Help with COCO

[Noob78]

OK i Am growing in 3 gallon grow bags and have no real clue on how much to water and when. Meaning how much like a 20 oz bottle worth once a day or more or less, just would like a good guideline to follow per se. Please farm fam help out.Respectfully noob78

 

[DJXXPLATINUM]

the size of plant is the key...at first jus add till you get runoff...after a while you jus get a feel for how much...once they get big they can be fed 3 to 5 times a day....smaller doses of course..hope this helps..dj

 

[Noob78]

ok that does help dj

 

[Jack Dupp]

Don't worry too much about overwatering as long as you have drainage. Coco holds a lot of water, but also a lot of oxygen.

Worry more about letting it dry out. Once you see the top of your coco drying out, it's time to water.

Also, plain water is not recommended for coco. Make sure it has some form of nutes. Even if it is just CalMg or molasses.

Good luck.

 

[Noob78]

ok thanks, about how many times should I feed throughout the week?

 

[Jack Dupp]

It depends. When I was running plants in 3 gal. I watered every 2-3 days.

Now I am running smaller pots and watering every day with a feed, feed, molasses/water, schedule. The molasses and water I use as a flush. I am getting much better results with this than with bigger pots.

Another thing to consider is a CalMg supplement. I use 3 ml per gallon with every feeding. It really makes a difference IMO.

 

[Noob78]

ok i have that cal mag 3 ml per gallon plus food, and what is a strong dose in coco. and do i flush by running water through it?thanks for your help

 

[homebrew420]

These guys got you pretty well covered, if you are doing multiple feedings a day you can geta way with feed less more often. And yes flush with water, I add 1g of MagSulfate when flushing for richer aroma and flavor.

 

[Noob78]

awesome thanks bro, will look into MagSulfate

 

[OGONLY]

As far as the mag sulfate is concerned, I'd say go without. Flushing is for flushing. At that stage if they don't have aroma and flavor they aren't going to. And adding something like mag sulfate is only going to affect taste in a bad way IMO.

Less is more man. Don't let it get too complicated as far as nutes are concerned. Try your best not to jump on too many bandwagons. Stick to a simple nute schedule and don't over feed. The common newb mistakes are overfeeding and buying additives that are not needed. Keep it simple man.

 

[SonOfDaMourning]

Cal mag helps break down solid salt deposits better than water alone. This is maybe why HB mentions better flavor and aroma as its a better more thorough flush. Yes there's cal mag still there but the ultimate ppm in the media should be less then if flushed with straight water.

 

[OGONLY]

Cal mag helps break down solid salt deposits better than water alone. This is maybe why HB mentions better flavor and aroma as its a better more thorough flush. Yes there's cal mag still there but the ultimate ppm in the media should be less then if flushed with straight water.

Sorry dude but that makes no sense at all. Cal mag breaks down salt deposits? Where did you get that info? Flushing with cal mag? That's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of. Most cal mags contain nitrogen, which is something that should be scaled back if not totally eliminated weeks before flush.

More importantly though, flushing is for eliminating elements from your medium so the plant is not up taking the chemicals (fertilizers) that we don't want to be smoking. So by pouring a shit load of water (I prefer RO) through your medium (mine is coco) you will be reducing the total ppm of accumulated fertilizers each flush day. Coco holds onto calmag big time, so reducing it half way through flower and eliminating it soon after is a good way to make flushing easier.

Don't believe the BS, "you should never just give a plant straight RO water." I go straight RO for 2 weeks with no PHing and my plants look fine through it all. The only thing that you will notice is leaf yellowing after the first week or so. This is what we want. This indicates the plant is starving for nitrogen. Which in turn means we did a good job flushing, and our nugs are going to smoke clean and pure.

 

[catdaddy]

i kind of getting where he's coming from, because it's easier and faster to catch salt with salt, than plain water catching salt.
also i've fed all the way to the last wk, one time up until the last 4 days (plants dried out on daily basis) and have yet to notice a difference in taste or the way it burns when compared to plants being flush the way most people do.
the key, to me, is to feed very low and allow a decent amount of runoff within the last 2 wks to ensure healthy buds and harvest when it come time to chop. i've done both ways and always noticed that when i use plain water for flushing, bud development and a very noticeable decline in heath just after a couple of waterings (during flushing period) and it's just not something i like seeing.

 

[Rootbound]

i kind of getting where he's coming from, because it's easier and faster to catch salt with salt, than plain water catching salt.
also i've fed all the way to the last wk, one time up until the last 4 days (plants dried out on daily basis) and have yet to notice a difference in taste or the way it burns when compared to plants being flush the way most people do.
the key, to me, is to feed very low and allow a decent amount of runoff within the last 2 wks to ensure healthy buds and harvest when it come time to chop. i've done both ways and always noticed that when i use plain water for flushing, bud development and a very noticeable decline in heath just after a couple of waterings (during flushing period) and it's just not something i like seeing.

I agree with you 100%. Heavy flushing is only needed when overfeeding. Lower feed and plenty of runoff towards the end like you said gives me a real nice fade in color.

 

[Noob78]

Thanks

Sorry dude but that makes no sense at all. Cal mag breaks down salt deposits? Where did you get that info? Flushing with cal mag? That's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of. Most cal mags contain nitrogen, which is something that should be scaled back if not totally eliminated weeks before flush.

More importantly though, flushing is for eliminating elements from your medium so the plant is not up taking the chemicals (fertilizers) that we don't want to be smoking. So by pouring a shit load of water (I prefer RO) through your medium (mine is coco) you will be reducing the total ppm of accumulated fertilizers each flush day. Coco holds onto calmag big time, so reducing it half way through flower and eliminating it soon after is a good way to make flushing easier.

Don't believe the BS, "you should never just give a plant straight RO water." I go straight RO for 2 weeks with no PHing and my plants look fine through it all. The only thing that you will notice is leaf yellowing after the first week or so. This is what we want. This indicates the plant is starving for nitrogen. Which in turn means we did a good job flushing, and our nugs are going to smoke clean and pure.

Thanks for that, I have a plant coming down today, which is my first coco. Fingers crossed.

 

[sixstring]

Sorry dude but that makes no sense at all. Cal mag breaks down salt deposits? Where did you get that info? Flushing with cal mag? That's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of. Most cal mags contain nitrogen, which is something that should be scaled back if not totally eliminated weeks before flush.

More importantly though, flushing is for eliminating elements from your medium so the plant is not up taking the chemicals (fertilizers) that we don't want to be smoking. So by pouring a shit load of water (I prefer RO) through your medium (mine is coco) you will be reducing the total ppm of accumulated fertilizers each flush day. Coco holds onto calmag big time, so reducing it half way through flower and eliminating it soon after is a good way to make flushing easier.

Don't believe the BS, "you should never just give a plant straight RO water." I go straight RO for 2 weeks with no PHing and my plants look fine through it all. The only thing that you will notice is leaf yellowing after the first week or so. This is what we want. This indicates the plant is starving for nitrogen. Which in turn means we did a good job flushing, and our nugs are going to smoke clean and pure.

not trying to pick a fight but read up on calcium and you will find it does help break up and loosen dry salts in your soil.the whole flush thing gets played out way to much on the net imo.how do you flush a plant in the ground outside and does every outdoor grower do this?if not there pot must be awefull cause of all the chems right?how could flushing make weed taste better unless it was done for say 3-4 weeks?the buds dont just rid themselves of chemicals in 7-10 days because you stopped feeding right?every good coco grower i have seen has said not to water with just plain water,a touch of mollassas in it would seem a smart choice to me.

 

[Jack Dupp]

It is my understanding that CalMg helps unlock nutes in coco. My experience is that flushing with CalMg between feedings helps the plant take-up whatever is locked up. Since I started doing this, I have almost zero deficiencies. I could be wrong about how CalMg works, but it works better than plain water flushes.

BTW- Not all CalMg has N. I run Botanicare CalMg 2-0-0 up until the end of stretch and switch to General Organics CalMg+ 0-0-0 until chop.

Everyone has a different way to grow bud. You need to find what works for you.

Good luck with your harvest, and be sure to post some pics soon.

 

[Noob78]

will do, son broke my good camera last night and just found out now :banghead:

 

[pussOGbrah]

calcium does breakdown and reduce salt buildup, but only if it is calcium carbonate, i.e --calplex or go camg

Its hard to say how effective it really is though. better not to overfeed in the first place.

 

[pussOGbrah]

Also, something that is helpful for truly flushing a plant is learning which nutrients are mobile vs immobile.

Mobile nutrients, especially nitrogen, can be removed/reduced entirely in early flower and still get good results because the plant will use nitro stored in its leaves. The key is figuring out when to cut the nitro so the plant doesnt lose yeild or cause bud leaves to get too yellow.

The same applies to the other mobile nutes like phosphorus, mag, k, etc..they are just removed at later times in flower to get cleanest flowers in the end.

The more common approach of just flushing at the very end with pure water/flushing agent is important to get plant clean of any unused nutes still circulating in the plant , but i don't think it can make a bud on the plant thats been overferted suddenly "clean" or good burning/ tasting.