DTW vs. Recirculating in Coco, via top-fed drip

[Prestige]

Every hour in coco. Coco is hydro, not some shade-of-gray-in-between-area. Dry cycles can bring about difficulties in managing nutrient balances in the root zone. What information are you seeking? Have you had issues with watering cycles in coco?

No problems. I have been hand-watering in coco and am switching to drip and was just curious how often I could run the drippers.

 

[Prestige]

Yup coco coir is a hydroponic medium. Alot of people and even in print call it semi hydroponic but thats really not true. In my opinion its better than rockwool and way easier than aero, dwc, flood/drain,nft etc. A properly dialed dwc or aero will prolly give the fastest growth in veg but coco coir top feed is a close second and much more forgiving and consistent crop after crop. Especially when the proper container is used and the ec and ph is dialed in. With decent amounts of runoff coco just works period. You will know too when u got her dialed. Fantastic growth and huge potent properly grown buds is the result.

What containers would you suggest? I've been using airpots.

 

[Prestige]

~2.2 gallon, hand-watered daily (which was a pain in the ass), 213 OG, ended-up to be about 5'6" tall and yielded a but over a QP (excluding larf, trim and all that). *QP of finished, totally manicured, dried solid nugs. Not bad for an OG.

I'm sure I can get much better results with drippers ran more frequently, hence my inquiry.

 

[Prestige]

I'm looking for more advanced knowledge and information, I know the basics of coco and am not looking for beginner's advice (though I do appreciate everyone who has taken the time to try and help me out).

I'm looking for someone like you; who has advanced experience with the medium and who has ran feeds every hour via drippers in coco.

 

[Prestige]

In veg, I work them up to a feed a day (until they get root bound), then when they go into flower I will gradually increase feed frequency (2 feeds a day>3 a day> 5 a day.....> once every hour).

This is my current game plan. Any suggestions or changes that you guys would recommend?

 

[shoestring]

Airpots work great. I liked how they pruned the roots. But man i always had a.problem with fungus gnats with coco and air pots were like a hotel for.them little bastards. Take out the gnats and air pots would be the perfect container. But i never could. With coco in general gnats seem attracted so much more so than any other medium ive used. So i went back to fabric pots and grow bags. I use yellow sticky cards and go gnats occasionally and it keeps them in check. Oh and a container in the one and two gallon size for coco and you can pretty much grow any size plant. Ive seen bigger ops recently that had 6 and 7 foot trees in 3 gallon root pots. Only problem ive found is with the smaller pots you gotta keep them pretty much filled nice and heavy with nutes and water at all times because once they stack up with huge heavy buds they like to tip over!!! Not a bad problem to have if u ask me!!!!

 

[Prestige]

Yea, I definitely need to provide some support this run. It got kinda ridiculous last run lol.

 

[Gamrstwin36]

yo!!! looking good brother. email me!

 

[Prestige]

Thanks broski, will do!

 

[Prestige]

I have to show you these finished buds man. They're wild. I'll email them to you.

View attachment 417298 View attachment 417299

Have I've shown you these yet? While she was in bloom.

 

[Prestige]

View attachment 417301 View attachment 417302

The second picture is what she gave me as 'larf' lol.

 

[Coir]

I run coir slabs for my commercial vegetable production in a greenhouse. I drip irrigate based on time of year, age of plants, weather, etc. At this time of year, I irrigate for one minute every 15 minutes. More frequently on hot, dry days and a little less on rainy days. You really can't overwater as long as you have good drainage. You can waste water and nutrient though if you irrigate too often. It's a fine balance and takes some time and practice to get it down but coir has definitely been the easiest, most forgiving of all the ways I have grown over the years. In my tents, I use the 5gal equivalent super roots pots(looks like what you are using) and water on demand as necessary. I have found that once a day works but you need to make sure you are getting plenty of runoff and also checking the runoff for ec and adjust the strength of the feed accordingly. I run 6 plants in a 5x5 tent. 315W LEC with a 3 week veg then switch to a 600W hps and 8 week flower time. Yields average 4-5oz/plant depending on strain. As the Summer continues I might have to increase watering frequency as it's definitely getting hotter and drier this time of year.

 

[Prestige]

Hell yea, now that's what I'm talking about! Much obliged Coir!

 

[Unit541]

Prestige, I run smart pots, or whatever generic cloth pot the store's got when I need em.

I keep them small. 1 gal pots for the most part. You can get away with this watering frequently.

I do not "work up" to every hour, but I do increase the 'on' cycle. For example, a newly rooted clone gets potted (in 1 gal) and watered once. Once it's nearly dry, usually within two days, it goes on the rack for hourly feedings. The on cycle time and flow are regulated to get just a few drops of runoff. You can feed a bit lower concentration with 12 feedings a day.

Fungus gnats can be an issue in coco for certain, especially watering frequently and skipping the dry cycle. They can cut your yield in half, and whatever airy fluff buds you do get out of the grow, are saturated with tiny little carcasses. Worse than spider mites in my opinion, at least with SM most people trash the grow and start over. However they're easy to conquer if you address them before you get them. To keep them away from my coco, I do two things. First, when I plant in coco I break up Mosquito Dunks and mix them into the top of the coco. Second, once a week they get a feeding that includes 1 ml/gal of Microbe Lift. I do this from a second reservoir to make it easy.

Here we are, 1 gal smart pots and 100% coco, fed every hour. Just a few days shy of 8 weeks in.

 

[Coir]

While fungus gnats are quite irritating, they are easily controlled. I will admit that the pots with holes in the sides are definitely more inclined to cause problems when it comes to controlling them, it's still quite doable with no chemicals. Years of dealing with these annoying pests in commercial greenhouses has led to the program I now use. While peat based mediums seem to be worse than coir, the gnats still love the stuff and will quickly become out of control if you wait until you see them before taking action. Whenever I plant into new coir, whether slabs or pots, I immediately inoculate the containers with hypoaspis. These mites are very inexpensive and will last the entire growing cycle. They will pretty much eat anything that spends time in the root zone but like all predatory insects, the key is to apply them early and in enough quantity. With the plastic pots with holes in the sides, the gnats will lay eggs down lower than the mites zone of activity which can cause higher than normal amounts of them to survive. Using more yellow sticky traps near the base of these pots along with adding the Rove beetle, Atheta coriaria.
from the evergreen site: For Best Results: Rove beetle is most effective when applications are started before fungus gnat population becomes well established or while numbers are still low (less than one seen in a trap, per week). One application of Atheta per crop cycle is usually sufficient if started early in the season. Because rove beetle has a longer life cycle and takes longer to establish than the Stratiolaelaps predatory mite, so should be used along with Stratiolaelaps for best results.

As soon as I added these along with the hypoaspis(Stratiolaelaps), I have seen fungus gnat numbers decline to acceptable levels.

 

[Prestige]

You add some perlite for better drainage?

Prestige, I run smart pots, or whatever generic cloth pot the store's got when I need em.

I keep them small. 1 gal pots for the most part. You can get away with this watering frequently.

I do not "work up" to every hour, but I do increase the 'on' cycle. For example, a newly rooted clone gets potted (in 1 gal) and watered once. Once it's nearly dry, usually within two days, it goes on the rack for hourly feedings. The on cycle time and flow are regulated to get just a few drops of runoff. You can feed a bit lower concentration with 12 feedings a day.

Fungus gnats can be an issue in coco for certain, especially watering frequently and skipping the dry cycle. They can cut your yield in half, and whatever airy fluff buds you do get out of the grow, are saturated with tiny little carcasses. Worse than spider mites in my opinion, at least with SM most people trash the grow and start over. However they're easy to conquer if you address them before you get them. To keep them away from my coco, I do two things. First, when I plant in coco I break up Mosquito Dunks and mix them into the top of the coco. Second, once a week they get a feeding that includes 1 ml/gal of Microbe Lift. I do this from a second reservoir to make it easy.

Here we are, 1 gal smart pots and 100% coco, fed every hour. Just a few days shy of 8 weeks in.
View attachment 417320

Golden. This is the kind of info I have been look for, for like 2-3 months now.

What kind if yields are you getting off those 1 gallons? What kind of lights?

Much love

 

[Prestige]

One of the reasons I switched to Coco was because of all the pest that came with other mediums I was using. So far so good. I don't believe fungus gnats are native to my area, so if I don't introduce them, I shouldn't have any problems... I hope.

 

[Unit541]

The yield is entirely variable, depending on veg time and strain. It's quite a bit though. The Blue Hammer pictured above consistently gives me 10 - 12 oz / plant under a 1kw with 12 days veg.

I usually run 8 plants under 2kw and veg between 1 and 2 weeks, 3lb/harvest is pretty norm for the setup.

 

[Prestige]

The yield is entirely variable, depending on veg time and strain. It's quite a bit though. The Blue Hammer pictured above consistently gives me 10 - 12 oz / plant under a 1kw with 12 days veg.

I usually run 8 plants under 2kw and veg between 1 and 2 weeks, 3lb/harvest is pretty norm for the setup.

Nice!

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

Ok so I was about to start a thread just like this one so ill ask it here.

I too am using airpots two gallons and am on a flood table with drippers in black label's 70/30 coco peri mix my only question is cant I just flood my table and forget these nonsence drippers that plug up all the dam time I can put a filter on my drain for the flo but I am wondering if it will LIFT/Float my plants or what other type of problems may occur??? then if I can could I transfer this method to my ebb and flo buckets from cap