What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Need help setting up coco drip system (drain to waste

Waxman

Member
Hello everyone I'm new to icmag I came over here from RIU so I could get better information for growing in coco coir I've always been an organic soil grower and have decided to make the switch to hydro for better yields but everything about hydroponics is so foreign to me so I had some questions any help is greatly appreciated!



1. I was thinking about going with Cannas full line is this a pretty good nutrient line? What nutes would you go with?

2. When you water your plants with a drip system do you allow for 20% run off from what I've been reading your supposed to allow for 20% runoff to prevent salt buildup.

3. When you first transplant your seedlings/clones do you saturate the entire pot? Or do you just let like half the pot get wet till the roots fill out?

4. What EC/PPM do you keep your reservoir at during the various stages of growth?

Thank you for your time!
 

PoweredByLove

Most Loved
no offense...this is the way just about all offensive posts start...but you are asking way too many n00b level questions about a complex thing like a drip system. I would suggest you read a bunch more before proceeding. someone might chime in and offer further help but it's possible they won't know very much more than you do so...read...read...read...

1.) I use maxigrow in veg and maxibloom in flower mostly these days. in the past I have used dyna brand, general hydro 3 (micro and bloom) part, hortilome, miracle gro, etc.

2.) I personally go for no runoff, but that's advanced shit. read..read...read...

3.) depends on the strain. some plants will be fine with saturating the whole pot and waiting till they suck it up. other plants will drown and die if you don't baby them.

4.) I only use a res in flower. in veg I hand water starting with my tap water at 200ppm and working my way up to the day I flip where i'm feeding like 600+ ppm depending on strain. some strains only require weak feeding their whole lives. in flower I feed 400-600ppm depending on the plants and the phase of flower. mostly closer to 400ppm the whole time since I water 8x a day.

wish you the best. I suggest reading the sticky threads in the coco forum and all the huge threads with hundreds and thousands of replies.

and the infirmary Is where you should be spending a lot of time. read stitch's sick plants guide. add it to your bookmarks. read the threads people are posting there even if you don't have any issues. knowledge is power.
 

HHULKK

Member
I would recommend reading DJM's "Coco Trees" thread. It explains in detail a lot of aspects of growing in coco and to maximize the use of it. Filter out his posts so you can read all he has to share instead of reading everything else.
 

Waxman

Member
no offense...this is the way just about all offensive posts start...but you are asking way too many n00b level questions about a complex thing like a drip system. I would suggest you read a bunch more before proceeding. someone might chime in and offer further help but it's possible they won't know very much more than you do so...read...read...read...

1.) I use maxigrow in veg and maxibloom in flower mostly these days. in the past I have used dyna brand, general hydro 3 (micro and bloom) part, hortilome, miracle gro, etc.

2.) I personally go for no runoff, but that's advanced shit. read..read...read...

3.) depends on the strain. some plants will be fine with saturating the whole pot and waiting till they suck it up. other plants will drown and die if you don't baby them.

4.) I only use a res in flower. in veg I hand water starting with my tap water at 200ppm and working my way up to the day I flip where i'm feeding like 600+ ppm depending on strain. some strains only require weak feeding their whole lives. in flower I feed 400-600ppm depending on the plants and the phase of flower. mostly closer to 400ppm the whole time since I water 8x a day.

wish you the best. I suggest reading the sticky threads in the coco forum and all the huge threads with hundreds and thousands of replies.

and the infirmary Is where you should be spending a lot of time. read stitch's sick plants guide. add it to your bookmarks. read the threads people are posting there even if you don't have any issues. knowledge is power.
Thanks I'm definitely a noob when it comes to hydro but I'm trying to learn.
 

Waxman

Member
I would recommend reading DJM's "Coco Trees" thread. It explains in detail a lot of aspects of growing in coco and to maximize the use of it. Filter out his posts so you can read all he has to share instead of reading everything else.
I'll check that out thanks friend.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
Hello everyone I'm new to icmag I came over here from RIU so I could get better information for growing in coco coir I've always been an organic soil grower and have decided to make the switch to hydro for better yields but everything about hydroponics is so foreign to me so I had some questions any help is greatly appreciated!



1. I was thinking about going with Cannas full line is this a pretty good nutrient line? What nutes would you go with?

2. When you water your plants with a drip system do you allow for 20% run off from what I've been reading your supposed to allow for 20% runoff to prevent salt buildup.

3. When you first transplant your seedlings/clones do you saturate the entire pot? Or do you just let like half the pot get wet till the roots fill out?

4. What EC/PPM do you keep your reservoir at during the various stages of growth?

Thank you for your time!

Highly recommend you read Don Juan Matus' Coco Tree thread...
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1, Nutes: Ussually the following is above my target of just under 800 PPM so I have been topping off w RO water to lower to not more than 800 PPM.

I use RO and I first add 1 ml/gal Botanicare CaMg

Veg:
Base GH flora (3part) 4:5:1 ml/g (micro,grow,bloom)
BioRoot (GH) 2 ml/g
once a week I add 1 ml/g at diff times either: Hormex liquid(contains NAA IBA and B1) or Thrive Alive (technaflora) (red)
...also foliar w thrive alive every couple weeks or less, foliar solution also contains 1/4 strength veg nutes.
Bloom:
GH flora 4:1:5 ml/gal (micro,grow, bloom)
Snowstorm
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle)[/FONT][/FONT] 1 ml/g [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT] Crystal Burst
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle) [/FONT][/FONT]3/4 ml/gal [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT] Magnum
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle)[/FONT][/FONT] 1 ml/g

Couple tips I learned is that Hormex is an incedibly effective root stimulant and less expensive than stuff like Roots Excelurator.

And Magnum contains Sulfur as well as Mg. Sulfur is the element most associated with aromas and flavor. I also like that it provides Mg w/o Ca. This is key in mid to late flower.

2. Runoff is not too critical as long as you have been keeping your PPMs at not more than 800. Don Juan Matus doesn't have runoff and he's a Boss.

3. I use and highly recommend fabric pots. I completely saturate before transplanting into them. But don't water again until they fairly dry but not bone dry...light pot but still has moisture.

4. I usually keep it consistent at just under 800 PPM throughout. Exception is clones at 1/2 strength and I peak a little (basically use the bloom recipe above, about 1000 PPM, without adjusting it down to the usual 800 PPM) in the last couple weeks followed by weak solution, 1/2 strength, in last few days.

Again, Coco Trees is a fantastic thread!
[/FONT]
 

Phases

Member
I just set up a top feed drain to waste system

Since this is my first full dtw top feed run I am keepin everything simple

Just running GH (micro/bloom) 6/9 - some calmag on hand if needed

vegged 3 weeks (prob little longer than I should have - plants are bit crowded)

I have 4 table - doin scrog on three of the tables and the fourth is where I have my test strains, pheno hunting and various sizes so just hand watering those at the moment

I use sprayers instead of drippers - feed 3x during lights on for 2mins
I use 1 396 gph pump that feeds 2 tables with 12 sites per table - using 1 gal pots of coco with about 40% perlite
I have 250ish gph pump does one table with 9 plants

There will always be hiccups when starting a new system but my advise just do it - reading threads of people who have shit dialed in would be a good start but ultimately your environment and set up will have its own challenges that you ll have to figure out

With coco I have found its better to keep the ec pretty low and feed 2 or more times per light cycle - this depends on the size of pots you have - almost make sure that your roots are well established before you start feeding Multiple times per day.

Coco does kick ass though. Once you get it dialed you ll love it -
 

bigdad41296

Member
Hello everyone I'm new to icmag I came over here from RIU so I could get better information for growing in coco coir I've always been an organic soil grower and have decided to make the switch to hydro for better yields but everything about hydroponics is so foreign to me so I had some questions any help is greatly appreciated!



1. I was thinking about going with Cannas full line is this a pretty good nutrient line? What nutes would you go with?

2. When you water your plants with a drip system do you allow for 20% run off from what I've been reading your supposed to allow for 20% runoff to prevent salt buildup.

3. When you first transplant your seedlings/clones do you saturate the entire pot? Or do you just let like half the pot get wet till the roots fill out?

4. What EC/PPM do you keep your reservoir at during the various stages of growth?

Thank you for your time!

Hello mate,
I use canna nutes and a few other things, CoCoSativas a member here uses canna and gave me a run down on his canna nutes program and works great. I use blumats for automated watering with no runoff and keep my rez around ec 1-1.2 and a ph 5.8-6.0 5ml coco A and coco B and 2.5 ML of protect per gallon with a starting tap about 200 ppm on the 500 scale. once a week I mix the above but also add 5 ml per gallon in gallon jugs of thrive alive adjust my ph and water untill runoff, I mix in all on jugs because the thrive alive will plug up my blumats. Then shop vac the excess, then good for another week. I am in the second week of flower and so far so good keeping it the same other then I'm going to add in the pk13/14 as suggested.

As far as transplants I water/feed untill runoff and then water every other day for about a week and by then my roots are blowing out of the bottom drains holes, then I'm back to watering every day.
 

Waxman

Member
Highly recommend you read Don Juan Matus' Coco Tree thread...
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1, Nutes: Ussually the following is above my target of just under 800 PPM so I have been topping off w RO water to lower to not more than 800 PPM.

I use RO and I first add 1 ml/gal Botanicare CaMg

Veg:
Base GH flora (3part) 4:5:1 ml/g (micro,grow,bloom)
BioRoot (GH) 2 ml/g
once a week I add 1 ml/g at diff times either: Hormex liquid(contains NAA IBA and B1) or Thrive Alive (technaflora) (red)
...also foliar w thrive alive every couple weeks or less, foliar solution also contains 1/4 strength veg nutes.
Bloom:
GH flora 4:1:5 ml/gal (micro,grow, bloom)
Snowstorm
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle)[/FONT][/FONT] 1 ml/g [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT] Crystal Burst
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle) [/FONT][/FONT]3/4 ml/gal [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT] Magnum
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](emerald triangle)[/FONT][/FONT] 1 ml/g

Couple tips I learned is that Hormex is an incedibly effective root stimulant and less expensive than stuff like Roots Excelurator.

And Magnum contains Sulfur as well as Mg. Sulfur is the element most associated with aromas and flavor. I also like that it provides Mg w/o Ca. This is key in mid to late flower.

2. Runoff is not too critical as long as you have been keeping your PPMs at not more than 800. Don Juan Matus doesn't have runoff and he's a Boss.

3. I use and highly recommend fabric pots. I completely saturate before transplanting into them. But don't water again until they fairly dry but not bone dry...light pot but still has moisture.

4. I usually keep it consistent at just under 800 PPM throughout. Exception is clones at 1/2 strength and I peak a little (basically use the bloom recipe above, about 1000 PPM, without adjusting it down to the usual 800 PPM) in the last couple weeks followed by weak solution, 1/2 strength, in last few days.

Again, Coco Trees is a fantastic thread!
[/FONT]
Thanks your right coco trees is an awesome thread.
 

Waxman

Member
Hello mate,
I use canna nutes and a few other things, CoCoSativas a member here uses canna and gave me a run down on his canna nutes program and works great. I use blumats for automated watering with no runoff and keep my rez around ec 1-1.2 and a ph 5.8-6.0 5ml coco A and coco B and 2.5 ML of protect per gallon with a starting tap about 200 ppm on the 500 scale. once a week I mix the above but also add 5 ml per gallon in gallon jugs of thrive alive adjust my ph and water untill runoff, I mix in all on jugs because the thrive alive will plug up my blumats. Then shop vac the excess, then good for another week. I am in the second week of flower and so far so good keeping it the same other then I'm going to add in the pk13/14 as suggested.

As far as transplants I water/feed untill runoff and then water every other day for about a week and by then my roots are blowing out of the bottom drains holes, then I'm back to watering every day.
Thanks for the info if you don't mind me asking.

Do you run pure coco or do you mix in perlite?

What do you run your temps and humidity at? Do you use co2? If so what ppm level?
 

Waxman

Member
I just set up a top feed drain to waste system

Since this is my first full dtw top feed run I am keepin everything simple

Just running GH (micro/bloom) 6/9 - some calmag on hand if needed

vegged 3 weeks (prob little longer than I should have - plants are bit crowded)

I have 4 table - doin scrog on three of the tables and the fourth is where I have my test strains, pheno hunting and various sizes so just hand watering those at the moment

I use sprayers instead of drippers - feed 3x during lights on for 2mins
I use 1 396 gph pump that feeds 2 tables with 12 sites per table - using 1 gal pots of coco with about 40% perlite
I have 250ish gph pump does one table with 9 plants

There will always be hiccups when starting a new system but my advise just do it - reading threads of people who have shit dialed in would be a good start but ultimately your environment and set up will have its own challenges that you ll have to figure out

With coco I have found its better to keep the ec pretty low and feed 2 or more times per light cycle - this depends on the size of pots you have - almost make sure that your roots are well established before you start feeding Multiple times per day.

Coco does kick ass though. Once you get it dialed you ll love it -
Thanks for the reply friend if I could ask I see alot of people talking about pre rinsing and buffering your coco before use how do you go about doing this?

What brand of coco do you use?
 

Waxman

Member
Hello mate,
I use canna nutes and a few other things, CoCoSativas a member here uses canna and gave me a run down on his canna nutes program and works great. I use blumats for automated watering with no runoff and keep my rez around ec 1-1.2 and a ph 5.8-6.0 5ml coco A and coco B and 2.5 ML of protect per gallon with a starting tap about 200 ppm on the 500 scale. once a week I mix the above but also add 5 ml per gallon in gallon jugs of thrive alive adjust my ph and water untill runoff, I mix in all on jugs because the thrive alive will plug up my blumats. Then shop vac the excess, then good for another week. I am in the second week of flower and so far so good keeping it the same other then I'm going to add in the pk13/14 as suggested.

As far as transplants I water/feed untill runoff and then water every other day for about a week and by then my roots are blowing out of the bottom drains holes, then I'm back to watering every day.
Also could I get a copy of that mute program CocoCocoSativas gave you? Thanks a billion
 

Phases

Member
Thanks for the reply friend if I could ask I see alot of people talking about pre rinsing and buffering your coco before use how do you go about doing this?

What brand of coco do you use?

If you want to make life easier and are only doing a small run I would say get some bagged canna coco - it's expensive but you don't have to mess around with if as much. I still like to run a low ec solution through to rinse it a bit just until water is coming out clear. But I don't know that it's totally necessary -

As for using the compressed bricks, this is what I have been doing

1. Put the brick in a 5 gal bucket or a Bigger tote (depending on how much coco I am using )

2. Add plain water to expand/hydrate the coco - break to all up so there is no chunks

3. I use a 3-5 gal pot and line it with a screen (like window screen)

4. I put two 2x2 pieces of wood accross the toilet and put the pot on top of the wood so it's suspended over the toilet - or you can just use the bath tub -

5. I mix up 5gal bucket of calmag solution to .4-.6 and ph it to 5.6-5.8

6. I pout the coco from the bucket or tote into the pot with screen and maybe push it down to get some of the excess water out.

7. Run the calmag solution over the coco rinse it well and test the ec/ph untill it is where I want it (same runoff as what I am putting in

8. Squeeze out the excess liquid and then put the coco in pots

9. When added clones or transplants I won't water untill the coco has dried up a bit and the roots start searching for water/food - then I will give good feeding. Double check the ec and ph are good. Then rocking

Hope that helps - let me know if you have any more wuestions.

:tiphat:
 

Asslover

Member
Veteran
Asking questions such as yours will fetch 100 different answers. The answers to everyone of your questions can be found here on icmag. Sooooooo, either read for yourself and figure out what fits/works with your situation OR sift through A LOT of advise from A LOT of guys whom can barely grow.
I modded this forum for many years, i've seen it happens hundreds of times.
 

Asslover

Member
Veteran
Thanks for the reply friend if I could ask I see alot of people talking about pre rinsing and buffering your coco before use how do you go about doing this?

What brand of coco do you use?

99% of all NAME BRAND bagged coco comes per-amended.
Botanicare (for example) comes precharged with Cal Nitrate, Humic/fulvics. Rinsing it will only rinse away all the good stuff.
See what i mean about getting a boat load of different answers?
 

bigdad41296

Member
Thanks for the info if you don't mind me asking.

Do you run pure coco or do you mix in perlite?

What do you run your temps and humidity at? Do you use co2? If so what ppm level?

I use coco only nothing mixed in, and I use h&g coco in the bag because that's what my local shop had. And it's good coco. Lights on temps is around 76-77 humidity about 45% lights off is 65-66 humidity 50%
 

Phases

Member
99% of all NAME BRAND bagged coco comes per-amended.
Botanicare (for example) comes precharged with Cal Nitrate, Humic/fulvics. Rinsing it will only rinse away all the good stuff.
See what i mean about getting a boat load of different answers?

You make a really good point there - everyone will have a different way of doing things.

I was just sharing how I rinse out coco - some of the bricks I have found can have a lot of shit in them, so I think rinsing the coco out before using it is probably a good idea.

As far as rinsing the bagged pre charged stuff - I never thought about it as rinsing out the good stuff. - I guess I figure if doing dtw with lots of runoff that would be the case anyways - but I think that makes sense to just run it as is out of the bag and get the benefits of the extra stuff in coco.
 

Asslover

Member
Veteran
Yes the precharge gets washed away eventually from dtw but it gets replaced by your nutrients. Neither of which happen overnight.
Botanicare used to print on their bags to add cal/mag for the first two weeks of use. Now they just say to water with nutrients from first use on and water until some runoff is achieved.
I had to really dig to find what Botanicare puts in it 'cause it's not printed on the bag.
Canna, Botanicare, etc, they're all charged & ready right outta the bag. Go for it!:biggrin:
 

Phases

Member
Thanks for the tip - I think I was just looking at rinsing the coco as a kind of better safe than sorry situation. But I did a side by side of canna bagged coco un rinsed or charged and some that was rinsed and charged and so far I see no difference as of yet - so I think I ll prob be taking your advice and running it right out of the bag -

What about the brick coco is there any brand that is rinsed and charged in the pressed bricks or do you think that all of the compressed stuff should be rinsed prior to use. (At least to get all the dust and stuff out of there)

What's your thoughts on the co pressed bricks?
 

chronosync

Well-stoned member
Thanks for the info if you don't mind me asking.

Do you run pure coco or do you mix in perlite?

What do you run your temps and humidity at? Do you use co2? If so what ppm level?

Straight coco no perlite is my preference. In most situations it is not needed and has better uses. If you need to add a soil conditioner to coco then you have crap coco. Quality coco is perfect.
 
Top