Home » Plants & Animals » Hydroponic Gardening » Back 2 Basics Part Deux!

Back 2 Basics Part Deux!

© a.k.a MBR

This week's installment in my continuing series of articles explaining the main different varieties of Hydroponics techniques developed throughout history and in use today around the Earth will focus on the so called "Wick" systems and their means of implementation.

The Hydroponics wick configurations bare similarities to the raft setups (see my previous article "Back 2 Basics") in that the plants are suspended in support materials such as nets or plastic barriers above a reservoir of the fertilizer nutrient solution mixture that supplies the plants with the required necessary essential ions that they need to grow.

The difference between the two methods is that the raft technique allows for the plants' roots to soak directly in the fertilizer solution, whereas the wick method usually envelops the plants' roots in conventional growing media like Perlite (or Pearlite) or Sphagnum Peat-Moss or gravel or sand or Coir or whatever in isolation above the nutrient mixture and uses a hydrophilic (water attracting) media such as organic or synthetic polymer or natural fiber rope or felt as a wick to draw the nutrient solution up to the plants' roots against gravity via capillary action.

Here is a minimalist diagrammatical depiction of how a wick system is put together:

The benefits of this system are increased oxygen levels in the root zone without the necessity of additional air pumps, and automation of nutrient delivery in the absence of electrical liquid pumps. These advantages, along with the relative simplicity in design make wick systems very efficient and popular among many hydroponicists.

As with the raft systems discussed earlier, the relatively high fertilizer volume to plant mass ratios involved can be both advantageous and unfavorable as the relatively large reservoir of liquid nutrient mixture can act as a buffer for environmental variables, but this can complicate monitoring and control. Methods such as automation using float valves or siphons to regulate solution levels and allow for volume reduction are often used to increase the ease of execution, and these methods will be discussed in an upcoming article.

wick

The copyright of the article Back 2 Basics Part Deux! in Hydroponic Gardening is owned by a.k.a MBR. Permission to republish Back 2 Basics Part Deux! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.