I'd like to invite some people to contribute to the development of this thread. Please feel free to contribute and invite others too:
@el gringuito @Hash Hound @ReservoirDog @bluter @Azimuth @lazylathe @Pondwater Who else, people?
WELCOME TO THE SWICK CLUB
First off, I am a beginner and there is a lot I don’t know. I am hoping that some of the more experienced Swickers will join this discussion. There is a sister thread called the SIP Club which looks a Sub-Irrigation Planters as a method for delivering water directly to the roots.
@Pondwater has a thread intended to compare SIP and Swick.
I don’t know what the origin is of the word Swick nor why it is called a Swick. It is a form of sub-irrigation that works by wicking fluid via capillary action through the medium. It is a form of self-watering. Essentially, the wick is kept moist by liquid from a reservoir, which is topped up from time to time. The wick is applied directly to the grow medium.
The theory behind the Swick is that wicking will deliver the desired amount of water to the plants roots so that the plants can concentrate on building plant and bud structure. Some of the benefits of sub-irrigation are improved plant structure and increased yields.
This may be a new thread but there are many who have gone before me. This method of growing has been around since grandpa fell of the bus. There is an old now dormant thread started by SweetSue; and there are others. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to start an active thread on Swick methodology where anyone can contribute to an ongoing discussion and compare notes with SIPpers.
To start the ball rolling, these two photos show my setup. For the starter pots I threaded a strip of absorbent cloth into the soil and squashed the pots into the wet perlite. I left them like this for a week when I went away. In the second setup I have soil in cloth pots sitting squashed directly into the damp perlite.
