SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself

[SweetSue]

Excellent LA, and thank you for sharing it here. Don't be afraid to make that pile of perlite deeper. That will give you more depth to the reservoir and you'll be able to leave it longer in between. Feel free to share progress photos.

Remember, water lever 1-2" below the surface of the perlite.

Nice pot, by the way. Nice flux too. Cool name. Deserves some rep points.

 

[Sorenna]

I believe I have run into a problem that involves SWICK. My plants are getting too much water. When I press my fingers to the soil near the outside, around the rim of the pot, its feels nice and moist and cool, not wet. However, when I touch near the stem of the plant, the soil is very wet to the touch and cold.

One of my girls, the Strawberry Blue, is most affected. Her leaves are turning yellow with an odd rusty spot through all the leaves and the newest ones are pale green turning yellowish. The other plant doesnt appear to be affected.

I do not think the SWICK system is at fault. I believe it is a good system. I think I put too much perlite in the the soil. I did a ratio of 60% soil and 40% perlite. When I do this again, I will mix it 70% and 30%, respectively.

For now, I have blocked their access to the water, hoping the pots will dry out some. If they do, then I will put them back on the perlite for a few days to wick up some moisture and then I will block it again. I think this will become a system of wick and block over their lifetimes. Just my guess.

Here is a picture of my under-the-weather Louise.

 

[SweetSue]

That actually may work Sorenna. If it can get you through the cycle then great. We all make rookie mistakes and you'll be better prepared the next time.

It's really good that you caught it so early. Good work.

 

[HealingKronic]

hey sweetsue, i like what i see and i have a couple questions:

would it be ok to use a transparent res for perlite to monitor water levels?

if i have fabric pots and they are sitting on top the perlite, what should water levels be? for instance, i have a 1 foot deep res filled with perlite, how many inches of water ?

also, what level do you allow the water to drop to before refilling res?

is this soil recipe the best route with SWICK? (copied from your journal)

"Equal parts of Sphagnum peat moss, some aeration deal (pumice, rice hulls, lava rock - whatever is sitting in the garage) and finally some mix of humus - my compost, worm castings some black leaf mold I bought from the local 'worm guy'
To each 1 c.f. of this mix I add the following:
1/2 cup organic Neem meal
1/2 cup organic Kelp meal
1/2 cup Crab meal (or Crustacean meal when available - it has Shrimp meal with the Crab meal. It's a local product from the fisheries on the Oregon & Washington Coasts)
4 cups of some minerals - rock dust

After the plant is in the final container I top-dress with my worm castings at 2" or so and then I hit it with Aloe vera juice and Comfrey extract. Or Borage. Or Stinging Nettle. Or Horsetail ferns. Whatever is ready.

The Rock Dust Recipe
4x - Glacial Rock Dust - Canadian Glacial (Gaia Green label)
1x - Bentonite - from the pottery supply store
1x - Oyster Shell Powder - the standard product from San Francisco Bay
1x - Basalt - from Redmond, Oregon (new product at Concentrates - about $18.00) ."

im about to start a new round from seed and i think i will go this route

 

[SweetSue]

HealingKronic, if your perlite is 12" deep you want to keep your water lever between 10-11". You always want at least 1" spacing between the water level and the bottom of your pots to avoid having the pots sitting in water.

Yes, you can use transparent reservoirs, if you're prepared for the algae that will grow on the perlite. You can solve that by laying some weed blocker over the reservoir, scrunched around the pots and overlaying to the floor to block the light. The algae is no real concern, just that many find it unsightly.

That soil recipe is golden. Build A Soil sells a nutrient kit based on Coot's recipe that saved me so much trouble. I recommend that for the first two runs you stick closely to the recipe. I've laid out a pretty good plan in my Tiny Closet journal for continuous amendment to keep it clicking smoothly through consecutive runs. You will not look back once you try this soil mix.

For use with a SWICK add additional aeration to the mix, up to an additional 25% in volume. It will work regardless, we're finding. We're also learning that too much aeration is going to give you problems, so use your best judgement. I added rice hulls to my mix for additional aeration and diversity and just winged it both times.

The soil cooks for a month. That's the hardest part.

 

[MassMedMan]

Here ya go Sue, little update you can see my thread for more details. I think the SWICK is to much early on. I think maybe, and I'm not there yet, but weeks three through five might be best to start, depending on many variables. But again, I'm not certain. I pulled my plants from the perlite crack,, (lol, both white,) anyway, for a couple days cause my pots seemed wet, soil did. And I think it was wetter then what I'd like in the early stages. In these pics most are only a week old, some are four days, they are from in my tent and in the greenhouse:

 

[HealingKronic]

The soil cooks for a month. That's the hardest part.

do you mean once i have mixed all the ingredients from that recipe that you allow it to sit for 30 days before planting anything in it?

 

[SweetSue]

do you mean once i have mixed all the ingredients from that recipe that you allow it to sit for 30 days before planting anything in it?

Absolutely. Mix it up, wet it thoroughly (about 3-4 gallons of water per cubic foot of soil), mix it again and let it sit for 30 days. Stir once a week, adding more water as needed. You want wet, not moist. Then pot it up and plant.

 

[SweetSue]

Here ya go Sue, little update you can see my thread for more details. I think the SWICK is to much early on. I think maybe, and I'm not there yet, but weeks three through five might be best to start, depending on many variables. But again, I'm not certain. I pulled my plants from the perlite crack,, (lol, both white,) anyway, for a couple days cause my pots seemed wet, soil did. And I think it was wetter then what I'd like in the early stages. In these pics most are only a week old, some are four days, they are from in my tent and in the greenhouse:

Thank you so much for sharing this MassMedMan. I understand the concern about the water levels in the soil. I want you to consider that your hesitation may stem from a history of wet/dry cycles. I started my original SWICK about week five I believe, and the plants took to it immediately. My current Dark Devil, however, was planted into soil that had been sitting on the SWICK for months. It hasn't skipped a beat. DrZiggy is watching some seedlings on a SWICK that are surprising him in how well they took to it.

Is your soil wet - not moist, but wet - up to the surface? If not, then your SWICK is operating properly. You should feel the moisture at about knuckle depth. If your water levels aren't too close the plants can't drown in this soil. Gravity keeps the system under control. If your water level is too high challenges ensue.

The base of the pots will feel wet to the touch. This is normal and let's you know that the system is functioning properly. The plants will only take up what they need. You have more than one plant drinking in those pots, which look amazing, I must say.

Don't worry if you feel more comfortable waiting for them to grow a bit. It's unnecessary to wait, but they'll still appreciate regulating their water when you get them back to it.

Question: how do you guage the depth of your water? Is it possible your water level is too high? If you're closer than that 1-2" you'll run into complications.

 

[HealingKronic]

ok great! and what was the word on when to replenish your res? like 2" line or do you stay more on top of it?

 

[SweetSue]

SWICK Thoughts

My little Devil defies the concerns about seedlings and early excess to water. While she is slow to start, she has yet to display any signs of overwatering.

Sorenna's has shared what can happen with an imbalance of components, heavy in aeration. That's not an easy fix at any point, but she'll adapt, as farmers do, and learn from this.

MassMedMan may not have the problem he perceives. It can be difficult to get used to an evenly hydrated soil, from the perspective of having grown with the wet/dry cycle so widely accepted. This system was really designed for LOS mixes, slightly higher in aeration, but still in relative balance. We have vibrant and active soil communities, the soil food web, that see to it that our seedlings get ample opportunity to grow vigorous roots. Our soils are structured to encourage active root development. In our soils an attentive mycorrhizal community attaches to the roots and increase the exchange capacity exponentially. Our soil grows roots for our roots. What an amazing thought.

The soil food web slips and slides nutrients through the soil matrix on the sheen of water that hugs so many surfaces in our soils. This is why the SWICK works so well for us. The absence of that vibrant and attentive community in barren soils may well interfere with the smooth workings of a SWICK system.

We're all learning together here.

 

[MassMedMan]

I mentioned this is another thread, but this is not really new stuff. It may be for marijuana, but I was speaking to the guy who owns, well, the son of the guy who owns the most popular nursery around. Nice guy, around mid sixty and he knew about this method as soon as I described it. He called it the, perlite crack method, those were his words. Said it's good for tomatoes, but after a few weeks. Seems they like it dry occasionally too. We spoke for a while, interesting what one thinks is new, and another thinks is an old trick with a new name.

 

[SweetSue]

While going through my notes I found this by BlueJay. On page 20 of his thread, post #389, he mentions that in using no-tills and thinking of soil health in terms of years instead of individual cycles, things like compost teas are "out the window". With a good soil mix and humus, simply keeping the soil moist means the watering becomes a compost tea.

This is part of what our SWICKS do for us. Think on that for a few minutes. Our plants are growing in what amounts to a compost tea. No wonder mine grew so massive. This soil and these SWICKS! Yeah.

MassMedMan, the only way they can go dry is if you neglect to water them. ClosetPharmer left his unattended for 7 days and returned to moist perlite and healthy, happy plants. "Perlite crack". That made me laugh. Good one.

Our soil makes all the difference here as well. The two go hand-in-hand.

 

[MassMedMan]

All I'm saying is it's nothing new. Call it a SWICK, a perlite crack, whatever. It's taking something, or using something to wick water to soil. Not rocket science, not new in non 420 gardens and they don't call it living organic soil in nurseries. Just good soil.

Originally, you told me you read about this on another site,, or do I have that wrong? Somebody, way back got it from some gardener in a nursery,, and wulah... a new name is born.

 

[SweetSue]

All I'm saying is it's nothing new. Call it a SWICK, a perlite crack, whatever. It's taking something, or using something to wick water to soil. Not rocket science, not new in non 420 gardens and they don't call it living organic soil in nurseries. Just good soil.

Originally, you told me you read about this on another site,, or do I have that wrong? Somebody, way back got it from some gardener in a nursery,, and wulah... a new name is born.

Oh I know. Live long enough and you see the recurring themes. I wasn't put off MMM. I actually found the reference humorous. Please don't think I was offended. It takes a lot to ruffle me.

It's an old system, but new to us. I've seen compelling evidence that, excepting the occasional strain that just doesn't care for it, most plants take to it much faster than their growers.

 

[MassMedMan]

No worries, like I said, I think it's useful. Another tool. I just walked in there today talking about SWICK this and SWICK that and the man was wondering what I was up to. Said, growing tomatoes.....

 

[SweetSue]

No worries, like I said, I think it's useful. Another tool. I just walked in there today talking about SWICK this and SWICK that and the man was wondering what I was up to. Said, growing tomatoes.....

 

[Sorenna]

i just walked in there today talking about swick this and swick that and the man was wondering what i was up to. Said, growing tomatoes.....

lol

 

[Radogast]

No worries, like I said, I think it's useful. Another tool. I just walked in there today talking about SWICK this and SWICK that and the man was wondering what I was up to. Said, growing tomatoes.....

He probably grew the same type of "tomatoes" _ back in the day.

 

[MassMedMan]

He's pretty intelligent, learned a lot from his old man I'm sure. Did twenty in the big Army, so we get along well. We talk a lot my son gets swim lessons from his wife. I wouldnt be surprised if he did grow those special tomatoes,,, now that he's retired.

Doesn't make a person bad.