SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself

[SweetSue]

A few more facts for the record, I just gave her a second CAT drench, so the soil is very moist to start with. I have a wireless camera ($50 on amazon) inside the box so if anything bad starts to happen I can phone a friend in an emergency. My RH normally runs between 45-60% inside the box depending on the weather, and it is currently 55%. I have a fan/filter running 24/7 and it exchanges all the air in the box twice a minute. I also have a very small oscillating fan inside that only runs when lights are on. I leave in the morning and will return September 6th, I will update this with the results.

You're going to be so thrilled when you come home. That's a long break at this stage of flowering, so you may have some wilting when you come back. They'll recover. Sadly, I speak from experience. For your next attempt at this, given the length of your travels, might I suggest you look into some way to have an extra batch of water dump into the reservoir at about the halfway point. I have no idea how one would make something like that happen, but I had a startlingly clear vision of just such an event, so I know it's possible. We can all brainstorm on making that a reality for you.

.......... Sorry, I forgot, have a safe trip.

 

[masonman]

You're going to be so thrilled when you come home. That's a long break at this stage of flowering, so you may have some wilting when you come back. They'll recover. Sadly, I speak from experience. For your next attempt at this, given the length of your travels, might I suggest you look into some way to have an extra batch of water dump into the reservoir at about the halfway point. I have no idea how one would make something like that happen, but I had a startlingly clear vision of just such an event, so I know it's possible. We can all brainstorm on making that a reality for you.

.......... Sorry, I forgot, have a safe trip.

Hey Sue, what about those auto watering things for dogs. With the 2 liter bottle that tops off the bowl when it gets low. I bet that could be incorporated into SWICK somehow.

 

[masonman]

+ Reps Giada... I mean hand bra... I mean Bricklayer67

 

[bricklayer67]

Ok back from my trip, she doesn't look good. The CAT drench I gave her should have lasted until last Thursday or Friday with no wilting, so the SWICK water (4gallons) should have had no problem lasting her the rest of the time. I refilled the SWICK and it took less than 2 gallons, so the rest went somewhere. Giving her a Growth Energy drench now, she should be back to normal in a few days, but I was kind of hoping the SWICK would have kept her from getting this bad. Thoughts?

 

[SweetSue]

I expect her to bounce right back. Give her a day or two and give us another look at her.

God, it just occurred to me what happened there, and I can't believe I didn't catch this earlier.

The reason the SWICK works is we have extra aeration components in our soil mixes to help wick it up. I'm so sorry I didn't catch this. I'm gonna feel really bad if she doesn't bounce right back. God, I'm sorry bricklayer. None of us caught it. I grow in the kit, but I also grow in LOS no-tills that are set up on SWICK reservoirs. Your soil isn't equipped for a SWICK.

Let's never make this mistake again, shall we? Ouch!

 

[bricklayer67]

No worries, gave her plenty of water last night and took some more pics before giving her the growth energy this morning, she's recovering quite well already. I need to prune the dead leaves away, but other than that she's perky again. So with Doc's kit, no SWICK? Or is there a workaround? The ProMix we use in the kit has about 27% perlite, what % should I up that to?

 

[DrZiggy]

No worries, gave her plenty of water last night and took some more pics before giving her the growth energy this morning, she's recovering quite well already. I need to prune the dead leaves away, but other than that she's perky again. So with Doc's kit, no SWICK? Or is there a workaround? The ProMix we use in the kit has about 27% perlite, what % should I up that to?

bricklayer,
I'd give her just some Transplant water today..she looks thirsty.
The kit worked great and in a SWICK

 

[DrZiggy]

bricklayer,
I'd give her just some Transplant water today..she looks thirsty.
The kit worked great and in a SWICK

brixlayer, prune her soon...whats her status?

 

[bricklayer67]

brixlayer, prune her soon...whats her status?

How do you mean?

 

[DrZiggy]

How do you mean?

how much longer does she have by your estimates, etc...

when are you planning on pruning?

 

[bricklayer67]

Gotcha, I flipped the light on 8/2, planning on harvest being in the range of 10/18 or there abouts, so 5 more weeks if I get lucky. I work from home and ended up working all night so I ran out of gas early this morning, I'll prune her at lights on tonite (8pm) and spray her with destress. She perked back up within a couple hours of watering, so once I remove all the yellow I can keep an eye out for further signs of stress. I'm in a 10 gallon fabric pot, and I see where you've done the SWICK before using the kit, does it work better with smaller pots? She was only on the SWICK for a few days when I gave her a CAT drench with about 2 gallons of water, plus there was 4 gallons of water in the SWICK, do you think maybe it just takes longer than that for the water to wick all the way through? I travel for 10-12 days sometimes, that's the only reason I looked into the SWICK, and it seemed like the perfect solution as opposed to having someone stop by the house and water for me.

 

[DrZiggy]

Gotcha, I flipped the light on 8/2, planning on harvest being in the range of 10/18 or there abouts, so 5 more weeks if I get lucky. I work from home and ended up working all night so I ran out of gas early this morning, I'll prune her at lights on tonite (8pm) and spray her with destress. She perked back up within a couple hours of watering, so once I remove all the yellow I can keep an eye out for further signs of stress. I'm in a 10 gallon fabric pot, and I see where you've done the SWICK before using the kit, does it work better with smaller pots? She was only on the SWICK for a few days when I gave her a CAT drench with about 2 gallons of water, plus there was 4 gallons of water in the SWICK, do you think maybe it just takes longer than that for the water to wick all the way through? I travel for 10-12 days sometimes, that's the only reason I looked into the SWICK, and it seemed like the perfect solution as opposed to having someone stop by the house and water for me.

DeStress is good!
I used a SWICK with azalea pots
how big is your pot presently?
The pot needs to be in the SWICK medium(perlite) which should be a few inches deep, not just sitting on it.
You may get more leaves growing/leafy with a SWICK than without.

feel free to write me on my threads too

 

[bricklayer67]

10 gallon smart pot, and you're right it's just sitting on top at the moment. Next grow I may cut down to a 7 gallon so it can fit inside the tub, I'm somewhat limited in space and I don't think I'm traveling for more than a few days at a time in the near future. Really appreciate the feedback, heading to your journal now

 

[SweetSue]

Ziggy, thank you so much for jumping in here. It never occurred to me the size of his pots, because you and I had both used this to great effect with kit plants. Do you think if he'd burrowed his pots in that might have helped with the wicking enough to keep them from wilting?

bricklayer, I'm so relieved to see her recovering.

 

[masonman]

Ziggy, thank you so much for jumping in here. It never occurred to me the size of his pots, because you and I had both used this to great effect with kit plants. Do you think if he'd burrowed his pots in that might have helped with the wicking enough to keep them from wilting?

bricklayer, I'm so relieved to see her recovering.

bricklayer is like me, masonman.... the biggest f'ng pot we can fit in our cabinets

I had a hell of a time finding a saucer that would fit my pot AND fit in my cabinet.

+Reps for saving her... lol

 

[DrZiggy]

The soil in the pot can't wick up the water if its just sitting on the perlite...it has to be at least a couple of inches deep in the wet medium for a SWICK to wick up the water. A large pot like a 10 gal softee needs probably 4-5 inches deep to allow at least 4-8 " to soak up water... The soft pot breathes quite a bit too and therefore water evaporates more than from a hard pot.
placing a soft pot into a same size hard pot will slow evaporation(therefore retain water) down..as will placing a mulch on top of the soil in the pot.
I would prune lower leaves and spray DeStress(remember its 1/2 oz to qt) with 1/4 oz WA10X added too..
should do fine..
did you top dress with anything like EWC, recharge, Blood meal around flip?
next BRIX spray use WA10X too..

 

[bricklayer67]

Top dressed with recharge. The good news is, I shouldn't have to abandon her for more than a couple days from here on out, and I may cut down to a 7 gallon pot if I ever think I might again. I can bury a 7 gallon in the tub I have now, but the 10 won't fit. Right at 24hrs from getting her growth energy drench last night:

 

[Radogast]

I've done 7 and 10 gallon sitting on top of a SWICK (not in it) in late veg through harvest watering only the SWICK.

In late Veg, I was filling the water to 2" below the SWICK and letting the water in the SWICK go to the bottom and then dry for 5 days. This was in about 40% perlite.

In flower I was keeping the SWICK constantly at a high water level until my 4'x8'x7" swick tray sprang a leak. Humidity was high (50-70%?) when the entire floor of the flowering room was one big, water soaked SWICK. It only got a few% lower after I stopped using the SWICK and went to a full drench every 2-3 days.

I used to get roots through the bottom of the pots at 25-30% perlite, so I increased the perlite content.

I believe there is a significant difference in wicking action between 27% and 35-40% perlite.

 

[SweetSue]

I've done 7 and 10 gallon sitting on top of a SWICK (not in it) in late veg through harvest watering only the SWICK.

In late Veg, I was filling the water to 2" below the SWICK and letting the water in the SWICK go to the bottom and then dry for 5 days. This was in about 40% perlite.

In flower I was keeping the SWICK constantly at a high water level until my 4'x8'x7" swick tray sprang a leak. Humidity was high (50-70%?) when the entire floor of the flowering room was one big, water soaked SWICK. It only got a few% lower after I stopped using the SWICK and went to a full drench every 2-3 days.

I used to get roots through the bottom of the pots at 25-30% perlite, so I increased the perlite content.

I believe there is a significant difference in wicking action between 27% and 35-40% perlite.

I'd venture a guess that I have around 35-40% aeration components in my pots, between pumice, perlite and rice hulls. My pots just sit on the surface and wick well, always have. I've never attempted to SWICK one of the larger kit pots. Ziggy may be correct on this though. If the kit pots were nestled into a deeper bed of perlite they might hold longer in a SWICK.

A caution though; HealingKronic discovered that anything deeper than 8" doesn't wick up efficiently. I'm talking about the depth of the bed of perlite, not the pot.

 

[Dr Fish]

I had 2 plants 5th week of flower in coco/perlite.. I was using a 2'x 3' black cement mixing tray to catch the runoff... Bad news on the doorstep, i had to leave for a week... No one to do my daily watering... I mixed 8 gal of 1/3 strength solution and poured it in the tray... My 5 gal buckets were sitting in almost 5" of solution... Pulled the 430 watt hps and hung a 185 watt led... when i returned 6 days later, an inch was left in the tray... The plants looked great, no ill effects.. Not your regular swick, but it worked well..