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Old January 22, 2017   #24
BettyC-5
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Idaho
Posts: 81
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You need to get 2-3 rope ends hanging in the water, no need to thread them around the bottom. I would cut the rope in lengths that will reach from the bottom of water tray to at least 3/4 of the way up to the top of where the soil line will be. Thread them through the slits and fill with soil keeping the rope spaced evenly up through the soil in the drum. I can not tell how big your rope is, but you may be able to separate the white and green strands and make it go further. If you are worried about the soil falling into the water lay some newspaper, paper towels, tissue paper or something thin over the openings and fill with soil. The soil will settle on the paper and stay put. I do that all the time because I don't want soil all over everything. I wick small plants but have not tried anything this large. Just put one together and experiment.

And you could put fertilizer in the tray if you wanted to, but you would have more control over the amount if you did it from the top.

Another thing. when wicking, most advice is to add plenty of perlite to your mix so the soil gets enough air. You were mixing 1 part perlite to 2 parts soil if I remember right, so that would work.
But then I realized the drums have lots of holes for air so you may not need that much.
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