Design/size a wick system resevoir, and can I use water crystals?

[1love1earth]

I'm wondering how to build a wick system for my outdoor plants.

The plants aren't nearby one another, so I'd use one unit per plant.

I'd like to visit as infrequently as every 2 weeks, and I don't mind bringing 2 weeks of water out at once to refill a large container (like a trash bin or something), but I need to know how big I need it to be, and if it is as simple as just filling a container up with water, running a rope (what diamter/material is best?) from the bottom to my hole and all down through it in a spiral.

I'm also wondering if I can use water crystals to help cut back on watering as well?

Finally I know it's not good to keep your plant roots wet all the time, and I'm wondering how this factors in with a wick system?

Do you just keep it filled, and the plant does fine?

Is it as simple as a rope in an appropriately sized container going into my plants hole?

Is there anything I should know about designing/building one of these?

I ask because there really isn't any water anywhere nearby, gasoline is expensive, and it isn't going to rain anytime soon.

It's not as though the temps are in the 80's/90's on average either, more like 70's.

The spot does have direct sunlight and is on a south facing slope.

I have the ability to park close to the site, without giving the spot away, so I don't mind lugging 20 gallons of water (or more I guess if needed) every two weeks up to the site to refill a resevoir.

And can/should I use water crystals? Fine or more granular? How many lbs per hole (4ft deep, 3 ft long, 1.5 ft wide)?

So let me know, as I've yet to drop my plant in the ground yet, which has been in 12/12 for 15 days under HID, and is 4ft tall or so. It was vegged for 3 months or so, though not dialed in 100% of the time, as this is my first grow. It does have budsites.

I'm likely to drop about 10-20 clones in a different area, which is a protected swampland, and thus watering won't be an issue, as even where there is solid dirt, there is lots of moisture underneath. Others have had lots of success there from what I've heard about grows 5-10 years ago.

 

[1love1earth]

anyone have any info on this design of a resevoir wick system?

 

[1love1earth]

I'm still in need of help on this front, can anyone tell me if this design is feasible/solid?

Get some rope/twine to use as a wick, stick it in a large garbage bin filled with water making sure the rope is at the bottom of the bin, and then route the rope through the hole, making sure it goes from the top of the soil to the bottom in a spiral.

Is that OK? Anything to know or tweak?

 

[Fast_Pine]

Yeah,,It will work...Becareful because some materials wont wick up the moisture...Maby you caould do the same thing cept use some soaker hose and a little gravity to pressure the system..

I figure you would be better off straight watering the planting hole than puttin the water in a container to attract animals/insects and eventualy dry up...

If yer looking for an easy, effective way to get ample ammounts of clean water to yer plants...Check my sticky thread at the top of the forum...Titled: Gas Powered Pump Thread

Oh yeah...an you can definantly use water polymers...Use the hell out of em..They work wonders.

 

[1love1earth]

well, here's my deal, the plant is a good ways away, and costs a good bit of gas money to visit, and in digging 4 ft deep into the hillside, I didn't get any real ground water or heavy moisture.

I want to keep my visits to a minimum, every 10-14 days if possible. I'm not sure if this is possible without using some form of a watering system.

IE if I just dump a 15-20 gallons of water in the hole every 2 weeks, I doubt that'll be sufficient, maybe it would be, I have no idea.

Whereas if I could use a wick system, maybe it'd work.

There's a dog kennel within a 1/4 mile or so, I'm not super concerned about animals, if I just put a lid on the container, it shouldn't dry out until the soil does, right?

 

[Fast_Pine]

Visits 2 weeks apart,,Thats totaly possible with polymers (make sure theres a good bit mixed in the planting hole...Idea is to have enough to hold alot of the moisture that you innitially put in..(wont need 20 gal, 5 should do fine)...Use mulch....It will help alot.

Thing is,,If you could get to em a little more frequently with water,,You willyield a lot more..No streams near by?

Yeah, I guess if you had a nice shug lig on the rez, the evaporation shouldnt be too bad...

I have some experience with dry country guerilla, and have used gravity fed drip systems before..

Click the link in my Sig,,,,(Vol 1)...You could replicate a smaller version of that dripsystem

 

[1love1earth]

well, I'm not certain what to do other than wick, as there is no water nearby whatsoever.

Unless you think I'm better off just straight watering the plants every 10-14 days than setting up a resevoir wick system.

 

[1love1earth]

well, to update after my visit:

#1 the plants are still there!!! (not that I was expecting anything else, but you never know til you go)

#2. Two of them are looking pretty thirsty, and weren't perfectly green at all, good bits of yellowing on the leaves, I'm guessing they were either not digging the PH due to lack of water, or they are just flat out hungry or thirsty.

It was a little cold last week, and some of the leaves have purple/black coloring now, not real heavy, but I think that's from the cold. There also appears to be some light sun bleaching, just that they are adjusting to the heavy sun exposure.

The third was mostly green, and looked generally healthier, it seems to be an area that either gets more water when it rains, or just gets slightly less direct sunlight.

Mind the first two are on a south facing slope with "zero" cover from other trees/plants.

The third is further down the hill, still south facing, but has slightly less sun exposure.

#3. I dug deep holes around the plants and put saturated coarse crystals in there. I also dug until I found the large root system and planted rope/wick in the ground.

#4. The wick system consists of one 18 gallon tub per plant (3 total), with about 10-12 gallons in each tub when I left. I used a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick rope (natural fiber, absorbed water, sunk to bottom of the tub) and threaded it through a hole I made in the tub lid.

The rope is then routed along the side of the tub, straight into the ground, where it loops around the plant once about 6 inches deep, and then straight down into the hole leading to the big root system.

I then filled all the holes/moats I dug, and laid down a bunch of mulch.

I got 3 cubic feet of peat moss, and packed that on top of the plant, which I had dug out so that the mulch was level with the ground once laid down.

I also then laid down a bunch of newspaper all around, and a bunch of water crystals on top, with more mulch on top of the newspaper.

#5. I also laid down 2 liter bottles filled with pee and cotton balls with vents cut in them. Dog hair scattered around the plants (though there is a large large pack of dogs in a homes backyard about 300 yards away or so, though no line of sight).
In hindsight for anyone making pee bottles, I bet the water crystals would work GREAT, fill a bottle with a few, and just pour in the pee, it's going to release the pee so slow, yet hold a ton.

#6. The plants are definately going to need lots of water to give great results.

I transplanted them to the outdoors real deep, the main root system is at least 3-4 feet below ground.

I'm not sure how well the wick system is going to work, or how long it'll take before the tubs are empty.

My plan is to get 5 gallon or so containers for water, I know there are collapsable ones meant for camping, enough to carry 30-40 gallons of water.

I can drive within 200 yards of my spots, and dump all supplies in the brush before driving off and parking elsewhere to walk to the spot.

The hike up the hillside is tough, dense underbrush, etc. However I should be able to carry 5 gallons at a time, making 5-6 trips to get all the water up to the plants, and then refilling all of the containers, and given how they looked last time, I'd like to dump at least 5 gallons on each plant directly.

If I put 10 gallons in each tub, that's 30 gallons. Another 5 on each plant is 45. I'm thinking if I do that every 10-14 days, it should give excellent results. Though I might want to increase it a tad, depending on whether or not it rains.

If anyone has any suggestions on the best way to truck 45 gallons of water 200 yards up a hill, let me know.

The collapsable containers are nice because in theory once I'm done with all the water, I can collapse them and carry them all down in a big garbage bag or something, then pick them up with the vehicle.

However I'm completely open to any and all suggestions. There is NO water of any kind around that I could get, other than the rain.

 

[1love1earth]

anyone have any input here?

I also dropped more fertilizer on the plants.

About a month ago when they went into the ground, I mixed in kelp meal (about 1 cup per plant) and bat guano 0-4-0. Between two visits one week apart, I used 4lbs of guano between the plants.

Now a month later I dropped another 3lbs of "rainbow mix bloom" between the plants, with about 1lb mixed into the resevoirs, dunno if the wick will carry the nutes or not.

Tomorrow I am going to visit again for water.

I'm really thinking 45 gallons is going to be about right.

I have no idea what my resevoirs will look like after a week, but they could be empty. Nevermind two out of three of the plants were looking thirsty already anyways.

So I want to not just refill the resevoirs, but also give the plants a real healthy watering.

 

[del...]

i've found strips of terry cloth cotton (towels, bath robe material) make excellent wicks. a 5 gal bucket with 2 wicks will last 10 days here but you should do a test yourself and see how long it takes to empty whatever container you chose to use. cotton rope also works well but once again you need to perform your own tests to see how it works in your area.

have you thought about battery operated water pumps for indoor plants? i got mine at gardeners supply and it has 10 stations for the thin tubing (supplied and can be fitted to work with rainbird drip equipment) and they work great! there are other tools for houseplants being left alone for vacations that a search will bring up but the battery pump has been most useful for me.

and you don't have to run the wick from the bottom...water will carry over the lip of the container just fine...it defies gravity!

 

[1love1earth]

well, the wick system bombed hardcore.

I visited the site yesterday, bringing 35 gallons of water with me by hand.

To my surprise the resevoirs were all still full!

Despite the thick rope absorbing some water, and sinking to the bottom of the containter, it failed to wick water outside of the container, there was no evidence of any moisture around the rope outside of the container.

I'm guessing that it wicked water so slowly that it just evaporated off, but again, hardly any water was missing from the containers.

Guessing cotton t-shirt rags would work better, but that's another trip.

So I dug holes through my mulch/newspaper top layer and watered in them, hoping to get water deep where the roots are.

I can tell the soil is too hard packed, not extremely, but the watering would go much better if it had better drainage. Considering I supplemented with a good bit of coco coir, I'm not sure what to do different in the future.

I'm thinking lots of perlite/vermiculite, "chunky" coco coir, mixed with "fine" coco coir, organic topsoil, and very well mixed in water crystals, would do nicely.

I also had brought some extra water crystals that I pre-hydrated.

Had ~3-5 gallons of them, and dressed them on top mixing them in with the mulch (peat moss) once I was done watering.

Figure it can't hurt.

The pee bottles worked great. Each spot reeks badly of urine. I mean badly.

Two of the plants were clearly very very thirsty. Not wilted leaves, but not 100% healthy/perky.

The other plant doesn't get nearly as much sun exposure, more shade, and thus is very green, but less bud.


Since the wicks weren't working, they essentially didn't get any water for a week, even though the ground has moisture, it's stunting the bud growth I know.

There are a good number of solid budsites, all that remains is to what extent they beef up between now and harvest.

The two plants with very good sun exposure (almost all day direct) are looking off, the leaves show signs of either nutrient deficiency, or PH issues due to the lack of water, or just plain issues due to lack of water.

I'll see them in another 10 days or so. I figure since both plants got not only ~15 gallons of water each, but also another 10-12 from what was left in the resevoirs (dumped them onto the plants), it should be the best watering they've ever had, and last about 1 week or a tad more, especially since they are planted really deep, and I've got the mulch/newspaper/crystal thing going on.



I'm thinking I should harvest as late as possible, no?

How late can I go?

My latest date was late october. I figure the two things I need to watch for are mold due to humidity/rainfall (none yet, still sunny and 70's), and cold/frost.

Any suggestions on when it's "too late" to continue, please let me know.

I figure the longer I let them run, the better off I'll be, until I hit mold or cold/frost.

I just pray I get a halfway decent yield.

When do plants put on most of their budweight?

Is it in the last month or so?

I transplanted these three about 5 weeks ago, and they were flowering indoors under 12/12 for about 10 days before that.

 

[1love1earth]

I've yet to visit again, likely going to head out in a few days, which means it will have been ~10 days since the last watering, which was extremely heavy.

We shall see how they are looking.

Also, does anyone have any answers to my questions at the end of my last post?

I'm curious as to how late I can extend the harvest.

 

[Polishdankchron]

I see people just putting out large containers next to plants with a small hole drilled in the bottom. You could experiment how fast water leaks out with different sized holes and then just place the container so that the hole is near the stem of the plant. You could also make some sort of "wings" on the side of the container to provide more area to get more rain water if it even rains where you are.