MOISTURE CONTENT IN COCO. VWC AND CROP STEERING

[Taurus]

Yeah seems to be working definitely better than my last run, this is probably just down to multiple feeding in small pots which I've never done, but I'm always after bettering things up so next time I'll be doing a lot more reading on crop steering and trying that out. Not sure if you've seen Ramsey from Aroya.io his latest IG video of him explaining field capacity and shot sizes, really interesting stuff! There was also a live stream yesterday on IG with josh neulinger, craft framer and a few others with some very good information as well, I'll be watching these a few times to get more understanding, I might also invest in a Aroya sensor to see how accurate the BlueLab pulse is

Have you made that investment in the Aroya sensor yet to see how accurate the blue lab pulse is?

 

[Taurus]

I'm a bit late on this convo however I love talking shop about crop steering!
We currently use aroya sensors along with the hydro x pro controller for environmental and irrigation controls. I used the blue lab pulse for a while and while the WC readings aren't terrible, the EC portion of the sensor is measuring bulk media EC, not pore water EC, which is a more effective metric for measuring nutrient availability as far as I understand it.
I'm always playing with WC. The first week of bloom I keep it real high, 60% with 20 ish % dry downs. Then once the stretch begins I go lower. 40% with bigger dry downs. Once flowers have set, I'm bringing that WC up and EC down and giving those girls a totally stress free environment so they can bulk their little hearts out. Then for the week before flush, EC stays down and WC goes way down. 40% with huge dry downs, as much as I can get away with all the way through to harvest. These are ball-park numbers that definitely are strain dependent. Hope that helps a bit.

So EC down during flowering ? I seen on an Aroya article that the ec was supposed to be low during veg and high during flower. I’m so confused with crop steering because I read completely conflicting ways of doing it. Is there any solid literature out there that explains the CORRECT way of doing it? Not saying yours isn’t, I just really want to learn this method, it fascinates me

 

[QBcoach]

2gal coco….hand watered steered by eye with a little help from a solus but switching to full automation next run….so what I was shooting for was runoff within the first 4-4.5hrs of lights on. Making sure they’re drinking before first watering and pass through 2-3 times to get runoff by my 3rd pass through. Depending on the plants and my schedule some plants would get small waterings a second time through the day (about 1 of those initial passed through) and I’d let ‘em go to sleep with enough to get through till morning and some dried back pretty hard and most likely got some stress. Stacking ec is also another technique for a whole other time but I found this one very interesting and thought I’d contribute and actually show y’all some photos

 

[whocares]

So EC down during flowering ? I seen on an Aroya article that the ec was supposed to be low during veg and high during flower. I’m so confused with crop steering because I read completely conflicting ways of doing it. Is there any solid literature out there that explains the CORRECT way of doing it? Not saying yours isn’t, I just really want to learn this method, it fascinates me

Think of flower as more than 12/12 cycle.
Transition
Budset
Flower formation
Swell ripen

altering your strategy eg big dry backs vs more moist.
Bigger drybacks raise EC and higher moisture content lowers EC (assuming your getting runoff)

 

[whocares]

What I’d like to know is for initial transplant how big of dryback do you push and how are you ramping that up to daily multi feeds.

eg initial soak 60%vwc dryback to 25%vwc say around day 5ish
P1 to 60% dryback to 30% day 9ish
P1 to 60% dryback to 35% day 12ish
P1 to 60% dryback to 45% day 13ish
P1 to 60% p2 to maintain and target 15% p3 overnight.

I’ve had lots of success with big initial drybacks And I’ve had killer success with small shots every 2hr starting right after transplant running 24/0 just maintaining field capacity with p2 shots.

 

[Lilmink]

Would like to learn more about crop steering in coco coir and came across this thread. Using the Aroya sensor. 2 gallon grow bags filled with coco/perlite mix. Sitting at 55% moisture content. Seems like my plants only drink 5-7% a day. Trying to get at least 15% dryback before I water the next morning. Any advice or are my plants just too small to require any more? Plants are rootbound.

 

[zebracake]

Would like to learn more about crop steering in coco coir and came across this thread. Using the Aroya sensor. 2 gallon grow bags filled with coco/perlite mix. Sitting at 55% moisture content. Seems like my plants only drink 5-7% a day. Trying to get at least 15% dryback before I water the next morning. Any advice or are my plants just too small to require any more? Plants are rootbound.

Root bound plants should be drinking a lot more than that. In my experience plants drinking less is usually a fungal or bacteria issue.

 

[Lilmink]

Root bound plants should be drinking a lot more than that. In my experience plants drinking less is usually a fungal or bacteria issue.

Not sure what to think but plants are healthy as can be.

 

[zebracake]

Not sure what to think but plants are healthy as can be.

Lookin good. I have no experience with root zone sensors so I can't say how much my plants drink per day as a percentage. I recently had root bound plants vegging in 1 gal pots that could only be watered once every other day so I gave them a strong dose of peroxide and they started drinking once a day then eventually twice a day but they never fully recovered from whatever fungal issue they had. If you're using organics enzymes work great for cleaning out the roots too. Is your runoff ph stable?

 

[Mackrob]

The bigger the plant gets and the further into flower the more they will drink. Just water daily. Take a full hour with 4 plus small watering to fully saturate before any run off. This help stop channeling and bring down the EC throughout the whole pot evenly. Sizing the pot for flower is most important. Veg takes a while for the plants to get big enough to start crop steering. If your not getting proper down back in P3 in flower then your pot is to big and just default to watering once a day with P1 shots until fully saturated within 1 hour and required run off. Use smaller pots next time if using the same setup.

 

[Lilmink]

The bigger the plant gets and the further into flower the more they will drink. Just water daily. Take a full hour with 4 plus small watering to fully saturate before any run off. This help stop channeling and bring down the EC throughout the whole pot evenly. Sizing the pot for flower is most important. Veg takes a while for the plants to get big enough to start crop steering. If your not getting proper down back in P3 in flower then your pot is to big and just default to watering once a day with P1 shots until fully saturated within 1 hour and required run off. Use smaller pots next time if using the same setup.

Definitely was just small plants in big pots. Day 21 Flower and there chugging right along. Thanks

 

[Dankgardens313]

The bigger the plant gets and the further into flower the more they will drink. Just water daily. Take a full hour with 4 plus small watering to fully saturate before any run off. This help stop channeling and bring down the EC throughout the whole pot evenly. Sizing the pot for flower is most important. Veg takes a while for the plants to get big enough to start crop steering. If your not getting proper down back in P3 in flower then your pot is to big and just default to watering once a day with P1 shots until fully saturated within 1 hour and required run off. Use smaller pots next time if using the same setup.

I like runoff at the 4-5th Shot. Then give refreshment shots every hour til 2-3hrs before they sleep. Bigger dry backs during stretch - smaller dry backs during mid-bloom - bigger dry backs during late-bloom . Make small adjustments during phase transitions.