SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself

[Outragedpluto]

Re: Tips and tricks for beginners

So i have not made it all the way through this thread but i was convinced on page one so here is my new Swick system i made last night!! Thank you SweetSue for the thread!!! Great work here. Does any one know if this is good or not with Autoflowers???

Thanks again SweetSue and everyone else for this great thread!!

 

[SweetSue]

Re: Tips and tricks for beginners

So i have not made it all the way through this thread but i was convinced on page one so here is my new Swick system i made last night!! Thank you SweetSue for the thread!!! Great work here. Does any one know if this is good or not with Autoflowers???

Congratulations on making your life easier and your plants happier Outragedpluto (incidentally, brilliant username) Myers indeed, they will work with autos. My initial run was 2 autos in living organic soil, under CFLs. Using the SWICK helped them grow into monster plants that yielded me 4.5 oz, dry from the two.

You are welcome. We try our best.

 

[Radogast]

Re: Tips and tricks for beginners

So i have not made it all the way through this thread but i was convinced on page one so here is my new Swick system i made last night!! Thank you SweetSue for the thread!!! Great work here. Does any one know if this is good or not with Autoflowers???

Thanks again SweetSue and everyone else for this great thread!!

Oooh that's nice looking. Is that a standard size seed tray? 5-gal pot.

Details please

P.s. I agree with SweetSue about the name. Demoted from being a planet. I'd be so outraged !!

 

[Outragedpluto]

Oooh that's nice looking. Is that a standard size seed tray? 5-gal pot. Details please P.s. I agree with SweetSue about the name. Demoted from being a planet. I'd be so outraged !!

yup just a 3-4 inch deep seed tray. And that is a 3 gallon fabric pot. I am an organic grower like a lot of you here. I grow the TLO style. Which is essentially the same as LOS style growing. It's all about the microbeasties. Question on LOS , do you do layers and spikes with raw nutrients??

 

[SweetSue]

yup just a 3-4 inch deep seed tray. And that is a 3 gallon fabric pot. I am an organic grower like a lot of you here. I grow the TLO style. Which is essentially the same as LOS style growing. It's all about the microbeasties. Question on LOS , do you do layers and spikes with raw nutrients??

We choose to top-load the mix and get it all evenly distributed. Between the micro beasties and the fungi it all gets accessed. We're mostly pretty lazy gardeners, truth be told, and the idea of extra work when it's not necessary doesn't work for us. That's just us, and please don't take that as a put down to TLO. If it works for you, that's good.

Many of us use the soil recipe developed by Clackamas Coot, considered by many to be a gold-standard mix. Many of us also no-till, which is a reflection of our inherent laziness, but also because the methods we employ strengthen the soil so that each successive run is stronger than the last.

I'm loving the seed trays. I need to look into that. They never even occurred to me. Brilliant! That's the perfect depth for what I'm doing in my tent. What do they measure?

 

[Radogast]

yup just a 3-4 inch deep seed tray. And that is a 3 gallon fabric pot. I am an organic grower like a lot of you here. I grow the TLO style. Which is essentially the same as LOS style growing. It's all about the microbeasties. Question on LOS , do you do layers and spikes with raw nutrients??

COorganics, whom I miss and would welcome back to , had lot of info on layers and spikes in his TLO grow COorganics TLO BG SCRoG - HPS+MH

OutragedPluto grows TLO. _ _ wait wait, you are outragedPluto

I think 3-gal pot is a great size for that seedling tray. Great match

Reminder: You are going to want more perlite or other aeration than usual in your mix (40%)

 

[Outragedpluto]

COorganics, whom I miss and would welcome back to , had lot of info on layers and spikes in his TLO grow COorganics TLO BG SCRoG - HPS+MH OutragedPluto grows TLO. _ _ wait wait, you are outragedPluto I think 3-gal pot is a great size for that seedling tray. Great match Reminder: You are going to want more perlite or other aeration than usual in your mix (40%)

lol yea I made that name the day it was announced that they removed Pluto. I read an article with the title "scientists outraged by pluto being taken off of planet list" and was like aha "outragedpluto"

And from the looks do I need some more perlite in that bottom layer?? Easy fix if I do

 

[36Gr0w]

I don't know much about tlo or layers or spikes, but the extra perlite being added should be applied to all the soil in the pot to allow even drainage and wicking. At least that's how I do it.

 

[MysterySeeds]

I'm a bit vertically challenged in my space, so a deep reservoir is out. What is the experience of folks with a shallow container... does the perlite seem to dry out evenly or more localized around the plants? I'll have 2- 7gal fabric pots once the girls get big enough, wondering if I can get away with 4" or so underneath. Possibly gravity fed by a larger reservoir?

To add my two cents, I'm using a 5" tall plastic tote filled with 4" of perlite. With 3-gallon fabric pots, I left my babies for 5-days at a time and they did just fine... in fact, they grew so much that they all had light burn from growing too close to the LEDs.

My grow isn't TLO or LOS, but when I'm home and my plants are in veg I let my SWICK system dry out and let the soil lose a little moisture to encourage root growth. Doing that has left me with soil so packed with roots that I can hardly push my finger into the dirt to check for moisture. I averaged about 10-days between refills when I used the wet-dry method, so that bodes well for longer trips.

Now that I'm in flower with a pot full of roots, I plan to keep water in the reservoir so my babies never go thirsty. The reservoir to gravity feed the SWICK reservoir sounds like an interesting idea, though I'd be worried more about the upper-reservoir overfilling the SWICK reservoir and flooding my tent than about the reservoir going dry.

Anyway, I ramble. Keep us posted if you start a journal. Happy growing!

Before and after my 10-day vacation. My roommate topped off the SWICK after 5 days.

 

[SweetSue]

To add my two cents, I'm using a 5" tall plastic tote filled with 4" of perlite. With 3-gallon fabric pots, I left my babies for 5-days at a time and they did just fine... in fact, they grew so much that they all had light burn from growing too close to the LEDs.

My grow isn't TLO or LOS, but when I'm home and my plants are in veg I let my SWICK system dry out and let the soil lose a little moisture to encourage root growth. Doing that has left me with soil so packed with roots that I can hardly push my finger into the dirt to check for moisture. I averaged about 10-days between refills when I used the wet-dry method, so that bodes well for longer trips.

Now that I'm in flower with a pot full of roots, I plan to keep water in the reservoir so my babies never go thirsty. The reservoir to gravity feed the SWICK reservoir sounds like an interesting idea, though I'd be worried more about the upper-reservoir overfilling the SWICK reservoir and flooding my tent than about the reservoir going dry.

Anyway, I ramble. Keep us posted if you start a journal. Happy growing!

Before and after my 10-day vacation. My roommate topped off the SWICK after 5 days.

That is freakin' incredible! I have some poor-quality bag seeds that I may play with. I'd like to grow and dissect to track root development.

 

[Radogast]

What a sight to.return to after a 10 day vacation.

 

[SweetSue]

What a sight to.return to after a 10 day vacation.

Projecting into your own future, are you Rad? Take that vacation and come home to lusciousness.

 

[ledscrog]

Figured I'd share the pictures of my first grow (both were male).

I started using a swick watering system about 2 months ago, i was running 2 Grape Ape's in 23 gallon pots (plastic). I cut my plants down day 10 of flower.

This was my first grow, but I'll be using this watering system for all of my future grows. Thanks for sharing this here.

 

[Radogast]

First grow, two males. I feel for you.

I had 3 of 7 mature as males my first grow - that was hard enough.

 

[SweetSue]

I just had my first male ever (very new to the game) and I didn't appreciate it in the slightest. I think all purchases moving forward should be feminized, at least until I want to try my hand at breeding seeds. I didn't appreciate wasting time and risking pollination.

I feel for you ledscrog. I'm also thankful you were able to benefit from the SWICK method. Next time it should go better for you. I'm an irrepressible optimist, so I can't but hope for better results for your next attempt.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Okay Sue, I promised a "Swick" pic when I got "Swicked" up.... now we're Swickin' it!

5 Autos, various strains....(just need to label them and get rid of the I.D. seedling cups)

 

[SweetSue]

There you go Canna. Your life just got easier.

 

[Radogast]

A year ago I wanted t go aquaponic - a simple SWICK is better

 

[Outragedpluto]

Hey everyone, i just thought i would stop on by and show you my new and improved SWICK system. I had it in a germinating tray before and that plastic was not strong enough to hold all the weight. So go rid of that idea and came up with using some bin i got from work. It is what they send us our fresh fish for the restaurant in. Sturdy, good plastic with a lid if i needed one. I lined the bin with weed fabric and filled her up with perlite. Nice thing is that you can just move the cloth from the side of the bin and see the water level right there, no need for clear cup of whatever.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

OutragedPluto,
Those are great! I am using the sponge bath tubs that come from hospitals, they fit my pots perfectly. I just potted everything up last night....sure wish I had seen that cloth lining idea before I did it. LOL
Next time for sure!
Thanks for the idears.....