What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

wick growing

phunkeeboodah

Active member
hey everybody :tiphat:
fine tuning the wicking methods. i could never get the timing right when watering fabric pots, one day they are perfect then hours later total droop, and all the watering in general, and the planting way too high with too much soil or something



the balcony pots are 7 gallon sat on grills in saucers, with 1/4" polypropylene webbing draping over the grills and hanging into the saucer. the reflective mulch discs keep heat, light and dryness out and the capillary action moves the water steadily up from the saucers, through the fabric and into the pots


only thing is don't place the webbing close to the center of the grill because roots will try to grow out, so even near the edges at some point will have to rotate the pots while holding the grills just to shear any roots that try to grow out on them because never want the roots to go into the water/nutrient(i just use kelp for now)


soil is pre-mixed for the season, and even though only 3-4 hours sunlight these should be decent because they have hybrid vigour. i know this because i crossed pure moroccan (canuk hash passion) and nirvana papaya. was only a one time experiment with an indoor tent which i sold in frustration having learned a lot


anyway mulched all the seeds except for 5 and out of those five one grew like it was on a nuclear power plant. like a giant tropical palm tree while the others grew at a snails pace. it was super shiny light green and healthy with giant leaves right out the gate


smell is stronger than it's mother the moroccan, however not as much as the father papaya which was the stinkiest in the garden save for another one i got from a friend. this one smells like skunky parmesan, definitely savoury


nexts will talk about the wick cloning
 

Attachments

  • balcony.jpg
    balcony.jpg
    47 KB · Views: 48
  • cloners1.jpg
    cloners1.jpg
    48.7 KB · Views: 43
  • wicking pot1.jpg
    wicking pot1.jpg
    44.9 KB · Views: 34
  • nursery.jpg
    nursery.jpg
    54.2 KB · Views: 33
  • next crop1.jpg
    next crop1.jpg
    61.8 KB · Views: 28

phunkeeboodah

Active member
these are the cloners and wicking pots. i experimented with wick sizes in the cloners and 1/4" or higher is best. using about 5 1/2" strips and the containers are ziploc brand. just use a blade to cut big enough slits so as not to pinch the wicks, assemble, add perlite and a clone and as long as it is warm enough (heat mat in cold climates is essential) they will be ready for transplant in two weeks



i like this method because it is set and forget and when the clones are ready they look identical to how they looked when they were still on the mother plant, 100% healthy and now with roots and ready to go. just be careful gently removing them from the wicks if they try to grow onto them. this is bullet proof and literally you can take the clone and not return for two weeks and they will be perfect and ready to go with no exceptions


with the mother plant, seedlings etc i made these wicking pots, and finally just realized the ideal amount of soil is half as high as wide just like the balcony squat pots. with the crucial mulch disc on top the plant gets the perfect constant feed of moisture


i like wicking because there is no slowing down/speeding up or droop etc everything is just steady growth with much less frequent watering required. planting any deeper throws the chain off though and the plant has to search for moisture and will not develop a good root system
 

Attachments

  • webbing from strapworks on amazon.jpg
    webbing from strapworks on amazon.jpg
    44.4 KB · Views: 32
  • 1(not shown) 3,4 1,2 3,8 24h test(7.1g, 3.5g, 1.18g, 0.6g).jpg
    1(not shown) 3,4 1,2 3,8 24h test(7.1g, 3.5g, 1.18g, 0.6g).jpg
    43.2 KB · Views: 49
  • wicking pots v2.0.4.14b.jpg
    wicking pots v2.0.4.14b.jpg
    37.9 KB · Views: 42

phunkeeboodah

Active member
a few more things, i use a small amount of kelp for cloning but the most important thing is warmth i found. trying an experiment on these to find the optimal kelp amount, currently just a few drops


also if the clone droops after going into the cloner just put it in the hole in the reservoir for a few hours and its good to go. happens from time to time
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
a closer look at a cloner from last year, i cut the flaps off of the reservoir holes now though. you can see the strip of webbing goes just two slots up into the top container and through and back down again into the reservoir


when finished everything washes easily for re-use including the perlite
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
to clarify i said clones are ready in two weeks no exceptions, only one being maybe a few days before or after. as long as there is warmth the clones will take and probably don't even need a humidity dome
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
also, setting up the cloner, put dry perlite in and wait until the surface of the perlite is wet, usually takes less than 1-2 hours. then put the clone in and try to make it shallow enough so it's not touching the webbing
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
correction: meant to say i only use 3/4" [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]polypropylene webbing or higher not [/FONT]1/4"
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
for the science part i guess i would say i envision scaling up the plants on the balcony to outdoor california size. where the saucers would be i don't know eight to ten feet across and square



the grills would be made of metal to support the giant fabric pots which would be also square but reinforced with wood and also have inlets(?) at the bottom for forklift


the webbing strips would be maybe six inches or more by a few feet and stitched into and/or go through the pots on the sides near the bottom for easy access for root removal as opposed being trapped underneath like my balcony pots


the mulch disc would be square also and of a more durable double layered reflective material(the same material i use could also be ok, called reflectix)


why keep walking back and forth past the window of optimal moisture in a soil grow when you can use wicking and stay put in front of the window the whole time? plants grown with wicking will never in their lifetime droop leaves even in the slightest. they are permanently healthy and in the optimal stance/angle. that means they are never not growing at their fastest, yes, no?
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
speaking of drooping, there is one way i use leaf droop and that happens to a lower leaf of a potted plant that needs transplant. it is actually the petiole that drops and is the indication of i guess what i call fabric pot root bound, as opposed to regular pot root bound
 

big315smooth

mama tried
Veteran
seen wick had to click. one my good buddy built and uses wick buckets for outdoor. sets em out on bogs to wet for holes. it works very well
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
this is one month after putting the plants on the balcony. i realized after these plants were seedlings what i was doing wrong with the seedling wicking pots ie planting too deep and without the mulch disc, so these were not in the best way and that added maybe a few weeks for recovery
 

Attachments

  • DSCN3407.jpg
    DSCN3407.jpg
    71.5 KB · Views: 42

Biologist

Active member
What is the best cloth material to use as a wick. I want to make a wick cloner using perlite.

I had really good success using the flat blue microfiber mop heads after testing many materials for wicking properties. I don't wick anymore because I use drip irrigation now but the mop heads wicked the solution well. I did learn the hard way that wick irrigation had to be done just right or I got bad root rot. It really only worked for me in the winter when the night temps at one of my early grows would dip in the night, keeping the root zone and the nutrient solution cool. But those plants grew incredibly well.

Like these-
https://www.walmart.com/ip/O-Cedar-Microfiber-Cloth-Mop-Refill/22210555
 

phunkeeboodah

Active member
^^finding this to be true also o_o


@ 3 months. 2 weeks since flowers started appearing, stretch started a few days ago

plant on the left snapped in half from wind a few weeks ago when they were close to the railing but there was no wilting. plants were then moved down one tire height and inward a few inches. they take up the entire balcony now averaging 4 hours direct sun (3+ hours to cover the plants, 2- hours complete coverage, 15 minutes to go away). also, for most of the morning the white brick wall across from/next to me (u shaped building) reflects the sun enough to avert the eyes, like a giant fluorescent light

i had put the wicks too close to the edge of the pots and the water was not getting to the center of the pots fast enough before evaporating. this caused the leaves to be slightly frail i'm guessing because the root system at the stem was not developed and/or wet enough. under direct sun the lower fan leaves (not the ones in direct sun ironically) would droop, then after a point it changed to the tops always drooping under the sun, and strangely they would only droop every other day all plants in sync too for some reason. also only 5 bladed leaves with the occasional 7

so moved the wicks inwards and will continue to turn the pots to shear the roots every few weeks. most importantly have been siphoning the tray water over the soil and the plants totally bounced back and are healthy, although i seem to have to siphon every day before the sun is on them. when i grew with these pots indoors with less evaporation and the wicks near the middle, the pots stayed wet at the top for the whole grow without ever watering from the top and there was a clear wet/dry ring around the top of the soil and the leaves/tops stayed perfect. for outdoor might have to add more wicks and always water from the top

top dressing with organic promix bloom pellets and bloom guano. just heard about coconut water so will add to the regular kelp waterings. will up the kelp/coconut water in the last few weeks of flower for the k. after harvest will recycle all plant material back into soil and amend for next year with promix pellets and guano

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

some history on the plant: had a grow tent last year during hottest time of year with no ac and grew 3 nirvana papaya females, 1 papaya male, 1 canuk hash passion female and 1 bagseed female supposedly a nine pound hammer blueberry cross. tent was blazing hot, soil/roots were kept cool, plants grew great in veg and questionably in flower, but after drying the terpenes were strange and on some plants revolting. thc was almost non existent in all plants except the mother, hash passion, and the identical sister (in early veg) of the father, papaya

the bagseed plant turned out to smell so super crazy of skunk ie can't hide the weed anywhere, but with an off putting edge to it, and was not potent at all just headache. i had given four clones of it to a friend to grow outdoors and it grew sweet and was potent with a great high and yield, although oddly the tent version was way more crystally. this was my first experience with the different outcome of the same plant in different environments and also my first time experiencing such strange and off putting cannabis that i grew in the tent which i totally messed up ie no fresh air, waaay too high temps, yet, cool root system and robust veg growth. i sold everything but learned a lot

the only exception in terms of quality and terpenes etc which was cut early, after pollination, the papaya father smelled of the most intensely deep skunk beyond all other plants by about 20 to 1 except the bagseed plant. even a small baby plant somewhere in the room would send 'silent but deadly concentration level' wisps of pure skunk. since the budded tent plants turned out so wonky though i really have no idea what this weed will look or taste or effect like. i mulched all seeds i made too btw lol

what i do know is i gave a few of these clones to the same friend this year to grow outdoors again and he somehow caused them to flower early by moving them in/out every night. when i saw them they looked nothing like mj plants and like single bladed ferns(?). however, the resin production was incredible. towards the bottom of one plant there was a section of fully formed foxtail buds smothered in trichomes with dark brown hairs and a 3 inch fan leaf sticking out covered all the way to the tips of the blades in sugar, and these were less than 2 foot tall plants reverting back to veg. the smell is a creamy cheesy skunk with a hint of baby poo, much like the other plants he is growing, and the stem rub is like the mother which is lime candy
 
Top