How often to water with coco?

[Tom1974]

Morning guys and girls, real newbie question here and on my fourth run now.

I assume most are going to say- the plant will let you know, the weight of the pot will let me know or even dip the gauge in the coco and get a reading but after my last run of which I was only giving my girls 1 litre per day (as advised my someone I have now found out knows nothing at all) and I got a poor result, I am wondering whether to up it this time round?

So far this week I have been giving them 2 litres a day and I finally have been seeing some run off where I haven’t in the past

Girls are looking healthy and seem to be taking it in
(Week 1 of flower)

I have stuck them in some 20ltr AirPots this time round as I heard good things about them also

Many thanks

Tom

[Marcus]

Coco needs to be wet at all times.

I water daily, some folks water twice or thrice a day with good run off every time to clear any leftover salts away. Coco likes to hold onto salts.

When you sling a jug of water at coco, it's also replacing any stale air pockets with fresh air as the water pulls down through it. It's a joy to watch it some mornings.

[Nom]

I don't believe there's one straight answer to this mate. Ask a hundred people and get fifty different answers. That's the beauty of coco, there's plenty of ways to use it and go about watering it by my reckoning. Some use straight coco, some add other stuff, some use big pots some use small pots, some water to run off everytime some don't, some water once a day when the plants rooted out the pot some go for more. I can only tell you what I do, I'm not saying it's the right way but it's what I do.

When the plants small and the pot's big relative to the plant I water sympathetically and re water when the top of the coco has dried a bit and changed colour. As the plant grows I water more frequently or a little bit more volume, but try to get the roots searching for water to get them moving. In veg once established I'm usually every other day until the roots are showing at the bottom of the pot and then i start daily watering to run off, in flower I'm watering atleast once a day. But, I'm not in large pot's generally. Some pot's dry quicker than others. Choice of light may effect water frequency and/or volume. Strength of fertigation can be manipulated to frequency aswel. There can be much to consider. Watch the plant, see how it reacts and make decisions based on that. At the end of the day, it lives, it grows, it gets me high. I'm not a pro or experienced.

Sometimes you gotta kinda paddle your own canoe until you know where your at. That said plenty of other experienced growers will chime in soon enough.



Edit look Marcus has beat me to it and I've seen him grow a plant before

[2-Scoops]

I water full sized vegging or flowering plants with 4 to 5 litres every 2 days in 10 litre pots to plenty of run off, i sling it through fast so it backs up on top of coco then it pulls in fresh air and replaces old stale air like Marcus mentioned, kinda working like a piston i suppose. Smaller plants i water less frequent.

[Tom1974]

Aweosme replies guys, just awesome

Next silly question though this is my first time I’ve actually been getting run off- what do you guys do with it?

Whilst the plants are small I am able to lift the pot out of the tray and tip it away but give it a few weeks and once the nets are in place I don’t have a clue how I will get rid of all that run off?

Cheers guys!!!!

[Marcus]

Aweosme replies guys, just awesome

Next silly question though this is my first time I’ve actually been getting run off- what do you guys do with it?

Whilst the plants are small I am able to lift the pot out of the tray and tip it away but give it a few weeks and once the nets are in place I don’t have a clue how I will get rid of all that run off?

Cheers guys!!!!

Sling it down the bog or use it in the garden, up to you.

I've used a turkey baster to suck the run off up, a big syringe and also a wet n dry vacuum.

[Nom]

How tall is whatever it is you are growing in? You could put plant on a grill raised up or something with space below for a saucer

[Tom1974]

Yeah I was thinking a wet and dry vacuum and get in there and suck it from the trays/dishes the pots are in.

At the minute it’s very easy lift the pot and tip it into a bucket x 8 and pour it in the back garden on the grass.

Just worrying about when it gets to the stage of not being able to lift them up and remove the trays and empty etc

Cheers guys

[Tom1974]

How tall is whatever it is you are growing in? You could put plant on a grill raised up or something with space below for a saucer

That’s actually not a bad idea, I’m in a 2x2x2 tent and first couple of runs I really struggled with height issues and had to bend the plants and burnt a couple

Last run my strain was a shorter type and I also used the LEDs in a way of keeping them shorter and closer to stop stretch

Grill sounds great for the eight girls I have and it wouldn’t need to be extremely high either would it?

Just enough to slide the saucer in and out.

Wonder if you could buy something similar from a bbq type selling store? Mmmmmm

[Marcus]

I sit my pots on cake cooling racks from the pound shop in the trays so the bottoms of the pots don;t sit in the run off anyway. I can leave it for a few days between clearing it out too. You could prop them up a bit higher than a small saucer and just remove that daily?