Coco With No Runoff Or A Drainage Solution With Low Ceilings

SKB · May 22, 2015

I am running BCuZZ coco and am looking to deal with salt build up in my medium. I have run several rounds with no runoff watering and have had decent results but can't feed as aggressively as I would like and know that they enjoy the 15 -20 % runoff.

Is there a no runoff solution? Drip Clean? Does this really work?

The next option would be flushing onto the floor and sweeping to the drain once a week or at some interval. Any opinions on that? How often would you flush and at what ratio? I could probably make something to flush individual plants without making such a mess also. I feel flushing is hard on them so it leads me to the best option but most difficult. I also may not be at this location much longer.

It's possible to build a drain system but would need to be very low to the ground. I was considering water heater pans to pvc to some sort of a pump. I am worried that they would need to be lifted off the ground to get the water flowing to the pump. Any info on how to do it with the pans directly on the ground would be great. I worry about air in the pvc without enough pressure from gravity to fill the pvc. Or that hand watering will not fill the pvc either. Is there a pump that will create suction in that circumstance?

I could spare a little height to create gravity to move the runoff but ideally a no build, washable (plastic),cheap, riser could be found.

Thanks, hoping to hear some promising news. I could go on for days with more questions but know if your attention span is like mine I should stop here :)

juicey · May 22, 2015

Cinder blocks on their side with a table....route the runoff to the drain. Drip clean does work well too.

Joe Fresh · May 22, 2015

stop feeding so high, a plant does not need to be fed agressively to produce its potential..when i was in coco i used canna coco with maxibloom, and never fed over 700ppm...usually around 650...and there was rarely any runoff...

thtat being said, if you absolutely want runoff and to feed agressively, its your choice.....i have my plants on the ground in saucers....i use my shopvac to remove the water from the saucers when im done

Seed Buyer · May 25, 2015

Are you on a crawl space? If so you could cut a hole in the sub floor and drain out of the house that way. Lay the trays right on the floor and let gravity drain it away.

SKB · May 31, 2015

No crawl space. Thinking of a way to create slope to a sump pump hole. Lay concrete over the tile or some sort of laminate with something underneath to create pitch to the sump? Must have drainage!!!

rubthe nub · May 31, 2015

seen people use that plastic corrugated roofing material
it comes in sheets 2' or 3' x ?
all you'd need is a couple 2" x's and your done

CelticEBE · May 31, 2015

I'm in this situation right now, and I feed for three days then give them water, then feed for two days then water. On the water days I do include NOTG's Herculean Harvest, and some bene's. Otherwise you can do as Joe Fresh says and just lower your EC. IMHO less is more. I like my plants hungry...but not underfed.

atwofour · Jun 7, 2015

SKB said:
No crawl space. Thinking of a way to create slope to a sump pump hole. Lay concrete over the tile or some sort of laminate with something underneath to create pitch to the sump? Must have drainage!!!

WOAH!....Lay concrete(or even sand as a sub floor) to create a sloped floor in a temporary space? No way.....if it were me :)
Joe Fresh has a point to be sure...but sometimes the best route is to just runoff consistently. Many variables.

What's the square footage of the room floor?...How many plant sites?

G gnome · Jun 7, 2015

I put min right on the floor. I pitched my floor w a floor grinder and dome self leveling feather.
In the past I've built tables as low as 4"from the floor. I've used corrugated metal roofing and pitched the table to one end and put a gutter with a garden hose grommet to the floor drain.
Ive also used vinyl flooring and a shower drain w a catch pan under the table

G gnome · Jun 7, 2015

Get a floor squeegee to push the runoff towards the drain

Mr.X · Jun 7, 2015

If yer floors concrete i guess you can do that. You can also elevate your table set a reservoir underneath and presto. I use coco, keep my ladies on the floor with 16" saucers underneath. Feed 2× regular strength 1 off then low ec and next day bennies enzymes and off. I flush every 4 weeks. When i flush i run a shopvac till it fills twice wich is 6gl . I use 3gl smartpots. Never had a problem if i see anything i just flush. Good luck.

SKB · Jun 13, 2015

rubthe nub said:
seen people use that plastic corrugated roofing material
it comes in sheets 2' or 3' x ?
all you'd need is a couple 2" x's and your done

Been there done that :)

SKB · Jun 13, 2015

G gnome said:
I put min right on the floor. I pitched my floor w a floor grinder and dome self leveling feather.
In the past I've built tables as low as 4"from the floor. I've used corrugated metal roofing and pitched the table to one end and put a gutter with a garden hose grommet to the floor drain.
Ive also used vinyl flooring and a shower drain w a catch pan under the table

Floor grinder ehh. I like the sounds of that. I'll have to look into that. Anyone see any downside to flushing every 10 days or so?

Mr.X · Jun 14, 2015

SKB said:
Floor grinder ehh. I like the sounds of that. I'll have to look into that. Anyone see any downside to flushing every 10 days or so?

Make sure yer ph is good, 5.8-6. And dont use any flushing agents , they may alter the ph of the actual coco itself. A mild solution, low ec or just calmag should be good. As long as you alternate between heavy feedings and low with the ocasional calmag or just mag in the form of epsom salts if your past the 4th week of flowering there shouldnt be any need to flush other than when your changing feeding schedules. Ie, from veg to bloom and the later stages of bloom when you up the PK. Thats worked awesome for me for quite some time. I only flush 3× during a run.

lollipopman · Jun 14, 2015

Pan with clean roots platform

Pimples · Jun 16, 2016

Iam in a same situation. Iam in a 6.5 foot basement. Every inch i can get is prime valuable real estate. I gave up on tables...the drain fittings take up inches....only so low.you can go. Corrugated panels works but you still lose something. Catch saucers and manual shop vac runoff is my only recourse and lately (this crop now) i havent been feeding high (750 ppm max - 500 scale) and no shop vac runoff (lazy) and iam 3 weeks in....they look absolutely perfect. Long as i keep the 3 gallon root pots (cloth) constantly moist (2 0ne minute feeds 6 hours apart) salt build up is minimal. But i will in about another 5 days do a big runoff shop vac suck up. If i dont the salts will accumulate eventually. I plan on doing about 3 big runoff waste water shop vacs throughout this run instead of runoff every feed which is prolly ideal but iam sick of that shit already. And i will use a water wand instead of the drip manifold itself to do the mid cycle flushes. Water wand gets a better spread.

SeeAirAhh · Feb 28, 2021

Joe Fresh said:
stop feeding so high, a plant does not need to be fed agressively to produce its potential..when i was in coco i used canna coco with maxibloom, and never fed over 700ppm...usually around 650...and there was rarely any runoff...

thtat being said, if you absolutely want runoff and to feed agressively, its your choice.....i have my plants on the ground in saucers....i use my shopvac to remove the water from the saucers when im done

whats your ppm in early veg? im using tap water and allowing it to sit out a few days, ppm starts at 280 and then i add my nutes and it gets to about 450-500. id love to hear back from you, im new to growing and im also growing in a coco/perlite mix. i also havent watered to the point of run off and was worried about build up in my medium.

Grownsince95 · Feb 28, 2021

I do an auto water drip with 20% runoff. I pitch my tent floors quarter inch per foot back-to-front and then use a Turkey baster basically every day or every other day. Not glamorous but effective. One day I'll do a sump pump system but I'm too lazy to build it rn.

Pileit · Feb 28, 2021

We have 2 of our original flower rooms that we dont drain to waste in. We are in coir/perlite 10 to 12 gallon smartpots and self pruniung pots and give them less nutes and seems to work out good. Most of the time the quality and yield is the same as run to waste rooms. Tried the vacuumimg saucer deal, couple hundred plants twice a day takes hours. We have been looking at sloping floor or trying those plant saucers that have drains.

Coco With No Runoff Or A Drainage Solution With Low Ceilings

Coco With No Runoff Or A Drainage Solution With Low Ceilings

SKB

juicey

Joe Fresh

Seed Buyer

SKB

rubthe nub

CelticEBE

atwofour

G gnome

G gnome

Mr.X

SKB

SKB

Mr.X

lollipopman

Pimples

SeeAirAhh

Grownsince95

🤘😆👍

Pileit

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