I always thought it was the vermeculite that did the wicking. It might be so, but I didn't know that perlite really wicked anything much at all. Well, I have always used less and less vermeculite in each hempy setup I've done. THis time I went all perlite, and used rockwool/RapidRooters to start my seeds/clones in. I figured the RW/RR would keep the roots with enough water till the hit the res.(using small containers, SOG). Anyway, I had one die, and had it's container still under the veg lights and all. I went to to relocate some of the perlite that was in it to another, and noticed an inch or two down it was kinda damp still. It had been 5 days since watering. Cannagirl is riiiiiight. ;-) By the way, Fox Farms Big and Chunky perlite is the bomb. I have some normal perlite, medium size, and the FFBig and Chunky, there is a noticeable difference in size, big time. I think it allows for more oxygen to the roots. It is growing the plants fine so far. They sell it at www.planetnatural.com if you want to see a pic or something. Cannagirl is riiiiiight. ;-)
I noticed this effect as well with my hempy buckets. I basically sloshed water down the side of the bucket and got very little directly over the roots and it did very well.
It's best to water just around the Rockwool/RapidRooters until the roots hit the res, then start watering down the side of the bucket so it all goes into the res. This makes the nutes/water immediately available to the small roots. Once the roots hit the res, it is okay if the perlite above the res is dry.
