Wicking q's??

I asked this in Advanced Growing but all I got was derp.

I want to make a wicking planter. I originally thought about using Solo cups but maybe that woud be too small to grow a plant as large as I'd like. I'm trying to make a seed generation tub useing a low wattage LED tub built several years ago. It was capable of mothering a plant for clone cutting and was used to grow some solo cups with Males, so it is capable. I wanted to build a wicking rig. Withthe plants about 2 inches above 1-2 gal rez and wick the water up to a couple of 1 lb coffee containers. I thought I'd use two wicks in each pot to bring water up to the plants on two sides of the containers, to avoid not having enough water.

Am wondering about the soil to use? I'm thinking a fine grained soil would be best to enhance the wicking. Something that carries a lot of air, but will wick the water around?

Has anyone had expierence with wicking who could give me some tips? I bought some felt to use for the wicks, but wonder if that will work?

Anyone??

Derp

I have done wick systems but all mine have been in five gln pots using the grobucket but nothing small

Any plant brought to harvest by wicking alone

will be totally wicked.

These were grown in five gln wick buckets. Even got the nerve to show mom the plants and get a pic. Wouldn’t have ever done this 38 years ago lol

Who was wicking there stem juice and measuring EC, I would be hitting him up for a wick system

Silt wicks the best, your looking for a sip, for the wick just use soil that dips into the reservoir. Keep wick to 10% area of your pot. Look up sips and you’ll find what your looking for.

This is half smartass answer and half practical answer....

Use whatever is your regular soil mix. Set it up and check it after 2 days. You'll have your answer. Answers beat opinions every time.

I tried my felt wick and it took ~10 hrs to draw water up ~2". I'm thinking about just dipping the solocup about a half inch into the rez, kind of a micro-SIP.
The soil I have is mostly green waste chips and it is very difficult to deal with. I was thinking about maybe pro-Mix?

J232 said:

Who was wicking there stem juice and measuring EC, I would be hitting him up for a wick system

Click to expand...

That's be @Star Dog

Perhaps he might have more info OP.

I tested my wick and decided that I'll just hand water. Hell, I'll be watching them everyday anyway KISS!
I ordered my STS kit for $32 off E-Bay, it should be here in a week.

I'll up date on my "Selfing an Auto" thread in Advanced Growing, once I get the seeds started.

You could also use ropes, even hemp rope is available at big box hardware stores these days. You could also look at synthetic ropes for wicks but if you're not sure about plastics/leaching & what is or isn't acceptable to you then I'd look towards the hemp rope. Old grow book I had when I was a teen was showing that old technique where they used nylon ropes that were dangling out of the bottom of the pots into a rez.

I’ve done mini sips in small containers, I used small pumice in the bottom of the pot about 1-2” deep. Then fill a shallow container with water about an 1” deep so when you put the pot in it the pumice is the only thing submerged. This setup needs fairly well aerated soil for small pots because the pot depth isn’t very high