Wicking bed growers

Charlie, I do not know if gammarus get into the reservoir as it is not assessable once covered with the media. I am sure that worms get down there though. I am not sure if a trough could be converted for wicking. In theory it seems like it could work. There are a few things to consider though. The rock reservoir has the potential to puncture the liner. The rock will restrict water flow down the reservoir so the flow rate would have to be slowed considerably through that trough. The worst of all is the weed factor. Wicking beds like soil gardening allows weeds to get started and if not dealt with early can become a problem. After seeds germinate in my beds I have to spend some time weeding and thinning the carrots. Weeding a trough on the ground means a lot of bending over(which I hate doing!!!!). It is worth experimenting with on a small scale first.

I never heard of coconut coir until is visited your site. It looks to be perhaps a good media for growth beds for hydroponic gardening as well as a component of a good potting mix.

Does any of you folks know of a good source and how it might be priced?

I am involved in an offshoot of square foot gardening using 12" schedual 40 PVC pipe as a 10 ft long horizontal container capped on both ends and with 4.5 in planting holes every 12 inches. 

I have been using Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening Book" as my beginners guide. I am also moving toward Hydroponic and Aquaponic additions.

Coir is not a great media for aquaponics since it tends to break down and hold too much moisture as well as tinting the water and affecting pH.

Keep in mind that not all coir is created equal.  There are many different kinds, some is more like bark chips made from the harder parts of the coconut husks while other coir is more like peat (sometimes called coco peat) and other coir is more fiberous.

You can buy bags of coir and compressed block, bricks or bails of coir. 

I regularly use some coir mixed with worm castings and peat to make soil blocks for seed starting.  However I wouldn't use it as a media in flood and drain aquaponics though it would be a great addition for wicking beds.

Im currently running an experiment using coconut coir, perlite and canvas in a wicking bed recirculation setup. Id not recommend coir for several reasons like TC mentioned. Clarity being the biggest problem accessibility being the second.  Same with perlite. The canvas is looking promising but no results yet since this system was recently built.

I have to agree that coir is not the beast media for a standard media based aquaponics system but it works very well as a seeding medium for raft systems and use in wicking beds. For seeding media I added vermiculite so that it did not water-log and drowned the seeds. The vermiculite squashes after a while and looses its effectiveness. I have used coir for many years now but have not bought any for more than a year. I have recycling the same material so many times that I cannot count. It has grown crops in my raft systems, gone through the worm bins and grown multiple crops in the wicking beds. It will slowly break down though. I am constantly amassed by its resilience. I can get it cheep since I live in the tropics and it is a byproduct of the coconut oil industry. The only reason I stopped using it as a seeding media is because I live on a volcano and can get cinder much cheaper.

Community AP can you can you elaborate on what you mean by "clarity being the biggest problem" and would you please post some pictures so we all can see?? I think you may be referring to virgin coir that can have dust and other impurities. I had issues with virgin coir in the beginning but quickly realized that one or two rinses would wash away most of the extra stuff and leave clear water.

TC can you please post some pictures of your wicking beds??

Hey Chris,

What I meant was that it tends to make the color of the return water brown.  I did try a presoaked/washed so results are not in as of yet.  That container is not returning water to the pond.  It dead ends into a potato bucket.    I will take some pics when the storms pass and post them.

Interesting point on the color of the return water after passing through the coir.  Chris, in our rafts systems we were taught that the tea tinted water was what we were seeking after.  But that must just be from the coir, since in my cinder bed systems which have no coir, the water runs clear.  Since it doesn't seem to be affecting water chemistry, plant growth or fish health, I don't consider it a problem in the raft or wicking bed systems.

I began washing my coir because i had a poor germination rate from some blocks and not others. I read somewhere that virgin coir is high in tannins. I also suspect that there can sometimes be a high salt content. When I washed the coir I would get a better germination.

Tea colored water is often a sign of say dosing with seaweed extract or the tannins from things like coir or leaves.  I once tested wood chips as a media, coffee colored water but the plants still grew, I just couldn't stand not seeing the fish.

Question??

How high can I expect a wicking system to effectively give water to plants?

I am building a tower system that I want feed plants to a height of 48".  Will I have to provide supplemental moisture to the upper plants? I know the media I use will make a difference.  I have a product called, "ZEBA," a water-absorbent polymer that is biodegradable.  It will hold moisture in the media for the plants.

I know the argument that the water absorber also absorbs water that the plants need.  I use it in my grow towers to help with moisture storage.  I have used this material for 3 years now and have had great success. 

You can also buy Zeba with slow release 10-10-10 fertilizer to place in the root area of plants as they are planted.

His and Your Very Grateful servant, Paul.

Tannins inhibit iron uptake. You growth and mileage may vary.

great info here, I will apply what I learn... Also, has anyone experimented with Sphagnum Moss (Dry coarse, fern looking stuff)... I used it and have been successful with lettuce in PVC pipe system, plugged up ends and am feeding them straight rain catchment water only... I have not connected fish effluent water, YET... but man these buggers are growing good on algae tainted rain water...

@Max . I am using PVC 12" pipe with Mel Bartholomew's "Mels Mix" formulae which is 1/3 Compost, 1/3 Peat moss & 11/3 Vermiculite. This is my second year and has been very successful. See Arizona Aquaponics.

I believe the highest that compost sort of wicking bed soil layer can really be is about 12 inches so for a 48 inch tower you would need a water reservoir about every 12 inches or 4 of them along the tower.  To hydrate the polymer, you need to really saturate it and once it drys out, it will be tricky to re-hydrate so I'm not sure a "vertical wicking bed" really works very well.

TC, I have found out, through experimentation, the same conclusion. The best I can consistently achieve on a regular basis is about 12" of wicking. Mostly I have been playing with coir but I have tried some soil mixes too. I have a bed that is beeper than 12" but I have to keep the top watered regularly to keep it from drying until the plants roots grow into the moist zone. A 48" tower might be more effective buy simply top watering instead of trying to wick it.

Hello all,

It was pretty easy to fall in love with wicking beds. I intend to incorporate them into the aquaponic system I'm building in Laos at this very moment. I don't think I'll need to use water from my system, but it will be available if necessary. I don't know if the photos came with what I copy and pasted from my website/blog. If not, check out my somewhat convoluted post with a strange title. It also explains about my aquaponic system: http://www.wrongwayhome.com/2012/07/construction-begins-wicking-phi...

Wicking Beds

Lateral drift is my best friend. The world is, luckily, full of lots of clever people. I’m not going to bore you with the science behind wicking beds; if you want more information, try reading this. From the same source, “The wicking bed system is a way of growing plants in which water wicks up from an underground water reservoir. The major advantage is a significant increase in production while water use has been shown to be reduced by up to 50% of conventional practice.”

Step 1: Wrong Way Wicking Bed

Here is how I’m intending to make my wicking beds for potato production. I will discuss potatoes at length in a later article. First, dig the reservoir pit. This is about 20cm deep. The reservoir should not be deeper than the capacity for water to wick, which depends on the wicking media, but coir can do about 30cm. Next, line it with leftover greenhouse plastic. Then put down the perforated wicking pipes. These are just fairly large diameter PVC pipes with lots of holes drilled into the sides. They are about 20cm long, too. Then lay the irrigation pipe. This can be perforated or just slotted along the bottom. The inspection/refill bit allows you to check the level of the water in the reservoir. A normal wicking bed would just use boards or something for sides, but I’m going to use old tires because I hope to get them free and worms cannot escape easily (I dare them to try!).

Step 2: Wrong Way Wicking Bed

The pit then gets filled in. I’ll probably use river gravel because it is roundish and facilitates a large volume of water. The whole reservoir then gets a layer of shade cloth. This is to keep the grow media in the tires separated from the reservoir. It has to be pushed into the wicking pipes to allow the coir-based media to get down to the bottom of the reservoir. I think this is fairly clever, but I welcome any suggestions. Other wicking beds that I’ve seen just have a corner or two of the reservoir devoid of gravel so the wicking material can be fully immersed in the reservoir’s water.

Step 3: Wrong Way Wicking Bed

The tires can now be placed on the wicking bed with the wicking pipes at their centers. As the potato plants grow, more tires are placed on top and grow media added. Potatoes are cool; the right ones will just keep producing potatoes at higher and higher levels, to a certain degree. When the stack reaches about 3 layers and the plant decides that things are going tits up, just kick over the lot and separate the potatoes from the worms and grow media and start again. I could use water from the aquaponic system, but I probably won’t have to. With worms continuously feeding on the fish poo and producing castings, there will probably be enough nutrients in the media to support a crop to maturity. Carrots, radishes, and other such things can be grown this way, of course.

test wick bed   picture 1   comments welcome

wick bed picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

picture 7 finished ready to test  any ideas, comments or correction to what I have done are welcome

Looks good. what are you going to plant? There are two things that stand out to me. Your drain pipe may be a little too high above the reservoir which may keep the media too wet. I try to keep the drain at or slightly below the top of the reservoir. You don't want the media to be able to sit in water because it will get too wet throughout the media. The nylon wick is unnecessary. Grow something in it and see how it works!

Chris, I planted some carrot seeds this morning.  I did add some more lava rock after taking the picture so that the drain pipe and lava rock are about level with each other.  I hope this works then I plan on building 2 more beds that are 10' x 2' x 12" for potatos and corn.

Very cool.  One thing i may be missing tho:  are the beds actively connected to an AP system or are their reservoirs just filled with AP water manually and allowed to drain in to the FT?

Joshua,  Yes is is actively connected to my AP with the discharge pipe flowing back into my one of my fish tanks, I have 3-300 gal fish tanks.

Just saw the pic of the inlet pipe.  now i get it.  whats the growing media made of?

Joshua,  I am using a mixture of light compost and garden soil mix

Hello Bob,
Good to know that you are re-circulating the AP water. I have been using such re-circulating wicking beds in my AP systems and find that it really expands the horizon of what we can grow. Thank you Chris for setting up this thread and to all for keeping it active. Learning a lot of excellent information :-)
God bless

Hi all,

I want to make some comments on Bio-safety.

I have a 900 gal fish pond constructed in my back yard.  This is our first summer in this home, having purchased it August of 2011.  The previous owner had Koy in the pond, but left the pond with some small gold fish from a local PETCO.

Over the year we have add a few more gold fish to the pond, (The Grandkids love watching the fish.)

A few weeks ago I bought some cheap feeder fish from PETCO. These are small fry that are used for various purposes, mostly to start a goldfish bowl for kids and to feed other aquatic animals.

Well now I have cursed duckweed growing in my pond.  Curses, I was going to attach the pond water to wicking and other grow beds.

Now, I have to decide whether remove and destroy everything in the pond, plants, fish and water.  As far as I know, Duckweed has not spread to Western Washington and I am not about to be that change catalist!! Treating and disposing of fish, plants and 900 gallons of water is not going to be fun.  I will have to think on the best approach.

Anyway, when you are thinking of using materials from out side your environment, be supremely aware of all inputs.  I am just Grateful that this happened before I had spent the bucks for my complete system.  Don't fall into the trap that killing poor innocent anything is bad.  Sometimes we have to get a little brutal in order to protect the greater environment.

Paul, are you just saying that you now have duckweed growing?  Well are you feeding those goldfish?  You might be able to get rid of the duckweed by NOT feeding the fish for a time.  The fish may get hungry enough to eat all the duckweed (provided they can get at it) and then you might get rid of the problem without having to kill everything and sterilize the pond to start over from scratch.  Depending on how much duckweed and how many fish, it could take a few weeks.  When I can tilapia I could get rid of a heavy cover of duckweed in a 16' by 3' tank by simply having a dozen tilapia in the tank and not feeding them any pellets for a week.

What a concept ,testing starts ,like a Kid in a candy store ,2 work fine 3 look even better,later Carl

We converted our small indoor system to wicking....we'll see how it goes.

Does anyone have a good recipe for a soiless media for use in the beds.

In a wheelbarrow - one 5 kg, block of coir, expanded - 1/2 gal of charcoal - 1 gal worm bedding with castiings - 2 gal of a cheap potting mix or garden soil.

I know You wanted a soil-less mix, but I have found that the results are much better if You have some soil.

After filling my boxes with the mix, I sprinkle about 1 1/2 cups of slow release dolomite lime and sprinkle a thin covering of volcanic rock dust.

In the beds that i don't have hooked to my fish pond, I pour about 1 1/2 cups of 10/10/10 fertilizer into a women's knee-high stocking and stretch it over the middle of the box, then mound dirt over the top.

We are looking for suggestions on what to use for the barrier layer. I would like to avoid the usual paper or cardboard which will break down within months. We are leaning toward weed barrier. Any suggestions from the group? The bed is 3' x 13'.

Any weed barrier cloth will do.  Although, by using my grow boxes, I periodically can renew the soil, so I can change the weed barrier, although I have been using the same barrier for 5 or 6 years now.

Thanks Paul. Will do. Seems to be the consensus. (only 2 answers between here and another forum). I make a killer high rate compost and between that and worm castings I expect some pretty spectacular results.

Hi, I did that 2 months ago. Water transport is perfect.

There will be those who will want to kick me out of the aquaponic group for telling You this, but here goes.

Success, My fingers decided not hit the right keys.  Of course, it cant be me..

On the weed barrier, I used a nylon screen, like what is used in screen doors.,  Very small openings and workes well.

I covered my perforated 4" drain tube I used with weed cloth then covered that with all purpose sand for better wicking. I then out in a layer of about 4" of straw. I saw in a video where this would help keep an anaerobic situation from happening by separating the organic soil from the heavy moisture.I then covered that with another layer of weed cloth and then the soil. I seems to be wicking just fine but I'm not pleased with the growth. I used fish water in one and tap water in the other with identical results. My Kratky  bed next to them is growing like wildfire compared to all my gardens... including the aquaponics beds.

Thanks for the great replies. I will have to say that I am not interested in using chemical fertilizers because I am interested in the taste and the nutrition rather than how large the veggies can get. We have had better results over the years using my high rate compost (naturally reaches temps around 180F) than any chems. we have tried and I have been growing for the table and commercially for about 40 yrs. So yes Jeff and Paul are both banned from our AP forums from now on. Kidding 

But seriously guys 10-10-10??? Have you ever compared hot house (hydroponics) tomatoes to properly raised organic veggies raised by a knowledgeable organic farmer? Learn more on how to boost your growth with great compost (not the raw junk they sell in bags that stink rather than smell fresh like forest black soil) and trace minerals, Greensand, Montmorillonite clay, etc. I'll keep you informed on our latest AP venture into wicking. For your dirt gardens check out "Back To Eden" on YT. We are finally getting back to nature. I was doing that in the 70's. Stay off the artificial soil drugs that are destroying our planet. You won't regret it. Replace the 10-10-10 with high aeration compost tea and worm castings.

Jim you can't kick me out. This is my life LOL. Actually I never had any interest in gardening because I had no desire to bend over in the dirt but when I discovered aquaonics I thought "I can do this". Then YouTube took over and I'm doing everything. I haven't been doing this long enough for my compost beds to mature but I have 4 bins and 2 large trash cans cooking as we speak. I even have multiple worm bins going. Found out the best place to grow worms seems to be my aquaponics beds.Took me a while to get plants producing in the aquaponics due to lack of knowledge but it's going good now.