real coco can be over watered.

[puff adder]

I recently built a drip system. As I am in catch trays my room is basically a "no runoff" style room.
Some plants drank more, some less. A few were constantly wet, and a few were constantly dry (underwatered). I adjusted by hand watering the heavy drinkers occasionally.

Upon doing my "rootopsies" I found that the plants that were wet all the time had much smaller root systems that did not completely fill out the pot.
The plants that were constantly dry had thicker woody roots that filled out the entire pots. I could kick these around like a football without the rootball breaking up, whereas the wet rootballs fell right apart.

There was a noticable difference in the roots between the differently treated plants.

Yields were the same however, so I think the plants simply adjust the style of roots they grow for the conditions they are given.

It's almost like consistency is more important than wet, or dry, or perfectly moist. The plants do fine in any of these situations.

I do find that newly transplanted plants like it dryer, which seems to force the plant to send roots shooting, searching for water.

 

[Strangely]

coco wicks very well by itself, you could do a hempy that size and it would simplify things greatly, the watering every other day schedule is perfect for growing in a hempy

Cheers SuperBolan. I'll look into Hempy Buckets (heard them name-checked a few times), I thought it would bad having the coco itself submerged (all be it partially) in the water? The idea with the wicking was that when the water level dropped below the bottom of the coco container the plant/s could still drink. Thanks again

 

[215forLife]

The best herb I ever smoked was gh nutes in coco. Watered until run off. Infact it was watered until the run off had the same pH as the solution in the rez.

 

[mandingo]

The best herb I ever smoked was gh nutes in coco. Watered until run off. Infact it was watered until the run off had the same pH as the solution in the rez.

agree with the first sentence. Checking the ph of the run off is just anal.

As for the OP's title...No shit Sherlock.

 

[rocky5]

i think recirculating keeps all the coco pots nice and evenly waterd.
run to waste put up the humidity for me plus some were getting more than others.

 

[MarquisBlack]

i think recirculating keeps all the coco pots nice and evenly waterd.
run to waste put up the humidity for me plus some were getting more than others.

And in a recirculating system, you can be sure that your runoff pH is nearly identical to rez pH

 

[buddin_904]

i think recirculating keeps all the coco pots nice and evenly waterd.
run to waste put up the humidity for me plus some were getting more than others.

you dont have a dehumidifier???

 

[buddin_904]

And in a recirculating system, you can be sure that your runoff pH is nearly identical to rez pH

this is a great point, but on the contrary, you have to constantly monitor the pH of your rez...as compared to a RTW set up...mix your rez.....let it drift and completely forget about pH for X days

 

[MarquisBlack]

this is a great point, but on the contrary, you have to constantly monitor the pH of your rez...as compared to a RTW set up...mix your rez.....let it drift and completely forget about pH for X days

Yes, but the point I was making is that in a recirculating system there is no need to check runoff pH, because you're already checking rez pH.

 

[Hash Man]

i think recirculating keeps all the coco pots nice and evenly waterd.
run to waste put up the humidity for me plus some were getting more than others.

statements like these lead to a misudnerstanding of coco.Regardless of recirc or DTW, as long as your coco is wet enough before watering, then the coco will wick moisture to the entire root system when watered... The minute the roots dry out and you try to flood the coco, YOU create dry spots. So water your coco properly, recirc or DTW and your coco will stay moist. Also, you have a rez in the room either way, so how can DTW cause more humidty than recirc? Cover your rez and use a dehumuidifer and you're golden...although i welcome the humidity in summer months.

 

[rocky5]

statements like these lead to a misudnerstanding of coco.Regardless of recirc or DTW, as long as your coco is wet enough before watering, then the coco will wick moisture to the entire root system when watered... The minute the roots dry out and you try to flood the coco, YOU create dry spots. So water your coco properly, recirc or DTW and your coco will stay moist. Also, you have a rez in the room either way, so how can DTW cause more humidty than recirc? Cover your rez and use a dehumuidifer and you're golden...although i welcome the humidity in summer months.

read my diary mate(first time in coco)
i just posting up what i have experianced so far,i have 2 wilma 4
pots and a 11ltr pot of coco on its own.
the wilmas get thourghly drenched but the pot on its own if i water with the drip there are dry pockets unless the run off is continually pored back through, then dry spots.
im now hand watering to avoid this.
the run off is what ups my humidity it were 45% with wilmas
and when the (there were 3) 1 in coco is waterd room humidity
is 65-70%

in the wilma you can water for a good while but the non recirculating
it takes ages for it to wick up,i let it sit in the run off for ages and the
top few inch were dry and in some corners more than others.
re-circulating i know its had a good feed no need to stick fingers in i see clearly
top of coco wet.
im going to get dripper rings also for more even distribution.

 

[vaped]

Update I found that adding h202 to my rez alows me to keep the coco wetter and roots happier

 

[budleydoright]

I DTW 3 gal smart pots with 100% coir 1x daily until the first sight of run off. About 1 quart each is all it takes. Water is then recollected by the AC and re-used. I keep my COCO moist at all times.

Doesn't allowing COCO to dry cause crazy PH swings?

 

[calamus]

coco chunks ive never used but i now that with any soil(less) there is an optimal water level and working close to that while keeping the chemistry stable(this means feed corectly each time). After a couple weeks or maybe more one should be able to read vigor.

 

[puff adder]

I think consistency is the issue. If you've been watering to runoff every time, and then you let things dry out bone dry, this might cause issues. It did with me, once when I let plants that were watered to runoff get too dry I got the "claw" nitrogen toxicity.

Recently, I built a drip system, and with my no-runoff grow in catch trays, some plants ended up consistently underwatered. These plants grew identically to plants right next to them that were always soaked every watering, showing no deficiencies or toxicities.
Post harvest "rootopsies" showed very different root systems between the two. The dryer plants had more, thicker, more developed root systems. Maybe the dryer plants the coco was closer to the optimum moisture level? The wetter plants yielded the same, so I don't know.

I think, if all of a sudden I were to let the plants that were always watered to runoff dry out, that I'd see the nitrogen toxitities again, just a hunch.

I'm having good luck with GH 0-6-9, low PPM's. Plants seem happy the whole way through, no salt buildups, never check runoff, flush at the end.

 

[fred b]

^^^^ I can confirm this observation about dry plants having more root mass.
But if you want to reuse the coco, less roots are better in my oppinion

I'm using Canna tho.

greets
fred b.

 

[buddin_904]

yea i can confirm that drying or even slightly drying a plant that is used to run off/multiple waters per day will FUCK your plant up.....the opposite case however....is my preferred method

 

[Manure]

I didn't read this thread but ALL coco can be over watered.