So no additional nutes? Amazing growth. I up-potted my Paremesan auto earlier tonight because her roots were growing into the perlite. I didn't take any pics because I wanted the process to be as seamless and painless as possible. She is two weeks old and only fed water and I was impressed with her roots too. Yours was a clone and mine is a seedling but both loving the SWICK life.
IDK if you got any feedback on your pH concerns, but you don't have to be concerned if that's Promix or SunSHine Mix #4 or other peat/perlite mix as the media is what really mediates the pH. The commercial peat products all do a good job of it IME. My tap is 7pH but I fertigate and my nutes can push pH around but the media manages it well. If it's unprocessed coco you might topdress with some gypsum or limestone... @InTheShed , whaddya think?I was fascinated by the SIP thread which referenced this thread along the way.
Since I had just started another auto my usual way - 3 gallon cloth pot with coco/perlite & amendments and normally top fed, I decided switching it to a Swick would be easier than a SIP.
Preferring to use items I already own whenever possible, I took a 10 gallon bucket and cut about 4" off the bottom to use as the reservoir for water, filled it with washed 1/2" and smaller lava rock, piled an inch or so of coco from a previous grow on to one side creating a mound higher than the reservoir and large enough to set the 3 gallon cloth pot onto while keeping it out of the water.
Next, I made up 2 gallons of nute rich water (EC at 1.1 and pH 6.2) in a 5 gallon bucket and lowered the 3 gallon pot into it. The auto was started in this container and already had 2 nodes by gently top watering.
This pot absorbed about 1.5 gallons and still kept the top half inch dry. I could tell it was soaked because the coco around the stalk where I had been watering was wicking and now super wet.
Pulling this out of the bucket and placing it on its new throne to drain worked great and then poured the remainder into the lava rock reservoir.
3 days later and that moist ring around the stalk still remains moist with the rest of the top layer dry and the sides of the cloth pot cool and moist, so I am calling this a wicking success as I watch the water level in the reservoir slowly drop. I hadn't seen one done like this yet but I assume this should be labeled a Swick.
Two things have come to mind now:
1) If it gets in trouble and needs flushing or has a nute deficiency, I can easily correct that by dropping the soft pot into a 5 gallon bucket of whatever it needs for a few minutes.
2) I am concerned with the pH in the reservoir not staying at the low 6 area. In a day or so it tends to rise back up to the original 8.3 of my dechlorinated tap water. Wondering if I should be concerned about that or not?
I'm glad to see that some of the veteran swickers are germinating on swick. It makes so much more sense to do it this way I feel. Neat set up RD! What is that fancy looking light you're using?Hiya Carmen, and Swickers. Thought I’d drop my SWICK germination-station on y’all after seeing Carmen’s. Drain hole is an inch below the perlite level - which I just realized you can’t even see in the pics… hmmmm well, just imagine the tub half full of perlite lol. D’oh!
Coco is inert and without buffers like promix/sunshine or soil, so I would think that the water would need to be 5.8 pH like top watered coco.
@Carmen Ray Promix Organic out of the bag and the clone was watered in with some Roots Trinity (kelp+).
I have two different versions of these cheap (under 20$ CAD), articulating LED lights, and have vegged/flowered in mini-SIPs under them to a surprisingly powerful effect. The one in pic is plain white with diffusers, good for germ'ing, but I also have some that are specifically grow lights (they germ fine too). See the link for the grow-specific ones:
Thank you RD. I like that they can screw into a light socket and that they are foldable. Thank you for the links.
This the geoflora nutes ? There a mix of bone feather alfalfa meals arnt they ..are they a liquid feed or just a dry mix ?here is a pic of the pot I did two "well" dressings with the nutes, it's easy to spot them.
edit: sorry wrong thread. Fukn weed making me stupid. This is referring to a post in the Geoflora thread, but still interesting
If it's happening on both it seems soil related, and if it's happened before with this soil then it's definitely soil related! Doesn't look like a calcium deficiency, but if it starts with yellowing veins before it goes burned it could be a magnesium deficiency. A little epsom salts in the next water might help if that's what it is.
Thanks Shed, I didn't think it was a watering issue but wanted to check in here to rule it out. It must be the soil. Why Epsom salts rather than calmag? Also, how much Epsom salts to a liter of water please?
Ok thanks. I have baking spoons and one is 1mg.
For 1L of water, to have as much magnesium as I would use in full veg it would take 0.3g of Epsom salt.
Thank you Shed. Is that 300mg of salts to the liter? It'll dilute somewhat when I add the premixed water to the res water. Will that be ok?For 1L of water, to have as much magnesium as I would use in full veg it would take 0.3g of Epsom salt.
1 tsp tends to = 5g but epsom salt might be different.
Just checked, epsom salt weighs 8.28g per teaspoon.
Yes, 300 mg epsom salts in a liter gets you about 34ppm magnesium.
No @Pondwater I used some Root's Terp Tea Bloom. EDIT: {I also used some DrEarth T&V}
