Run off or no run off in coco?

Just really wondering if you should water till run off or not in coco read quite a few sites saying a bit of both. I read ask Edds coco guide and he says to water frequently low doses but you can hit em hard when you want? Btw this is my first grow have 5 shiva skunk at about 6 weeks. I've not had any run of yet as scared to over water them. Any info is appreciated as I'm a noob! Lol

if your in pure coco i dont think you can over water them unless you have no drainage holes in the container

Water them a bit, and then wait and listen, you can hear the water sinking in to the coco, in a few minutes if any if going to run off it will. I think the general idea is that you should water good once and then let it dry out before you water again, but I have tried just watering a bit everyday and it seems to have worked ok. Next grow I am going to try to water and until it starts to run off and see if I end up with any better results

It all depends on the coco and its consistency . Some coco products are more dust than coir and with these you must use caution as it can be waterlogged .

Be careful when reading what other say about coco , the coco products out now are much cleaner and more superior compared to the coco products of yesteryear ..

I use canna coco and I water til I get a 1/4 - 1/2 gallon runoff. It has work fine for me no probs. I also have 20% perlite mixed in to the coco. I water when near dry....

MrDoobie94 said:

Just really wondering if you should water till run off or not in coco read quite a few sites saying a bit of both. I read ask Edds coco guide and he says to water frequently low doses but you can hit em hard when you want? Btw this is my first grow have 5 shiva skunk at about 6 weeks. I've not had any run of yet as scared to over water them. Any info is appreciated as I'm a noob! Lol

Click to expand...

everyone who posted is correct BUT..... it depends what type of nutrients you are using and what your feed solution is PH at. Coco has excelent air/water retention, because of this water retention trait it also holds any nutrient thats in the feed water. If you leach every watering you are wasting nutrient and water. The key is to feed a lesser strength nutrient than normal and feed little but often. That way the plants have a chance to eat up all the newly delivered nutrient and water, then have a breif chance to dry out before the next feed cycle. If the feed times and nutrient strength is on point then there is no need to encourage runnoff or leach the media before flowering or switching to a ignitor or bloom booster.

I am in the process of running 2 mothers and took 8 clones from them today. The mothers are in 2.5gallon nursery pots. Each pot has a bottom layer of 1" hydroton. Then perlite on top of that to keep the soil from washing out. Then I use sunshine advanced mix # 4 for the main media bed, followed by another 1" layer of hydroton and finally another layer of perlite. They are fed advanced nutrients PH perfect G,M,B with additive B-52. I am dosing fertilizer salts at 1ml/L and 2ml/L for additives. My PH is 5.7, EC is .98, PPM is 535.

Plants are only 9-10" tall and have 1 set of nodes for every inch. 39 days from seed. I feed cycle is supplied by a 1056GPH magdrive on a cycle timer set to feed 10sec and off for 1hr. The cycle timer has a built in photo cell that allows plants to feed only durring lights on. If you feed at night the plants can become sussecptiable to problems and disease. I never have runoff, I never flush.

Now to test the accuracy and efficencie of your feed cycles and rate that your plants are consuming the nutrients you can encourage some runoff. Do this by hand and test for EC and PPM and PH. Since you are in coco, you are hydro and PH is needed at 5.5-6.0 and if your nutrient values have decreasses from your feed water values, your good.

My feed schedual delivers 2.5 fl. oz. every time. when I notice the plants stop responding to the nutrient values, its time to up the dose. Plants do speak, you just need to listen. good luck hit me if you have any ?'s

OHHH, 1 last thing.. Light source, Ambient temp, soil temp, air flow within the enclosure, intake & exhaust and RH all effect the nutrient comsumption as well as water.

The coco i have retains water for to long. Ive overwatered many plants and seedlings figuring out how to water it. If i water fully, or until run off, the coco takes more than a week to dry in a 16oz cup. I now have plants in 1 gal pots and water 1 cup a day. Seems to be working so far. I also dont water directly into plant, only around the edge.

Sir KK

i was worried about the same when I used coco. I added some perlite and hydroton to the mix, put them in nursery pots with a 4" airstone on the bottom. This extra 02 has no place to go but up, supercharging the plants metabolism and helping with any soggy spots. Since then I have always put a stone in every pot. And the results are very prolific!!!

coco is a soiless mix and inert its suppose to be treated like hydro which means water and nutes everyday its not suppose to be dry its not soil and you cant treat it as such...

that said the only time you should go easy and let it dry out some is when there seedlings. after they have a few nodes and a root mass water with nutes everyday. some people like to use alittle at a time and water multiple times a day others like to just do 1 big dose and have runoff.

but either way its not soil and cant be treated as such dont let it dry out, once you have root mass its almost impossible to overwater.

viper2020cobra said:

coco is a soiless mix and inert its suppose to be treated like hydro which means water and nutes everyday its not suppose to be dry its not soil and you cant treat it as such...

that said the only time you should go easy and let it dry out some is when there seedlings. after they have a few nodes and a root mass water with nutes everyday. some people like to use alittle at a time and water multiple times a day others like to just do 1 big dose and have runoff.

but either way its not soil and cant be treated as such dont let it dry out, once you have root mass its almost impossible to overwater.

Click to expand...

I agree, seedlings need less, but bigger plants will suck the pot dry of moisture in a day.... due to the amount of roots...

Add some perlite to your coco if you are having issues with too much water retention. Other than that coco is a very forgiving medium just water and wait for a few moments until you see run off and you will be good. Been doing this style for about 13 months now and have been very happy with the results. Wait until your pots get a little light and water them you will never over water with this method and it is very easy to do. Good luck with your ladies and happy growing!

viper2020cobra said:

coco is a soiless mix and inert its suppose to be treated like hydro which means water and nutes everyday its not suppose to be dry its not soil and you cant treat it as such...

that said the only time you should go easy and let it dry out some is when there seedlings. after they have a few nodes and a root mass water with nutes everyday. some people like to use alittle at a time and water multiple times a day others like to just do 1 big dose and have runoff.

but either way its not soil and cant be treated as such dont let it dry out, once you have root mass its almost impossible to overwater.

Click to expand...

Im sorry friend but you are wrong. perlite is inert and so is river rock or peat or sure to grow or rockwool. Coco however is potassium rich and bonds with cal and mg. that doesnt sound too inert to me.
However I will clear this up quickly for you. Coco has a natural near perfect PH meaning 5.5-5.8. It makes no sense to fuck with a good thing by adding dolomite to buffer. When using coco its a good idea to adjust your PH to that of hydro.

The word soiless simply means that you the grower has not added any ammendments to the mix in place of daily feedings.
The word soil means with ammendments ie, kelp meal, azomite, soft rock phosphate, ect...--- people like to call these soil grows. And thats that!

bseeds said:

if your in pure coco i dont think you can over water them unless you have no drainage holes in the container

Click to expand...

If you don't know then don't comment. You definitely can over water coco so shhhh

Grower202085 said:

If you don't know then don't comment. You definitely can over water coco so shhhh

Click to expand...

Lol. This thread is over 8 years old and the member you quoted hasn't been seen in 4 years..........I doubt he'll respond. Lol.

Grower202085 said:

If you don't know then don't comment. You definitely can over water coco so shhhh

Click to expand...

Tell us more master

You can overwater coco, usually seedlings or young clones. Once a root system is established in a correctly undersized pot tho, its impossible.

And no you dont need to water til runoff if multifeeding everyday. New growers should aim for a small amount of runoff to avoid salt build up, however.

Watering to 1/2 gallon runoff is beyond wastage.

Beaches Compassion said:

Water them a bit, and then wait and listen, you can hear the water sinking in to the coco, in a few minutes if any if going to run off it will. I think the general idea is that you should water good once and then let it dry out before you water again, but I have tried just watering a bit everyday and it seems to have worked ok. Next grow I am going to try to water and until it starts to run off and see if I end up with any better results

Click to expand...

I love that sound. Like a waterfall, that grows weed

thinn said:

I agree, seedlings need less, but bigger plants will suck the pot dry of moisture in a day.... due to the amount of roots...

Click to expand...

I agree with these too. I have overwatered seedlings in cups so they only get between 10ml and 40ml per day. Just enough too wet the top layer and let it sink through. Once I'm in my 15L or 3 gallon pots I believe. They get fed every day until runoff and they drink that up everyday

stainer said:

I agree with these too. I have overwatered seedlings in cups so they only get between 10ml and 40ml per day. Just enough too wet the top layer and let it sink through. Once I'm in my 15L or 3 gallon pots I believe. They get fed every day until runoff and they drink that up everyday

Click to expand...

You let them drink runoff?
BTW, amost 10 year old thread.