Cheap-ass wick cloner/seedling grower for 4 starter plugs

Materials

(2) 4 cup 32 oz ziploc disposable tupperware containers
(1) 2.5 cup ziploc diposable tupperware container
(2) oil lantern wicks
some perlite

The 2.5 cup ones fit inside the 4 cup ones, both are square and you can get a pack of 4 for a few bucks, the oil lantern wicks are like .89 for three, and most people have a bag of perlite laying around. Four 1” rw cubes for four clones or four seedlings can fit into the setup. Coco starter plugs could be used instead or you could just stick cuttings directly into the perlite if you want.

So it’s pretty basic we take the small tub and cut two slits into the bottom on opposite corners about 1 inch in length. Then we push through the wicks until the piece on top is long enough to go to the other side as you can see in the picture.





Here you can see how the small one fits into the big one. Mark a line on the big one about a ¼ inch below where the little one comes to. Also you can see the second big one and how a whole has been burned in the bottom with a lighter, use this one as a humidity dome for clones, but leave it off for seedlings.


As you can see in this picture the dome just sits on the top of the big unit. It works perfect and provides a nice difuse light for clones

Next a handful of perlite is put into the small container, how much you add depends on whether you use coco plugs, or rw cubes, or just the perlite. Also you can see that there is a bucket with perlite and water in it. The perlite should be poured into a bucket of ph (5.4~5.6) adjusted water to which you can add a little stuff such as a drop per quart at most of flower nutrients, a drop of bleach or some other product to prevent damping off or rot, and anything else you feel, or nothing at all. You want to mix it up good and scoop out only the perlite that floats, this prevents any junk and dust from getting in your mix.



So then I place my four rw starter cubes with four little seedlings just now getting popping their heads up. You want the perlite to form a little tub around the tub around the cubes. I also added a layer of hydroton I had to keep the perlite from growing harmless green algae.




Then we add the same suff you washed the perlite with to the bottom, resevior, container of our wick system up to the line you drew on the side. The wicks should be hanging down into the water. Here’s a side shot showing what I mean.



so that's that

The wick is were it's at....nice post SB

Awesome variation on the Wick cloner...

Thats a sick wick!

That's hot.

Say, would those wick nutes too?

JackKerouac said:

That's hot.

Say, would those wick nutes too?

Click to expand...

yes - i have vegged plants in these wick setups - I have done this with a beer cup and a cut off 1 liter bottle as a way to keep moms too - only problem is the roots grow into the wick and through the hole. but this takes a 3 weeks before that happens and they don't suffer too much when you transplant.

sugabear_II said:

yes - i have vegged plants in these wick setups - I have done this with a beer cup and a cut off 1 liter bottle as a way to keep moms too - only problem is the roots grow into the wick and through the hole. but this takes a 3 weeks before that happens and they don't suffer too much when you transplant.

Click to expand...

K+ to ya brutha. This is a great idea.

It seems that if you lay the wick flat on the bottom with the perlite over it, the roots would have to go through the RW and perlite before they attach to the wick?

very nice sugarbear. i have recently picked up a bunch of RW cubes to use to root clones, but then i didnt know how i wanted to go about it. this really helped.

thanks alot

late

I started a few seeds in a similar setup using 2 - 1.5L soda bottles, cotton rope, and perlite...Worked great until like sugabear said, the roots traveled down the wick into the little rez...Let me tell you, you dont wanna be trying to unravel and untangle roots from a little seedling off that rope...Not to mention the perlite clinging to everything complicating things...Took me like 2 1/2 hours to do this with 4 baby plants

sorry you had such a rough time da napster -

you shouldn't have to get all the perlite off but I know the roots can get into the wick if you leave plants in there too long.

-suga

nice

This thread guided me to success...thanks!

I built one of these and it didnt seem to keep the rockwool moist enough and lost a seedling.....just wondering if maybe i didnt follow the thread properly.....where you feed the wick through the bottom of the perlight container did you just cut a single slit or did you cut a hole big enough to for the wick to just slide in no forcing???...

Try using Tiki Torch wicks instead of the lamp wick... I used these the first time because I couldn't find lamp wicks, and they worked great...




I found the right lamp wicks later, and when I used them, they didn't get enough water up (I do live in a warm environment) so I went back to the Tiki wicks... perfect for me!