Over watering possabilities

[justsomeguy]

i don't think you can overwater good coco if you have good drainage. it holds onto air no matter what. the first time i used it, i was recirculating and ran the drippers for like 18 hours a day. explosive growth, for veg anyway. now that i dtw i saturate once or twice a day. everytime i've had problems with coco, i think it was just a bad brick that i probably didn't buffer. i've tried coconot and don't think it wicks well enough for drip lines. gnats really hate it though. i stick with the nutrifield bricks lately and always add at least 5 mls/gallon calmag to the water i melt it in. then drain and rinse.

4 parts nf coco
3 parts coconot
2 parts perlite
1 part alaskan humus (ancient forest) for innoculant

 

[Mmmmasonite]

I just read that by letting the pots dry out you kill the root hairs and they wont grow back

If you have good aeration along with good water holding capabilities in your coco mix then you can water them once a day or water every other day. Frequency of watering also depends on the size of the plant compared to the size if the container it is in. You def should not let them completely dry out, but depending on what stage they are in, they hold sufficient enough water for 2 days. You have to just read the plant and the medium. Coco gives you plenty of room for error. It is very forgiving so don't over analyze.....Peace

 

[Bud Spleefman]

It's important when you first transplant the clones or seedlings to coco that you water em in, and then let the coco get semi-dry a couple times, to encourage the roots to grow into the coco. They do this in search of moisture, so important not to overwater at first. Once they are well rooted you can hit em as hard as you want.

 

[AliasAO]

I found the most explosive growth occurred when I gave up watering daily and went with every other day to every three days. Always to the point of good run-off. At a certain point grow before last I had a little problem with build-up, so I began the feed with clean, pH'd water and got the medium moistened, then fed, cleared up, did fine. Since I didn't pull plants out of the pots I can't say that root growth was so much better than not letting them dry out. But, one thing's for sure--once they're acclimated to less than daily watering, you're no longered tied down by them like they're a room-full of balls and chains.

Agreed %100 with ^^^^.

I use a Coco / Perlite mix- about 70/30-------->

During Veg 24/0----> I watered every other day

During Flower 12/12 -------> I water every 2-3 days, with a runoff of about 1-1 1/2 inches.

Unless you are using PURE coco there is no need to water daily. Its a HUGE chore first of all and secondly you wont see any real benefit over watering every other day.

I treat my medium like my BEER Mug. Only fill up when the Ass is left .:harvest::harvest:

Logical: Would you ever throw away a BEER that is half full?

Then why rewater when there is still nutes and water in the soil. Let the plants drink until they are happy. they will start to tell you when they need more.

 

[Grampa_Watt]

you can disagree all you want, but there is clear benefit of a wet dry cylce.

You misunderstood a slight wilt. To you your probably assuming full wilting, once you see it after a while you will notice that slight wilt im talking about.

personally i think a good wet/dry cycle in veg is essential to promote vigourous root growth, which you need. if you dont have an adequate rootmass in the pots to remove the water/feed you are putting in the poorly rooted areas of the pot will quickly become anaerobic and the plant will suffer and be stunted.
if you follow a light watering schedule when they are small (no pot floods and dont water within 24hs of transplant, into a medium on the dry side of moist) in a pot that is sensibly sized they will soon have it rooted out fully, then up a pot size and repeat. This way when you are into your bloom pots you know for sure the whole pot from stem to pot wall is a feeding rootmass, then you can heavy feed without fear of overwatering (in coco atleast) as an established rootmass will dry a pot up daily easy (if the mix is right and she's cranking flood cycles are no sweat either). if you have a great rootmass and she is not taking then the mix is wrong or out of whack or both.
peace my friend and good luck sorting your issue,
Gramps.
:bongsmi:

 

[cheech]

Watering frequency and quantity are really dependent on the size you your containers, veg time / root mass, and environmental conditions. With coco, I find you need to let them get established before you start blasting them with more frequent waterings, and once they get going nothing will stop em if you have good conditions in your room. For me once the coco starts to dry out a little on the top, its time to water, which can only be every other day in veg, then daily in early flower and twice a day in late flower to keep em a optimum saturation... Coco is a different beast then soil...

totally agree.... i'm always confused when i see someone say i am watering coco every day... i usually assume they are in a small ass container.. like 1 gallon.

imagine if you just transplanted a plant from a gallon of coco to 5 gallons of coco. are you going to water it everyday? hell no. the roots will never spread out if you do that.

things got good for me when i took someones advice which was to water when the container was about 50 percent of its saturated weight, which is about every 4 days for me.

 

[Mmmmasonite]

l (no pot floods and dont water within 24hs of transplant
:bongsmi:

??

I have always given them a fresh clean drench right at transplant to kinda lock em in so to speak. You don't water em right at transplant? The first thing I learned about transplanting when I was a kid was to water right at transplant. Why would this not be a good idea?

 

[Grampa_Watt]

??

I have always given them a fresh clean drench right at transplant to kinda lock em in so to speak. You don't water em right at transplant? The first thing I learned about transplanting when I was a kid was to water right at transplant. Why would this not be a good idea?

if you are using a medium that is totally dry then by all means water them to help them stay fast but if the medium is adequately moist then watering them is not needed and would be detrimental to root growth as the medium can become anaerobic. There are plenty of ways to grow, some right some wrong and most work to some extent, i am not looking for a pissing contest or saying other ways of doing it are wrong, just merely adding my thoughts.
Peace,
Gramps.

 

[Seamaiden]

Gramps, if the OP were growing in soil then anaerobic conditions would be a real concern. But his medium is 70% coco coir, which in my experience drains very well and never remains oversaturated, and 30% perlite, and in my experience it's impossible to overwater perlite. The combination ought to drain right through almost all water applied.

The one that gets me is the putting gravel or something at the bottom of the pot to increase drainage. It's an old fallacy that I've disproven for myself on many an occasion, no longer muck around with that sort of thing. I just fill with media and go.

 

[Mmmmasonite]

The one that gets me is the putting gravel or something at the bottom of the pot to increase drainage. It's an old fallacy that I've disproven for myself on many an occasion, no longer muck around with that sort of thing. I just fill with media and go.

Huh......that's interesting....So you say it is the same with or without drainage at the bottom? I have always used that method and have advised that method for newbies....Old wives tale?

 

[Grampa_Watt]

Gramps, if the OP were growing in soil then anaerobic conditions would be a real concern. But his medium is 70% coco coir, which in my experience drains very well and never remains oversaturated, and 30% perlite, and in my experience it's impossible to overwater perlite. The combination ought to drain right through almost all water applied.

The one that gets me is the putting gravel or something at the bottom of the pot to increase drainage. It's an old fallacy that I've disproven for myself on many an occasion, no longer muck around with that sort of thing. I just fill with media and go.

so you cant overwater a 70/30coco/perlite mix?

gravel or pebbles in the bottom of the pots is great if you are lazy and leave pots sat in run off as it wont wick the moisture back into the pot like straight coco does.

 

[budboy299]

I run coco/perlite right to the bottoms of my containers with no problems either. The only thing I would recommend though is to make sure your drainage holes are at the lowest point in the container. If they were up an inch...that is where you could run some course filler to keep the roots up a bit. If the holes are at the lowest point it will drain just fine.

 

[Seamaiden]

Huh......that's interesting....So you say it is the same with or without drainage at the bottom? I have always used that method and have advised that method for newbies....Old wives tale?

Absolutely an old wives tale. I can't remember which gardening book it originated in, but do some testing yourself. Also, take a look at how nurseries containerize their plants, do they ever spend time or energy fucking around with shit that's not needed? No, they do what works best at the best cost. Fill the pots from bottom to top with your media and let her rip. Leave the old wives tales to the old wimmin.

 

[J23M.]

Another thing you gotta watch out for when you are over watering are those fungus gnat's every other day or two is money. I do the same thing as Bobby.

 

[Snow Crash]

I prefer to amend my coco.

You don't need 5 gallons of the stuff to grow nicely sized plants. 2 gallons is fine.

My plants drink about 2L per day in their 2 gallon planters.

I water once per day, every day, because the roots completely fill the container. It also takes about one day for 1/2 of the water weight to be used, and that's a good time to water. I use 3L of solution to water with, providing me with 1L of runoff.

Prior to having a complete root system that fills the planter you simply need to time it out right. The moisture will wick throughout the spongy media and as a result it will dry out evenly. I wait until most of the moisture has gone, but not all of it, I don't want the media dry.

This method of waiting until the planter is maybe 80% dry has helped my roots develop. In my mind I rationalize this by encouraging them to go out and look for more moisture. Once the roots fill the planter daily feedings can begin.

Also, I always saturate to runoff. ALWAYS. 30% runoff is my minimum to ensure there is never any salt build up. This will give you an even distribution of elements and provide moisture throughout the media.

 

[Seamaiden]

so you cant overwater a 70/30coco/perlite mix?

gravel or pebbles in the bottom of the pots is great if you are lazy and leave pots sat in run off as it wont wick the moisture back into the pot like straight coco does.

I missed this, didn't intend to ignore.

I have yet to be able to "overwater" any coco mix I've used, including pure coco. It will only hold onto so much assuming there is flow and the pots aren't left sitting in water/feed.

I tried using nothing to allow for run-off with coco, and it just didn't work well. Now that I know TrichromeFan's trick of the corrugated plastic roofing stuff I'll never worry about that again.