Hello community, I have recently become aware of a growing method some people on the internet are calling the Swamp method…
I came across a grower on Reddit (u/Poppin-Beans) who has been doing it for years and talks about his other grower friends doing it as well.
I have spent hours reading through comments/questions, he openly welcomes questions from people. Based on everything I read, and seeing that he and other people have been successfully doing it for years. I am really starting to consider trying it out.
The absolute main thing to make it work is to have complete environmental controls within the tent/lung room.
He top waters until the plant is about 4 weeks old, then moves to the swamp feed. I personally am going to call it “The Riverbed method”
From everything I’ve read, here is the set up:
A flood tray on the bottom of the grow tent.
The plants are in fabric pots.
you can use soil mix (pro-mix HP or coco & perlite (he mentions the set up works better with coco)
fill the flood tray with nutrient solution so the pots are about 1 inch in the water.
make sure to have a pump to constantly move the water (to aerate and keep nutrients mixed up)
can also add air stone (I will be doing this)
whenever the water/nutrients lever gets low, add more nutrients
he never lets the soil/media get dry, to avoid salts building up in the substrate.
This is basically DWC but with soil or coco… so there is more of a buffer.
Seems a lot like the bottom wicking fabric pot stand things. Definitely faster and more direct access to nuts/water, but I’d also worry about things going funky in the lower middle of the media.
Seems worth giving a shot at least for comparison’s sake.
Many thanks @religani for the reply. I also agree that it is very similar to the fabric pot bottom wicking set ups.
Apparently, the water and nutrients are absorbed by the soil/coco/media via capillary action. The plant only drink what it needs.
As long as the top portion stays relatively dry, the root zone has access to oxygen, but also adding h2o ensures oxygen to the root zone.
Apparently, if roots protrude from the bottom of the pot, those are not feeder roots and are okay to be suspended in water/solution, just as with Hydro/DWC.
I haven’t heard of this method, but around here there are a couple of growers who submerge entire pots in water. They wait a few minutes and take it out.
They do it with a lot of confidence, but it scares me.
Thanks @Elli for the input. I have heard of that bottom feeding method called “Butt Chugging” since the plant drinks form it’s bottom
It is a very effective way to quickly feed the plant, seems like a lot of work to be doing that manually every time though.
With the method I am considering, the pots would be essentially Always sitting in/have access to water, like at a riverbed, or swamp. The trick I think is to make sure the nutrient solution is constantly aerated, mixed and also the temperature needs to be under 20°C/68°F to avoid the solution becoming anaerobic, causing bacteria leading to root rot.
Oh man! I understand the idea and def would add an airstone, the thing is, top part of the medium would be saturated by capilarity all the time and i dont know how well this will work with big fabric pots. I have my doubts, but its always good to try new things.
Agreed, I would but 2-4 air stones and 2-4 water pumps to circulate the nutrients.
This is also my main concern, if the entire rootball is always saturated, I am screwed… plant will suffocate. I am not sure how this guy and others are successful at it. … oh wait, I remember him and someone else saying that as long as the water is well oxygenated (moving water, air-stones and H20), the plant will be able to breath just fine, even if the top is fully saturated. The issue would arise if the plants are sitting in a stagnant nutrient solution…
Man, I think I am at 95% definitely going to try this.. hehehe
Yeah i think its the main principle of hydroponics saturated with water but oxygenated all the time. The thing ia you have to have a verygood drainage in your subrstrate to achive this i guess. Otherwise the water in the substrate would not circukate and end up getting depleted of oxygen. Its worth a try, if you see any isues then you can change to ebb& flow i guess
Very good point, I think I should build this out with the ability to switch to ebb & flow (I think that is the same thing as pump and dump/flood and dump?)…
but I also had a thought… it would be so amazing if instead off flooding the stray, draining, repeat.. If I could have each plant on a motorized riser of some sort, connected to timers, to raise the pot out and lower it back into the solution.
or… I was also considering this set up using rockwool cubes and adding some sort of metal grill to sit about an inch above the water line in the flood tray, then I can secure air stones directly beneath the rockwool/roots.. so essentially a big open DWC set up… LOL. So I guess can also do this with the tent with soil or coco in fabric pots, I can add a wick underneat the pots that hang into the nutrient river bed
Sounds interesting, im a big fan of hydroponics and the less water (always the plant having what she needs) i can use the better, i just fill a cune of nutrient solution, get a irrigation ring, and pit a submergible pump on a timer, calculate the time for it to deliver a liter and then set the timer to what i want to give depending on the ring flow, works wonders in tomatoe, i will try it out with cannabis on my next grow
And would this riverbed method theoretically be safer to learn hydroponics with and still be able to be able to use eco friendly options
My brains thinking adding a fish tank with the stones or something of the like that acts as a reservoir of tasty goodness and creating a river flow like current across the water try.
Could one potential have the tank as a legit fish tank, wouldnt the fish actually make the water better for plant consumption?
Yes it would, i dont know if its enogh to feed a plant, would have to analys the water to see how much nutrients it has but i have seen lettuce grown like this.
If you had to add extra i dont know how you can prevent this from going to the fish tank
Thanks @EastMeetsWest, I have 3 grow tents, and one of them is being set up for DWC (first time). I am using the Hydrobuckets with the side reservoir access. In my tests to keep the water temps under 20°C/68°F (in the 17°C-20°C range)… so I just bought a used mini fridge which I will be installing the air pump and manifold inside to help manage the temps, I hope it works, I’ve seen others do it. Then next is keeping the ph in range… anyway, starting that run very soon.
That is awesome. You will have alot of fun with DWC and RDWC. Yes using the minifridge to keep the water temps low to avoid Pythium. Keep those air stones pumping . I put 2 stones per bucket. You will need the Air Pump with 12 port aluminum manifold.
Be sure to black out the buckets and also insulate them to ensure water temps stay cool. I use the silver foil bubble wrap type of sheet to wrap around the bucket. Keeps it dark and cold.
I wonder if you could put a small airstone inside the fabric pot, at the base in the middle buried in the medium, to effectively force aeration into the root ball, while also forcing circulation of the solution within the submerged portion of the pot.
Edit: Thought of a couple things you’d want to keep an eye on.
make sure you don’t get a ‘dome’ in your media, basically the air making a bubble and pushing media out of an area
probably need a cooling loop for air pump to make sure you’re not dumping heat directly into the roots
probably need a decent pump to make sure you don’t burn it out due to the increased resistance of bubbling through a water soaked media versus just water.
Dito! Once i get my lil Starfire in a safer state. Seedlings scare me, i need to start digging into this more got a lot of crazy ideas and potential threads to go get tangled into!
