weedstoner420
Well-Known Member
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm trying to figure how this works. Does the wicking material go in the cup in the center? And the bag sits on top? Is the wick like, literally a crumpled up chunk of fabric?
Watering amount & frequency in living soil
- Thread starter Thai Fox
- Start date
Hash Hound
Well-Known Member
I usually add a gallon every two or three days. I could raise the riser if I need to go away and add more water, or use a larger reservoir.
no the wick sits on the plant riser and they extend down into the water
producing plants like this with watering the bottom and 2 or 3 top feed teas and that's it
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Really appreciate you sharing what's been working for you mate. Looks like a really low maintenance system and producing the goods for sure.
I've just gone and knocked up something similar after seeing your method and results today. This is what I've come up with so far.
I found using a large stainless steel pot as the bottom tank has been effective, as it fits the black plastic pot saucers snug inside of them, and has a strong and smooth bottom for sliding around on the tent base. They allow about 3.5 gallon of water underneath, not touching the plastic pot saucer's base.
I added a little dipstick so I can feed the water in easily and also check the level while working out how often they will need to be topped up.
I have also copied your use of a grow bag as the wicking material. I've used half a 7gal bag to cover each 20gal pots base. I'm just testing it out now. Hopefully this will be a goer. Cheers again, was very helpful seeing your set-up.
weedstoner420
Well-Known Member
Ahhh I see, didn't realize the lighter color square in the middle was fabric! Dang, that's a nifty little piece of kit, and it seems to be working out pretty well too. Thanks for sharing!
Hash Hound
Well-Known Member
looking good @Thai Fox
You might want to add more holes to the plate. Something about having air under sips is what's making them work so well, I'm not sure if it matters with wicks but the sip thread on another forum that's the theory, but I use wicks in plastic pots without any problems, go figure.
Whatever you do with this method it's easy to change things up, if it's not getting enough water you can add more wicks, to wet, remove one.
You can take the plants off of them if needed. I've had a few small roots attach to the wick but no problem,
If that's going to be outdoor you might need an overflow hole in the base about an inch below the wick plate in case of rain. Might be hard to do in stainless steel.
You might want to add more holes to the plate. Something about having air under sips is what's making them work so well, I'm not sure if it matters with wicks but the sip thread on another forum that's the theory, but I use wicks in plastic pots without any problems, go figure.
Whatever you do with this method it's easy to change things up, if it's not getting enough water you can add more wicks, to wet, remove one.
You can take the plants off of them if needed. I've had a few small roots attach to the wick but no problem,
If that's going to be outdoor you might need an overflow hole in the base about an inch below the wick plate in case of rain. Might be hard to do in stainless steel.
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Okay no problems, will add a few more holes in the plastic saucer. I wanted to put a bigger hole for checking the water level easier so will add more drain holes at the same time.
Yes it looks quite easy to pull apart and make adjustments as needed, hopefully not required as moving 20gal of soil isn't very manageable but glad I've got the option to make changes.
Will be inside so no dramas about rain etc. Previously was a boilermaker so can work with the material if required but hopefully can get away with it without needed to do anything to the stainless base.
Hash Hound
Well-Known Member
Are you from the Steel City?
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Nah, although I'm not familiar with the steel city? My first trade out or school was metal fab/engineering.
Hash Hound
Well-Known Member
Pittsburgh, lots of boilermakers
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
@Hash Hound hey just noticed the bag isn't wicking up on it's own, does it need a priming or something, maybe wetting the entire wick first will help it get a flow going? Or not really going to move much water until pot is sat on top of wick? Cheers.
Hash Hound
Well-Known Member
Yes wetting first should help get it going. The bags should be wet already too. I know my 5g bags don't seem to wick as well as my 7g's from different manufacturer. Most are synthetic materials that should wick well. If it doesn't work try using something all cotton and see the difference.
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Too easy, will actually put a filled bag on top to see if that helps draw it along, my guess is until there's a bag with soil on top of the wick then it's probably not going to do much. I had possibly thought it would still soak the wick without a bag of soil on top but maybe not the case.
Reap911
Well-Known Member
The suggestions here are great, especially the one around if you are getting water leaking out the side of your pots. I find this to be a good indicator of my watering game being out of whack. If you are overdoing it, you will get gnats. They will appear out of nowhere and spawn like crazy.
From just recording what I am doing, which I highly recommend you do if you want to get good at Living Soil is journaling. Recording your inputs gives you a baseline to work with. Once you have a good foundation you can start improving specific elements are start improving your overall grow, it becomes quite cool because it is literally your own little science experiment, but its definitely the way to get better.
So I water everyday. I rotate between two types of watering, one being a heavier flow type of watering (bucket and jugg) and the other being a pressure sprayer. I work on the ratio of roughly 12.5% volume over the span of 3 days. This is extremely dependent on plant size and life stage. Smaller vegging plants are very different to bigger flowering ones. Generally my flow type waterings are 5% of the soil volume and the spray is 2.5%. That is the ratio I am running with at the moment and the plants are thriving.
Lastly, I honestly do not think there is like a one size fits all approach here. I think you need to just take note of what you are giving the plant, at what volume, what stage they are in and how they respond if you really want to get things dialed in. I would however recommend the spraying combined with the watering, I have found this to result in zero run off, literally zero for the an entire grow cycle.
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Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Thank you for that, all very good points. Will make sure to keep a log to help adjust as I go. Certainly no singular approach required which is the beauty about gardening. I know for sure the old man will think I'm nuts when he sees my set-up but he can't even remember the years and years he was growing hundreds of outdoor plants because he's been indoors not in soil for so long now, just need to find a happy balance with it like anything in our lives.
Reap911
Well-Known Member
I think that is what makes the Living Soil approach so great is that its an endless road of research. I mean I can understand why guys dont do the soil grows. To get right is a lot more work than relying on already made solutions.
I am not slamming synthetics here, each technique has its lefts and rights, just pointing out that you need to understand the soil food web and a bit soil and plant biology to begin to get good results which you dont need with synthetics.
Trust me when I say this, when those results come in, the journey begins. I went from monocropping one strain with 3part to now having a range of 20+ strains on rotation. Bro the plant expressions are mind blowing. I have had red/maroon coloured plants, dark purple buds and the smoke, smooth and tastey as fuck.
Its addictive hahaha and extremely challenging but so rewarding. The key success measure here is research. If you just do 15mins a day on the podcasts and 10minutes on the forums, you will see what that does to your grow.
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
I'm excited to begin the journey haha
Tilt_no_guilt
Active Member
I use 15gl or 20gl pots. Give 15s 1 1/2gl every other day and 20s 2gl every other day. Mid cycle I up 15s an extra 3/4gl and 20s 1gl on the non feed days to keep the top soil moist.For sure.
I do have a line rigged up supplying RO water that I'll use to water by hand until plants are in final container etc. Still interested in playing around with a wick system and the netafim rings though as nice to have a few options and to know first hand what works or not by doing a few trial runs. I've still got a couple weeks to tinker around with it all before fucking off on holidays for 3months
I guess nobody really monitors how much water they're feeding their living soil in 20gal pots, all good, I'll work it out, no stress.
Thai Fox
Well-Known Member
Cheers. What are you feeding?
