high 420kwats
New Member
I did this last year sometime
SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself
- Thread starter SweetSue
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #382
Captainblast
New Member
Goodness thank you for all your user friendly how to's Ms Sue 
I've lurked some in the past year, but every time I ask about something I'd say have the time my posse seems to tell me to look you up. Glad I did, except now I'm gonna be up for ever just trying to soak a wee bit of your knowledge in. Thank you, great vibes.
I promise to be a regular pest in the near future
I've lurked some in the past year, but every time I ask about something I'd say have the time my posse seems to tell me to look you up. Glad I did, except now I'm gonna be up for ever just trying to soak a wee bit of your knowledge in. Thank you, great vibes.I promise to be a regular pest in the near future
Dr Bob
New Member
Howdy all my SWICKing friends!
I thought it would be good to report back on my success with the advise from here in SWICK central. As a background, I found myself having to leave my plants right at day 44 in flower with an overcrowded tent and no one to watch them. There were also 4 girls in veg that also needed to get through this absence.
The flower group first.
3 plants in felt pots, 1 plastic with PeeJay's Soil. All about 8 gallon pots.
I got individual SWICKS that held right at 4 gallons of perlite each. They were 12.75'' wide and 16'' long and about 5'' deep.
First I filled with the perlite. Then I added water very slowly to soak the material until I had water right up to just below the pots. The interesting thing is even with all that perlite I could still get almost 4 gallons of water into the containers.
Here they are under the pots.
And here they are after a week all alone
On the veg front my pots are all felt, and about 3.5 gallons. They were placed on 2 gallon SWICKs with essentially the same process.
and 7 days later
This will definitely be my "go to" watering system for being out of town in the future. All plants were perfect on return with the largest flowering plant (Critical Kush) needing water on the first day back. The others were still heavy with some significant water.
RH increased 15% on day 1 and dropped each day until return where it was back to normal. The SWICKs were essentially bone dry also.
So, at least with my girls it looks like with half the soil volume in my SWICK I was able to go 7 days with no problems with both my veg group and flower with almost exactly the same results. Interesting!
With my RH issues in my tent, I will reserve this system for out of town trips, but for some gardeners I can imagine this as a great way to go everyday.
Thanks everyone for all the assistance!
Bob
I thought it would be good to report back on my success with the advise from here in SWICK central. As a background, I found myself having to leave my plants right at day 44 in flower with an overcrowded tent and no one to watch them. There were also 4 girls in veg that also needed to get through this absence.
The flower group first.
3 plants in felt pots, 1 plastic with PeeJay's Soil. All about 8 gallon pots.
I got individual SWICKS that held right at 4 gallons of perlite each. They were 12.75'' wide and 16'' long and about 5'' deep.
First I filled with the perlite. Then I added water very slowly to soak the material until I had water right up to just below the pots. The interesting thing is even with all that perlite I could still get almost 4 gallons of water into the containers.
Here they are under the pots.
And here they are after a week all alone
On the veg front my pots are all felt, and about 3.5 gallons. They were placed on 2 gallon SWICKs with essentially the same process.
and 7 days later
This will definitely be my "go to" watering system for being out of town in the future. All plants were perfect on return with the largest flowering plant (Critical Kush) needing water on the first day back. The others were still heavy with some significant water.
RH increased 15% on day 1 and dropped each day until return where it was back to normal. The SWICKs were essentially bone dry also.
So, at least with my girls it looks like with half the soil volume in my SWICK I was able to go 7 days with no problems with both my veg group and flower with almost exactly the same results. Interesting!
With my RH issues in my tent, I will reserve this system for out of town trips, but for some gardeners I can imagine this as a great way to go everyday.
Thanks everyone for all the assistance!
Bob
- Thread starter
- #385
Thank you Dr. Bob. A wonderful review of the system. We're still experimenting with the daily use idea. It appears we get better rooting with use of the wet/dry cycle in early veg, but there comes a point somewhere in the second month when you can set them onto or fire up the SWICK and they just explode from there on.
With my no-tills I can't let the pots dry out, so I have a special challenge I'm still working through. I can't tell you how pleased I am that this will be able to give you peace of mind, since you travel so frequently.
Lovely garden you have going there. I'm envious. May mine look that good at some point.
With my no-tills I can't let the pots dry out, so I have a special challenge I'm still working through. I can't tell you how pleased I am that this will be able to give you peace of mind, since you travel so frequently.
Lovely garden you have going there. I'm envious. May mine look that good at some point.
Dr Bob
New Member
Thanks Sue!
I would say that all my girls liked this watering setup. The veg girls were already 6 weeks old though so they are likely less sensitive to needing a dry cycle. But, I must say that while the soil is "wet" it isn't anywhere as wet as after a watering. It is pulling up just the right amount it seems.
Bob
I would say that all my girls liked this watering setup. The veg girls were already 6 weeks old though so they are likely less sensitive to needing a dry cycle. But, I must say that while the soil is "wet" it isn't anywhere as wet as after a watering. It is pulling up just the right amount it seems.
Bob
- Thread starter
- #387
Thanks Sue!
I would say that all my girls liked this watering setup. The veg girls were already 6 weeks old though so they are likely less sensitive to needing a dry cycle. But, I must say that while the soil is "wet" it isn't anywhere as wet as after a watering. It is pulling up just the right amount it seems.
Bob
Physics in action Dr. Bob. Gravity keeps it from holding too much water. If you have a well-draining soil and you keep the water level 1-2" below the pots you're good to go. This is why it's important to have good wicking potential in the soil as well. You want it wicked right up to the top.
Dr Bob
New Member
Just a quick side note on the 1-2'' space between water and plant in my case. I filled right up to as close as I could without touching since this was to be used as an "out of town swick", OOTSWICK! I tested it first by setting up in the flower tent and allowing the girls to get in need of a watering and placed them on the totally full SWICK. No over watering signs on any of the varieties were seen so I believe this to be safe if you are trying to squeeze one more day out of the system. The plant basically pulls the level to 1-2'' within a half hour or so anyway.
Of course this wouldn't be a good idea for a permanent SWICK setup at all and the 1-2'' sounds perfect daily level. Just thought those looking to stretch the SWICK a bit would like to know it worked for me. 8 out of 8 plants for 8 days.
Of course this wouldn't be a good idea for a permanent SWICK setup at all and the 1-2'' sounds perfect daily level. Just thought those looking to stretch the SWICK a bit would like to know it worked for me. 8 out of 8 plants for 8 days.
Dr Bob
New Member
And a final pic to show how happy they were in this stuff from the bottom up!
Bob
Bob
Dr Fish
Well-Known Member
I our praise for Swick, let us not forget what makes it possible.... The coco/perlite grow mix.... I don't think you can over water it... I had to leave town for a week.... I had 2 plants in 5 gal square plastic pots, week 5 12/12.. The plants were in a 2x3' cement mixing tray for run off containment.... In a desperate attempt to save them, I mixed up 8 gal of 1/4 strength nutes and poured it in the tray... When i left town the pots were sitting in 5" of water.... I pulled a 430 watt hps, and replaced it with a 185 watt advanced led..... Got back a week later and still had an inch of water left in the tray..... The plants looked great, they didn't skip a beat... Watering from the bottom up works if you're growing in coco/perlite, no matter what name its called by.... Osmosis by any other name works....
Dr Bob
New Member
Or peat perlite of course...
- Thread starter
- #393
I hear you Dr Fish, but my no-tills have pumice instead of perlite and almost no coco fiber to speak of. The trick with the SWICK set up is to have an adequate ratio of aeration in the soil mix, leaning a little in favor of aeration components. Dr Bob's growing in PeeJay's soil mix, which does have perlite, but I don't believe to the aeration ratio my pots do. There's obviously more variation possible with application of this method than we thought when we started.
Dr. Bob, do you know what ratio your aeration components are in your mix?
Dr. Bob, do you know what ratio your aeration components are in your mix?
- Thread starter
- #394
Thank you 36. If I were gardening on my deck again this is a system I'd emulate. It takes all the guesswork out of it. Keeping things watered was my big downfall when trying to container garden outdoors. There're good tutorials on line showing how to make them with totes.
What we do with the SWICK is simply a variation of this method, just using this wide surface area so our pots draw the water up through the entire base. It's like a lazy man's SIP.
Dr Bob
New Member
Pretty high. It gets 20% perlite in the mix PLUS the fact that pro mix already has about a 15% mix (my recollection) and the FFOF has about the same. So in the end it has a great deal of drainage when you consider that all the main ingredients already have perlite.
Bob
Bob
- Thread starter
- #396
Then you probably come in close to what I do. My aeration is about a third of the mix and I go heavier on it knowing I'm going to SWICK.
I have been using these for about a year now with good success but was curious how others treated the abundant roots that end up in the swick. I have been trying to remove most before next grow but can be a bit of a pia so I wondered what others did between grows with roots that are in the swicks.
- Thread starter
- #398
Here's what I did lakegrow.
Pots in Limbo
It's time to do something with the roots that grew through the pot fabric and into the perlite. The plant they were attached to is no longer, so eventually they would break down, but why leave them in there to pollute the reservoir? I gathered up the necessary materials: some newspaper, a plant stand and my handy-dandy pot scrapper.
Set the newspaper down to protect the floor and make for an easier cleanup. Pull one of the pots out and stick it on the stand.
We've got some serious roots to clear off here. This was where that handy-dandy scrapper came in really handy.
In no time at all the roots have been sheared from the pot and the whole thing lies at your feet.
I took the time to sort out the largest root masses before scooping the perlite back up and tossing it back into the basin.
Repeat with the other pot.
There weren't as many roots popping through the black pot. Interesting.
Everything is cleaned up and squared away. One more thing to scratch off the list.
Since I have been letting my SWICKs dry out, I rarely get roots out the bottom of my pots.
I alternate between top watering the pots that dry out faster, and bottom watering all the plants in the SWICK.
I alternate between top watering the pots that dry out faster, and bottom watering all the plants in the SWICK.
Thanks all for the advise.
I am using coco and perlite and use swicks about twice the size of SweetSue's in the above pic and have done quite well with this system. Good harvests happy plants, I keep nuits in the swick yet still top feed on a regular basis but less using the swicks and they are quite happy. Figured it a good idea to get roots out but thought I would ask how others did it. I sometimes end up with a ball of roots in the swick that is huge thought it the plant but may be the bag as above.
I am using coco and perlite and use swicks about twice the size of SweetSue's in the above pic and have done quite well with this system. Good harvests happy plants, I keep nuits in the swick yet still top feed on a regular basis but less using the swicks and they are quite happy. Figured it a good idea to get roots out but thought I would ask how others did it. I sometimes end up with a ball of roots in the swick that is huge thought it the plant but may be the bag as above.
