Advice wanted-Im using 5 gallon buckets with a coco mix and clay pellets

Im using 5 gallon buckets with a coco mix and clay pellets for medium. I am using jungle juice nutes(micro and bloom) on veg side and adding bloomfx by xnutrients and maxibloom powder by general hydroponics mixed with water on flower side. The dry nutes are used every 3 or 4 days. The buckets have drains drilled about 2 to 3 inches from the bottom so there is fluid left in the bottom- is this bad for roots? i give them plain water every now and then to wash the nutrients on the bottom or replace the fluid on the bottom. also how often should i be giving the plants plain water? Im also using a combination of metal halide200w with a tilt on it, high pressure sodium(x2)1000w and a 400w(vertical) and CFL in a corner. is this combination ok for flower? i have a room for flower covered in reflective paper with the listed lights . there are around 8 medium sized plants the tallest being around 6 feet. In the doorway is a fan. there is also a small exaust fan at the top of the room and had to be on the same side as the intake fan. The veg side is a structure in a corner of a room built from wood and reflective material with many holes and a fan at one end. we have florescent,CFL, and metal halide and maybe a hps...it is on a pump system that drains into a gutter from the holes previously described, the pump rests in the gutter and feeds the nutes thru a hose system that is faulty at times and needs new ends to squirt fluid. i just plug the pump in and let it feed at various times throughout the day. how often should i actually be feeding? on the flower side i have a device made from a milk jug and flexible pvc used to water plants in the back of the room, but the pt being i hand feed on the flower side, how often should i be.

so my main questions are
1.) 5 gallon buckets with half inch wide holes drilled 3 inches from bottom leaving fluid in the very bottom-ok or not?
2.) light combo of hps, metal halide, and cfl ok for flower?
3.) how much to feed using mainly lucas formula with jungle juice nutes and maxibloom dry powder and bloomx by xnutrients for flower. for a medium of coco and clay?
4.) how often to give plain water?

coco coir to be exact, im not sure if it matters

Q1. No this is not ok. You need holes in the very bottom. When you water you need to get around 20% of what you put in out as runoff.

Q2. Combination is fine.

Q3. Unsure dont know the nutes. But I would recommend having a nute strength testing meter. EC ppm TDS anything to measure the strength.

Q4. I grow in coco and I never give plain water.

I use EC to measure my strength of my nutes. In EC I generally start out with clones at 0.8EC, Early veg 1EC, veg 1.2EC, stretch 1.4, flowering 1.5-1.6.

You may want to purchase a calmag supplement too.


J

i have healthy widows,rhinos, bubba kush, super silver haze, and afghani milk. most of those strains i have some in flower with a few about 2 to 3 weeks away from harvest with nice developed trichomes. I am just doing some fine tweaking so i will take your advice. i haven't had any root rot so far but it could happen. i will make a few changes next time around but for now i have some beautiful plants close to harvest. i have some cal-mag supplement also, i will maybe give them a dose.

what measurement is EC? i test ph and ppm

also i usually test around 125x 10 ppm and around 6 on ph

I have 5 Gallon buckets with holes 3" from the bottom and use Coir/perlite mix. its pretty much a large "Hempy" bucket. It has worked amazing for me over the past year running it. never had root rot but i do let them get pretty dry before watering again. I Always run 5.8 to 6.2 ph

that sounds about like mine, I feed 3 or more times a day though, my roots seem to stay pretty moist but i have been letting them go a little longer without feeding.

If you are feeding 3x a day then be very careful with your drainage.

Like I already said you should be aiming for 20% runoff when you water.

If you hand water its best to allow coco to dry out about 50% before you water again.


For example if you water with 10litres of water per plant then you need to get 2litres of water coming out the bottom. Otherwise you can get salt build up.
Which can cause premature yellowing, crispy leaves, nute burn, nute lock, etc.





J

I believe that i am getting adequate runoff but i definitely will pay more attention to make sure its 20 percent. they usually get around 2 liters (half a gallon) each time they are fed. i will also pay more attention to the moisture content of the coir, it usually seems to be pretty drained or somewhat moist each time i feed. I think i have been doing doing pretty good for the most part. i have one room with about 8 healthy flowering plants. trichs are nice and developed and will be cutting some down in a few weeks.

I have noticed every morning when i turn the lights on in flower side(i only have a timer on veg plants but will hook up the timer for flower next time) the humidity meter reads 75 and goes down to around 30 to 50 as soon as the lights come on and the room is opened up for it is closed down well at night to keep light out, but i keep both fans going at night(the intake than sits in the doorway and the exhaust in the rafters that sucks air into the next room over)

so the humidity is at a comfortable level all day but increases dramatically at night, i havent noticed any mold or rot yet but i want to find a way to keep the humidity down at night

i could leave the door opened but then there is outside light in the basement that could get in during the plants's dark cycle

If your exhaust is setup correctly then you should be able to keep it running during the dark cycle.

I try to keep my room below 50% humidity at night.

I have an exhaust running constantly but I also use a dehumidifier as I have experienced bud rot before at 65% during flowering.



J