frequent watering coco. What you tips for growing the best autos?

Being legal at last, this year I grew outdoors. I still have my monster plants outdoors and I am hoping the survive the wet weather.

But now that it is legal for me, I thought, big trees are stressful, and I loved growing in coco a few years ago. So lets grow more. So this year winter, in my 80 x 80 tent, I am going to grow 2 autos gorilla cookies from fastbuds. (okay I am switching to mainly auto as autumn is stressful).

How do you setup the watering? how often to you water in seedling phase and when do you switch to frequent watering? Currently, I am going to start them in 8 Litre pots with a coco/perlite mix, much like in my past grow. What is your weekly watering cycle for an auto?

Haven't used straight coco before. But you have to water enough to keep it wet and get some runoff so salts don't build up.

Grow weed easy has a simple feed regimen of gh 3 part. Add some cal/mag if you need it.

A lot of guys swear by you have to water coco daily if not multiple times a day. I think those guys are crazy lol. I water my coco/perlite mix every 3 days if they need it or not. I do this from seedling all the way to harvest. I think at the prices in Canada now I would just buy mine from a dispensary if I had to water daily. Way to much of a chore. I make a mix for Veg/seedlings and a mix for my Flowering. Pretty simple. I do this with both my photo's and auto's.

I'm not the best grower, but they don't look thirsty.
Canuk Seeds Cherry Pie and Gifted Grand Daddy Purp X (youtube.com)

48hrs pump was unplugged. Barely survived. Fed 2x a day. I tried 1x thinking I was over doing it. Too dry.

Zogs said:

A lot of guys swear by you have to water coco daily if not multiple times a day. I think those guys are crazy lol. I water my coco/perlite mix every 3 days if they need it or not. I do this from seedling all the way to harvest. I think at the prices in Canada now I would just buy mine from a dispensary if I had to water daily. Way to much of a chore. I make a mix for Veg/seedlings and a mix for my Flowering. Pretty simple. I do this with both my photo's and auto's.

I'm not the best grower, but they don't look thirsty.
Canuk Seeds Cherry Pie and Gifted Grand Daddy Purp X (youtube.com)

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I wonder if it's a temp and rh thing.
My tent is 85F and 55ish RH atm. I have to water every two days, smallish auto in a 3 gal bag, peat/bark/pearlite. That medium should hold more water than straight coco right?

Are your temps much cooler?

Roy O'Bannon said:

I wonder if it's a temp and rh thing.
My tent is 85F and 55ish RH atm. I have to water every two days, smallish auto in a 3 gal bag, peat/bark/pearlite. That medium should hold more water than straight coco right?

Are your temps much cooler?

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I'm in a basement so my temps are cooler. I have a wide range in RH swings between winter and summer. 35 RH in winter and 70 in Summer. Your peat/bark mix will hold more water than coco. I wonder if the water every day guys are in smaller containers. I grow in 3g cloth pots. I've used a variety of different coco manufacturers from bricks to bags. All 100% coco coir.

I grow in 8 litres pots that are about 2 gallons. Let's see how it works this time.

I just water by hand until a bit of runoff a few times a day

tick tack toe said:

Being legal at last, this year I grew outdoors. I still have my monster plants outdoors and I am hoping the survive the wet weather.

But now that it is legal for me, I thought, big trees are stressful, and I loved growing in coco a few years ago. So lets grow more. So this year winter, in my 80 x 80 tent, I am going to grow 2 autos gorilla cookies from fastbuds. (okay I am switching to mainly auto as autumn is stressful).

How do you setup the watering? how often to you water in seedling phase and when do you switch to frequent watering? Currently, I am going to start them in 8 Litre pots with a coco/perlite mix, much like in my past grow. What is your weekly watering cycle for an auto?

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I start in solo cups, after a few days I feed to run-off once per day. After a couple weeks they go into 8 liter pots and soon after I'll go to a few feeds per day, it's automated.

There's been lot's of discussion on coco feeding in the hydro section and have a look at cocoforcannabis.com

Roy O'Bannon said:

I wonder if it's a temp and rh thing.
My tent is 85F and 55ish RH atm. I have to water every two days, smallish auto in a 3 gal bag, peat/bark/pearlite. That medium should hold more water than straight coco right?

Are your temps much cooler?

Click to expand...

I have 18 plants in flower and grow in coco and perlite. My plants eat and drink 2-4 times per day. If I let them go a little while and not give them water I can see the droop in their lower leaves, PLUS here is the kicker, pick up the pot. They will be light as hell and screaming for liters! My room is 80F and RH is 45% with 3450W light over 75square feet. High frequency fertigation is real my friends!

I would suggest giving the large Eazyplug pyramid a go. You’ll only need to water twice a week at first moving up to three times a day.

i do it all by hand but you could set up automation but for me that defeats whole purpose.

SouthFloridaGenetics said:

I have 18 plants in flower and grow in coco and perlite. My plants eat and drink 2-4 times per day. If I let them go a little while and not give them water I can see the droop in their lower leaves, PLUS here is the kicker, pick up the pot. They will be light as hell and screaming for liters! My room is 80F and RH is 45% with 3450W light over 75square feet. High frequency fertigation is real my friends!

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what size containers are you in ? Are you on a some sort of drip system ? How do you mix and feed 4 times a day, that's almost a full time job ! I'm only flowering 4-5 plants plus veg plants and it takes over an hour for me to mix and water. I've always been curious and trying to figure out why I only have to water every 3 days in coco. I use 3g smart pots and I water them with about 1g of water to get good run off. I feel like something just doesn't add up with what I'm doing and what some other coco growers are doing.

Zogs said:

what size containers are you in ? Are you on a some sort of drip system ? How do you mix and feed 4 times a day, that's almost a full time job ! I'm only flowering 4-5 plants plus veg plants and it takes over an hour for me to mix and water. I've always been curious and trying to figure out why I only have to water every 3 days in coco. I use 3g smart pots and I water them with about 1g of water to get good run off. I feel like something just doesn't add up with what I'm doing and what some other coco growers are doing.

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I grow in 3 gallon plastic pots. Most everyday I prepare about 40 gallons of water. All hand watered.

First I make two 5 gallon buckets with 1 ml per liter cal mag and a tsp of miracle grow and pH'd for the veg room which currently has one tray of seedlings, and 16-5 inch pots, and six 3 gallon pots, and a 36 spot clone king.

Then I make two 5 gallon buckets with 1 ml per liter cal mag and a tsp of Jacks 1,2,3 and pH'd for the 0-5 week flowers.

Then I make two 5 gallon buckets with 2 ml per liter cal mag and a tsp of PK Bloom and pH'd for the 5-10 week flowers.

This is easy to make. Its just squirt with syringe, dump with teaspoon, squirt with droppers and fill up. I use a 1 liter cup to water. My buckets are colored for identification. I can scoop from them for about a day and a half. I make each as soon as they are empty.

It takes me less than 5 minutes to water the whole room properly. I do it about 2-4 sometimes 5 times in a day. They fucking love it man. You can never over water them, it is impossible due to the water to air ration of the root area in the coco. Soil will not allow for that and you will get root rot. Coco allows. It's about the geometry of the fiber, it's linear and keeps the air trapped for the plants.

My dehumidifier works hard to remove the water from the air from the plants respirating. Each plant puts about 10 pounds of water in the air per day. I have 18 plants so it removes a lot of water to keep RH in spec.

Are you plants fully saturated with 1 liter , do you get good run off ? When I water on the 3rd day there is still some heft to my pots when I lift them and no droopy leaves. What happens if you fully saturate your 3g plants and just water once a day ? You said you have 3450W light over 75square feet, how much of that is just dedicated to your flowering plants and what size room ? I'm just trying to get an apples to apples comparison, I'm flowering in a 3x3 tent with 300w led. I use a 4" exhaust fan with passive air intake. My RH and temps are similar (depending on time of year). I don't use a dehumidifier. I don't get crazy weight when I harvest, but I think pretty close to average for a 3x3, 10-15 ounces every 2 months depending on strains. Not sure weight is a good metric however,, has a lot to do with veg times.

Zogs said:

Are you plants fully saturated with 1 liter , do you get good run off ? When I water on the 3rd day there is still some heft to my pots when I lift them and no droopy leaves. What happens if you fully saturate your 3g plants and just water once a day ? You said you have 3450W light over 75square feet, how much of that is just dedicated to your flowering plants and what size room ? I'm just trying to get an apples to apples comparison, I'm flowering in a 3x3 tent with 300w led. I use a 4" exhaust fan with passive air intake. My RH and temps are similar (depending on time of year). I don't use a dehumidifier.

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I use a 1 liter cup but most of the time each plant gets two or three cups depending on the size of the plant and what stage growth it is in. All my plants are on wire racks so I can water to run off at least once a day. My whole flower area is a 4 x 12 with three lights over it and a 5 x 5 with one light over it. Inside this room is my veg tent which is 18 square feet. It is a 3 x 6 with three lights and exhaust fan. I can keep the RH higher in there than in the flower area. I pump 70F A/C into the room all day and night also in order to keep it under 80F. The whole 3450w is for flower. My veg room has 600w in it at this time. This whole setup is inside a 12 x 15 bedroom with no furniture. I have one more light to put up for the final 5 x 5 area. I have it and put it together already, I just need a little bit of hardware to hang it. I was busy with clones and potting today.

are you running hps or led ? Is that 3450 from the wall ? I wonder how much the ac and dehumidifier are sucking from the plants as apposed to just out of the air. Your driving them harder with that much light, that will play a role. This whole coco water thing just really baffles me as why mine is so different. I use a lot of royal gold coco (red bag), seems like pretty typical coco to me. I don't add anything other than perlite. I've even used brick coco that I had to rehydrate.

(Edit) @tick tack toe, Sorry i've hijacked your thread

Zogs said:

are you running hps or led ? Is that 3450 from the wall ? I wonder how much the ac and dehumidifier are sucking from the plants as apposed to just out of the air. Your driving them harder with that much light, that will play a role. This whole coco water thing just really baffles me as why mine is so different. I use a lot of royal gold coco (red bag), seems like pretty typical coco to me. I don't add anything other than perlite. I've even used brick coco that I had to rehydrate.

(Edit) @tick tack toe, Sorry i've hijacked your thread

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My grow is LED and without AC and dehumidifier my temperature goes 90F and RH 80% or more. I do push my plants hard since they are in the AC. I use one brick coco and a third of a bag of perlite. That;s all. It took me a little while to get a feel for what each size plant needs or wants. For mine imagine putting two plants under the lights during week 1 and two more week 2 and so on until 9 weeks passes and 18 plants are under the flower lights. At 10th week the first two plants that went in are ready to chop. And so on and so on every week two plants. My next project is watering system. I have a decent idea for my specific area.

I recently changed things. Now I feed 5x a day maybe will do 4x vs 8x a day. I was refilling res every 3 days for 16 plants. 4 are 1L mothers fed twice a day and 2 mini flower plants 1L fed as much as the flower plants which I had 5.

Veg tent had 5 plants. 60 gal reservoir. I just kept refilling it no cleaning. Now suddenly having it go bad if I refill instead of clean. I moved veg plants down stairs fed 2x a day 5 plants.

Its cooler so the res can be refilled and stay clear. Now I have 5 plants flower and 2 mini flower plants all fed 5x a day or 4, what ever keeps the reservoir full for a week so I can use best practices cleaning them.

The water stays clear like its screaming “drink me!” which ph stays on the dot all week since pathogens cause cloudiness. Pool shock or h202 dont kill everything so it can still go bad. So I clean pumps and reservoir weekly.

Spend an hr cleaning and 30mins filling. 30 mins refilling veg res or 1 hr cleaning then 30 mins filling. Those one hrs are really 30 mins cleaning 30 mins waiting for the high dose pool shock to dwell on the pumps.

Pumps in bucket with wavemaker plugged in, cleans itself. Soon will do the tubing too routinely. I had a plant go bad and die out suspectly so I tossed the growth and everything it touched to be safe, could be invisible mold like fusarium etc.

I couldnt hand water and doing this outdoors idk, its this tough cleaning weekly due to 80F temps I suspect. I dont usually see dtw coco auto or hand feed setups outdoors but its possible.

Not seeing something before or often doesnt mean much rather its me or a 10yr home grower. I been going through things I never heard of which I described half of it here.

I add pool shock every 2 days since it can go bad in 3 days which 4 was the usual. So I used to every 3 days now its 2. 3 for the basement veg tent which is overkill, the 60-67F temps keep it fresh longer but ooof its annoying to replenish a res if you could of just added pool shock sooner.