Watering from the bottom up. (wicking)

I'll let you know how it works out. I have four plants that are each in one gallon plastic pots. I am watering about once a week, and having resistance from the soil to take up water.

I decided to try and bottom feed, and let the roots wick up the compost tea as they would like. For each plant, I put about about three - 12oz glasses of compost tea in bucket, and placed the 1 gallon plastic pot inside.

I will update the post throughout the evening, and also at lights out, to see how much of the compost tea has been absorbed.

My goal is to establish a more consistently hydrated medium.

Thank you.

ive seen growers put their soil in 5 gallon felt bags and grow them on an ebb n flow table..seemed to work well and the table only needs to flood once or twice a day until their huge plants..

About four (4) hours later, and there has been noticeable uptake. So far, working nicely.

One plant did very well with this as was able to absorb most of the compost tea. The other three did well, however I drained the buckets and top fed the remainder as I did not want to leave them sitting in water through lights off.

keysareme said:

One plant did very well with this as was able to absorb most of the compost tea. The other three did well, however I drained the buckets and top fed the remainder as I did not want to leave them sitting in water through lights off.

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yeah i mean when i used to water i Like leaving the run off because they would eventually use it all. the real trst is What produces better? regular top feed orbottom?

The talking heads at raw solubles and nectar of the gods say never to feed from the bottom because of salt build up. Is this a concern to you?

also, are you top watering at all every couple feedings to push out any salt build up that may occur? and is your water source oxygenated? Just curious.

also have you looked into feeding with yucca in your search for a better hydraded medium? From what I've seen, it weakens the waters natural bond and makes it much more 'slippery'. This results in more even watering. When applied as a foliar spray, the water makes an even film over the leaf instead of congregating in drops.

keysareme said:

I'll let you know how it works out. I have four plants that are each in one gallon plastic pots. I am watering about once a week, and having resistance from the soil to take up water.

I decided to try and bottom feed, and let the roots wick up the compost tea as they would like. For each plant, I put about about three - 12oz glasses of compost tea in bucket, and placed the 1 gallon plastic pot inside.

I will update the post throughout the evening, and also at lights out, to see how much of the compost tea has been absorbed.

My goal is to establish a more consistently hydrated medium.

Thank you.

Click to expand...

I grew an outside guerrilla grow in the late 90s using the wick method. it works OK, not optimal but it does work, for me I couldn't attend to them (they were up in the trees) my primary issue was that the wick didn't get the moisture to the soil surface, in hindsight if I used a more water retaining mix with maybe high amounts of of vermiculite or something better than what I used... The harvest was good, but after I cut the rootball up, it was pretty clear that the upper roots had some issues with water.
If I were to do this, i'd really look into a mulch or some kind of layer on the top to keep the water from transpiring. Make sure you are using a good wick too.

Salt build-up usually isn't\shouldn't be a concern in living soil\organics... (if using bottled products refrain from using with every watering).

When you water from the bottom it is the media that absorbs the water (just like a sponge). How much it can wick up depends in part on how moist it is initially. You may have performed an experiment in grade school that illustrates how a sponge which is already moist can actually hold more water than a sponge which is completely dry. Potting mix\soil behaves on the same principle.

Water likes to stick to itself, and often does so somewhat exclusively. It also prefers to congregate with its own kind (other water molecules) and not allow other substances to coalesce. This is why water beads up on certain surfaces, i.e. wax, as the cohesive force between water molecules is much stronger than any adhesive tendency between water and wax. So the water behaves as if it is shielded from the wax.

Plant leaves are covered in wax and other hydrophobic substances to protect them from water loss, as well as toxins and pathogens. Wetting agents decrease the resistance of water to spread over, stick to or mix with with other substances.

While a soil that is very dry may wick up just about as much, it's going to take a bit longer to become fully saturated and for that moisture to distribute to the upper layer of the container.

ok, wait a second, after re-reading your post, I may have misunderstood you, are you allowing the container to stand in the water?
Wicking is when you have a two ropes going into the media, and then from there the ropes are dangled in a water bucket, and the rope "wicks" the moisture into the soil
Am I wrong here? is there another "wicking" technique?
you are describing bottom feeding

Soil itself wicks moisture, that's the basic principal behind the Earthboxes. The purpose of using some other material to wick the moisture is to avoid have your containers in standing water (and perhaps regulate the flow some).

I've seen\heard this suggested as a technique to keep your plants watered if going away for some extended time.

keysareme said:

I drained the buckets and top fed the remainder as I did not want to leave them sitting in water through lights off.

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This should help avoid over watering (drowning)!
.

Nullis said:

Salt build-up usually isn't\shouldn't be a concern in living soil\organics... (if using bottled products refrain from using with every watering).

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Isn't it also possible (even with organics) for the soil to gradually build nitrites that will disturb micro live and hormone production? Surely the plants and micro biology need their waste periodically removed.

I read something along those lines in a piece of literature that I wish I could find right now >_<

I ran a wicking system 16" down in my dirt bays this year for the first time. It is an excellent technique for grows that can't be tended to on a regular basis as I went nearly a month at one point without watering. The downside to this type off system is that I don't think you get the same level of oxygen into the root zone. My plants had robust growth on top but leaves on bottom 1/3rd of plants often had an under oxygenated look. I will continue to use it but with will put less into it so more top watering is required. I don't think I like it as an all the time watering solution.

Nullis said:

Soil itself wicks moisture, that's the basic principal behind the Earthboxes. The purpose of using some other material to wick the moisture is to avoid have your containers in standing water (and perhaps regulate the flow some).

I've seen\heard this suggested as a technique to keep your plants watered if going away for some extended time.

Click to expand...

the method I've used is using an acrylic rope to wick the water up, it works fairly well on plants that don't get regular attention, in my opinion traditionally watering is a better method, but I have only done two harvests via the guerrilla-wick-tree-growing system. That being said, i'm sure with the correct soil it could be better than the way I did it.

This soil is from a 6 year old farm. It get's worked and re-amended every few months (crop rotation).

The batch I have came from a mixture of beds that had, brassicas and flowers growing. I compiled it after we had pulled the bed(s) and we worked them.

My plants only get Vegan Compost Tea. I water/feed about once a week, and that's all they get, the Tea.

I could see this as a good go-to if I were to be away for a few days, or if I was not able to be around during lights on at a watering day.

I bottom feed all through veg and often all the way through 12/12. Yes, I let the pots sit in water...often for a day or so before all of it is absorbed (I use Happy Frog). I have roots sitting in water without a problem.

When I first started doing this I worried about root-rot, but it never happened. My plants flourish from beginning to end.

As far as I know N-fixing microbes

rohis said:

Isn't it also possible (even with organics) for the soil to gradually build nitrites that will disturb micro live and hormone production? Surely the plants and micro biology need their waste periodically removed.

I read something along those lines in a piece of literature that I wish I could find right now >_<

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AFAIK of the microbes capable of nitrogen fixation, none of them can fix too much nitrogen. Ammonium oxidizes into nitrite, which oxidizes into nitrate. Organisms (Bacteria/Archaea) responsible for this are fairly ubiquitous and they are important to the Nitrogen cycle. Both nitrite and nitrate are water soluble and prone to leaching (moreso nitrate). However, there are other microbes which are denitrifiers and turn nitrate into Nitrogen gas or nitrous oxide.

One organisms 'waste' is anothers lifeblood.

keysareme said:

I'll let you know how it works out. I have four plants that are each in one gallon plastic pots. I am watering about once a week, and having resistance from the soil to take up water.

I decided to try and bottom feed, and let the roots wick up the compost tea as they would like. For each plant, I put about about three - 12oz glasses of compost tea in bucket, and placed the 1 gallon plastic pot inside.

I will update the post throughout the evening, and also at lights out, to see how much of the compost tea has been absorbed.

My goal is to establish a more consistently hydrated medium.

Thank you.

Click to expand...

I did this before I put lava rock in the bottom of the pot and landscaping fabric over that, then the soil. It provides a constant wicking affect and wont over water. just make sure the water level stays below the lava rock. The reason I stopped was because one my lights fell in the water basin and was bubbling.

Dr.Pecker said:

I did this before I put lava rock in the bottom of the pot and landscaping fabric over that, then the soil. It provides a constant wicking affect and wont over water. just make sure the water level stays below the lava rock. The reason I stopped was because one my lights fell in the water basin and was bubbling.

Click to expand...

Holy crap! Bubbling from the electricity? That's pretty scary, I wonder what that did to the roots.. I remember reading about some study regarding electricity being supplied to the roots, sorta like shock therapy, I suppose... i'd imagine it wouldn't be at quite THAT high of amperage though

http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1151159-noobwannbs-self-wicking-smartpot-ghetto-setup.html/page-48

Idk if it takes you to the first post, I have been reading on this for awhile. Uses smart pots and just waters into the trays(full of perlite or other wicking source) and then does teas outside of the trays. Seems to be the perfect passive-hydro combo with organics.