SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself

[TSHRED]

Wouldn't this system add humidity to the grow space?

 

[SweetSue]

Wouldn't this system add humidity to the grow space?

Surprisingly, no, it doesn't raise humidity levels in any significant way. I think we all anticipated that it would and were one by one intrigued by the reality. I wish it were true, because it might have held off my spider mite infestation.

Rad may have had some increase when he made the entire floor of his grow space a SWICK, but I don't remember. Rad, are you out there? Can you add anything to the conversation?

 

[Radogast]

Surprisingly, no, it doesn't raise humidity levels in any significant way. I think we all anticipated that it would and were one by one intrigued by the reality. I wish it were true, because it might have held off my spider mite infestation.

Rad may have had some increase when he made the entire floor of his grow space a SWICK, but I don't remember. Rad, are you out there? Can you add anything to the conversation?

I had about 5% increase in humidity at the canopy.

I thought I was getting huge increases in humidity when I foliar sprayed until I realized I was spraying the sensor.

The humidity increase was during the dark/cool 'night' in the flower room. but that also happened before the SWICK.

During the day, my input air was a consistent 35-45% humidity and my air exchange from the temperature controlled fan was about 2 minutes to replace all the air in the room, so there really was no way for humidity to go up that much between times when the cooling fan was on. WATER usage went up, but most of the moisture went out the room with the fan on. (Just like a bathroom fan.)

I would run a SWICK for the whole flower room in the future, but my 4x8' tray and water heater sized bags of perlite got left behind in the interstate move.


My SWICK did not control my spider mites either

 

[Dr Fish]

TS, In the summer, where i live, the humidity can start out as low as 11% in the morning, and can drop to 2-3% by the end of the day... I use evaporative cooling, that helps... I guess it depends where you live... I never get PM, so there is an upside to it... My plants don't seem to suffer from low humidity.... But now in the winter, humidity does run in the 20-30 percent range..... Outside plants thrive as long as they are watered, feed, and get proper care...... 4 inches of rain a year doesn't leave a lot of water in the air...

 

[TSHRED]

I live near the ocean. Lots of humidity. Consistently over 50% although a bit drier in the fall. But it's not uncommon to get over 60% or more all day

 

[masonman]

I live near the ocean. Lots of humidity. Consistently over 50% although a bit drier in the fall. But it's not uncommon to get over 60% or more all day

Lucky you... we get 70 - 90% RH all summer long. Dehumidifier provides all the water I need. I get almost a gallon a day. Starting to finally get down to 50- 70% now.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Ye that was an interesting read

Basically a passive watering system by wicking/capillary action or swick !


Even tho the materials used in the swick res could be modified to allow for better capillary action mainly on the deeper sized rez as perlite is only so good at such actions & i may suggest the use of vermiculite which is a moisture retentive material which will improve wicking/capillary action with perlite on the deeper filled passive res trays/buckets etc....

Now this leads me to the question of PH control or PPM/EC etc of the passive rez or what medium we use to grow the plant & stage of growth & what it is doing or how often it needs to be topped up !


So ye it has got me thinking some where along the lines off a hempy bucket with a slight twist.

 

[SweetSue]

Ye that was an interesting read

Basically a passive watering system by wicking/capillary action or swick !


Even tho the materials used in the swick res could be modified to allow for better capillary action mainly on the deeper sized rez as perlite is only so good at such actions & i may suggest the use of vermiculite which is a moisture retentive material which will improve wicking/capillary action with perlite on the deeper filled passive res trays/buckets etc....

Now this leads me to the question of PH control or PPM/EC etc of the passive rez or what medium we use to grow the plant & stage of growth & what it is doing or how often it needs to be topped up !


So ye it has got me thinking some where along the lines off a hempy bucket with a slight twist.

The system was designed to be used with living organic soils with a tad more aeration components to assist the wicking, so we aren't concerned with PH or PPM.

If you come up with something that works, please share it with us Fuzzy. I'd be most interested and I'm sure others would be too.

 

[Dr Fish]

I suppose this might be called another modified swick, grown in coco/perlite... wasn't so much to water the plant through capillary action through the perlite, as it was to grow the roots into the reservoir... I did get a large amount of roots to fill the coco mat the plant sat on .... I watered from both ends... It works pretty good if you never let the roots dry out.... I also watered the reservoir with ph corrected water only, in a cycle with nutes....
I use FloraNova Bloom as my only nute throughout the plant's life... What's more appalling, is that i only use about half what's recommended on the bottle at most stages of the plant's life..

Anyone concerned about ppm/ph, could check the runoff water from a finished grows perlite reservoir... i never did..

She started and vegged with a 360 watt cmh, now discontinued, the plant then finished with a 430 hps, couple weeks left in this pic...

 

[Mistercpp]

Great thread...Maybe one day

 

[DrZiggy]

Ye that was an interesting read

Basically a passive watering system by wicking/capillary action or swick !


Even tho the materials used in the swick res could be modified to allow for better capillary action mainly on the deeper sized rez as perlite is only so good at such actions & i may suggest the use of vermiculite which is a moisture retentive material which will improve wicking/capillary action with perlite on the deeper filled passive res trays/buckets etc....

Now this leads me to the question of PH control or PPM/EC etc of the passive rez or what medium we use to grow the plant & stage of growth & what it is doing or how often it needs to be topped up !


So ye it has got me thinking some where along the lines off a hempy bucket with a slight twist.

users of Docs HB Kit don't worry about ppms or pH...the soil buffers it.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

The system was designed to be used with living organic soils with a tad more aeration components to assist the wicking, so we aren't concerned with PH or PPM.

If you come up with something that works, please share it with us Fuzzy. I'd be most interested and I'm sure others would be too.

Sorry i must of missed the organic part SweetSue & was wondering if any body had problems with swick tray/bucket etc with the nutrients going stagnant or algae problems on the surface of the perlite ?

I must admit it has been a few years since i last grew organically tho but love the idea of the swick res & constant supply of nutrients but was mildly concerned about avoiding nitrogen toxicity when using grow nutrients & a larger volume of water/nutrients in the swick but kind of guessing most would lower total amount of nutrients used ?


I remember when Village Idiot was about on the forums for a short while he would mention about a living water culture of home made teas etc for DWC... Mmm had a hard time understanding some of that stuff & sounded more complex to my own reasoning ?

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

users of Docs HB Kit don't worry about ppms or pH...the soil buffers it.

Ah the ol High brix soil, well some that is hard to get hold off in my neck of the woods but can work on other amendments !

I did do a little soil buffer test years ago & never looked back once i saw it in action

That was all organic back then, but use salt based nutrients these days but never ever checked PPM or PH adjusted or even checked for growing in soil... lol

 

[raziel819]

Wow I'm stoked about this system, I'm only on page 3 but I had to post the thoughts and impressions that have been flooding my mind. Must be that Sour D I've been ...

I'm currently after a year off, decided to open my garden back up after spending 160$ for a half of that SD and was looking to grow differently than what I had run (had a DIY undercurrent system, last upgrade from DWC). With hydro I found that I loved the growth but wasn't blown sideways with the aromas or taste. So I started looking around for a easier simpler way to do hydro and get the benefits of soil without being fully in bed with either and I found Hempy. Now I know you're gonna say, dude, Hempy is hydro it's a passive hydro system and yes I'll agree with you it is. But I said to myself, self, why can't I put soil in that Hempy Bucket and get the best of both worlds. 98% of the stuff I'd researched (hydro sections of course) said it couldn't be done but I did it anyway or at least I've started, my girls are just 10 days old now I started them in 16oz solo hempy cups, (if I get enough likes or request I'll start a journal) using Hempy's basic design of one up to three layers of substrate, 2" reservoir, 1" air zone, coco/perlite mix and top layer of soil (happy frog). I spent weeks coming up with this and all I had to do would have been to find this thread.

I should have began my research in the soil section cause you guys did it, you get the same thing that hydro growers rave about. If you want to see explosive growth you got to supply air to your roots. This system you guys got here is a giant organic hempy system. You have your 2" reservoir, 1" air zone and final layer of soil. You guys are the bomb. Time to get back to reading, thanks for starting this Ms. Sue

 

[SweetSue]

Sorry i must of missed the organic part SweetSue & was wondering if any body had problems with swick tray/bucket etc with the nutrients going stagnant or algae problems on the surface of the perlite ?

I must admit it has been a few years since i last grew organically tho but love the idea of the swick res & constant supply of nutrients but was mildly concerned about avoiding nitrogen toxicity when using grow nutrients & a larger volume of water/nutrients in the swick but kind of guessing most would lower total amount of nutrients used ?


I remember when Village Idiot was about on the forums for a short while he would mention about a living water culture of home made teas etc for DWC... Mmm had a hard time understanding some of that stuff & sounded more complex to my own reasoning ?

We don't use nutrients in the reservoir Fuzzy, it's strictly for water. I personally don't concern myself with any run off because I purposely use small volume drenches, designed to get the amendments into the soil, but not concerned with depth of penetration. I figure the soil bots can move it all around, I'm just the supply truck. They get most of their moisture from the reservoir.

Organic teas as the nutrient base for DWC? Intriguing.

 

[SweetSue]

users of Docs HB Kit don't worry about ppms or pH...the soil buffers it.

Nor do growers of other forms of living organic soils. The soil does the buffering for us.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

We don't use nutrients in the reservoir Fuzzy, it's strictly for water. I personally don't concern myself with any run off because I purposely use small volume drenches, designed to get the amendments into the soil, but not concerned with depth of penetration. I figure the soil bots can move it all around, I'm just the supply truck. They get most of their moisture from the reservoir.

Organic teas as the nutrient base for DWC? Intriguing.

Cheers SweetSue that helped clear lots of stuff up I must of been a little fuzzy about the principle in question... silly me


Now i just got to find some thing big enough for these pots & that should save some watering time in flowering.

 

[Lilred]

Cheers SweetSue that helped clear lots of stuff up I must of been a little fuzzy about the principle in question... silly me


Now i just got to find some thing big enough for these pots & that should save some watering time in flowering.

What size tent do u have? And what kind of lights

So much to learn....so many journals to follow

 

[SweetSue]

Cheers SweetSue that helped clear lots of stuff up I must of been a little fuzzy about the principle in question... silly me


Now i just got to find some thing big enough for these pots & that should save some watering time in flowering.

Look for large kitty litter pans (I found my best one at Aldi) or try the auto parts store for the pans they use to drain oil.

In a pinch a dish pan will work, but the pots usually cover the entire surface. I have a funnel used for auto engine oil. That long neck will slip in a corner of a dish pan for easier filling.

 

[Dr Fish]

How about a cement mixing tub from Home Depot, 24"x 18" x about 5" deep ...... They have 2 different sizes... i use both.....