The Everything SWICK Club: 2023 And Beyond

[StoneOtter]

You'll get the balance of top water to bottom Carmen! She's looking better since you started!

 

[Carmen Ray]

July 15

Hi Carmen

Hi Gee!
Thank you. Before jumping online I actually ripped the swicking pad off the bottom of the pot and I've now got the plant sitting on a towel to reverse wick. It looks bloody awful again so I thought the swicking has to come to an end for that plant. I'm in two minds about what to do with my second swick plant. Is it only a matter of time before these roots develop? Probably, yes.

I did some experimenting. I had 2 clones from the same mother in perlite swicks. They did really well until they didn't, and ended up looking pretty much identical to your problem, wet and hungry.

So me being me, I yanked one out and this is what I found.

If I was a hydro/synthetic guy I would have been thrilled to see a mass of hydro roots but I'm an organic guy so I want feeder roots. My plants need to eat their dinner, hydro guys have plants that drink their dinner.

I was going to feed them both to the worms but I had nothing else going on in the flower tent so I decided to shave the roots off of one clone and compare their futures.

So I layed her down and used a razor to shave her private parts below.

I "waxed" mine one time I ripped that bandage right off when I lifted that plant off the swick.

The one on the right was shaved. Both were top watering only for 2 weeks. They both did an amazing turnaround but both carry heavy scars from swicking starvation.

If you zoom in on the pots you can see hundreds of feeder roots exploding from the shaved one and none on the perlite one.

Here they are yesterday. The shaved one is still very light but color is returning, the left one that is still in perlite but only getting top watered is much happier than it was but still struggling.

It has a bunch of feeder root tips just starting to poke through the walls of the pot, but they are too small to see in the picture.

This pot was shaved.

This pot wasn't.

This is a rootball that was only top-watered.

My inconclusive conclusion is that swicking and synthetics go hand in hand and swicking and organics are polar opposites.

Organics has no need for hydro roots and synthetics has no needs for feeder roots.

This makes sense now.

I do think that with the extreme airflow a cloth pot provides, mixed with a synthetic feeding routine, that a synthetic swick will easily equal any synthetic soil grow, and very likely exceed it because of the O2 availability.

I'm very disappointed to be honest, I really wanted swicking to work for me.

Me too!

It wasn't a total loss though, as I stumbled onto the fact that if you take a cloth pot full of soil, hydrated it for 48 hours on a swick, then remove it from the swick when it is fully saturated, and drop a bare root bubble clone into it, the clone immediately takes to the soil without any stress or hardening off period.

It's my new "go to" method.

I have put a lot of time and effort into cloning and no one single thing I messed around with had an effect this profound.

It was well worth the swicking trials.

Now I just toss cuttings into the cloner, drop them into swick-hydrated pots, and they are off to the races with zero coddling.

I drop clones straight into 10 gallon pots now and they flourish, when before, no matter how well I watered and pampered, I couldn't get them to adjust to soil without at least some stress.

So for now I will flower these 2 out to see how they finish, but moving forward I will return to top watering.

I will still experiment with swicking but to be honest, SWICK nor SIP has shown me a rootball that can compete with the feather dusters I get from top watering. I have seen numerous SIP rootballs that are huge, but they are always hydro roots, so for organics my conclusion is that natures intent was for organics, and natures intent was for rain to water those organics, and I always follow the roots, so its back to dripper lines up top.

I will still post here when I do swicking trials, and follow along what others post here, but my grows aren't going to be swick grows any more. Sip's neither.

No offense to the sippers, but I can grow better plants with top watering.

I hear you.

If I were using hard pots that may be different, but cloth pots already provide more air than any air gap can, and my root balls reflect that.

I do believe that swicking and synthetics will produce unbelievable grows, especially in cloth pots for the oxygen.

Maybe I'll try this one day. How bad for the environment is growing with synthetics compared with organics?

Thanks Gee! Finally I concur.

This is the bandage I ripped from the bottom of the pot. The plant looks like it is in it's death throws atm. I hope to goodness it turns around. Surely that small amount of root damage can't shock the plant hugely? Or is that what is making my plant look worse.

Swicky Pad Reverse Side

• Carmen Ray
• Aug 1, 2023
• swick swicking

Today I removed the plant from the swick due to a root invasion that was starving the plant of...

Swicky Pad

• Carmen Ray
• Aug 1, 2023
• swick swicking

Today I removed the plant from the swick due to a root invasion that was starving the plant of...

You'll get the balance of top water to bottom Carmen! She's looking better since you started!

Hey Otter, not anymore. She took a turn for the worse so I took her off the swick and put her on the towel. She doesn't like being manhandled. It seems like this plant is shriveling as I watch.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Gelato auto 1 Day 50

• Carmen Ray
• Aug 1, 2023
• plant shock swick swicking

Plant shock - removed from wick.

not good

 

[Gee64]

On the "How bad are synthetics for the environment thing?" I have no idea as I have never grown with them. My fathers lineage is farmers on both sides and my mothers were on one side so I was raised in an organic environment. I'm the 1st generation to not be a farmer.

Here is what I did after the shaving. It's what I always do after I injure or harshly disturb roots.

I top water with a tray underneath, with the amount of water equal to the pot and catch all runoff in the tray and let the pot sit in it overnight, so 2 gallons of water very gently poured through a 2 gallon pot.

As soon as it drips out I gently pour in 1 litre of water with fish ferts in it and dont capture that runoff, and then water very fully on the next watering too, but only until a small amount of runoff is captured and reabsorbed. It speeds recovery. New roots appear much faster for me when I do this.

 

[Gee64]

Gelato auto 1 Day 50

• Carmen Ray
• Aug 1, 2023
• plant shock swick swicking

Plant shock - removed from wick.

not good

Mine looked pretty much identical.

 

[Carmen Ray]

On the "How bad are synthetics for the environment thing?" I have no idea as I have never grown with them. My fathers lineage is farmers on both sides and my mothers were on one side so I was raised in an organic environment. I'm the 1st generation to not be a farmer.

That's so interesting!
Maybe Shed will be able to tell us since he uses the synthetics. I think of the wasted synthetics going into the water system and poisoning the rivers and the ocean. Am I being dramatic?

Here is what I did after the shaving. It's what I always do after I injure or harshly disturb roots.

I top water with a tray underneath, with the amount of water equal to the pot and catch all runoff in the tray and let the pot sit in it overnight, so 2 gallons of water very gently poured through a 2 gallon pot.

As soon as it drips out I gently pour in 1 litre of water with fish ferts in it and dont capture that runoff, and then water very fully on the next watering too, but only until a small amount of runoff is captured and reabsorbed. It speeds recovery. New roots appear much faster for me when I do this.

I have given her water to run off and no more than that. I wanted to wet the upper pot thoroughly and now the roots will have to grow into that. I don't know if you remember, I flushed this same plant early in the game and that was incredibly traumatic for me and the plant. I think it's had enough for one lifetime. I'll give it a rest now and hope it recovers overnight. Thanks Gee, and I'm really glad to see that your plants recovered from this shriveled mess. It gives me hope mine will too.

 

[InTheShed]

I wouldn't necessarily wait if I were you. The water will run off so there shouldn't be any harm done. I'd say it is worth the try. There may be active feeder roots in the lower level of your soil.

Sure you say that then, but what about after this! ↓

She took a turn for the worse so I took her off the swick and put her on the towel. She doesn't like being manhandled. It seems like this plant is shriveling as I watch.

I'm going to wait for the next report.

One way to find out is try it and see. One or two top waterings shouldn't hurt anything and may just solve the problem.

I suppose now that it's no longer looking happy it might be time to change it up.

synthetics has no needs for feeder roots.

Mine is in need of something though: more nitrogen (that I can do), cooler water in the res (nothing I can do there), or maybe water to the feeder roots in the soil?

Maybe Shed will be able to tell us since he uses the synthetics. I think of the wasted synthetics going into the water system and poisoning the rivers and the ocean. Am I being dramatic?

I think you're being dramatic for those of us not farming acreage with runoff into bodies of water! My small bit of runoff goes into the soil under the turf in my garden.

I'll give it a rest now and hope it recovers overnight.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Mine is in need of something though: more nitrogen (that I can do), cooler water in the res (nothing I can do there), or maybe water to the feeder roots in the soil?

What made you think that top feeding might help your plant? It surely can't hurt? I think watering the feeder roots is always good practice. Why don't you give it a try.

 

[InTheShed]

What made you think that top feeding might help your plant?

I'm not sure it will given how long that soil has been dry. What roots would still be alive in there other than the ones that connect to the res? And would those suddenly be happy to be surrounded by wet soil? I can't wait to harvest this plant and see what's going on in the pots.

It surely can't hurt? I think watering the feeder roots is always good practice. Why don't you give it a try.

Well if no one thinks it can hurt I'm willing to try!

 

[Gee64]

Mine is in need of something though: more nitrogen (that I can do), cooler water in the res (nothing I can do there), or maybe water to the feeder roots in the soil?

I'm not sure if you have feeder roots or not. When you are done it would be awesome to see the rootball.

 

[Azimuth]

I'm not sure it will given how long that soil has been dry. What roots would still be alive in there other than the ones that connect to the res? And would those suddenly be happy to be surrounded by wet soil? I can't wait to harvest this plant and see what's going on in the pots.

Well if no one thinks it can hurt I'm willing to try!

In at least shorter term droughts like most wet/dry grower go through, the roots don't die when dried out but rather protect themselves in a tough sheath waiting for moisture to return. I would think the same is at least partially true for your more extended dry period.

Specifically, you should still have the roots, they just probably went dormant and may need more assurance than 1 top watering to be convinced to come out of their shell.

 

[InTheShed]

I'm not sure if you have feeder roots or not. When you are done it would be awesome to see the rootball.

Funny that I'm looking forward to seeing the root structure more than the harvest!

In at least shorter term droughts like most wet/dry grower go through, the roots don't die when dried out but rather protect themselves in a tough sheath waiting for moisture to return. I would think the same is at least partially true for your more extended dry period.

Specifically, you should still have the roots, they just probably went dormant and may need more assurance than 1 top watering to be convinced to come put of their shell.

Right now it takes a gallon a day directly to the res with no water wicking into the soil. Tomorrow morning I'll water the soil until I get runoff from the overflow hole (and then hope it uses enough for me to be able to pick it up at night!). I'll certainly give it a few top waterings to get the roots used to seeing water again and take it from there. Thanks Azi!

 

[Gee64]

Funny that I'm looking forward to seeing the root structure more than the harvest!

Right now it takes a gallon a day directly to the res with no water wicking into the soil. Tomorrow morning I'll water the soil until I get runoff from the overflow hole (and then hope it uses enough for me to be able to pick it up at night!). I'll certainly give it a few top waterings to get the roots used to seeing water again and take it from there. Thanks Azi!

Lol Shed you need one of those Rubbermaid plastic trash cans with the wheels on it turned into a SIP.

 

[InTheShed]

Lol Shed you need one of those Rubbermaid plastic trash cans with the wheels on it turned into a SIP.

...and a level property!

 

[Carmen Ray]

Funny that I'm looking forward to seeing the root structure more than the harvest!

This crowd... we're all a bunch of root nerds

 

[Azimuth]

Lol Shed you need one of those Rubbermaid plastic trash cans with the wheels on it turned into a SIP.

Or a simple hand truck. Probably take all the fun out of carrying it around, though...

 

[InTheShed]

Or a simple hand truck. Probably take all the fun out of carrying it around, though...

Half the plant would get smashed every time I moved it!

 

[Azimuth]

Half the plant would get smashed every time I moved it!

You just need wider doors. I seem to remember you already have a contractor.

 

[InTheShed]

You just need wider doors. I seem to remember you already have a contractor.

Do you mean dolly? Because a handtruck would crush the flowers. Handtruck on the left:

 

[Azimuth]

Do you mean dolly? Because a handtruck would crush the flowers. Handtruck on the left:

Yeah, you probably should have attached it to the pot before up-potting.

To each his own. Some guys like @bluter use simple tomato cages, Shed an industrial hand truck.