Wicking beds - raised garden beds

[Rattrap]

Hey guys,

I'm always on the hunt for new/interesting ideas to improve both the quality & the ease of growing our favorite herb outdoors.

I came across the concept of wicking beds just recently & it REALLY caught my attention, so much so that i've already started planning out where & how i will build these beds for next season.

Heres a couple of very handy links on the subject that might interest other outdoor growers.

 

 

http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/main/wicking-beds/wicking-beds.htm

 

I would really like to hear some input from others on this subject as well as some potential improvements or problems anyone can think of.

1 idea that i thought might improve the beds would be to have the water circulating constantly. - as in the beds are filled constantly & the overflow feeds back into a main resi where it is once again pumped back into the beds.  By this method extra nutrients - organic, could be added to the water as needed.   The down side of this of course is that power would be needed, this wouldn't be a problem for me as the site i have picked out is within reach of a power cord - a loooong custom made power cord .  But since the pumps would only need to be fairly low output little power would be needed so there should be little concern of power losses over long lengths.  A 12v pump, car battery & a small solar panel would also d the job cutting out the need for a power cord too.

 

Please feel free to chip in any thoughts/idea, all welcome!

[forgetiwashere]

wicking beds are getting huge on the aquaponics scene. the fish add extra nutrients to the water that is being wicked up

[Rattrap]

Yer thats where i first came across them tho this system uses red scoria or red lava rock in the water

[fred_hawk]

never seen one before but looks good

[iTiC]

Could you get rid of the soil all together turn the raised bed into a partailly buired one, keep the fish and just circilate and airate the water like a DWC

[forgetiwashere]

im not 100% sure what you mean itic? but yeah you could have your tank directly under like a DWC but you wouldnt want your roots dangling in with the fish. they will chew them off. you would still have to have the beds raised but you could use hydro medium instead of dirt, and have a wicking material likemnylon rope or something hanging down into the res.

 

i like the idea of wicking beds in aquaponics because if it does turn out they are lacking something, which it seems they may be lacking a little K for the first 6 mths or so unitl the system matures you can just add it to the bed without effecting the fish.

[Rattrap]

I'm not looking at setting these up as aquaponic beds at this stage, thats another project in the pipeline.

What i like about these beds is the plants get as much water as they need, the soil should never be too wet or too dry. 

With no top watering means less chance for moulds etc.

With plenty of mulch there should be minimal water evap from the soil.

 

I've seen a couple of designs of these beds where they have installed 'worm tubes' burried into the bed.  They are like a worm farm but in a tube with holes in it so the worms can roam freely thru the bed pooping out all their goodness & they are fed scraps just by dropping the food scraps into the worm tube.  quite a good idea i thought.

[forgetiwashere]

have you ever seen a sip bucket for MJ. its the exact same concept.

 

looking down into the pot looks like this

 

 

the bottom of the inner pot looks like this

 

 

so essentially its a bucket in a bucketbut the inner bucket has a netcup in the bottom of it full fo soil or coco so it can wick up the water that sits inside the outer bucket in the space between the 2 buckets.

 

there is a pipe that runs down to the bottom so you can fill the small res. the res (outer bucket also has a small hole drilled just under where the inner bucket sits for an oveflow so you cant ell when its full when watering.

 

i have seen some amazing grows in these

[Rattrap]

Thats very similar to the bio -buckets i used to run indoors.  I used the red scoria rocks in the netpots.

[forgetiwashere]

its also very similar to a regular old hempy bucket too