SWICK Watering Systems: Letting The Plant Water Itself

[lazylathe]

As per the prophecy by @SweetSue 3 days later I have a new seedling in my perlite cup!
When I initially tried to germinate with paper towels, all of my old seeds did not germinate...
The Animal Face seed is from some dispensary bud and it is about a year and a half old and was just kept in a drawer.
Amazed at the germination rate so far!

In other news...
I have added foil discs to the inside of the fabric pots in an attempt to keep the surface from drying out so quickly.
Last grow had issues with dry pots and watering, so hopefully this will help before they start their SWICK adventure!

The topping was very successful and everyone has 2 heads!
One lady is showing slightly burnt tips on a few fan leaves, mix may be a bit too hot for her. Everyone else is perfect!

When watering they are receiving dehumidifier water with a kelp extract a Mammoth microbes type inoculate and a very weak compost tea every now and then.

Should be SWICKing away in a week or so!!

 

[Remystemple]

i recently tried to sprout some seeds in a vermiculite / perlite mix and they all came up really quick. the reason i tried it was paper towel germ rate was horrible. i tossed my rapid rooters after some gnats came in them. i'll be growing in 100% perlite from now on. it's exciting.

 

[lazylathe]

Lots going on in the garden these past few days!
The 5 Pink Kush (?) are doing very well, the 2 Godfather OG (?) Are also doing very well!
The Animal Face seed popped in 3 days and has since been floated and planted in seedling soil in a plastic pot.

The SWICK Adventure has officially begun!!
The 5 Pink Kush in fabric pots have been nestled into the perlite and topped up to an inch below the top.
I have covered the top of the perlite with black landscape fabric as I did not have enough reflective material.

Enough chatter, get on with the pics!!!

To start with an 7 day change, still being hand watered here.
27 December 2019

And today the ladies look like this!! Very happy with their progress in my homemade soil!

Really enjoy watching the knuckles form at a topped site!

So from here on out, they will be watered via the SWICK and given a light top watering containing EM-1, Compost tea's and toppings up of EWC and of course for any deficiencies that pop up.

And last but not least, the transplanted Animal Face! She is living on a heating mat with a humidity dome.

 

[SweetSue]

Lots going on in the garden these past few days!
The 5 Pink Kush (?) are doing very well, the 2 Godfather OG (?) Are also doing very well!
The Animal Face seed popped in 3 days and has since been floated and planted in seedling soil in a plastic pot.

The SWICK Adventure has officially begun!!
The 5 Pink Kush in fabric pots have been nestled into the perlite and topped up to an inch below the top.
I have covered the top of the perlite with black landscape fabric as I did not have enough reflective material.

Enough chatter, get on with the pics!!!

To start with an 7 day change, still being hand watered here.
27 December 2019

And today the ladies look like this!! Very happy with their progress in my homemade soil!

Really enjoy watching the knuckles form at a topped site!

So from here on out, they will be watered via the SWICK and given a light top watering containing EM-1, Compost tea's and toppings up of EWC and of course for any deficiencies that pop up.

And last but not least, the transplanted Animal Face! She is living on a heating mat with a humidity dome.

WooHoo!

Everything’s looking spot on @lazylathe.

Gosh.... it all looks so good I felt myself longing for soil again. I’m glad the perlite popped the seeds. The method has yet to fail me.

 

[Bucudinkydow]

Looking good, lazylathe! Congrats on the progress.

 

[lazylathe]

@SweetSue

I started my journey with soil back in South Africa when I was a kid, think soil is in my blood!
Soil was the only known method to us 40 years ago... Dig a hole and fill it with fresh fish scraps, banana peels, organic home made compost and various fruit and veg scraps. Always worked!

When I moved to Canada and started to research, I was blown away by all the growing techniques.
Initially I started with a 6 site bubble bucket set-up, worked well but felt the bud was lacking something.
The I tried drain to waste coco, amazing harvest with some of the best tasting bud I have ever had but still I felt something was missing...
Went back to horticultural soil and have been pretty happy.
Now with my amended soil I am hoping to bring back the essence of great soil grown bud!
The addition of the SWICK will hopefully make it more pain free with watering and keeping the medium at the correct moisture level, always battled with this for some reason...

The Quantum board also seems to be a great addition to the room.
I have used HID, ceramic MH, cheap Chinese LED's and now the 480 Watt quantum board.
Loved the dense buds from HID light but now much prefer the sparkly coating of trichomes that makes vaporizing a wonderful experience!

Now the waiting game starts...Have to time the next transplant just right for the Pink Kush so they get that solid boost during flowering. The Godfather OG are still a week or so away from transplant to 3 gallon fabric pots. The Animal face will be the small one in the corner and then should have all the space to herself for flowering!

Hoping for a nice, lush green forest in a month or so!

 

[HaremMasterOG]

When I read through this thread, I found that the vast majority of contributors were using soil of various types. I recall someone made mention of a modified swick system that he was using coco but there was little detail.

When Radogast made this post I was extremely apprehensive about progressing with my plan of feeding the plants through the swick system:


“When growing with nutrient pour coco and nutrient rich water, you want 10-20% runoff from watering to remove the salts from the soil and the water. If that runoff collects in a swick and evaporates you are likely to get high levels of nutrients/salts that are bad for your plants. You also might get stuff growing in your SWICK.



You could do the nutrient watering above a tray and discard the runoff - like normal. Then use a SWICK of plain water to extend the time between waterings, but that seems like a lot of trouble for a small benefit of keeping the soil moist. I don't like to keep the soil moist until flower, and flower is when plants demand more nutrients.



For me, a SWICK and liquid nutrients / coco grow seems like a lot of trouble for very little benefit.



A SWICK does not need to be saved for "organic" soil, but it works best for nutrient rich soil.”



And then this second by Sweetsue:

“I agree with Rad. This system works best with a well-aerated organic soil.”

My biggest concern was the ability to feed through the swick. If this proved prohibitive it would be a deal breaker for me.

For my first attempt I opted for a compromise by using Bush Doctor Coco Loco but did choose to feed additional nutrients through the swick. I had three plants and they got off to a roaring start. When I returned from a two week trip I found my plants looking poorly. A little investigation showed they were suffering from severe stem rot at ground level. I thought this a bit odd since the fabric pots nor the Coco Loco seemed excessively moist.

Take two: the only change I made was to go back to a straight coco/perlite mixture. At the 3-4 week mark my single plant suffered the same fate. Again, the medium didn’t appear to be overly moist. At this point I was scratching my a$$ and talking to myself!?! I pulled everything out and placed it on my work bench and started dissecting. I found that while the coco/perlite mixture wasn’t overly moist, the rapid rooter I used to germinate the seed was wet enough I could squeeze water out of it.

Feeling I had diagnosed the problem, I proceeded to take three! I don’t give up easily. I went back to my 1 gal fabric pots full of coco/perlite and continued feeding full strength FloraNova Bloom through the swick. I omitted the rapid rooter and placed the sprouted seeds directly in the pots. Stem rot problem resolved.

One of my plants amazed me by reaching a height of about 4’. And yes, that was from a 1 gal container. I have 1,5 and 7 gal bags and it’s been my observation that plant size is not directly proportional to the container size when growing in coco! While not the most productive plant I’ve ever grown it was the most massive. Even being super selective at harvest, however, I did reap better than two and a half quarts of premo bud from the larger plant.

While I was pleased with the results of the third trial, it wasn’t problem free. I had to make more adjustments than I would have preferred to maintain proper moisture content to the plants. I varied the water level from 2-4” in the 6” basin. In spite of this, in the early stages I had to actually place some Reflectix under the pots to reduce the contact area. In the latter stages, conversely, I had to actually burrow the pot down into the perlite to maintain proper moisture levels.

Now capitalizing on my mistakes, I’m in my 4th swick garden. I’ll give details of the progress shortly.

To be continued........

Hi BooCoo I've just joined this fabulous Community and am soon to become a Swicker.. I'm just about to make the switch from Super soil growing to Coco and seeing your success with coco in SWICK, I'd like to confirm the exact ratio of Perlite to Coco that you have found works best in your set up? Once I get all my supplies I'll be building a custom tray for my 5 by 5 tent and posting pictures to share with everyone.

 

[Bucudinkydow]

Hi BooCoo I've just joined this fabulous Community and am soon to become a Swicker.. I'm just about to make the switch from Super soil growing to Coco and seeing your success with coco in SWICK, I'd like to confirm the exact ratio of Perlite to Coco that you have found works best in your set up? Once I get all my supplies I'll be building a custom tray for my 5 by 5 tent and posting pictures to share with everyone.

Hello HaremMaster. Actually, I haven’t found the ratio to be that critical. Initially, I was shooting for 60/40 coco/perlite but recently I’ve been doing roughly a 50/50 without being overly precise.

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Good luck!

 

[lazylathe]

Almost a full week update, tomorrow would be a full week.
So far I am LOVING the SWICK as well as the soil that I mixed and cooked for 2 months.
When they were hand watered I gave them a Kelp supplement with their water and they are still receiving twice daily mists of RO water and Kelp supplement. Any other water is pure RO water from the SWICK!!!
I am amazed at how healthy the plants are and how well they are growing with everything being a new set up.
All the ladies have revealed their white pistils, which is always exciting.

I am not sure about transplanting to 7 gallon bags either, they are in 5 gallon bags now... It's getting pretty full in there already and we are only on week 2 of 12/12. I am sure they have a lot more stretch in them over the next 7 weeks or so.
Any advice here would be appreciated!

New pics taken just after lights ON.

To start off, here is January 6

And here is today, January 10

Very impressed by their vigor!!

Their undercarriage is also very full and green!

They are almost growing before my eyes! These bright green/yellow area will be full leaves in a few hours and another top will be there tomorrow morning... I have not had growth like this before! Organics all the way baby!!!

These are the 2 smaller Godfather OG ladies, also throwing pistils. Thye will stay in the 3 gallon bags for another week or so and then graduate to the 5 gallon bags.

The Animal Face is a slow burn and does not like it outside of it's humidity dome yet... I tried her for a few hours and the tips of her leaves went crispy... She is recovering but seems a bit on the slow side, will keep an eye on her and see if she is worth keeping. Hoping she pulls through as the bud was killer!

very happy camper at the moment!

 

[lazylathe]

Just another quick update! LOL!
Ladies are growing fast and getting very leafy, time for a strip!

Starting with the usual before pics from the front and top.
Front

And the top view, looks amazing to me!

A short while later, this happened...

I removed a lot of small growth close to the bottom and those annoying popcorn branches.
Also cleaned up a lot of the large fan leaves that were blocking bud sites.
They will bounce back in a week or less with more growth, amazing plants!

A little more room to breathe now!

I have also increased the light by another 50 Watts to 400 Watts.

I also had a quick look at the Godfather OG and when I lifted the foil soil cover, I was blown away by what I saw!
My soil is ALIVE!!! The earthworm was busy burrowing back down into the soil, so cool to watch!

I also sprinkled some Gro-Kashi probiotic ammendment onto the soil a few days ago and have a nice white carper of mycellium starting to grow!

Letting the SWICK dry out by dropping the water level and thus dry the bags a bit and then fill her up again!
Really enjoying this style of growing so far!

 

[lazylathe]

Another week has passed, almost and the ladies have been growing like crazy!
The SWICK is drying out again and I will refill it on the weekend sometime.

The ladies were given a hand watering of some Gro-Kashi brew, no ill effects!
It was bubbling a bit and had a slight alcohol/beer smell to it but according to those who know, it is a miracle drench.
2 liters of water, a tablespoon of Gro-Kashi and a tablespoon of honey. Leave for +-48 hours and use.
I have also increased the light to 450 Watts and will most likely keep it there. May increase for the last few weeks.

The ladies after their first strip last week.

And as of a few hours ago, they have bounced back to this...

No harm done and they bounced back like crazy in just 6 days! Their under carriage is especially bad for the moment.
Not much light penetration and lots of small, useless bud sites forming. Need to focus their attention again!

The state of flowering tonight. We are at 3 weeks of 12/12 so far.

So in order to focus their attention and energy, they received an intense stripping...
I have had friends do this and have read up on it quite a bit, it's very controversial in the growers world...
Let's see what happens in this real world test! LOL!
After about 45 minutes of stripping I had a very large pile of leaves. Most of the fan leaves have been removed.

And this is what I am left with. A nice open structure for excellent light penetration, more air movement and removal of small sites that suck the plants energy. The removal of nearly all the fan leaves is still sitting a bit uneasy with me but what's done is done...
This is how the ladies are sitting at the moment.

A SWICK update:
Zero maintenance and the fabric pots always have the perfect amount of moisture! This is a HUGE bonus for me!
Easy to fill although they do go through a lot of water every few days.
Small roots are growing out of the bottom of every pot and almost halfway up the fabric pots as well. They seem to be very happy!
I think the soil covers I made also help a lot as there are many roots right at the surface just under the cover.
SWICK plus living organic soil is the way to go! I cannot wait to see how they start to bulk up and what the leaf/flower or flower/leaf ratio is.

I would recommend a SWICK to anyone who has issues with watering and keeping your soil moist, loose and airy.

8 weeks to go and I am already excited.

 

[Bucudinkydow]

Great job, my friend!! Thanx for sharing. Beautiful plants.

My vertical grow mentor on another forum does some radical pruning at about this stage of growth and does well for him. I thought it was a bit scary looking at first, also.

The Swick does offer phenomenal growth. I’m hooked for life.

Thanx for the grow and show. Looking forward to watching the rest of a very successful garden!!

BCDD

 

[SweetSue]

I’m enjoying this too. The shot of the worm caught my heartstrings.

 

[lazylathe]

A week has passed again so it must be SWICK update time
All through veg and now flowering I am only watering the SWICK once a week, the rest of the time I let it drop to about 3 inches of air gap to allow the fabric pots to dry out a bit. This allows me to water the plants and add any extras that I may want to. It's a perfect system!
Another HUGE bonus is that the surface soil is also moist and when watering, the water penetrates the soil evenly with zero running off the surface or down the sides of the pots! FANTASTIC!

Tomorrow will mark 4 weeks of flower already!!

I decided to treat the ladies to an expensive dinner tonight!
Myco's, Gaia Green Power Bloom and a top dressing of some fresh, organic EWC!
A little boost for the next few weeks. As I move further into flower I will also be making a bat guano tea for an extra boost of P and K.

One week ago first!

And tonight!

Canopy shot of the beautifully forming budlets!

The frost has also started

And this was their executive dinner tonight!

They all looked like this after the application.

After around 6 or 7 weeks of growing this round and about 4 on the SWICK, I have to say this grow is going super smoothly!
With everyone's help and guidance, it has been a much easier process adopting a totally new growing technique!
A huge shout-out to all the amazing contributors!


I would recommend that everyone try a SWICK bed even for just one plant!
Your life and the plant will be much happier and stress free!

 

[lazylathe]

Just over a week update time!
5 weeks down with minimal fussing around and watering only takes 2 minutes!
Everyone looks good but I think two of the faster growing gals have a deficiency of sorts, nitrogen possibly.
Will adjust the amendments for the next grow and recycle this grows soil and cook it all down for a month or so again.
This week they all received a small watering with some bat guano, compost tea, kelp and some microbes.
The yellowing has slowed down now, so that is good.

The room is starting to smell very kushy now and I want to spend a lot of time in there!!

Some good pics this time to show the action I am getting in the soil!

Last weeks to start with!
Flowering status from 6 days ago.

And the state of flowering tonight. Some nice swelling going on!

The undercarriage. Next time I will clean it up better, first time I have done it this severely and it was not enough...

Some of the buds from various plants.

Last week I top dressed all the ladies with some more myco's, Gaiai Green Power Bloom and some organic EWC.
I lifted the covers to check what was going on and was greeted by this!!
Amazing sight! Roots popping out the top of the EWC all covered in tiny hairs!
Does anyone know if this is a good or bad sign? To me it looks super healthy!

That's it for this weeks update. Not too exciting except for bud swelling and that amazing smell!
I wonder if my neighbor will tell me he smells skunks every now and then...

 

[HaremMasterOG]

Re: "
Roots popping out the top of the EWC all covered in tiny hairs!..
Q: Does anyone know if this is a good or bad sign? To me it looks super healthy!"
A: My guess on the cause.. probably those reflective covers you installed are mostly lightproof, and are mostly blocking air flow from the topside.. air normally being there to 'air prune' the roots, thus preventing growth above the soil .. which, as you know, is what normally keeps roots from growing out the sides of fabric grow bags, and is also why roots will usually try, and often do, penetrate the bottom of said bags to seek water in the SWICK.. oh yes, and another scenario would be roots penetrating the sides of fabric bags if their sides are in constant contact with another bag.

 

[HaremMasterOG]

Well.. my dear fellow SWICKers.. it is you and your highly informative DIY posts.. thanks, one and all.. together with my much-anticipated move from mixed-liquid-organics-in-soil to dry-amendment-organics-in-coco, that have inspired me to give this simple time-saving irrigation method a go on my next run. So, without further adu, a few photos of my current run.. atop my future SWICK bed, hand-built and ready-for-action.. that is, after my impending harvest.. anticipated for last week of Feb to first of week Mar... whence additional photos will be posted to share with you my first small-bag SOG adventure

 

[lazylathe]

@HaremMasterOG

Welcome to the SWICK club!
You have juts made your life that much easier when it comes to watering!

From my initial use, this is what I have found:
My SWICK is 6 inches tall and filled with med/fine/coarse perlite, it's a huge mixed bag.
When full, the plants will drain it very quickly to within an inch and a half from the bottom. During this time the top of the perlite is still damp and the pots moist. They stay like this for a week or more so fixing issues can be challenging.
Removing the plant from the SWICK would most likely be the fastest way to dry it out to treat any issues.

I usually will add any extras a week after the SWICK was filled and then refill it a few days later.
Even though the pots are still moist, they suck up an amazing amount of water!

Will be following along with your journey! I am +-4 weeks from harvest now...

I was also thinking about your reply to the surface roots.
I know it is the covers causing it but is it a bad thing?
I remember seeing these green systems, pots with covers and drippers etc...Medium would be totally dark top to bottom.
They would also be seeing these roots then, so it must not be a bad thing.
More roots = More plant or bud support network?

 

[SweetSue]

@lazylathe, I don’t see how those extra roots can be a bad thing, but I wonder if they’re serving any function other than seeking nutrients for the plant. Do you see evidence they’re contributing in any way to the vigor of your plants?

Even if not, what harm are they doing?

And to the wonderful world of SWICK @HaremMasterOG. That looks like a grand box to fill with perlite. We know you’ll be pleased with the results.

 

[lazylathe]

Week 6 is done and now an issue has reared it's ugly head!!
It started about 5 days ago...I checked the ladies before work and everyone looked perfect.
Came home 10 hours later and the leaves are turning brown and drying up from the centers.
Cal/Mag issue courtesy of the LED's. I was hoping I added enough dolomite to overcome this issue but will most likely need to add some lime and epsom salts to my soil recipe for the next grow.
Also good to know that they seem to need a lot at the start of week 5 of flower.

They have not been watered for over a week and it was just as well as I could water them with what they needed without adding any run-off into the SWICK.
They are slowly coming around and any new signs have slowed down thankfully.

Tonight they received another watering that consisted of:
EM-1
Kelp supplement
1/4 strength compost tea
And a Mammoth Microbes Canadian alternative, the name escapes me now...

Here is a close up of the problem... I should have been adding cal/mag from the start of flower...

The top view of the canopy. Buds are fattening up nicely so far, still a few weeks to go.

And the upskirt shot, or should this be a down the pants TSA agent view??? LMAO!!!

And then a nice pair of breasts buds that are nice to look at as well...

The room is smelling very heady now and I cannot wait to run some new known genetics in a few moths time!
As for the Animal Face, well I managed to break it off just above the soil line. I taped her up and used a skewer as a splint but she was not looking too happy tonight, she may not make it. Stupid mistake...

SWICK was refilled tonight after their watering, so they will be on auto-pilot for the next week or so again!

Any extra insights welcomed!