Simple Hydroponics, The Wick System

Contributed by: Tricky Gnome

The Wick System is probably the simplest hydroponic system.It is a passive system by virtue of there being no moving parts and where the nutrient solution remaining static in one place.The solution is taken out of a container and led to the plants? roots through the growing medium by capillary action, conducted through one or more wicks.Normally in this system a mixture of of various growing media are used in order to increase to the utmost their capillary capacity.This system contains conventional soil supplemented with fertilizers, with plain water in a container solely for irrigation.As this very compact hydroponic system is so versatile especially in small home gardens for growing in small spaces as it can be set up on a very small scale.This system?s biggest limitation occurs with large plants which need large amounts of water which the wicks are unable to supply in adequate amounts.In this case, the number of wicks has to be increased to supply demand for water!Of course adding pumps would be advantages but this is just an example of the simplest method you can add your own thoughts and idea's at any stage.