I know some people were thinking about trying wicking.
This is in our Sticky and good information about wicking and other great growing help with pictures too !
Setting Up for Wick Watering
http://www.rachelsreflections.com/wicking.htm
Are you thinking about wicking ?
I have decided I like wicking. The air is very dry where I live and I have been trying to collect either oyama pots or dandy pots. The wicking helps me not to overwater, and helps when I am out of town. Also the water in the bottom of the dandy pots evaporates and helps make the air a little more humid. FWIW.
What is the best wicking material. The yarn I have appears to have a polyester feel to it and doesn't seem to wick well.
Jan...
I like Masonery String ( SP) best and Yarn second. Both work great for me'
Pam I bought one of the mini well with pot on Selcetive Gardner's when buying Annnabelle plant to try and I love it ! I may get more for minis.
I bought some thumb pots about 6 weeks ago and planted my little plantlets of Falling Snow in them. Everything was going fine until this morning. I noticed that the tops of the pots were dry. I pulled out the "nail" that holds the wick in place and sure enough dry as a bone. I quickly watered everything and replaced the "nail" with wicking draped in the bottom of the pot.
I noticed that the root systems were well established. Very little soil in these tiny pots. Anyone have an idea why the wicking stopped.
Other than this single problem I love wicking and so do my plants.
I may try wicking a plant or two of mine also and see how they do.
What do you guys put them in? Do you use a grid with a communal well?
I'm thinking about getting a grid. Right now I use glad containers, or yogurt,containers. I have started using pill bottles. They are the perfect size for solo cups. I have 4 optimara mini wicking wells and they are very nice but cost 3 or 4 dollars each.
That's odd Nanna. Now most cases you will find top dry but plants wet. Maybe you had it set up wrong ?
Now I have one of the new well it's different than doing it myself. I shall check my plant !
wow thanks for this link! i was wondering what wicking was. as you can tell i am a newbie! i put the link in my favorites. when my leaves i put down yesterday make babies i can pot them up using the wicking technique. thanks again!!!!!
Kelly
I've noticed that if wicks dry out completely in the pot, they need a little watering from the top to get them going again, even if they're dangling into a full reservoir. Maybe that's what happened with Nanna's pots?
The same thing is true of self watering pots... If they dry out completely, they need a little top watering to moisten the soil mix & start the wicking action again.
Most of my wicked pots are sitting in/over individual reservoir containers of various sorts. I'm thinking a grid in the bottom of a couple of trays would be a good idea... maybe with wicks danging down from each pot, and maybe just with a capillary mat over the grid for the pots to sit on. I haven't done it yet, but I've been noodling it over, LOL!
Well my wicks dry out all the time and they still work real great. Have you seen the waterwell by Optimaria ? Their made different. Are these the ones you mean Nanna ? The wick it real thin and there it this plastic thing going up the side like a tooth pick where the wick goes up. Nothing is coiled on the bottom. I like the pots but may have to do my own wicking. I like a longer thicker wick than they us . I also like to coil it in the bottom of the pot bring it all the way to the top. It works great has for years for me !
No if I get a fish tanke like Kenton they'd be dangling in the fish tank !
you know Allison - I loved that idea too, but I was wondering..you wouldn't be able to feed them via wick without taking them off the fish tank
I don't know what Kenton does but he sure can grow them. He has plants I sent him mid Decmeber that have double and tripled in size and blooming ! Maybe Fish poop is good :)) And maybe you could give them a little bit of food from top ! He has the plants I sent him dangling in the fish tank with light over and his plants look like nothing I've ever seen before. He posted the pictures while back . I don't know what else he feeds them ! He does have GREEN arms :))
I have been thinking of trying capillary mats...Bluebird has them...I think I will buy a couple and see how it goes :)
I think you might be right Jill. I allowed the wells to dry up and then filled them. I think the capillary action was somehow stopped. I watered from the top and made sure the wicks were wet. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
I put baby Deer Path, AA Trail, Falling Snow, and a pink noid trailer in the tiny pots. This will be a fun experiment.
Jill I have a good starter plant of Deer Path for you.
I have a capillary mat with self watering tray but I didn't care for it. I didn't get consistent watering.
That is good to know
The link showing WIcking and xplaining it and how you need to water and fetilize. And tpe of soil-less mixture to use and so on I enjoyed learning and reading it many times, and if your thinking of trying Wicking someday I think you may enjoy it.
There's so many ways of wicking and watering . I know I've tried several and had to learn to use what was easiest and worked best for me. This is what you will also have to do. What works for one may not work for someone else. Just have fun and experiment ! There's as many ways of gardening and growing as there are African violets !
Just grab on too these great learning links ! I got it out of our Sticky. It's all there to help us and we can experiment and share how it goes ! Have Fun :))
Today I learn a tip from the peep of Creek Cedar Nurseries. If you want to try something that gives the same result as wicking, try this:
plant tray without holes at the bottom
piece of towel or carpet underlay
place the towel in the tray and wet it. Place the AV pots on top. Keep the cloth/towel humid at all times.
I will try it.
I never used capillary mat I wonder if it's like this ?
I was taught to fold newspaper and put wet in botom of my plastic boxes with wicked solo cups with leaves and cover and forget about for 4 weeks or so. But for me it turned to mush and the newpaper smelled and got green .
Let me know Spider how it works !
whoops, double posted
This message was edited Mar 10, 2006 12:23 AM
Oh, Nanna... yippeee! You know I've had my eye on 'Deer Path Trail' since it went home with you, LOL! You mentioned once that it was growing slowly, so I wasn't thinking you'd have one for me for a long time yet.... I'm very excited! That plant just has the most amazing flowers, like a cloud of little dancing orchids.
I think it's on Rob's site where I've seen mention of using terrycloth towels for capillary mats... and they do turn green, but they just ignore the algae.
Bunp
Thinking about wicking or wicking and have some questions !
Everyone keeps mentioning pill or medicine bottles. Are you talking about those squatting looking cups that hold an ounce or two? Or, the tall brown cylinder shape?
Thanks, Linda
Ok I'm lost here ?
I have thumb print style pots I buy be the hundreds their like 3 cents each this way. I like the for suckers and micro plants. I also have some wonderful 2 oz. dixie cups I have been suing for leaves , larger suckers or crowns. I like to use a larger cup if my leaf is large.
I'm finding I don't really care that much for the wicking. it is easier for me to set them in water until they feel heavy or you see the top of the soil getting damp. Then move them to a draining tray where the excess can drain off. Since I used to over water, I only water now when they feel really light when you pick them up.
Isn't it wonderful that there are so many ways to take care of violets and have them look beautiful.
Sure is Nanna :)) These as many ways to garden as there are gardeners. We can experiment and help each other from our good and bad experiences . Then we take it from there and try what we want until we find the best way for yourself !
I was using yarn for my wicks. But then Allison sent me some plants that still had the wicks in them, in the pots. It was a yellow string and I really liked it much better. So I asked and she told me Mason's string. So I went to HD to buy some and what I found was this. They had both Mason's line or Mason's twine, but looked just alike to me. So I read what was written on the big box that they come in. The Mason's line was mostly nylon but had a couple of other things in it. The Mason's twine was 100% nylon and on the box it said it something about it not getting mold, algae, etc. So I decided to get the twine and not the line. We do not need anymore algae, mold, or anything else like that. So I got the bright yellow because I thought it was pretty. I almost got pink but maybe I will get that next time.
I do have a question about it though. I have read that the twisted mason's twine is different from the braided kind. And some people have even said that the braided works much better than the twisted. Has anyone heard anything about this?
Jesse
Jesse they both will work excellent ! But the kind you got sounds like a great choise. I have to look at my package as mine never gets Algea. I had yellow but last time Hubby bought me bright Pink !
It was the first wicking material I was given and taught to use a couple years ago when I fist started growing . I learned from my loacla group and was given some.
I have also used yarn. But enjoy the way the mason string works better easy to work with also .
When I received your package, I saw that some of the pots had the yellow mason's twine. And I definitely liked the look of it better than the yarn. I could not decide between the yellow or the pink. But I got the yellow this time. Next time I will get the pink. Thanks for telling me about it.
Jesse
I'm trying yarn for the first time as I've never wicked before. So far so good. I kind a like it...does anyone use it on their Streps??
I like the Mason's better than yarn. Hubby kept bringing me yellow from work finaly got him to buy me a roll. lol This last time I got pink !
Anita I don't have my Streps wicked. I guess you could but would have to be careful as they like it on the dry side. I water mine when their stone dry.
I do have some of my epsicas wicked.
Thanks Allison
I am trying wicking but my plants seem so dry..is that normal?
Dry ? Do you wrap the wick around a circle in the bottom of the pots and then bring the wick up to the top ?
I have mine wicked but don't let them sit in well I just water them when their wet let them drink 15-20 mintues the rest is dumped. It works real well for me. If I did it the other way my plants were too wet in the center.
I have been leaving water in the 'well' and so far have not had any problems
If it works keep doing it. If not try a different Method !
makes sense to me! :)
I bought the yellow Mason's twine and then could not find it. I searched my house and my car. So I went back to get some more and decided to get the neon pink this time. I figured it would make my babies look classy. I was trying to figure out how to wick those that are in the basic 4 inch pots without repotting them. But then I decided the soil that they came in is not very good soil. So I'm going to have to repot them anyway.
I am still confused on size of pot. Most of my standards are giant puff balls of flowers. They hang over the sides of the pots and are in 4 inch pots that they usually come in. Should I repot them in the same pots or should I use something smaller. Most of them are about 6 inches across. What size pot should I repot them in? Here is a picture of one that size. You have seen her before but she has bloomed much more now. What size pot would you put her in when repotting her. She is Rhapsodie Stephanie.
Jesse
