Apologies in bumping this older thread, I was searching for something to do with buckets and came across this, and wanted to share in case others in the future find the thread: the 5-1-1 mix is great for top-down watering, but it did not work in my SWC bucket setup last year. Theory: not enough peat, too many bark fines, unable to actually wick. It was really disappointing after all that work making buckets and sourcing the the bark fines! i.e. read up carefully on a good mix that will actually wick
I'm going to try again this year with something closer to a 1-1-1 mix.