noob ? how long is too long inbetween feedings??

[lvtokerr]

I'm running pure canna coco. i just transplanted from dixie cups to 7 gal pots.

If I water to achieve the 10% run off the medium is wet for days. How many days is too many days? Once the ladies fill up their pots will it dry out faster? Besides space factors etc are there any physical plant disadvantages from going to dixie cups to 7 gal pots?

im sure this question has been asked some other way before. thanks for bearing with the noob.

 

[Holdin']

Yeah, the disadvantage to going from dixie cup to 7gal is that, especially for a first timer, you have a high chance of overwatering. And yep they will dry out much faster once the plants get a larger rootmass. Chances are you've been overwatering.

 

[lvtokerr]

i only watered once till slight run off out the bottom. that was 5 days ago.

 

[dansbuds]

7 gallons of straight coco .... is a waste . if its outdoors & your growing a monster tree ... you'll be fine but if indoors .... 2 to 3 gallons is plenty of coco .
not trying to be a prick .... but it sounds like you have a ton of reading to do about coco growing . it can produce fantastic results , but it can be finiky too . takes awhile to get used to feeding it & when but once you've got it down .... its the best inert medium on the market .
I could go into pages & pages of what you need to do .... but its all here in the coco forum . take some time & do some reading dude ... you'll be happy you did

If I were you , I'd take it out of the 7 gallon bucket & put it in a 2 gallon with an inch of perilite on the bottom so the coco doesn't stay soggy & the roots love it . once you've transplanted it ... saturate the pot till you get runoff , then let it set till the very top of the pot looks dry (tan color ) then saturate it again . do that 3 times so the roots go looking for water . then you feed every day till runoff . at this point once the roots are established ... it NEEDS to be fed every day ... don't let it dry out anymore cuz you'll get salts build up & thats bad for the plants .
by the time all this is done .... you'll have a better idea about coco from reading & you'll be on your way to great plants !!!

good luck dude

 

[lvtokerr]

So is can there be a number of days that is too long to go without water even though it is not dried out yet on top?

 

[dansbuds]

This is a magenta99 grown in 2 gallon bucket of straight canna coco with an inch of perilite on the bottom fed twice a day during lights on for 64 days then chopped .

so believe me when i say 2 or 3 gallons of coco indoors is plenty

 

[DrFever]

So is can there be a number of days that is too long to go without water even though it is not dried out yet on top?

can go from 7 days to 13 days in-between watering if your medium is staying to wet for to long you have osmosis problems i would make sure ph is in check your RH isn't to high and you got some lights on plant and temps in the area of 76 - 86
in coco i believe 5.8 to 6.2 is the magic area , also coco is very high in P so calmag needs to be used flushing with light nutrients is probably what you should do and weekly with such a small plant in such a big container i am also sure you stressed plant out

 

[dansbuds]

So is can there be a number of days that is too long to go without water even though it is not dried out yet on top?

no .... as long as its moist .... don't feed it . roots need the dryness so they grow out looking for water .

i think you need to get it out of that 7 gallon or your going to have alot of feeding problems . like DR fever said your going to run into PH problems maybe root rot from being wet too long etc.....

 

[psg1]

Another potential problem is that 7gal of coco is going to take forever to dry out. This means that it's probably going to start getting pretty funky down there under the top layer and start growing bad bacterias and algae without the fresh water/nutrient cycle preventing stagnation. When you water, you're forcing the stale O2-depleted air out and as it begins to dry again, it draws in fresh air.

 

[lvtokerr]

This is a magenta99 grown in 2 gallon bucket of straight canna coco with an inch of perilite on the bottom fed twice a day during lights on for 64 days then chopped .

View Image
View Image

so believe me when i say 2 or 3 gallons of coco indoors is plenty

Well im looking to keep my plant count down. So im lookimg to grow trees 2-3 times that size. I have 10ft ceilings. So for tree growing looks like my pot size closer to being the rigjt size than everyone thinks. They are taking off and loving the new big ass pots.

 

[lvtokerr]

can go from 7 days to 13 days in-between watering if your medium is staying to wet for to long you have osmosis problems i would make sure ph is in check your RH isn't to high and you got some lights on plant and temps in the area of 76 - 86
in coco i believe 5.8 to 6.2 is the magic area , also coco is very high in P so calmag needs to be used flushing with light nutrients is probably what you should do and weekly with such a small plant in such a big container i am also sure you stressed plant out

7-13 days... thats the kind of answer i was looking for thank you. I think I will water when the lights kick on today. That will be six days in between watering. They are starting to look a little tan on top. I also plan to hang up 2 more 1k bulbs. That should help dry them out faster as well.

 

[HighBurn8]

raise the temps to low-mid-80's, and house a small fan somewhere where it can lightly blow air around the pots to help dry out the rootzone before watering again.
Once roots establish, lower the temps to hight 70's.

Also, you should think of the 7 gallon pot like a small field. If you plant a small tree in the middle of a field, you dont water the entire field but instead just water the center of the field where the tree is until the roots go searching for more water. then as they grow you can start watering more and more of the field.

basically, your trying to 'tease' the roots by only giving them what they need at that moment and in small amounts until you get an established rootball. giving them more water than they need at this point will only complicate things and cause frustration in the end.

You may also wanna try transplanting from dixies, to 1 gallon to three gallon, to 7 gallon next time. that may help shed a few days/weeks of stagnation.

good luck

 

[skull and roses]

With coco u can also tell when it needs watered by the weight. Pick it up right after watering and notice how heavy it is, then pick it up when it hasn't been watered in a while...there's a big difference. Once the roots are established though coco needs to stay moist instead of cycling like soil.

 

[lvtokerr]

It hasnt even been a week and i see roots poking out the bottom.

 

[Lapplandish]

Well im looking to keep my plant count down. So im lookimg to grow trees 2-3 times that size. I have 10ft ceilings. So for tree growing looks like my pot size closer to being the rigjt size than everyone thinks. They are taking off and loving the new big ass pots.

Well.. If I were you, I would do what was suggested previously and transplant those plants of yours into 2 gallon pots. And when those pots are full of roots, transplant them to bigger pots, like those 7 gallon pots you are now using.

I have personally had some problems even with 3 gallon pots when there were some very young plants. It really is important that your plant size fits the pot size.

 

[michmedclones]

I see you're seeing roots out the bottom which is good, but IMO and in my experiences with coco what everyone else is saying is correct. I start my seeds or clones in 3"x3"x3" square pots and water a few oz of feed a day, after I have that filled with roots (14-28 days) I then transplant them into 44oz fast food cups, tall and skinny but easily double the medium, let those fill up with roots for another 2 weeks, then into 2-3 gal and let them fill up there. I will flower in these 2-3 gal pending on my schedule, but I've also transplanted into 5gal and I've yet to see an advantage in yield with the larger media zone, but I did like the fact that I could skip a day between watering with my hempys in the 5gal, even with the hempy res my 2 and 3 gal pots will be dry after 12 hours of 2000w and quite a bit of air movement. Also noticed that I had to flush the 5gal more than the 2-3gal probably again just due to size, and allowing the nutes to sit in there for a day or two

I tried the 3x3x3 into a 5gal and I saw roots a week later just like you did, but when I harvested I noticed the inside of the rootball not as dense as the ones that were properly stepped up in container size

Good luck, you'll get the hang of it, coco is pretty forgiving but I did find that over watering is much worse than under watering in coco, everyone says to not let coco dry out but there have been many times my 5 gal buckets were light as air plants a tiny bit droopy hit them with 1 gal of nutes and 30 minutes later they're perking back up and seem to have a bit more zest to them with packing on the crystals and bud sites filling up. Oxygen is very important to roots, there is oxygen in water obviously but letting them dry out a bit isn't the end of the world in my experiences.

 

[OH grower]

This is a magenta99 grown in 2 gallon bucket of straight canna coco with an inch of perilite on the bottom fed twice a day during lights on for 64 days then chopped .

View Image
View Image

so believe me when i say 2 or 3 gallons of coco indoors is plenty

i totally agree my plants are about that size in 2 gal pots of coco. people just need to understand that growing in coco is totally different than soil

 

[OH grower]

I see you're seeing roots out the bottom which is good, but IMO and in my experiences with coco what everyone else is saying is correct. I start my seeds or clones in 3"x3"x3" square pots and water a few oz of feed a day, after I have that filled with roots (14-28 days) I then transplant them into 44oz fast food cups, tall and skinny but easily double the medium, let those fill up with roots for another 2 weeks, then into 2-3 gal and let them fill up there. I will flower in these 2-3 gal pending on my schedule, but I've also transplanted into 5gal and I've yet to see an advantage in yield with the larger media zone, but I did like the fact that I could skip a day between watering with my hempys in the 5gal, even with the hempy res my 2 and 3 gal pots will be dry after 12 hours of 2000w and quite a bit of air movement. Also noticed that I had to flush the 5gal more than the 2-3gal probably again just due to size, and allowing the nutes to sit in there for a day or two

I tried the 3x3x3 into a 5gal and I saw roots a week later just like you did, but when I harvested I noticed the inside of the rootball not as dense as the ones that were properly stepped up in container size

Good luck, you'll get the hang of it, coco is pretty forgiving but I did find that over watering is much worse than under watering in coco, everyone says to not let coco dry out but there have been many times my 5 gal buckets were light as air plants a tiny bit droopy hit them with 1 gal of nutes and 30 minutes later they're perking back up and seem to have a bit more zest to them with packing on the crystals and bud sites filling up. Oxygen is very important to roots, there is oxygen in water obviously but letting them dry out a bit isn't the end of the world in my experiences.

i agree with that i am currently flowering in 2 gal pots they get dry enough to water every day but waiting till the next day dont hurt anything, if anything they seem to love it