[bullseye]

gaius great thread dude just got some ladies started in coco . 11l pots 2 drippers in each pot they have been in for 4 days and look great giving them 4 feeds aday i feed for 1 min that gives me about 2 and ahalf litres run of a day ill post some pics soon

[gaiusmarius]

this dripper setup has the advantage that it works with this small quiet pump and can water up to 240 plants if it has to.


for anything bigger one needs to use the bigger pumps. then there are slightly thicker drippers which have a valve on the main line and the dripper is plugged into the valve, you get double ones or even 4'ers or 8 er's. for a real big setup the 4 er drippers are good as they save time. anymore then that on one valve isn't practical for our purposes.

anyway here goes, this should make it clear. that inline filter is not a screen filter it's a special type filter that is used to grow in sand, hence it lets nothing through. i give it a clean once every few weeks.



those blue bits are available in t pieces or corner and end pieces.



you can get special hole making tools, but this thing does it too, if you don't have too many to do lol.

nice thread...I water by hand but im listeing...

[the cult]

@GaiusMarius:

How steady ph do you get your water in a run-to-waste system? I hand water and got myself medium hard water (ec 0.27) with ph of 5.8 (i aim for it)but as soon as i leave it for some hours it starts to head upwards again (6.4 i have today of the water that was 5.8 about 24 hrs ago). Now with hand watering every day or every second its no problem as its mixed before watering and I know it goes into the pots as 5.8, but with a run-to-waste system its bound to get higher and out of my control.
Do such PH fluctuations hamper growth at all? I just learned since my first day as a soil grower to keep my PH steady. But a run-to-waste system is exactly what I need cos I can water every day. Is there a solution or am I just worried for no real reason?
Also I use air stones in my water, but is that really necessary for coco?

Furthermore, I keep my ec at about 1.4 with Hesi nutes now in flower, but the plants look over fertilised and Im worried that it keeps my buds from reaching their maximum, yet the Hesi bottle says ec of 1.8-2.2 is normal for flowering. Im sort of confused...

Thanks,
Cult

[gaiusmarius]

Hi the cult,

first off, hesi is a good coco nutrient. but they all recommend too high dosages, because they want to sell more. also a lot of strains will get used to the high ec if that's how you begin, and do well. only a few strains will run in to big problems if you use the recommendations on the bottle. like you i watch my ec, a good average flowering ec is 1.6 although some strains will prosper with less and some with more, that's a matter of dialing the strain in.

as for the ph, ideal as you said in coco is 5.8 but it's still well within range all the way up to 6.4 normally speaking with regular watering the ph in the coco gets adjusted. but because you have an air pump in the tank your ph keeps going up as the phosphorus evaporates, forcing you to replace it(ph minus). with a drip system in coco you do not need to aerate your tank. you will see the ph will remain much more stable as soon as the air pump is gone.

if the plants look over fed despite the low tank ec of 1.4 it could be due to salt build up, or due to the ph fluctuations making some nutrient unavailable.

what ever it is, start with a big flush at ph 6.0, then go back to ec 1.4 at ph 5.9 and it will show you very quickly if you can go up a bit with the ec or what.

good growings

[the cult]

Originally Posted by gaiusmarius

Hi the cult,
like you i watch my ec, a good average flowering ec is 1.6 although some strains will prosper with less and some with more, that's a matter of dialing the strain in.

EC of 1.6, is that at peak of flowering with maximum pk dosage?

Originally Posted by gaiusmarius

but because you have an air pump in the tank your ph keeps going up as the phosphorus evaporates, forcing you to replace it(ph minus).

Sorry I phrased myself badly, I aerate the water before I add nutes for some hours. I dont run it after mixing the nutes or ph down.

Originally Posted by gaiusmarius

if the plants look over fed despite the low tank ec of 1.4 it could be due to salt build up, or due to the ph fluctuations making some nutrient unavailable.

That is all very weird, cos I water with alot of run-off, sometimes more than Id say 40%... The ph has been kept at 5.8 every watering since the cuttlings were planted into the coco, apart from 3-4 times I let it at 5.7 or 5.9, so there should be no fluctuations at all. The metres are calibrated every 2 weeks as well.

Originally Posted by gaiusmarius

what ever it is, start with a big flush at ph 6.0, then go back to ec 1.4 at ph 5.9 and it will show you very quickly if you can go up a bit with the ec or what.

good growings

I had planned that, and I will go ahead with it now.
I thank you alot for your input sir, its been most helpful. Growing in coco is just lovely, I gotta say they grow alot bigger per gallon of coco compared to same strain in a gallon of soil.
Oh, I grow AK-47, do you know if they are sensitive to high EC? I heard they can take almost whatever you give them.

Thanks again,
cult

Edit: realised Im ruining your thread, ill stick to subject from now on. Perhaps this forum needs a simple Q and A thread.

[gaiusmarius]

yeah i also heard the AK47 is a greedy one, lol. that ec 1.6 is an average number that i use to start with, when i don't know a strain, then the plant soon tells me if it can take more or not. i have noticed time and again in coco that you get better yields when slightly under ferting rather then slightly over ferting. but when i'm growing a nute greedy strain like PP, i will use an ec of up to 2.0 if all other factors are in the green.

i'll start the clones in RW cubes at ec 1.0,
3 days later use the same light mix with 1.1 adding rhizotonic
3 days later i water the cubes again with the same solution ph always at 5.7 or 5.8
after a week they are generally well rooted into the cubes with roots sticking out. this is the time to plant them. new slabs get a tank of ph ed tap water to get them soaked, used slabs will get a tank of ec 1.2 with rhizo added at ph 5.7 watering 4 times a day till run off. a fast stretching strain like PP will be ready for 12/12 after 3 or 4 days on the coco slabs. in that time your ec should be about 1.4

first 2 weeks of flowering increase the ec every other day till you get to 2.0 in this phase the plant uses a lot of nutes as it stretches to 3 times it's own hight. at this point some strains keep feeding like mad and others need a bit less for another 2 weeks and only then can one go up a bit again. that's some thing you will see by looking at the plants. you don't want a too dark green color on the fan leaves, you also don't want to burn your leaf tips.

[EddieShoestring]

just reiterating what the guys have said-great idea for a thread, Gaius

i'm also going automated on this next run with coco-in buckets not slabs-but sort of related.

A friend recomended using a self watering system called a Tropt Blummat-apparently it works by a siphon effect created by a cone buried in the coco. I always take his recommendations seriously as he is a very good grower so will be ordering a set in this comming week-

not sure if it is possible to use this kit with slabs but will post details in this thread when it arrives

cheers

[BluntItUp]

Gaius: Thanks for the advice, how much run off should be when watering? Also "Reaper" is not reeferman sorry for the confusion. He was from OG and was doing bunker grows with coir slabs. Here is a diagram for the setup. The plant from clone will be directly planted in slabs.

[gaiusmarius]

i edited it to Reaper , lol. i realized that i had used the wrong handle. sorry man. i know Reaper, last i heard he was using the drippers on coco slabs again. but that might be different again.

well it looks like you have your mind made up, i look forward to seeing it in action. it will be most interesting, the biggest advantage being that you have no drippers to get blocked and otherwise mess around with.

can't wait to see this implemented.

peace