some serious watering issues.

We are right at 11 weeks since switching to 12/12 and the ladies have swelled up nicely and the heads are changing to amber. Harvest will most likely be on Sunday and I will do a trim to remove all the fan leaves and small leaves with no sugar on them. Chop off at base and hang in tent to dry slowly, then possibly paper bags or jars depending on dryness.
Then I burp a few times a day for a few weeks and then leave them shut for a few months to sure up.

I had a small sample the other night and it was pretty potent and had a great taste for a quick dry!
It was left to dry out in the open on my router for almost 2 days. It was starting to develop a good body stone/couchlock effect, so the extra days are just going to intensify this!
Photo with flash because...

SWICK update!

The SWICK has been a smooth sailing journey for this grow! Zero maintenance and zero pH measurements!!
My organic soil bin has exploded with worms, cannot wait to add the used soil to the bin and let them get it ready for the next winter grow! I have been feeding them the pulp from my masticating juicer and they absolutely love it! After a few days the fruit and veg develop a nice layer of pure white fuzz that the worms also devour.

I have also been noticing more worm activity in my fabric pots which is odd. They are still all perfectly moist and nothing has changed except seeing them more and more near the surface. Still need to take some pics of the fresh EWC they are making in the pots! Loving this organic route!

Everyone has made an excellent effort at producing nice, dense nugs under the Chinese QB!
My other LED's tended to produce more airy type buds but these guys are nice and solid feeling.

It's pretty pungent in the room as well which is always a good sign, especially with the exhaust at max!

Top view

Skirt shot

And the money shots!
Not bad for unknown genetics and a first run with a new system and 1st ever made water only organic soil!
Had to add cal/mag at week 5 of flower and will look into adding a better supplement at around week 3 so it is available and good to go.

The last bud is actually a purplish color, hard to capture under the QB.

Next update should be some chop pics and maybe a weight off each plant, depends on how the trimming goes! LOL!
Not one for quantity and would rather grow for amazing quality!

 

[lazylathe]

So I lied.... After a more weed eye free, I studied the heads again and they were still mostly clear with some cloudy...
I gave them another week and they are perfect! Clear with mostly cloudy and some amber heads.
48 hours of darkness starting tomorrow morning and harvest on Sunday!

I will strip all remaining leaves except for sugar leaves and cut off at the stem.
They will be hung in the room with a tiny DC fan to slightly move the air. Not sure if I will leave the exhaust on.
Since the buds are tight bud the buds are far apart, I am not concerned about bud rot.
I want to maintain the max terpenes I can, so a nice slow dry with minimal air movement and even temps is called for.

Weather has been pretty good and the RH is quite low still, about 40% in the basement and around 20 degrees C.

Cannot wait to sample this crop!