What's your watering schedule with Coco?

At first with me it was every 2 days a gallon in each pot. Now they're bigger and drinking all the water and nutes I give them IN A DAY!

First grow was with a soil medium and I watered every 3 days.

Anyone got any feedback?

giv it just plain water every 3rd or 4th watering to stop salts building up

No you don't understand. If i did that'd they be drooping... lol

I water (and feed) daily in coco all the way through. Treat it like hydro and you'll get hydro growth. (ie. HUGE) Treat it like soil and you'll get soil growth.

2¢

Samuel Caldwell said:

I water (and feed) daily in coco all the way through. Treat it like hydro and you'll get hydro growth. (ie. HUGE) Treat it like soil and you'll get soil growth.

2¢

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Thanks, just the answer I was looking for. +rep if I can

Lots of info in the big coco thread. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/163510-coco-growers-unite.html

yeah im a fan of watering every day with coco.
ive done the water every other day method and had lessor results.

smaller pots and watering more often works wonders for me.
i like 1 gallon pots and water with about 5-10% run off every day

jonblaze420 said:

At first with me it was every 2 days a gallon in each pot. Now they're bigger and drinking all the water and nutes I give them IN A DAY!

First grow was with a soil medium and I watered every 3 days.

Anyone got any feedback?

Click to expand...

Coco tends to provide a perfect structure for the suspended salts that make up the nutrient solution to form crystals. That crystalized salt will kill your plant dead at worst and retard growth at best.
To prevent this I now do this. Make sure the entire medium in the pot is wet, 100% total saturation is what I'm aiming for. This will significantly reduce the suspended molecules of salt from crystalizing in the first place. One of the most attractive attributes of Coco, and yes there are many, is it's ability to provide oxygen laden air to the roots. this is a plus if you are not going to allow a medium to become dry. I accomplish the task of saturation by completely submerging my pot into a larger vessel untill all air and total maximum saturation is achieved. I will often allow the pot to rest in the solution and thereby wetting the crystals that are in the process of solidifying and hopefully re-suspending those molecules. As the excess water is sucked out of the pot by gravity oxygen rich air is sucked into the root zone. That is of course a good thing.
The salt crystals that have been attracted to each other and the process that is required to complete the solidification of the salt crystalization has been disturbed and the salts have now become re-suspended and are again in a form usable to the plant. The crystals that were begining to form around the roots have been washed away and these roots are now bathed in freshly suspended nutrient molecules that are readily absorbed by the plant. Once a week or so I think it wise to repeat this process this several times as a good agitation of the medium further assures completely crystal free grow medium. It also has the added advantages of no waste of expensive nutrient solution and also gives the plant roots thefull use of every available cubic inch of space within the container without restictions to wet zones only.
that will assure that all of the molecules are suspended and have not become solid.

Doser thanks. Is this technique called "drowning" them? I have 5 plants in 5 gallon pots and 1 in a 7 gallon pot. I give them all one gallon of fresh water first then a gallon of water with 3 tsp of fox farm's grow big.

Will flushing them first before feeding accomplish the same thing as the bucket of water technique? I'm interested. Thanks everyone for the great replies btw too.

it seems like the method described to you by doser would require re-using the nutrient solution after its been used.

i drain to waste and have zero salt build ups. nor do i have a problem with PH (i think reusing water fucks with PH) plus it just doesnt seem right to reuse a nutrient solution after your plant has used any amount of nutrients that you want to feed with (if your dunking aren't you effectively lowering the nutrient to water ratio?). i like using full strength nutes.

the 2 reasons i tell myself why i drain to waste LOL.


edit: it seems like all he is telling you to do is ebb and flow with your coco.....

I bring the plants to the bath tub to water and feed. All the run off goes down the drain.

Sometimes if I let them drain in their saucer I'll reuse it on house plants, but not on the weed plants.

jonblaze420 said:

I bring the plants to the bath tub to water and feed. All the run off goes down the drain.

Sometimes if I let them drain in their saucer I'll reuse it on house plants, but not on the weed plants.

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i have special places to water mine. if i watered in the bathtub there'd be hell to pay lol...
i usually catch it though and do a little watering around the yard on misc plants, usually whatever is looking the worst at the time.

ya gotta be careful if you have any dogs too because they love whatever is in that shit(i think its the fish emulsion) and they like to dig where you pour it.
and it always seems no matter how strong or whatever i put in the nutrient solution, that it has a positive effect on plants of all sorts. probably just improving what nature is lacking for all those years.

Not drowning them just a quick rinse
Yeah, not really re-inventing the wheel here, nothing earth shaking. but it is a little different from ebb abd flow.
not much but a little.
works for me so far
just sayin
not trying to run your grow, just tellin ya what I think
the only thing I have against drain to waste is the waste
Well notreally, I have a few things against it
the most important is the salt build-up
if you are not experiencing salt build-up then hell yeah, keep doin whatchyer doin
I was experincing a lot of regional drying, not consistent moisture levels throughout the pot. That and salt build-up
now I'm not
simple

Just out of curiosity and I don't want a bunch of crap started but what do you think is wrong with re-using fresh nutes
It's the exact same thing as a re-circulating system
must be about a bazillion of those in use
salts are salts unless an anarobic condition exists which really has no bearing on the salts it's just that the solution is anarobic
two differnt things. I never have nute solution around for more than two or three days. the first day is deliberate as the label says to leave it rest for whatever reason for "some hours"
next day works for me.
I think the only valid downside is that now all of the plants are using the same water.
I do worry about that. I do check PH before and after and also before and after PPM
I think I havea pretty good handle on what's taking place in my grow. Not a lot gets by me as I am looking at them with a magnifying glass twice a day
Took everyone elses advice before I decide to do it this way Nothing worked untill I did it this way and things turned around dramatically in twelve hrs. using my way
it's all about results up here in my own private Idaho

Nothing wrong with thinking for yourself if other advice isn't working
It doesn't even hurt.............I promise

I don't have a schedule. I just give them what they need, when they need it.

hydro or recirculating systems dont use coco. or at least ive never heard of it.. most use hydroton, rock wool, dyna rock, plugs, net pots you name it,..
and in a hydroponics system you are able to push the ppm far beyond what is recommended without any harm usually. i cant do that in coco..
i dont seem to have any issues with salt or dry spots.

yeah im not doubting your skills man. nor telling you how to do what you do , just answering the questions the way i do it.
thanks for the tips though, i always like to learn something new from a fine tuned gardener!
maybe ill make a totally separate batch of nutes to try your method for a grow and compare to ones i do. sounds fun

I'm just saying that I had an issue with yellowing leaves from the bottom up. I was getting advice like nute lockout, ph probs, needed nitrogen. fuck i'm open I tried it
20% of my crop was DIEING.Tried this "soil wash" to get back to the beginning which has been nothing less than AWSOME.
turned it 180 Derees in twelve hrs. I'm sold