Feeding in coco help and advice please

Hi guys me again lol

so I’ve been doing some more reading and think I’ve been feeding wrong ...should I be making sure each time I give them there food it drains out the bottom? And how often I’ve just been using the weight of the pot as a guideline ? ... don’t think I’ve been giving enough each time though tbh as there in 20l pots , I’ve ready they need about 5 lites each time is that right ?

I water 2.5ltrs every other day with ZERO run off. I quickly learnt that the run off EC and PH differed from the top and was almost a cunt to balance.

Then I thought DTW? Fuck that kids in Africa cant get water, why we chucking it on the floor in forms of run off.

Run off is a waste and really only have it's use for diagnostic purposes, even then it's very limited and pointless.

Little and often over having litres of run off.

Here's the thing with coco mate. It's hydroponics. It's inert. Ie, does nothing.
Just a big ol empty sponge to hold roots, nutes and air.
It's nice and airy so the more you water it, the more air the roots get and the better the plant can breath.

It's almost impossible to over water it but if you don't water enough you'll get garunteed dramas.

The reason being, when it dries out, so do the nutes. They turn back into salts and build up...very quickly.
So you can see this and know I'm not wrong, make some of your usual nutes up.
Check the ph and ppm then run some through a pot. Collect the first 200ml that comes back out and check the numbers for that.
You'll see the ppm is higher than what you put in. Ppm is a measurement of TDS total dissolved solids. In this case, its the amount of salt in the liquid.
Bear in mind it's a diluted result too so what's in the pot is much higher.

This build up in turn fucks your ph. Once your ph goes you'll get nutrient lockouts.
Looks like cal and/or mag def at first then gets worse pretty quick.

If youre good at dosing nutes, regulating ph swings and know how to read plants well. then you can absolutely get away with being lazy regarding the watering but ... You're here asking the question so you won't manage it.

Just feed every day to run off mate.
What that does is flushes out some of the salt build up. Resets the ph of the pot and resets the nute levels.
You want what's in the pot to be exactly what you're feeding it. That way if anything starts to look off it's easy to see what's needed because everything's pretty balanced.

Too much of one nute locks out another,
Poor ph can cause too many possible issues to mention.
If you feed every day to run off though then you bring the risk of these possible dramas down to almost zero.

For seedlings 200ppm nutes plus the water.
For veg 400-500ppm nutes plus the water.
Fir bloom 500-800ppm plus the water.
Ph5.7-6.3, best to stick to the higher end once you hit bloom.
Feed every day to full saturation and run off.
If you do that then you've got the highest possible chance of having a perfect run as that behaviour cancels out the possibility of 99% of all related dramas.

Hope that helps buddy

I used to do feed-water-feed-water cycle when I was a noob and they turned out ok, that was in hempys though so there was always a reservoir, hell I'm still a noob what am I talking about

spliffendz said:

I used to do feed-water-feed-water cycle when I was a noob and they turned out ok, that was in hempys though so there was always a reservoir, hell I'm still a noob what am I talking about

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That's what I do with my hempys mate.
It is very bad practice but it works out perfect for me. Due to my water, nutes and the way the ph swings over time I can feed them at ph6.9-7.1 as they come and they fix it down themselves.
It's mostly luck that I figured it out though, not something I'd recommend a new grower to try.

Summetspeacial303 said:

Hi guys me again lol

so I’ve been doing some more reading and think I’ve been feeding wrong ...should I be making sure each time I give them there food it drains out the bottom? And how often I’ve just been using the weight of the pot as a guideline ? ... don’t think I’ve been giving enough each time though tbh as there in 20l pots , I’ve ready they need about 5 lites each time is that right ?

Click to expand...

As long as your nutes are good run off only really helps you idenyify that youve watered them more than enough

EvilScotsm@n said:

Here's the thing with coco mate. It's hydroponics. It's inert. Ie, does nothing.
Just a big ol empty sponge to hold roots, nutes and air.
It's nice and airy so the more you water it, the more air the roots get and the better the plant can breath.

It's almost impossible to over water it but if you don't water enough you'll get garunteed dramas.

The reason being, when it dries out, so do the nutes. They turn back into salts and build up...very quickly.
So you can see this and know I'm not wrong, make some of your usual nutes up.
Check the ph and ppm then run some through a pot. Collect the first 200ml that comes back out and check the numbers for that.
You'll see the ppm is higher than what you put in. Ppm is a measurement of TDS total dissolved solids. In this case, its the amount of salt in the liquid.
Bear in mind it's a diluted result too so what's in the pot is much higher.

This build up in turn fucks your ph. Once your ph goes you'll get nutrient lockouts.
Looks like cal and/or mag def at first then gets worse pretty quick.

If youre good at dosing nutes, regulating ph swings and know how to read plants well. then you can absolutely get away with being lazy regarding the watering but ... You're here asking the question so you won't manage it.

Just feed every day to run off mate.
What that does is flushes out some of the salt build up. Resets the ph of the pot and resets the nute levels.
You want what's in the pot to be exactly what you're feeding it. That way if anything starts to look off it's easy to see what's needed because everything's pretty balanced.

Too much of one nute locks out another,
Poor ph can cause too many possible issues to mention.
If you feed every day to run off though then you bring the risk of these possible dramas down to almost zero.

For seedlings 200ppm nutes plus the water.
For veg 400-500ppm nutes plus the water.
Fir bloom 500-800ppm plus the water.
Ph5.7-6.3, best to stick to the higher end once you hit bloom.
Feed every day to full saturation and run off.
If you do that then you've got the highest possible chance of having a perfect run as that behaviour cancels out the possibility of 99% of all related dramas.

Hope that helps buddy

Click to expand...

Brilliant mate , that’s covered a lot for me thanks ! Guessing it’s easier to grow in soil ?

Summetspeacial303 said:

Brilliant mate , that’s covered a lot for me thanks ! Guessing it’s easier to grow in soil ?

Click to expand...

Soils a guessing game.

EvilScotsm@n said:

Just feed every day to run off mate.
What that does is flushes out some of the salt build up. Resets the ph of the pot and resets the nute levels.

Click to expand...

This.
Plus it pulls more o2 into the roots.

Summetspeacial303 said:

Brilliant mate , that’s covered a lot for me thanks ! Guessing it’s easier to grow in soil ?

Click to expand...

Haha not at all mate.
All you gotta do is feed week nutes every day to run off and nothing can go wrong.
You gotta check the ppm and ph of the feed but you've gotta do that with soil anyway.
So might aswell use coco and get much better yields, no chance of over watering and 90% less chance of pests.
That's another big can of worms with soil cos your almost garunteed to be fighting critters and you've gotta find things to use that don't effect the plants.
Not so much of an issue with coco as it comes sterile and you can further sterilize it with h2o2/bleach etc if you want.

It all sounds complicated mate but honestly just feed weak. Feed every day to full saturation and run off and the worst that can happen is they go a little hungry. Makes em turn a bit yellow. You see it. Up the dose a little and all is well.

Takes a lot more skill and a lot more knowledge to do a propper soil run. There's more thought goes into the soil than a hydro grower puts into his whole grow.
We just follow numbers on sticks like a monkey mate. Easy peasy

coreywebster said:

This.
Plus it pulls more o2 into the roots.

Click to expand...

Line 4 mate. I beat you to it lol.

Summetspeacial303 said:

Hi guys me again lol

so I’ve been doing some more reading and think I’ve been feeding wrong ...should I be making sure each time I give them there food it drains out the bottom? And how often I’ve just been using the weight of the pot as a guideline ? ... don’t think I’ve been giving enough each time though tbh as there in 20l pots , I’ve ready they need about 5 lites each time is that right ?

Click to expand...

This should help you out.




It’s my kind of journal showing how and what and why I feed.

I never exceed 1.4EC I feed lightly at all times.


I apply Calmag products and show pics of why and at what rate to use it etc.


I grow 4 plants in 11L pots and I use approx 12 litres per 4 plants with a good amount of run off.

I store my mixed feed in a 25L Jerry can and it sustains 2 feedings before it needs filling.

I use a 400w HID setup.


I start with 200w CFL for seeds and early veg

400w MH for further veg and a 400w HPS for flowering.

EvilScotsm@n said:

Line 4 mate. I beat you to it lol.

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Brilliant again mate , thanks ... would u advise to do half nutes then ? I’ve just filled 120l but with full strength

jondamon said:

This should help you out.

What I’m doing now!

Just a few snaps from yesterday. 2x DINAFEM CRITICAL+ 1x DINAFEM WHITE SIBERIAN 1x DELICIOUS SEEDS ELEVEN ROSES Temps and RH can be seen in the pics. Plants are in straight coco (canna pro) with DUTCH PRO COCO GROW A/B with 0.2EC extra Ca. Feed EC 0.8. Water starting EC 0.2. pH in 6...

www.rollitup.org

It’s my kind of journal showing how and what and why I feed.

I never exceed 1.4EC I feed lightly at all times.


I apply Calmag products and show pics of why and at what rate to use it etc.


I grow 4 plants in 11L pots and I use approx 12 litres per 4 plants with a good amount of run off.

I store my mixed feed in a 25L Jerry can and it sustains 2 feedings before it needs filling.

I use a 400w HID setup.


I start with 200w CFL for seeds and early veg

400w MH for further veg and a 400w HPS for flowering.

View attachment 4633604View attachment 4633605View attachment 4633606View attachment 4633607View attachment 4633608

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Thanks mate , nice info I’ll take a read

EvilScotsm@n said:

Line 4 mate. I beat you to it lol.

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Also mate what u use to get your run off out them drip trays are useless I bet ?

Summetspeacial303 said:

Thanks mate , nice info I’ll take a read

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My nutes recommend running between 2.0-2.6EC.

I don’t exceed 1.4EC

Summetspeacial303 said:

Brilliant again mate , thanks ... would u advise to do half nutes then ? I’ve just filled 120l but with full strength

Click to expand...

Post a pic of the plants and one of the feed schedule your using mate. Be able to work out the right strength from that if you haven't got a ppm meter.

Summetspeacial303 said:

Also mate what u use to get your run off out them drip trays are useless I bet ?

Click to expand...

I elevate my plants and use a 2L jug and a 5L bottle.

I don’t understand the ec at all lol only think I measure is ph levels , I’ve got some pics I’ll post them now

Here they are