The Everything SWICK Club: 2023 And Beyond

[Carmen Ray]

I just found @HealingKronic 's "Swick Watering" journal from 2015. @Gee64 were you around back in the day. Did you / do you know HealingKronic? Check this out I was thinking of your roots too. I deffo do not have this level of root performance. He is using perlite swicks, cloth pots and soil, with foliar feed, and water from the res.

Swick Watering by HealingKronic
I cant get the landscape icon to import a pic from a url. I get a red cross over a thumbnail, so I lifted the pic by copy paste.

 

[Gee64]

I just found @HealingKronic 's "Swick Watering" journal from 2015. @Gee64 were you around back in the day. Did you / do you know HealingKronic? Check this out I was thinking of your roots too. I deffo do not have this level of root performance. He is using perlite swicks, cloth pots and soil, with foliar feed, and water from the res.

Swick Watering by HealingKronic
I cant get the landscape icon to import a pic from a url. I get a red cross over a thumbnail, so I lifted the pic by copy paste.

Wow!! I will check this out! If I never disturbed my pot I bet it would have become similar looking. Thanks @Carmen Ray

 

[InTheShed]

Nice find!

I deffo do not have this level of root performance. He is using perlite swicks, cloth pots and soil, with foliar feed, and water from the res.

He's also running photos, which often have a lot more time to send out roots than quick-flowering autos.

 

[Carmen Ray]

These are SIPs (not SWICKS), but farside is using synthetic nutes down the feed tube only (no top watering at all):

It makes sense to me that synthetic nutes will wick well and do their thing with capillary action because they are micro particles aren't they? They don't need to be broken down or do they? I don't know enough about synthetic nutes. When I ran my coco pots with synthetic nutes I just followed the instructions on the bottles exactly and it worked. I would readily put them in the res. Perhaps it is quicker delivery if there is a gush from the top, rather than a slow swick? So maybe combination / different methods for different applications? I'm liking the foliar feed idea but wouldn't one then have to have the light off them for a while so it doesn't burn the plants?

 

[Carmen Ray]

Nice find!

He's also running photos, which often have a lot more time to send out roots than quick-flowering autos.

I thought that was probably the case. I'm going to go and see if I can get any root pics but they look nothing like that. Also the swick cloths are now attached to the bottoms of the pots from the roots that have come through. Let me have a looksee

 

[Azimuth]

I'm liking the foliar feed idea but wouldn't one then have to have the light off them for a while so it doesn't burn the plants?

Yes, but it doesn't take that long for the leaves to dry. Just set them on the side for an hour or two and they should be fine.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Ha! I can see roots. I just decided to add some mycos by solution with about 500 ml to the top of each 20 L pot and then the balance in the reses. My dose is 5 ml myco powder to 1 L water. This application is suggested for once a week while in flower. I'm quite excited to see this! The one auto is about half way through and the other is a bit behind and will likely take a few more weeks.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Yes, but it doesn't take that long for the leaves to dry. Just set them on the side for an hour or two and they should be fine.

Thanks Azi, I'll do it during loadshedding lol! Gosh it is time for me to hit the hay. Been a long day.

 

[Azimuth]

You've got some nice fuzz on some of those roots.

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks Azi, I'll do it during loadshedding lol! Gosh it is time for me to hit the hay. Been a long day.

Lemons to lemonade!

 

[Carmen Ray]

This is to show you what the sticks looked like when they came out.

The dry part is what was above the soil. That, and the fact that the soil is bouncy and spongy (a characteristic also described by HealingKronic), and the way the leaves are opening up to the light make me feel confident that the plant is regulating it's own water need.

So this is my first question crossed off the list in my head.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Quick swicks updates

Red Russian XXL Auto drinking like a fish from her swick. I have had to water in some amendments from the top and have twice had to reset the swick after the res dried out overnight. Easy peazy.

Sky Walker Kush Auto is not drinking a lot at the moment but her buds are really only now starting to take off after the bondage and breakages. She is swicking just fine.

 

[CaptainLucky]

Quick swicks updates

Red Russian XXL Auto drinking like a fish from her swick. I have had to water in some amendments from the top and have twice had to reset the swick after the res dried out overnight. Easy peazy.

Sky Walker Kush Auto is not drinking a lot at the moment but her buds are really only now starting to take off after the bondage and breakages. She is swicking just fine.

I seen these @ the $ store and wanted your opinion. Do you think these could work as swicks? CL

 

[StoneOtter]

Your buds are plumping up nicely over the last few days Carmen! Happy campers!

I seen these @ the $ store and wanted your opinion. Do you think these could work as swicks? CL

Interesting Cap'n! Seems to me the wick would be very wicky!

 

[Carmen Ray]

Your buds are plumping up nicely over the last few days Carmen! Happy campers!

Thank you Otter, ya they look they are exploding into bloom. I am quite taken by surprise at how they are building. I thought they were going to be teeny little things.... they are, but I thought smaller lol

 

[Carmen Ray]

The level is a couple millimeters below the top....the pump is working again. Those wicks are sucking hard, I hope 9 can get through flower ok.

mannn this is such a trippy photo... it so beautiful... every time I scroll past I am drawn in.. reminds me of Rothko for some reason.

 

[InTheShed]

reminds me of Rothko for some reason.

My dad had this Rothko print outside his first room at the assisted living place, When he moved in he recognized it and told me who painted it, but as time went on he no longer could. That's about the time we moved him to the "memory" side of the building, where he lived until he died at 95. He may have lost his ability to identify modern art but he never lost his love of singing!

 

[CaptainLucky]

Your buds are plumping up nicely over the last few days Carmen! Happy campers!

Interesting Cap'n! Seems to me the wick would be very wicky!

How would you use them? CL

 

[Carmen Ray]

My dad had this Rothko print outside his first room at the assisted living place, When he moved in he recognized it and told me who painted it, but as time went on he no longer could. That's about the time we moved him to the "memory" side of the building, where he lived until he died at 95. He may have lost his ability to identify modern art but he never lost his love of singing!

Oh wow, Rothko's work is mesmerizing and beautiful. Singing must give us some happy juice from the brain. Did he still have his hearing?

 

[Carmen Ray]

How would you use them? CL

What I would do is test the wick first. Is it the same kind of material that Azi suggested earlier in this thread for a wicking rope? It's quite a thick wick so it may carry too much water up into the plant if it is straight in the water and it would depend on what your medium is too I would think. How about filling the mason jar with perlite to 2/3 way and then make a reservoir with that, water 2/3 of the way up the perlite and take the wick from the reservoir into a solo cup or similar that is placed on top of the mason jar with the wick pulled into the lower third of the medium, then see how it wicks. Either do this without the lid off and balanced on something grid-like so that there is air exchange happening at root level too, or punch a stack of holes into the lid for breathing but I don't like that idea. I think it would work better with the lid off. With the lid on there might be too little drainage and air. However, see below. I also would have thought that the light would be bad for the roots, but not from the look of Gee's work.
What medium do you grow in Cap? Test it out is what I'd do. Gee is swicking from mason jars and doing leafy salad plants that way too. Here's the reference. It looks like @Gee64 has the lids on still.... he'll know what to advise.

It works for lettuce too. These were sown on Dec 16th, pic taken Jan 7th so 22 days from time of planting. Use that wasted light!