HOW TO WATER COCO FOR BEST RESULTS.

[Enforcer]

Question...why isn't bottom watering coco not effective/popular? Asking for a friend lol

Personally I don’t do it that way because a 4x4 plastic flood tray is like $200, and something like a Auto Pot system leaves less room for error as far as setup and monitoring/maintenance are involved. Along with the reasons stated by @Aqua Man.

Unless you have a large plant count with an eye towards production, and systems in place to control any salt buildup. I wouldn’t recommend bottom feed.

 

[Lp_jr]

I tried the coco for cannabis style of multiple fertigation events per day (2-3). I found I was overwatering and the pots were heavy.

Again, several variables, but the best advice I got was wait till the pots are light before you feed again.

 

[Tesla666]

I tried the coco for cannabis style of multiple fertigation events per day (2-3). I found I was overwatering and the pots were heavy.

Again, several variables, but the best advice I got was wait till the pots are light before you feed again.

I agree with that not very dry but let it dry around 30% and the fertirrigate til 60% or 70% once ir twice a day that cycle. Less water and im in the benchmark gpw with that system.

 

[Aqua Man]

I tried the coco for cannabis style of multiple fertigation events per day (2-3). I found I was overwatering and the pots were heavy.

Again, several variables, but the best advice I got was wait till the pots are light before you feed again.

I agree with that not very dry but let it dry around 30% and the fertirrigate til 60% or 70% once ir twice a day that cycle. Less water and im in the benchmark gpw with that system.

For discussion sake can you share your reasons for this? Why does it need to dry?

Personally not a believer in the gpw mearument. Imo its an extremely flawed and easily manipulated measurement.

 

[Unhinged]

Grow wise? I did peat last grow. If you add enough perlite you can treat it more like hydro also but the drainage is not quite as good as coco. Did mine with sunshine#4 perlite and vermiculite in 3 gal pots. It was a good mix for handwatering.

Yeah grow wise I'm about to play with promix HP in 7 gal airpots so I'm curious about the differences. It claims 30% perlite but it might be worth mixing in more.

 

[Aqua Man]

Yeah grow wise I'm about to play with promix HP in 7 gal airpots so I'm curious about the differences. It claims 30% perlite but it might be worth mixing in more.

How big of plants are you growing?

 

[Unhinged]

Probably around 2 feet tall before flipping.

I always end up root bound in 5gal plastic.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Grow wise? I did peat last grow. If you add enough perlite you can treat it more like hydro also but the drainage is not quite as good as coco. Did mine with sunshine#4 perlite and vermiculite in 3 gal pots. It was a good mix for handwatering.

meant to ask you. Did you add extra lime to counter the vermiculite? Did it raise the ph? Do you know if diatanatious earth raises ph? Im just thinking of mix in silica additions rather than the protekt.

 

[Fudge]

I would like to discuss about that. In my short experience whith coco i think that keep the coco saturated at the 90% it's not good at all during veg.

When u start the veg with a cutting, the root system grow faster if we let the coco get dry until 30% of humidity. That dry cycle since the moment you water the coco until 70-80% humidity and gets dry to 25-30% stimulates the root system to grow looking for water when the coco is getting dry.




If we produce many dry cycles a day like 2 or 3, being necesary water 2-3 times a day, we Will be getting a very fast and explosive grow, and a very strong root system.



I only get some run off 1 time a week ir two weeks, and i use enzimes 1 time a week and i'm very happy with my results.

Thats My way of work with coco.

I have followed your method in the past, for the same reasons, but the last grow I changed to regular feeds and have seen a big difference. But I also bottom feed (certain grows like SOG) once into flower through auto feed and air the pots with holes to encourage air pruning. But I always flush through before I switch just in case.

I've never had any issues with pH or salt build up and test the coco regular just in case.

But in coco if it gets too dry the micros will die off, and that's been my main goal this time round, trying to keep the eco life happy.

I'm just a novice and I'm only going from what I've learned, mostly from the farm so please forgive my ignorance on some subjects...

So for all I agree with Aqua on 90% of it, and can't find anything I can fault. I'm still wondering how I've seen 1st hand letting the medium dry out a bit more, definitely does get the roots to go looking. But only seems beneficial in early veg while roots are establishing.

Hope it makes sense I've rambled on a bit

 

[Fudge]

So say if I let my early veg stay saturated they grow great, but the roots don't as much, I was told to think of it like this,

If you got brought food and drink to the couch, you'd never walk to the fridge, you'd still get fat, but your weak ass legs wouldn't be as strong as the man who goes looking for it,.

Now I've no science to back any of this up. It's all just what I've picked up here and there 😉

 

[Tesla666]

So say if I let my early veg stay saturated they grow great, but the roots don't as much, I was told to think of it like this,

If you got brought food and drink to the couch, you'd never walk to the fridge, you'd still get fat, but your weak ass legs wouldn't be as strong as the man who goes looking for it,.

Now I've no science to back any of this up. It's all just what I've picked up here and there 😉

I think the same but Also i have to Say that if u have seen the roots of a pure hydro... The are submerged And the roots grow the same...
Maybe not the same soil roots and hydro roots? Idk

 

[Anthem]

I think the same but Also i have to Say that if u have seen the roots of a pure hydro... The are submerged And the roots grow the same...
Maybe not the same soil roots and hydro roots? Idk

When you say a pure hydro system what do you mean? DTW, E&F, RDWC?

 

[Tesla666]

When you say a pure hydro system what do you mean? DTW, E&F, RDWC?

RDWC, roots fully submerged and You see a very Big root system, maybe with coco 100% of humidity happens the same?

 

[Tesla666]

I have followed your method in the past, for the same reasons, but the last grow I changed to regular feeds and have seen a big difference. But I also bottom feed (certain grows like SOG) once into flower through auto feed and air the pots with holes to encourage air pruning. But I always flush through before I switch just in case.

I've never had any issues with pH or salt build up and test the coco regular just in case.

But in coco if it gets too dry the micros will die off, and that's been my main goal this time round, trying to keep the eco life happy.

I'm just a novice and I'm only going from what I've learned, mostly from the farm so please forgive my ignorance on some subjects...

So for all I agree with Aqua on 90% of it, and can't find anything I can fault. I'm still wondering how I've seen 1st hand letting the medium dry out a bit more, definitely does get the roots to go looking. But only seems beneficial in early veg while roots are establishing.

Hope it makes sense I've rambled on a bit

Well, actually on 1st week of bloom with the same 50cuttings as the previous grow where i use coco slab with dry cycles.

I decide to change My technique and lets see the results.

Do u have run off in every watering? If u water 2 times a day?

 

[Fudge]

Well, actually on 1st week of bloom with the same 50cuttings as the previous grow where i use coco slab with dry cycles.

I decide to change My technique and lets see the results.

Do u have run off in every watering? If u water 2 times a day?

When I'm hand watering yes run off every feed,. But I'm still only feeding just after lights on, so last run in 3 gallon pots I was watering daily with about 10% run off. But with my sog they're on aQuavalve so it floods to 20ml then drains while they feed. Then once it's empty it floods again, but I have perlite layer on bottom of pots do roots aren't sat in feed. So these do wet/dry by design. But until flower those same cuts in 1 gallon pots were hand fed with run off every feed.

The plants I let go 2 nearly dry then saturate, we're not a patch on the same plants that I fed keeping medium saturated,.

But like I've said, I'm novice tbh and I'm very interested in finding out the "best" method.

I'm just of the opinion that during early veg or just after an up pot Ive seen better results letting the coco dry out a bit more.

But then seen better results in flower using the 80/90% method.

Sorry if ive come across different

 

[userx1]

Just to answer 1 question I'm sure will come up.....

Isn't this wasteful?

Yes its called drain to waste. Maybe Try soil or organic soil if thats a concern.

I'm in my first grow ever. 70-30% coco perlite mix in 2.9gal fabric pot. Watering twice a day, using 2lt of water everyday. I felt like wasting/using a lot of nutrients, but a few times I had not watered in the morning and next time I had to use almost 2lt of water to get run-off. So I thought I would be using the same amount anyway. It just can make you feel overwhelmed sometimes, watering twice a day, especially with multiple plants. It was recommended watering at least three times a day for my pot size but it's too much for me with hand. Don't you need to get run-off in soil also? So when you water soil every 3-4 days, don't you use a lot of water? I thought maybe the amount of nutrients wouldn't be that different? Like I said this is my first grow ever and it's in coco so I have zero experience with soil. I'm happy with it mostly, it's 53 days from sprout.

 

[Aqua Man]

meant to ask you. Did you add extra lime to counter the vermiculite? Did it raise the ph? Do you know if diatanatious earth raises ph? Im just thinking of mix in silica additions rather than the protekt.

Nope added none. The vermiculite i think added 0.1-0.2 ph increase. It will midly raise PH in my limited experience.

 

[Aqua Man]

Imho with coco unless using large pots to avoid watering often with no perlite its just to much to hand water. Imho this method will give the best results bit that does not mean that other methods don't give good results.

Temperature of the rootzone is going to play a very big role. 70-80f i would say are acceptable for high growth rates with the higher end being more beneficial. This also has an affect on the amount of water taken up. There are several things that go hand in hand with making coco growth as good as possible and this is only one aspect.

 

[Holographic_spew]

Whats the best way to treat Coco before using it ? The only hardware store near me is Bunnings and they don't sell cal-mag, would it be okay to use trace elements ? Otherwise if needed I can order some suitable stuff online

 

[Aqua Man]

Whats the best way to treat Coco before using it ? The only hardware store near me is Bunnings and they don't sell cal-mag, would it be okay to use trace elements ? Otherwise if needed I can order some suitable stuff online

Most dont need it anymore. I use canna coco and it comes rinsed and prebuffered and certified pest free.