HOW TO WATER COCO FOR BEST RESULTS.

[Aqua Man]

hi @Aqua Man , i was reading the thread "Cheap alternatives to overpriced hydroponic nutrients" and read about megacrop being a good alternative . so i emailed them and they said they deliver to thailand which is good news . if in stock should i order the mega crop pouch with the elderly gentleman on the front or should i order the 2 part mix .

i will be doing coco and possibly a drip system

I like the 2 part

 

[benjones]

Cheers @Aqua Man

 

[Mackrob]

Can someone please explain how 5% of 1 gallon is 250ml. I thought a 1 gallon pot is a nursery gallon (trade gallon) 3 liters. That would be 2812ml if completely full of water. 5% would be 140ml. I’m I missing something?

 

[Aqua Man]

Can someone please explain how 5% of 1 gallon is 250ml. I thought a 1 gallon pot is a nursery gallon (trade gallon) 3 liters. That would be 2812ml if completely full of water. 5% would be 140ml. I’m I missing something?

1 gallon is 3.785 L so 3785 ml X 0.05 = 189ml

niw because its so close to 4L not 3 we usually round up so 4000x0.05= 200 ml

i mean feed 200 or 250 it makes no difference as long as you get 10-20% runoff.

pretty sure i explained that i rounded up in the original post

 

[11Hick11]

Can you explain this one to me? Every time i read it my mind explodes lol

1.Feed 5% of the pot size as your nutrient solution.

 

[Aqua Man]

Can you explain this one to me? Every time i read it my mind explodes lol

1.Feed 5% of the pot size as your nutrient solution.

And of that you should get 10-20% runoff.

easy way to do it is feed 250ml per gal because its a close even number. And of that you want 10-25% runoff.… so 25-50ml

 

[11Hick11]

And of that you should get 10-20% runoff.

easy way to do it is feed 250ml per gal because its a close even number. And of that you want 10-25% runoff.… so 25-50ml

Okay, now that makes me understand it now. Thank you! I've been feeding WAY to much.

 

[Aqua Man]

Okay, now that makes me understand it now. Thank you! I've been feeding WAY to much.

Hard to feed to much other than waste purposes with this method

 

[Mackrob]

This is an amazing thread and I’m not trying to take anything away or be disrespectful.

I do apologize but isn’t a nurse gallon (trade gallon), which is the standard 3 liter. A 2 gallon growing pot (nursery pot) only holds 1.5 US gallons. A nursery pot goes off of cubit ft and not US standard gallon. This is why a 1 gallon pot cannot hold 1 gallon of water or milk. Put a 1 gallon pot next to a US gallon and it noticeably a lot smaller.

A trade gallon is a unit of volume for standard plant containers in the horticultural industries. It equals 3 US liquid quarts or 0.75 US gallons (2.8 L; 0.62 imp gal),[1][2][3] although some sources state that a trade gallon equals 2.7 litres (0.71 US gal).[4]

Notably, 10 trade gallons equals 30 US quarts, which in turn equals 1.0 cubic foot, a common unit of measurement for soil.

Finally! Garden Pot Sizes Decoded...

Having trouble figuring out which garden pot size fits which plants? Trying to convert the pot size into a different measurement? This table makes it easy.

www.growjourney.com

 

[Aqua Man]

This is an amazing thread and I’m not trying to take anything away or be disrespectful.

I do apologize but isn’t a nurse gallon (trade gallon), which is the standard 3 liter. A 2 gallon growing pot (nursery pot) only holds 1.5 US gallons. A nursery pot goes off of cubit ft and not US standard gallon. This is why a 1 gallon pot cannot hold 1 gallon of water or milk. Put a 1 gallon pot next to a US gallon and it noticeably a lot smaller.

A trade gallon is a unit of volume for standard plant containers in the horticultural industries. It equals 3 US liquid quarts or 0.75 US gallons (2.8 L; 0.62 imp gal),[1][2][3] although some sources state that a trade gallon equals 2.7 litres (0.71 US gal).[4]

Notably, 10 trade gallons equals 30 US quarts, which in turn equals 1.0 cubic foot, a common unit of measurement for soil.

Finally! Garden Pot Sizes Decoded...

Having trouble figuring out which garden pot size fits which plants? Trying to convert the pot size into a different measurement? This table makes it easy.

www.growjourney.com

Ahhhh i see what you mean now… id suggest just going by the 250ml per gal specified pot

 

[Mackrob]

The past year I have been working on my technique with crop steering. I do this with Ecowitt soil moisture sensors and by seeing when I get run off by the amount of water I feed. If I feed 25% wc and had a 25% dry back I would start to see run off. I do these calculations and they need to be very precise the get an accurate reading to calibrate and adjust my sensors. I was reading this post because it is very interesting and I really enjoyed it. The math was just throwing me off.

 

[Oregram]

I would have to disagree a wet dry cycle is for soil... the reason being soil cannot stay saturated and provide adequate o2. Soil is a balancing act of water nutrients and o2... inorder to achieve that we need a wet dry cycle or they don't get all of those

If you treat coco like soil it will grow but you also get soil like results.

In pure hydro which is much faster than soil the roots are completely submerged.

I have not seen or read any evidence (excluding bro science) that says coco needs a wet dry cycle. Soil yes for the reason I explained... bit this is not soil.

If it works for ya that's great. Maybe one day you will give high fertigation coco a try and compare.

Just rocked my world, friend. Been getting weird nute-burn type issues and turns out I been letting her get too dry - like an inch down almost as if I were doing some soil grows.

 

[santacokacola]

Hello I've heard that in coco you need to have the media ppm more constant possible during all grow . to achieve that i want to know your ro water with calmag at 120 ppm only schedule.If you feed to frequently you will have build up if you dont have runoff at each event. But my goal its not to have runoff during feed to save water and flush with my ro water 120 ppm calmag after.
Exemple : Day 1: Feed 600 ppm 3X time a day (Feed depend on the flo stage but no more then 800 ppm)
Day 2 : Ro Water with calmag at 120 ppm only 3X time a day
Day 3: Ro Water with calmag at 120 ppm only 3X time a day
REPEAT

 

[Aqua Man]

Hello I've heard that in coco you need to have the media ppm more constant possible during all grow . to achieve that i want to know your ro water with calmag at 120 ppm only schedule.If you feed to frequently you will have build up if you dont have runoff at each event. But my goal its not to have runoff during feed to save water and flush with my ro water 120 ppm calmag after.
Exemple : Day 1: Feed 600 ppm 3X time a day (Feed depend on the flo stage but no more then 800 ppm)
Day 2 : Ro Water with calmag at 120 ppm only 3X time a day
Day 3: Ro Water with calmag at 120 ppm only 3X time a day
REPEAT

No runoff will almost certainly lead to a builup unless your feeding the exact ratio of nutrients and the exact concentration they are consuming

 

[Dirtbag]

No runoff will almost certainly lead to a builup unless your feeding the exact ratio of nutrients and the exact concentration they are consuming

Agreed. If you run the feed rather lean you can get away with that method for a while, especially using a media with a high cec, since the buffering capacity of the media can hold onto or bind some nutrients that aren't used. Promix or other peat based mixes are excellent for this since they give you a bit of room to mess up. It cushions your feeding mistakes.
Coco tends to bind calcium and magnesium, but I don't believe it has much exchange capacity for other nutrients compared to peat mixes.

All that said, it doesn't take a ton of runoff to prevent problems. As little as 10% runoff for the last couple feeds of the day can be enough if you aren't overfeeding. If you are really concerned about wasting the runoff, use it on houseplants or outdoor plants. Or depending on the size of your system it might be worth using a sterilizing UV to clean the runoff so it can be reused. That's what I do personally and don't waste a single drop of water.

 

[Aqua Man]

Agreed. If you run the feed rather lean you can get away with that method for a while, especially using a media with a high cec, since the buffering capacity of the media can hold onto or bind some nutrients that aren't used. Promix or other peat based mixes are excellent for this since they give you a bit of room to mess up. It cushions your feeding mistakes.
Coco tends to bind calcium and magnesium, but I don't believe it has much exchange capacity for other nutrients compared to peat mixes.

All that said, it doesn't take a ton of runoff to prevent problems. As little as 10% runoff for the last couple feeds of the day can be enough if you aren't overfeeding. If you are really concerned about wasting the runoff, use it on houseplants or outdoor plants. Or depending on the size of your system it might be worth using a sterilizing UV to clean the runoff so it can be reused. That's what I do personally and don't waste a single drop of water.

Yeah i surprised we dont see a recirc system taking advantage of that… would be a huge savings

 

[santacokacola]

No runoff will almost certainly lead to a builup unless your feeding the exact ratio of nutrients and the exact concentration they are consuming

thanks for your answer
but why i will have salt build up even if i feed 1 time over 3 day I think the plant will consume all the nutrient left in the medium. The only thing that will be problematic is if the plant consume more micro macro nutrient than other one.

 

[santacokacola]

Agreed. If you run the feed rather lean you can get away with that method for a while, especially using a media with a high cec, since the buffering capacity of the media can hold onto or bind some nutrients that aren't used. Promix or other peat based mixes are excellent for this since they give you a bit of room to mess up. It cushions your feeding mistakes.
Coco tends to bind calcium and magnesium, but I don't believe it has much exchange capacity for other nutrients compared to peat mixes.

All that said, it doesn't take a ton of runoff to prevent problems. As little as 10% runoff for the last couple feeds of the day can be enough if you aren't overfeeding. If you are really concerned about wasting the runoff, use it on houseplants or outdoor plants. Or depending on the size of your system it might be worth using a sterilizing UV to clean the runoff so it can be reused. That's what I do personally and don't waste a single drop of water.

wath is the highest ppm you go in coco ? Because 700-800 ppm at 3 times per day its a lot of nutrient with runoff. I feed a lot of water that why im asking if its possible to have almost no runoff.

 

[Aqua Man]

thanks for your answer
but why i will have salt build up even if i feed 1 time over 3 day I think the plant will consume all the nutrient left in the medium. The only thing that will be problematic is if the plant consume more micro macro nutrient than other one.

well its a deep dive to explain the entire ins and outs… but plants do not take up nutrients in the exact ratios we provide and there are a million variables that can influence this including genetics. The chance you get it exact is highly doubtful. Thats not to say you can only make the grow doing so but just a LOT more likely to see issues along the way.

 

[Aqua Man]

wath is the highest ppm you go in coco ? Because 700-800 ppm at 3 times per day its a lot of nutrient with runoff. I feed a lot of water that why im asking if its possible to have almost no runoff.

its more complicated than that like i say… there are a shot ton of things that influence this from every single environmental factor to light spectrum to genetics. Its bot just about ppm but more so the ability to maintain ratios.

@Dirtbag gives a good option if your looking to reduce water usage