The longer the water sits unused the more chance for bad things to happen. As long as there is water in the reservoir the plant has all it needs. Any reason you keep that much water in there if it's not being used?
The Everything SWICK Club: 2023 And Beyond
- Thread starter Carmen Ray
- Start date
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Not really other than a full pail keeps the top of the soil lightly damp, but as it drops it accelerates so the sweet spot is below full somewhere. I will lower the water level 5 inches tomorrow.
- Thread starter
- #183
Ok I understand. One experiment at a time
There is another science guy.... but he won't show us any pictures 
This is very valuable info to me. I wonder if there is a way to keep a running summary of findings for people to read because knowledge like this often gets buried amongst discussion. Anyone have any ideas how we could do this? @Azimuth?
Gee64
Well-Known Member
So 48 hours ago I moved my 10gal swickypot from one tent to another.
During the process I broke the capillary action when I lifted the pot. I restored that suction 24 hours ago when I noticed the wick mat go dry, by top watering to re-establish the connection.
It worked well and is drinking again, the reservoir has dropped an inch, which is 1 litre, so thats good however.....
When the pad dried out all the myco that had infested it from the burrowing root tips also dried and disappeared.
Today, 48 hours after severing the water action, and 24 hours after re-establishing it, myco is already growing back.
The plant however, has rebelled against the myco stress and is showing signs of stress in the leaves.
We shall watch and see what happens.
It has 24 more hours to start looking happier or it gets some fish ferts from the top.
No more myco here
But its starting to come back here.
the leaves look stressed.
Heres a closeup of the same leaf.
So moving forwards I will make sure the pot starts in its permanent location.
Hopefully we find out if its male or female soon. I want some clones.
I have 2 tomatoes that need to be uppotted so they will go into 2 @VIVOSUN 7gal cube pots that fit in milk crates, and will get swickied, to see how it works with tomatoes.
As for the 1000ppm water in the current res from the runoff from re-priming, I will let it keep swicking it up and monitor the ppm in the res.
If ppm holds then its sucking the full mix.
If ppm climbs then the heavies like calcium aren't climbing the wick so mag may show as a deficit.
If ppm drops then I will assume its sucking heavies from the bottom quite well.
I will stir the res throughout the days.
Just the 9 litres I flushed thru to re-estabish the wicking took so much calcium out I see a slight mag def in the lower leaves already.
Interesting stuff.
During the process I broke the capillary action when I lifted the pot. I restored that suction 24 hours ago when I noticed the wick mat go dry, by top watering to re-establish the connection.
It worked well and is drinking again, the reservoir has dropped an inch, which is 1 litre, so thats good however.....
When the pad dried out all the myco that had infested it from the burrowing root tips also dried and disappeared.
Today, 48 hours after severing the water action, and 24 hours after re-establishing it, myco is already growing back.
The plant however, has rebelled against the myco stress and is showing signs of stress in the leaves.
We shall watch and see what happens.
It has 24 more hours to start looking happier or it gets some fish ferts from the top.
No more myco here
But its starting to come back here.
the leaves look stressed.
Heres a closeup of the same leaf.
So moving forwards I will make sure the pot starts in its permanent location.
Hopefully we find out if its male or female soon. I want some clones.
I have 2 tomatoes that need to be uppotted so they will go into 2 @VIVOSUN 7gal cube pots that fit in milk crates, and will get swickied, to see how it works with tomatoes.
As for the 1000ppm water in the current res from the runoff from re-priming, I will let it keep swicking it up and monitor the ppm in the res.
If ppm holds then its sucking the full mix.
If ppm climbs then the heavies like calcium aren't climbing the wick so mag may show as a deficit.
If ppm drops then I will assume its sucking heavies from the bottom quite well.
I will stir the res throughout the days.
Just the 9 litres I flushed thru to re-estabish the wicking took so much calcium out I see a slight mag def in the lower leaves already.
Interesting stuff.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
And Good Morning Swicky-Heads
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Gee64
Well-Known Member
Its already down that inch so lets just sit tight today instead of lowering the res, and watch.
These buckets are exactly 1 litre per inch so that makes it easy to tell its transpiration rates.
I'm not convinced that the entire soil matrix needs to be moist all the time. In my SIPs I get two very distinct root zones, one in the top few inches of the pot and the other down low around the reservoir and only connector roots in between, but that may also have to do with how I water.
I keep a mulch layer on the pot surface which I mist daily (twice a day in veg) and I monitor the reservoir level with a stick and make sure I replace what has been consumed, but I don't keep the reservoir topped off every day.
Maybe I'll try a round where I do keep it filled up and see if it makes a difference.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
I'm going to play with various levels and see if I can find a sweet spot.
I am also contemplating different lengths for wicks so at different res levels more or less wicks are wicking to better control the gradient.
As long as a dry wick doesnt need priming it should work.
My pots are 15" tall, with an empty inch at the top, so a full res 2" below the pot bottom can climb at least 16" in wick and soil.
The pot has settled a full inch from re-priming so the tilth has been damaged.
I may have to recondition the soil with a dolomite res.
I am also contemplating different lengths for wicks so at different res levels more or less wicks are wicking to better control the gradient.
As long as a dry wick doesnt need priming it should work.
My pots are 15" tall, with an empty inch at the top, so a full res 2" below the pot bottom can climb at least 16" in wick and soil.
The pot has settled a full inch from re-priming so the tilth has been damaged.
I may have to recondition the soil with a dolomite res.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
And I'm not mulching for now, I want to see my soil at the surface.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Soil PH rose from 6.2 and 63 degrees yesterday, to 6.7 but only 56 degrees this morning. Thats only an hour after lights on so I will check it again this evening.
I test soil ph and temp with this.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
I just power-stirred the res. Its ppm shows 1048. I will use that as a starting reference. The PH in the res full of runoff show PH6.8.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Also I did not add my usual spikes and layers to this pot, in case its a male, so if it turns out to be a female we can watch a grow with only the global mix and see how it performs... you know... for used soil... lots of variables in this one
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.- Thread starter
- #193
Wow, nature really is astonishing. It's magical.
I have wondered this myself.
Hm, that could also account for why I am seeing mildly similar in places on my plants. I wonder if it isn't a good idea to give calmag in the flush water?
How did you work that out? Please show them to me again.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
I used an online cylinderical volume calculator to get total volume, then converted that volume from cubic inches to litres and divided total litres by bucket height. Its exactly 1 litre per inch on a 10 litre bucket thats 10 inches tall. doh! shoulda seen that sooner lol
- Thread starter
- #195
I need simplicity like this in my life
There is no way I would even know that a cylindrical volume calculator exists or what data to input lol.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
You need better friends lolol. Let me introduce you to Mr Google. He knows lots of stuffI need simplicity like this in my life
- Thread starter
- #197
I just thought I'd give a quick update on my swick. I took all bonds off and the sticks were all damp and soily when they came out even though the top of the soil looks dry.
I've gently fiddled with the top of the soil to see if I can find feeder roots. I am not sure that I do. I will be interested to see how these roots compare to others I've pulled. The indoor ones, my first indoor ones, were not great looking but they were not unhealthy looking either.
So far, my plants are approximately half way through their development, and so far I've enjoyed using swicks because they have eliminated most of my stress about giving the plants enough to drink. They really do seem to be doing this for themselves.
They are tiny autos but I put that down to my treatment of the one, and probably the fact that I don't have a controlled environment. The one is an XXL but a tiny plant instead.
I will see this through before I decide, but so far I feel I'd like to try this again with slight modifications to my setup, influenced by what I am seeing here. Thank you.
I've gently fiddled with the top of the soil to see if I can find feeder roots. I am not sure that I do. I will be interested to see how these roots compare to others I've pulled. The indoor ones, my first indoor ones, were not great looking but they were not unhealthy looking either.
So far, my plants are approximately half way through their development, and so far I've enjoyed using swicks because they have eliminated most of my stress about giving the plants enough to drink. They really do seem to be doing this for themselves.
They are tiny autos but I put that down to my treatment of the one, and probably the fact that I don't have a controlled environment. The one is an XXL but a tiny plant instead.
I will see this through before I decide, but so far I feel I'd like to try this again with slight modifications to my setup, influenced by what I am seeing here. Thank you.
I get a nice thick layer of upper feeder roots, but I keep a mulch layer and regularly mist that layer daily. If your upper few inches are dry to the touch those types of roots won't necessarily form.
But I don't know that that's necessarily needed if you feed them from below. I topdress and so want to encourage the top feeder roots for that reason but if you feed through your wick they get what they need from below.
- Thread starter
- #199
I remember you saying this. I have considered mulching with Rooibos, which is what my soil guy suggests, that or Lucerne Hay.
When I pulled out the sticks, they were damp all the way to the surface. I think the heat (the weather and the light) and the fan possibly make it seem as if the surface is drier, but scratch the surface and it's moist. I have top fed liquids a couple of times. The soil wasn't in the the least hydrophobic, so I hope the feeder roots are all over the pot. I really am looking forward to seeing them after harvest.
In fact, I think my feeding is largely going to come from the top and water from the bottom. It makes more sense to me that gravity beats capillary action in delivering the supplements to the roots. I wonder what others think about this.
It's just guesswork on my part. Idk.
I have been feeding bloom nutes from the res, but I gave them calmag, LABS and Seagrow once this week, from the top. So my food this grow is all in the soil with liquid supplements on occasion, and the only one that smells unpleasant is the Seagrow which is liquid fish stuff and I learnt early on that makes the res septic. I think it is a bit of both, really just feeling your way around what works when?
These are SIPs (not SWICKS), but farside is using synthetic nutes down the feed tube only (no top watering at all):