Hi,
Your mix for wicking should be very light. Most of us use a 1-1-1 ratio of AV or peat, coarse perlite and coarse vermicultie.
I fill my reservoirs every week with water and fertilizer.
I do occasionally water from the top to flush out salts.
When the blossoms start to fade remove them so that light can get into the center of the plant.
Fred in NJ

Those are really nice plants. I don't want to ever be so snobby as to not appreciate a beautiful noid. Give them pet names and love them. I especially like the first one.

I have almost 200 plants on wick watering. Fred is right about the soliless mix. I even add a little extra perlite to the 1-1-1 mix. Repotting into this mix will show you just how dense and heavy most commercial soils are. I use a pickle fork to gently tease away the soil, and of course make sure it is damp.

The frequency of refilling depends on the plant. Some will use more water than others. Pay particular attention to the wick itself. I always seem to have one that didn't get back in the opening. If the plant is wilted, check the wick to make sure it got into the liquid. And if you turn the plant, turn the reservoir too, or else you can pull the wick out of the water.

I love wick watering for its ease and consistency, and it saves me a ton of time.

By the way, it looks like you still have these in some kind of a wrapping. I would remove that now since it probably has no drainage, especially if you aren't going to repot right away.

Good luck, and Happy Mother's Day!

Barbara

For my Mom, I put her AVs on reservoirs and discovered the wrapping was big enough that I was able to set the whole shebang back down in the foil!

If you use margerine or whipped topping containers for your reservoirs, you can cover them with contact paper or paint the outside only.

Like Barbara said, watch out for those pinched wicks. And, like Fred, I flush from the top on occasion to rid the pot of accumulated salts and fertilizer. Oh, and fertilize quarter to half strength when you wick water.

You do fine with these gorgeous AVs.

Have fun and happy growing,
Linda

Thank you kindly Fred, Barbara and Linda for your help. I'm just about ready to get started. Waiting on some pots I ordered to come in so I can repot all of my AVs and wick them.

Barbara I did as you suggested and removed the wrapping. Upon closer inspection, I see a couple of them have what I "think" are suckers. So i'll try to remove and pot them up also.

Thanks Again,
Belinda

Belinda:

If you ordered Oyaman Planters (that's what I use) add more perlite to your soilless mix. I have found two parts perlite to one part Metro Mix works great. When I used perlite, peat and vermiculite, 2-1-1 seemed to work best.

Of course, if you're not going to use Oyama Planters, just ignore me. ;-)

Linda

Actually, I think Linda's advice is good, go with a 2-1-1 just to make sure.

Barbara