Drain to Waste?

[veen]

Hello all IC maggers... many of you are very helpful and very willing to share knowledge to a stranger... good stuff. Anyway, my question today is when speaking of a drain to waste feeding schedule does that mean you dump out the waste after it drains? or let the roots take care of suckin up the rest?

2nd Is mixing coco tek coir with coco tek chips 50-50 a good ratio if you are wanting to handwater 1nce or 2wice a day?

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[nandro]

Simply feeding 'til water exits your drainage holes sufficiently. Doing this helps prevent nutrient lock-out, excessive salt build-up and overall gives the plants precisely what they need. I like to do aggressive feeds, feeding-to-waste. Never once have I had a deficiency or toxicity in either, containers or hydro setups.

Second, yes that is a good mix. You know Cocotek/GH makes 'mixed bricks', as well? Chips, fibers and pith...it's good shit for sure, but your coir/chips mix will be just fine.

hope that helps,
Nandro

 

[mme_oscar]

High,

Hello all IC maggers... many of you are very helpful and very willing to share knowledge to a stranger... good stuff. Anyway, my question today is when speaking of a drain to waste feeding schedule does that mean you dump out the waste after it drains? or let the roots take care of suckin up the rest?

2nd Is mixing coco tek coir with coco tek chips 50-50 a good ratio if you are wanting to handwater 1nce or 2wice a day?

THANK YOU!!!!

Yep: drain to waste is, as called, the dumping of the 20/30% run off... Don't let roots suck the rest of your solution as the run off is more salty than your solution!!!

However, I'm not a fan of this way to grow... Recirculating, even in coco, do the trick in a cheaper & more ecological-friendly way, without any loss regarding the yeild !!! (IMHO )

I can't really answer to the 2nd question as it depends of yours temps, humidity..etc... However, 50% chips sound a bit too much to me for a decent handwatering grow (except if you wanna spend time & time to water your girls!!!)

+++

PS: have a look for an automatic watering system as it really increase yield & make life easier!!!

 

[-VT-]

Run to waste can be automated. Doesn't have to be laborious.
I've yet to find any research that conclusively determined more frequent irrigation is superior to one fertigation per day

I agree with Canna, and their research on this one

 

[BlueHaze]

I have done 3 feeding, 2 feeding and one good feeding an get same result. I don't like to recirculate for some reason get shitty yield.

 

[Guest]

Run to waste can be automated. Doesn't have to be laborious.
I've yet to find any research that conclusively determined more frequent irrigation is superior to one fertigation per day

I agree with Canna, and their research on this one

VT am switching to coco soon....

Any chance you have a link for that canna research????

Love to read good science.....

 

[-VT-]

Any chance you have a link for that canna research????

Love to read good science.....

Courtesy of Bonecarver_OG :

CANNAS TIP ON HIGHER YIELDS!!!!!!​

 

[Conrad Shepard]

Hell, you wanna talk less is more... This last run I decided to try things a little different. 100% Canna Coco btw, 2g bags, Indica. I went on a hand watering schedule skipping 2 days, and watering on the 3rd. Basically treated it like a soil run. And I did the best ever I've done yet off a 1kw.

I dont disagree that watering every other day would be better however, I'm just showing how one could have success, with having to do alot less work, esp hand-waterer's out there. Now this pertains to 2g bags. Obviously if you have smaller pots, say 1g, I think with that size pot, at MINIMUM you should water every other day.

 

[Onepunchko]

I may be wrong here, but I feel like I notice that when I used to feed my plants less often they would be almost starving and would just explode once they got there feeding. Im feeding them 3 times a day now and they are looking great, but Im wondering if there is any truth to what Im asking. I would think the more they eat the more they grow, but I not 100% sure.

 

[Guest]

Ok .... so Ive actually never grown in coco....

but I have a little issue with this concept of how often you fertigate....

I believe Ive seen pictures of canna and have some sunleaves.....

canna (as I recall) looks very much like soil and probably absorbs better than sunleaves....

I cant help but think that sunleaves since it is coarser and more fibrous would benefit from say 2 per day where canna is once.....

 

[-VT-]

DTW and Recirc...

DTW and Recirc...

To think a company marketing fertilser as "canna" is unaware that their market is comprised of MJ growers...well, I'd be shocked if they didn't know they had MJ growers buying their shit, lol

The biggest advantage of a closed system (recirc) is that the environment is less impacted (may depend on what you're wasting....still researching that aspect of this debate as it pertains to us, here)....the theory would be that dumping a reservoir has a much smaller environmental impact

water conservation is another advantage of recirc...the key in DTW is minimal runoff...5%-10% is my goal...I now understand anything more is wasteful, and has more impact on the environment....will take me some time to dial in, as I've just constructed an automated dtw....

With DTW...as stated above...the plants get a full meal each fertigation....and the spread of disease is greatly reduced. if you recirc and one plant gets a root disease...it will spread.

 

[samba]

Sorry for jumping in and asking, but...
What size rez would you want if you'r feeding 15*7L(~2gallons) pots with 50/50 coco/hydroton (expanded clay balls), ones a day and waste to drain..?

 

[-VT-]

Been a while since I cut coco with hydrotron....I'd guess at at least a 20 gal rez...., I am unsure if there is a monolithic answer here....I mean, let's consider the variables:

1. RH%
2. Temps
3. Irrigation frequency
4. Container size/root mass ratios
5. Plumbing volume (in fact I gotta go research how to calculate plumbing volume again...rusty )

I'll most likely take my readings weekly....and reduce the supply accordingly....plus I don't wanna drain the system daily for data...I'll work on weekly numbers....I'll only drain the system once per week....and discard the runoff in the earth...so...if I run, say, 20 gals in one week (just extrapolating numbers for a scenario)....I'd want to drain 5%-10% of that volume, which would be 1-2 gal...this is NOT accounting for plumbing...I need to calculate the volume of my plumbing....I had a good link on an old hard drive too

Edited To add: Oh yea...I never spend money on some beneficials such as Hydroguard...if I recirced I'd use something....just another benefit of run to waste...and I never check runoff PH or EC...long as I do the right thing on the front end, it doesn't matter

 

[-VT-]

DTW vs Autopot

DTW vs Autopot

I suppose the capillary systems would be most environmentally sound...
But, I found this

http://www.actahort.org/books/694/694_32.htm

quote:

"Fruit number, weight and farm gate value, and water and nutrient costs per plant were used to determine gross income for production in each system. The Autopot system produced a significantly lesser number, weight and farm gate value of fruit per plant than the rockwool run-to-waste system, but used significantly less water and nutrient. However, the saving in water and nutrient was not enough to compensate for reduced yield in the Autopot system. The gross income produced per plant in the Autopot system was $10.00, compared to $17.30 in the rockwool run-to-waste system. There was no runoff produced by the Autopot system, however there was $0.60 wasted as runoff per plant in the rockwool run-to-waste system. No significant differences in fruit quality were found between systems."


@thread author>>> sorry to hijack your thread, man....I keep my rants to my own threads here on out

peace​

 

[Grizz]

when I was growing in coco I used 1 gl bags in a stadium set up and for me every other day was fine up untill the last month of flowering and then I had to go up to once per day, I was using canna a and b at a reduced rate and draining to waste into a rubber maid tub with a sub pump in it and I would water my outside legal flower bed with it. they loved it. I tried recerculating it and dident like the results. I was using a product called coco-can, it had worm castings added and was very clean and required no pre-wash.

 

[Grizz]

as I understand it you want at least a 20% run off when growing in coco to flush old salts out of the coco not quite so simple

 

[Grizz]

yeah head has it togather, and he is very good at what he does, But for me when I was using coco I was hand watering a whole bunch of 1 gl bags it was easyer to just soak them good and not worry about if they got enough or not. Mine were all set in 6 inch trays with a drain at the low end plumed into the tub. worked well for me, the only thing I would change is to go with dripers and timers to cut back some of the labor, but I don't have to worry about that for a while.