Feed Timer

Simple question. How do you guys go about determining your feed times when feeding multiple times a day like in the trees thread? DTW of course.

I just realized how braindead my question sounded. I guess my question is, how frequent do you increase your feedings?

You start with one.....go to two.....go to three.....

I'm guessing it's all done by looking at your waste reservoir and seeing it's dry?

Had another question....should all my feedings be the same length? or should my initial feeding when the lights come on be maybe a little longer in order to soak the medium on that first watering and then just wet it for the subsequent waterings?

its something you'll have to dial in. (its hard to give an exact answer since different brands of coco, different plant sizes, strains, environment etc will effect the answer)

realistically sit there with a stop watch and time how long it takes to get 10-15% runoff for the first feeding after lights on.

personally I used to run canna 1meter slabs, and would have my first feeding 30 minutes into lights on. Then around week 3 of flower, i'd add a second feeding around 6 hours in.

Different brands/quality of coco though will require different frequency.
for example some dogshit quality brick coco will realistically lock out nutrients faster, so you want to feed more often.

USUALLY the subsequent feedings after the first can be shorter. If you really want to get technical with it, check pH and ppm of runoff. With most mineral based (salts not organic) nutes, if your pH is lower on the runoff you're not getting enough. If you see it come out a bit higher, you're gold.

i use a flower power sensor from parrot, it shows the water content in the substrate.

There are many factors that go into it. Really depends on what your goals are. If you want as many feedings as possible then undersize your pot and go with coco chunks, in the middle would be coir with longer fibers, on the wet side is something with finer fibers like Bcuzz.

To make it easy I'll give an example. 1 gallon pots, 9 per light, coco chunks. Always keep the media moist, never let it dry. Once it dries it is very hard to re-saturate without soaking the pot in a bucket of nute. Freshly rooted clones get water once per day in a 1/8 to 1/2 gallon container for a week. Then twice per day until 12/12. Pot up to 1-1.5 gallon and 3x/day until first or 2nd week is over. Then 4-8x/day. Coco chunks can absorb about 1/4 the volume per day. Divide that by number of feedings, or simply water to slight runoff. As soon as you see so much as a trickle they are going to run off at least 10%.

Example 2. Fine coir, 9/1k. They can take anywhere from 1/3-1/2 the volume of the container per day. Put freshly rooted clone into 1/8 to 1/2 gallon. Water only when the top is a little dry and pot is a little lighter for a week, then 1x/day until 12/12. After the plant is roughly 2-3x the height of the container pot up to anywhere from 1-2 gallons. At 12/12 do 3x/day until harvest.

That may not answer your question directly but the answer is: they can handle as much as you want to give them within reason. If you want the most accelerated hydro results go with example 1, average good coco results example 2. Soil results water 1x/day their whole lives after the first week or so. They will adapt to whatever you throw at them. Pick wisely