i feed every 4 hours from lights on. so on 12/12 i feed 4 times. i think it depends on how much light and heat u have, the more light and the hotter the temps the more water your plants will need. i found if u feed once a day or 4 times a day your not really feeding them 4 times more it almost works out the same caz the medium just gets dryer. so i prefer to break it up into smaller feed. but i grow in large pots ive never used 5 gal before and i have a few lights per plant.
NO,NO,NO!
my god man you are blowing money. Did you research coco before you started? The reason coco is so good is because of the ability to hold oxygen.
this is how it works, as the coco dries the roots are allowed more oxygen, which in turns promts the roots to search for more nutes, which equals ROOT GROWTH. In turn the new roots branch out, and as the coco dries the process goes over and over again.
Now the way you are feeding ONE GALLON FOUR TIMES A DAY. Tell me why would your plants have a need to make more roots, why would they when you are saturating them on a continuous basis. #1 it's not the light or the heat so much that dries your coco, it's the roots sucking up the nutes.
look here bro, the smallest pot I've used was a one gallon pot and even with that I only fed every other or every two days tops. Whatever size pot you are using, this is how you gauge it. FEEL THE WEIGHT OF THE POT WITH COCO WHEN IT's DRY, AND THEN RIGHT AFTER YOU FEED, AND WHEN THAT POT GETS ABOUT 70% dry you feed again. That's how you get root growth during veg and flower, which will get you the buds you want. Because like I said if the coco is saturated 24/7, #1.... how is the plant going to get air to the roots, so the roots can grow when you are basically suffocating them with nutes and #2 with a poorly developed root system what kind of pathetic buds are you expecting?
Now I don't usually do this, but man you are wrong bro. This is only kind of like hydro only in the sense that more nutes are readily available to the roots, but it's not hydro. You are wasting money bro. You've got to let that hydro mentality go. Now I hope you don't think I'm bashing you, it's just that I talk alot and I don't like to see poeple going in the wrong direction give advice to someone, and they only think what the are doing is right. Then you have two or more people with less than desirable results. Now I'm not the most technical guy on here, but I have been running coco for four years straight, and the same strain for like two years. So I can honestly say that I don't know it all, but I know my plants, and how they act with coco but hey I hope you don't read this and be like "screw him". But if so all I can ask is that you research what I'm saying. Because being a coco proponent, I want everyone that has the nerve to take the risk to switch to coco to enjoy as many, or more fruitful harvest as I have. So good luck an good growing. Please I hope you don't take any offense to this "passage" I've written.
FYI the booster I use is Gen. Hydroponics Floralicious Bloom. Scan through my journal if you can, it's geared to the coco grower on a very limited budget.
PEACE!!!
-ZEN-