Wick bed

[Chris Smith]

After watching the new Murry video I am interested in making a wick bed. Has anybody tried one?

[TCLynx]

Yep, Wicking beds work.

Keep in mind they are not part of the Aquaponics system.

[Sahib Punjabi]

Actually TCLynx , I think they can be part of the AQ system. If the inflow is put on a timer, say daily or even twice a day, and the outflow (being two or three inches from bottom of grow bed...where the wicking is to start from), is channeled back via a sock to catch any "muck", you can have a recirculating system. 

 

I have not tried it yet...let's see if it will work :-)

[TCLynx]

Well, I'll caution about using a "soil" wicking bed tied into an Aquaponics system where the "soil" would get flooded since I  think it may cause some issues if one isn't very careful.

It may work Great Sahib but I don't want to give a newbie the idea and cause them to poison their fish with a big nitrite spike.

 

I expect Murray's way of just using some AP water to water the wicking bed weekly is probably the way to go.

[Sahib Punjabi]

Agree re soil.

I was going to try using a mix of Coir and Hydrton. I already do this to some extent with my tomatoes and they are working great. I want to try my hand at sweet potatoes so was thinking of starting a deeper growbed when the weather improves a bit ;-)

So sorry, I did not realize that this was in the newbie section.

TCLynx said:

Well, I'll caution about using a "soil" wicking bed tied into an Aquaponics system where the "soil" would get flooded since I  think it may cause some issues if one isn't very careful.

It may work Great Sahib but I don't want to give a newbie the idea and cause them to poison their fish with a big nitrite spike.

 

I expect Murray's way of just using some AP water to water the wicking bed weekly is probably the way to go.

[TCLynx]

isn't really the newbies section but basic and useful info.

 

By the way, wicking beds need not be all that complex.  They can be as simple as a liner in the ground under a raised bed garden.

 

[Chris Smith]

I was thinking about using black cinders on the bottom and my worm composted coconut coir for the medium and no soil st all. I could flood a bed and return the excess back to the system. There would probably be a compost/casting pea that would return with the overflow. I will try a bed hooked to my micro system first and see how it goes.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Did you guys see this?  Frank G., Murray's video guy and all-around- aquapon and good guy, posted this blog post today about Wicking Systems - http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2010/12/14/create-a-wicking-bed-garden-f...

[Daniel Driscoll]

I like it, its like a container garden that you dont have to water as often. Especially nice for dry environments.

Is there a way to monitor the water level?

[Paul Letby]

Very interesting.  Now I want to try this next spring too.

[Chris Smith]

Thanks Sylvia, This is an appealing prospect to me. I have been playing with ideas to grow root crops with AQ. I plan to incorporate some of my ideas with wick beds.

[Frank Gapinski]

Don't make your wicking beds too deep. I read somewhere that water can only climb or rise about 300mm or about 1 foot before it stops rising any further.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Hey Frank!  Good to see you, mate.  Thanks for popping in to chat with us.