I have recently made the switch to coco from soil and have loved it up to this point cant see myself ever going back to soil, Im in week three of flowering and things are going good, however im wondering if I could increase the amount of feeding per week, I have 16 plants in 2 gal smart pots. Im watering about 8 gal every three days so for instance I watered on saturday, and am planning on watering today. so its 4 gals per 8 plants. Im thinking about going down to 6 gallons every other day, is that a good plan? I have heard from quite a few people that the beuty of coco is you can feed more often but I dont want the roots to get water logged, any input on this would be greatly appreciated!
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how often to feed coco?
- Thread starter juskin
- Start date
CranAppleGemz
Member
i usually only skip days when the roots havent taken hold of the coco after transplanting..once the roots have taken hold of the coco u should water everyday...its not soil and its actually pretty hard to overwater because coco will only hold what it can...
in a 2 gallon pot u should be watering once a day ..i would say somewhere between a quart or 2...
u could even water multiple times a day if your babies are eating up a storm...
remember...its not soil..so dont treat it like soil
in a 2 gallon pot u should be watering once a day ..i would say somewhere between a quart or 2...
u could even water multiple times a day if your babies are eating up a storm...
remember...its not soil..so dont treat it like soil
CranAppleGemz
Member
each plant is different...so water slowly...and thouroughly..u dont need that much run-off..you're just wasting nutes...
once u see a it trickling down the bottom dont water any more...as soon as i see a little bit come out of the pots i know it fully saturated....
once u see a it trickling down the bottom dont water any more...as soon as i see a little bit come out of the pots i know it fully saturated....
I was always under the impression if you don't water enough you could leave dry pockets in your pots. I've always watered with 30% run off to prevent dry pockets but like you said I think that's a waste of nutes and I'm likely over-doing it.
CranAppleGemz
Member
thats y its best to water slowly....
try giving them each a quart...then wait a couple minutes....then hit them again with about 1/2 a quart...and wait a couple more minutes...if u dont see anything...hit them with another 1/2 a quart....keep repeating until u see the runoff....if u get a lot of run off on the last shot you'll know that the next time you hit them with one less 1/2 quart....
i never had to water over a gallon in one shot in my 3 gallon pots....but i have had to water twice a day because they dried out so fast..
try giving them each a quart...then wait a couple minutes....then hit them again with about 1/2 a quart...and wait a couple more minutes...if u dont see anything...hit them with another 1/2 a quart....keep repeating until u see the runoff....if u get a lot of run off on the last shot you'll know that the next time you hit them with one less 1/2 quart....
i never had to water over a gallon in one shot in my 3 gallon pots....but i have had to water twice a day because they dried out so fast..
GanjaPharma
Member
when i go from 1 gallon to 5gallon smartpots, I will make sure the 1 gallon plants arent too wet upon transplant. i keep the fresh coir pretty moist so that the roots "search" for the wetter coir. i dont water em for a day or two after that. then its every day, full feed (KISS nutes) no runoff. i use H&G dripclean to avoid salt issues, and have done so for the past few years with no issues at all. if you dont use dripclean, i would recommend feed, feed, plain water, feed, feed, plain water. and a little runoff at least.
Never flush with plain water in coco, it messes up the CEC (Cation Exchance Capacity) of the medium and whacks out the balance of cations/anions held in the coco. It can also throw your pH up/down and if you're not on top of things you can get sudden spotting/pH lockout symptoms if pH is able to rise too high.
If you're going to do any sort of flushing before the last 2 weeks of harvest, use half strength solutions, not plain water.
Or.. Just use DripClean!
buddin_904
Member
you say your 3 weeks in......
its good you treated it like soil the 1st 3 weeks...that is a good thing....to let the roots establish throughout the pot....
HOWEVER, now that the roots are well established, and your in coco, you definately need to up your frequency of watering. you should water them MINIMALLY once a day. yes this will definately involve you decreasing the amount of liquid you would normally pour in there.
IMHO, you should water them at minimum, twice or preferably 3-4 times per day, and YES, thusly decreasing the amount of liquid you would normally add by 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4....whatever
i personally like the 3-4 times a day route with the last run off of the day (or 1st run off) having a run off of 10-20%. so that means watering 1-3 would not leak a drop....but in the last water of the day 10-20% of the total amount of water they got for the day should leak out.
hope this helps
its good you treated it like soil the 1st 3 weeks...that is a good thing....to let the roots establish throughout the pot....
HOWEVER, now that the roots are well established, and your in coco, you definately need to up your frequency of watering. you should water them MINIMALLY once a day. yes this will definately involve you decreasing the amount of liquid you would normally pour in there.
IMHO, you should water them at minimum, twice or preferably 3-4 times per day, and YES, thusly decreasing the amount of liquid you would normally add by 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4....whatever
i personally like the 3-4 times a day route with the last run off of the day (or 1st run off) having a run off of 10-20%. so that means watering 1-3 would not leak a drop....but in the last water of the day 10-20% of the total amount of water they got for the day should leak out.
hope this helps
Never flush with plain water in coco, it messes up the CEC (Cation Exchance Capacity) of the medium and whacks out the balance of cations/anions held in the coco. It can also throw your pH up/down and if you're not on top of things you can get sudden spotting/pH lockout symptoms if pH is able to rise too high.
If you're going to do any sort of flushing before the last 2 weeks of harvest, use half strength solutions, not plain water.
Or.. Just use DripClean!
I wish I had read this information a week ago. I'm pretty sure I killed my only female plant by doing this. All the fan leaves are now fried and was only 3rd week in flower. The bud sites and little leaves are still green so my fingers are crossed.
