Improvised experiment – Wick Irrigation
Wick irrigation is based on the phenomenon Capillary Rise of water. The concept we presented is as follows.
The method is useful in small home garden plants and vegetable plants grown at home.
Procedure: Before planting put small holes in the bottom area of the pot. say 5-10 small holes. And through the holes wicks are put downwards . The wicks will be dropped in to another pot below the actual plant pot. Through capillary action, water rises and reaches the top pot where the plant is grown. The capillary action will move the water upwards and the plant will get enough water it requires.
The advantage is that the current irrigation is wasting water, less than 10 % of water used for irrigation is used by the plants , remaining water is lost due to evaporation or some other means.
We studied the plant growth using different conditions, under normal irrigation models, drip irrigation and wick irrigation models. Based on our studies we came to an assumption that wick irrigation is the most efficient irrigation model even though it is a bit expensive.
