now we gots to have a seperate wick club cuz a true wick ain’t necessarily a swick or a sip now is it??
SIP Club - Getting Hydro/Coco Results In A Soil Based Medium
- Thread starter Azimuth
- Start date
Beginner SIPPER here so I defer to the pros….
but this is to follow up on one of Fenders previous question copied below
Okay I can see correcting nutrients can become a problem if it arises, certainly if you work with large volume.. as clearing the res will be nearly impossible once it's scrogged in.. hmm might need to drill a sidehole or install a pump for that purpose?
Fender I think the nutes should be top fed and not sit in the res… but I know your setup was different with hydroton & soil.
Can someone confirm this??
but this is to follow up on one of Fenders previous question copied below
Okay I can see correcting nutrients can become a problem if it arises, certainly if you work with large volume.. as clearing the res will be nearly impossible once it's scrogged in.. hmm might need to drill a sidehole or install a pump for that purpose?
Fender I think the nutes should be top fed and not sit in the res… but I know your setup was different with hydroton & soil.
Can someone confirm this??
Fenderbender
Well-Known Member
?? I thought topfeeding was a nono only for the first weeks.. there's maybe some that apply certain products via topfeed or through the leaves but I thought nutes go in the res.. well I certainly hope so mine's full of it
Gee64
Well-Known Member
my swicks have an air gap. Roots love it. Purple onions in a solo cup.
Gee, I'd like to invite you to join some of us SIPers in a sister thread for Swickers. The thread is relatively new and is just starting to catch on. An ongoing community journal in the making. Here is the link if you'd like to take a look.
Timbo57
Well-Known Member
Wondering what would happen if i put a plant in a fabric bag into a sip bucket? oh and its 3 weeks
in flower.
in flower.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's a swick then, in all respects it looks like a sip. A swick to me is a plant in a fabric bag sitting down on a media of some kind that is in a basin of water and as a result the rocks or perlite stay wet enough often enough that the roots can follow down into the water. A sip to me is defined as having the air gap.my swicks have an air gap. Roots love it. Purple onions in a solo cup.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
I am using 7 gallon fabric bags in sip tubs and have the bags sitting on a wick foot. This seems to work very well and as others are seeing an accumulation of roots at the bottom of their containers I am seeing the same accumulation at the bottom of my cloth bags and underneath in the foot area. The bags actually get pretty firmly attached to the soil I have around the foot on the false floor.
The Roots look completely different than traditional water from the top methods produce and there's a lot more of them.
I know it's tempting to just plant your fabric bag into the soil but it's a lot easier on the plant I think if you just cut the fabric bag away and plant the root ball as you normally would.
Timbo57
Well-Known Member
Think I will give that a try and sew how it goes.
Hi Emilya,
There is an air gap in the top third of the rocks or perlite which are a couple of inches above the water level, allowing for the movement of air beneath the pot and between the surface of the perlite and the water.
The principles of swicking are supposedly similar to the principles of broader sub-irrigation self-feeding, and all of the SIPs we discuss seem to use a wicking system of one kind or another.
In swicking there is not to my knowledge the encouragement of roots into the reservoir. As with other kinds of SIP, the Swick SIP simply uses a wicking mechanism to sub-irrigate.
With respect, you are stating as fact here and it appears there are actually more uncertainties than facts. I'd like to invite you to join the conversation about swicking in the SWICK Club thread. It's intended as a community journal. Hope to see you there!
both my sip and wick tomatoes out in the garden had a lot of roots in the reservoir, the sip had more than the wick.
I very seldom have a problem with the roots in my swicks other than a few small ones that attach to the wick under the bag. If I lift the bag to check the weight they come off easy.
as far as what is to be called what, if they were to create a new forum category, it would have SIPS as the heading with media filled cup SIPS, SWICKS, WICKS, and maybe HEMPYS as the sub category's.
They are all abbreviations we use instead of typing out sub-irrigated planters every time
I very seldom have a problem with the roots in my swicks other than a few small ones that attach to the wick under the bag. If I lift the bag to check the weight they come off easy.
as far as what is to be called what, if they were to create a new forum category, it would have SIPS as the heading with media filled cup SIPS, SWICKS, WICKS, and maybe HEMPYS as the sub category's.
They are all abbreviations we use instead of typing out sub-irrigated planters every time
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
yes, but my question is whether you have ever filled it up to the top, so that the water actually makes contact with the medium above, even if for a moment. My SIPS do not allow that to happen. Even momentarily, contact between regions is enough for roots to follow the path downward. If you have always maintained an air gap, roots aren't supposed to be able to cross that.
It had a change for the good today!
Early today.
3pm today
Early today.
3pm today
Gee64
Well-Known Member
once out of the solo, which definitely has a wick, they go onto a wool pad my wife made which sits on an upside down milk crate with 9 wicks hanging into a 3 gallon pail. My fabric pot sits on top of the pad and absorbs water. The plant puts roots down into the pad and hanging under the milk crate towards the bucket. Would that be a sip or a swick or are they the same?
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
since your roots are not going down all the way into the water, the air gap is being maintained. You are SIPing.
LOL! I was going to say that is a Swick SIP. All Swicks are SIPS, just not all SIPS are Swicks.
I'm not sure if you saw Hash Hound's response. He gets more roots in the res from his one SIP set up than he does in his Swick SIP set up. Here is his response:
Are you quite sure about this? We have already established that Swicks are all SIPs. The swick method of SIPing is a less complicated build, and is reputed to be as effective as SIPs that have more complicated builds. I'm just asking you to keep an open mind and give it a chance, rather than delivering guesswork as facts that put the practice in a poor light.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Guesswork? Isn't that what we are all doing to some extent? How exactly have I put anything in a poor light?
The problem is in our definitions. What exactly does SWICK stand for? Wick watering has been around for a long time. It may be one of our old members, SweetSue who coined the term SWICK, but we know what wick watering is, it has been done for a long time. It has been promoted as an easy way to water plants while on vacation, and a few did experiment with wicking here in the cannabis world. Try finding a definition of the word SWICK... it seems to all go back to the basic WICK watering system.
Since a SIP is using a wick, it is a form of wick watering... I will give you that side of it.
But here in this thread we have come to understand that a SIP uses a permanent 1 inch air gap that the roots have no incentive to cross. Roots follow water flow, and there is no water flow through a SIP 1 inch air gap. None.
So to my understanding a SIP is a WICK but every WICK is not a SIP if the rez water and the upper medium can ever touch each other, even momentarily. If you understand this differently, then please explain.
- Thread starter
- #938
Well, the ones that worked out were the ones I let dry out a bit so I don't think it'll work if you keep the reservoir full. The medium seems to stay too wet for the cutting to work.Thanks AziI kind of figured on limited success at best as the level of your reservoir would be paramount. Excellent that some worked though ,so a full on wet sip is almost what is needed. Thats a great starting point for the next try. How far is it from the top of your reservoir to the surface of your soil? Thank You again and sorry I missed this post. For some reason my email notifications won't stay running on this thread.
- Thread starter
- #939
Yeah, mostly semantics. I view a SIP as more in one self contained bucket with the reservoir as part of the container, while I view a swick as a setup where the reservoir is completely separate from the grow mix, but connected by an artifical fabric wick. The reservoir can be completely outside of the container.
But the wick (usually fabric but sometimes a bed of perlite) as the link who's sole function is to move water, is the distinguishing feature for me.
I am not going to get into a complicated argument over this. I'd prefer to keep my thoughts to myself now. There is too much that you are saying that I disagree with and I find your approach quite forceful and condescending. I just don't have the strength to argue with that. I have done my research by the way, so I am aware of the SweetSue stuff and I have the link to that and to other journals that are very useful for answering questions about swick. I'd like to invite you to visit the sister club to this SIP club, which is the SWICK club. I think this is an important conversation to have but there are other more experienced swickers than me and they are better suited for making the points with observations and anecdotes.