Newb Coco Questions

I would like to start experimenting with coco, as I'm not getting great results (yield-wise) in soil after a year of grows so far in my tent, with an average of 3-4 oz per harvest. It's just a small closet scrog setup in a 4 x 2 tent with a 600w hortilux.

Is it possible to run a coco setup in an area this small? I realize I could downsize the pots and fit more plants in there, but what about the drainage? If I put all the plants in a tub, will the pots soak up the drainage from hand watering or would I have to remove the excess after each watering?

I would remove the water after each watering you don't want what you washed out of the pots watering to be pulled back into your root zone. It can make for excessive nutrient build up.

So that would be my only issue then, figuring out a way to dump the excess water from a small crowded space.

Well I guess remember that coco likes to b moist as its not dirt so don't treat it that way. Try to keep the medium moist at all times and use good run off when you water. You can feed every watering as well, ph is optimal at 5.8 IMO

If you have a shop vac it will work great at removing the excess water.

The "moist" you'll have to fig out on your own I always went by weight of the pot so

I could just place a large tray or tub in the tent and have the pots raised somehow. I am familiar with how coco works just seems like a lot of work to water/feed every day and vacuum it out daily as well. My intent in starting this thread was to try to figure out an efficient way to do a micro coco grow but it looks like there's no easy way around it .

Do a table with some runoff collection trays, you can use underbed storage containers, 1/2" drain tubing, 1/2" barbs, 1/2" grommets. You can use hydroton to raise the pots so they aren't sitting in runoff.

Set up flood or drip to waste easiest way I could think of.

http://shop.gyostuff.com/Eco-3-Gallon-Pot-EGP310.htm?categoryId=-1 <This type of pot for your coco. Doesn't matter what the area size is, if you can fit the pot in there you can grow it. Do you know the coco basics? Like washing excess salts (unless its pretreated) and treating it with calmag, etc?
Doesn't matter where you get the pot from, that's just the grow store I go to.
Bottom feeding with those pots will prevent other issues like fungus gnats, I find they work splendidly with coco.

If you're looking for something automated you could hook up a pump into a res with a timer, but you'd need to toy with it a bit before finding proper watering settings to avoid over/underwatering.

chocobear said:

http://shop.gyostuff.com/Eco-3-Gallon-Pot-EGP310.htm?categoryId=-1 <This type of pot for your coco. Doesn't matter what the area size is, if you can fit the pot in there you can grow it. Do you know the coco basics? Like washing excess salts (unless its pretreated) and treating it with calmag, etc?
Doesn't matter where you get the pot from, that's just the grow store I go to.
Bottom feeding with those pots will prevent other issues like fungus gnats, I find they work splendidly with coco.

If you're looking for something automated you could hook up a pump into a res with a timer, but you'd need to toy with it a bit before finding proper watering settings to avoid over/underwatering.

Click to expand...

I know the basics of coco just by reading online but was unsure how to go about setting up in a tent. The problem is I don't have room around the tent for extra equipment, as the closet is pretty cramped (actually use it as a closet as well). I may be able to clear some room for a small reservoir outside the tent but dont know where to begin to learn how to piece something together.

I do have a 633 gph submersible pump laying around and some timers. I had hooked it up to a coil water hose before and watering wand to make watering easier for me, and used a 5 gallon bucket as a reservoir.

Height is a problem as well for raised setups as my tent is 5' high and I have a large air cooled hood in there. I suppose I could gain some room with a cool tube instead.

Then I'd suggest eco pots for planters and just water them like you would soil with a saucer underneath. If you're limited on space I'd switch to LED lighting. Not much time to respond right now, will be able to give more feedback later most likely