Wicking bed dissertation

21/7/2021

I've now finished writing my dissertation on the results of my wicking bed research for a BSc(Hons) with Charles Sturt University. I looked at how well various reservoir media wicked water and the effects they had on soil moisture and plant growth.

I will write a summary of these results, but in the meantime if you're interested in the full version, you can download my dissertation here.

wicking_bed_dissertation__chris_curtis.pdf
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3 Comments

Gina

28/7/2021 06:54:25 am

Thanks so much for posting this and congratulations on completing your dissertation!
Such helpful info to have publicly available. Looking forward to seeing the summary when you have the time and energy to write it.

Francois Brits

2/11/2022 02:29:38 pm

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your interesting work on wicking beds. I am interested in using this for a vegie garden. Some people on the internet said that if you use something like the cocopeat mix (as in your experiment) it will turn anaerobic after a while. What is your experience?

Kind regards

Chris Curtis

2/11/2022 06:24:30 pm

Francois,
People have said the same to me, and there probably is some anaerobic decomposition happening where the medium is saturated. So, it could be happening with the beds that have cocopeat in the reservoir layer, but I haven't noticed any problems with the cocopeat mix in the experimental beds. However, I haven't dug those beds up yet to see. They currently have tomatoes growing happily in them.

I have dug up some of the beds that had sand in the reservoir layer, and there was no problem with the cocopeat at the bottom of the growing layer.

Years ago I did have a problem with wicking beds that were completely filled with a mix of compost and potting mix - the lower layer of this mix did decompose to a black sludge after a year or so.

If you have access to some real soil, I have found that a 50:50 mix of soil and compost in the whole bed works really well. The compost that is in the reservoir eventually rots, but the remaining soil is beautifully structured and wicks well. I've had beds like this going for many years with only an occasional top-dressing with more compost.

Good luck with your beds.
Chris

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Science of wicking beds