Drain to waste or res.

[getbetter420]

First off I am new to coco so thats why im asking,I am running a top-down drip system, using Canna A+B nutes,80/20canna coco to Perlite medium, in 4ish gallon smart-pots. My question is am I able to drain back to my resevoir or should I drain to waste? I have hear alot of people say they prefer to drain to waste with coco. I understand that PH needs to be at a good level once returned to the res., however with the combination I am using(media and air pots) the run off is very high and I am tryin to save on not wasting nutes. Is there any other difficulties or problems I might have with draining back to my res. besides Ph(which can be taken care of)? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hiboy]

Always better not to recycle ur used water, though i do because i cant be there everyday to water.
h

 

[outwest]

I drain to waste in coco, but rather for simplicities sake via hand feeding. Don't have experience otherwise.

outwest

 

[getbetter420]

hiboy, I agree with you that fresh is always best to keep thing under control but, like you i am not able to be there everyday and watering by hand would take awhile. I realize that the nutes flushing through the coco are going to drain with a different ph that what they left the reservoir with, but the ph can be fixed with up or down as long as its kept under control. Is there any other factors I should be concerned with. Im planning on changing out the reservoir bout once a week with fresh water/nutes. thanks again for the reply

 

[hiboy]

I run my rig in RW, coco is a little diff but same theory. Top feed on a timer and as soon as u see run off is when i would have it shut off. Then you wont have much returning to the res. I add water mid week and also change it once a week. I have a 70 gallon res for each of my 4x8 tables, 3 total. I have a grow log on them if u wana peek. I would also flush maybe every 3 weeks, i actually forgot to but will next Friday. Drain the water, refill and just ph it no nutes and let it run for 15 minutes or so. Guarantee your ppm will triple after ur done. Then refill res and renute up.
hope this helps
h

 

[getbetter420]

Thanks again for the info, the grow log would be great so i dont have to keep buggin you with questions, haha. One thing, just to be sure, your talking about the PPM tripling in the 15min flush run off right? because of the salt etc. build up in the medium.

 

[1971]

hiboy, at what ph are you running your DTW system?

thank you!

 

[mrduke]

i run a combo of both....i got the drip set to feed each pot plenty with just a bout a cup of run off, with drip rings i can assure that the whole pot is getting drenched. then the remaining cup of run off drins back to the res. i have very little ph fluctuation maybe .2-.3 in a matter of 3-4 days but well with in the range of happy plants.

 

[Capulator]

DTW will give you less headache. 5 plants of mine in 12 gallon containers go through abotu 10 gallons a day. Not that much at all really. Plus side is that plants are always gettign a fresh dose of nutes. No need to adjust pH since you aren't recirculating.

i run a combo of both....i got the drip set to feed each pot plenty with just a bout a cup of run off, with drip rings i can assure that the whole pot is getting drenched. then the remaining cup of run off drins back to the res. i have very little ph fluctuation maybe .2-.3 in a matter of 3-4 days but well with in the range of happy plants.

This is recirculating. If it were drain to waste, the runoff would go down the drain.

 

[southernstyle]

Drain to Waste is best with coco.

 

[nuttso]

drain to waste is always best. not only that you don't have to mess around with ph fluctuations you will have fresh batch of nutrients every time you feed them and no oxalic acids stitting in your water. I feed with 30%-40% runoff. The other bad thing about recirc is that if you hit the lucky coin and get root rot with one plant you will transport it to the healthy one. Even it's hard to get pythium in coco.

 

[1971]

so what pH do you guys run in DTW?

 

[Sica]

drain to waste costs more (more nutrient, more water, more labour refilling more often) but less risk of cross contamination. However, i have seen both methods of similar setups yield just as much of the same strain. I stick to Ph of 6.3 for DTW or 5.8 for res to allow for it to rise between refills.

 

[1971]

wow, that high?

 

[Sica]

you can go lower if you like, i just prefer to stick to my 6.3

 

[1971]

i guess the downside to DTW, which is something I'm struggling with currently, is the lack of pH drift. so if you have a static pH, you run into issues with certain nutrients having limited uptake. so I tend to run around 5.-5.7 and foliar at about 6.2

 

[Jarofunk]

recirculating setup are like drinking your own piss.

 

[Sica]

5.0 is much too low, in a perfect world i'd love to keep my medium ph at 6.5 and my nutrient at 5.8 so that all nutrients are available all the time. This is rarely the case, i find it hard to adjust my medium and that by feeding them at 6.3 that they appear to remain healthy most of the time.

 

[1971]

woops, i meant 5.5-5.7

 

[Sica]

how often do you get nutrient imbalances? i may have to try a lower level myself:P