No Runoff - Taping the bottom of pots

[Zarthustra]

From clone to cut, this is how I water:
Once transplanted into dixie cup: water when needed, giving ~20% ish run-off.
Once transplanted into one gallon: same as clone
Once transplanted into two gallon: same as clone
Flush time: zero run-off, allowing the plant to eat remaining nutes
Sick plant?: flushing with 4gallons
Sick plant need run-off readings?: dispose of first 1/2 gal runoff, add 1 gallon and take readings
Plant needs to eat near its bedtime? (hour 8/12 lights on): half gallon, no run-off
f***, plant wilted?: slowly apply food, feed, wait, feed, wait ect... until run-off, wait again, feed 20 min later

20-40% perilite
clones eat very infrequently at first, almost a week perhaps
most vigorous week 3-8 usually 2 times a day, once @ lights on, and again 6-8 hours later

 

[SRGB]

bradybunch:

No Runoff

I'm doing a research to find validation to this method.


Hi, bradybunch.

These might be helpful:

Square Root® Brand Garden Bag - Drain-To-No-Waste [Methods]

Square Root® Brand Garden Bag - Low-Tech Gardening [Methods]

@OP: Please let us know if you would like for us to remove this post from your thread.

Kind regards,
/SRGB/

 

[stoney917]

I've been watering and gettin lots of run off things were great after hearin from some other coco growers I was wasting nutes they told me to water to min or no runoff I switched things still look great.. I came to the conclusion that overwatering isn't bad for the plants but a waste most important thing is NEVER let it dry out....

 

[papaduc]

If the question is: can you grow a healthy plant in a bucket with no drainage throughout, the answer is yes, you can. I've done it myself not so long ago.

I had a green poison in a builders bucket which was going to be converted to a hempy. Thing is, it never did get the conversion because as the weeks went by and the plant stayed healthy, I kept it that way as an experiment.

Until the day it was done and needed flushing it never had a drop of runoff and it never looked any less healthy than any other plant in the room.

If you want facts, there's one. If you want to be afraid... even if you're not quite sure what of, go with pizzaguy.

 

[medicalmj]

Makes perfect sense if you don't over feed em. I would think that you could even flush less often if you could dial in the nute level.

Coco has the same air-water (30/70) holding capacity. So you can thouroghly wet it and the roots will thrive like in any hydro enviroment. The big difference would be that on a DTW fresh nute are applied more often. I personally run coco in 5gal airpots dtw fed 8 times per day for a couple minutes. Kinda the opposite as this method, but...

And I know you could get a pound using a 5 gallon bucket from the home improvement store. Cheap and no taping/drilling required. My 2cents is that it will work great but it may grow slightly slower than a dtw with several daily feedings. And you have to be sure it doesn't build up salts.

 

[pizzaguy]

G`day PG

Ever heard of the Hempy bucket ?
Those fckers have a 2 inch rez in the bottom . And guess what ? The roots sit in water !!
Thousands have used the method and nothin but good reviews .
re nutes too low . I don`t go any higher than 1.2 EC . Its superfluous to add more .
I`m using trays and coco / perlite . In small pots . Into the 3rd week of flower ATM and no deficiency ...

Thanks for sharin

EB .

yes eb you are right you can get by in standing water sometimes, but its not healthy for the roots. in nature when you grow your plants in wet areas or even in lowlands they suffer in rainy periods, putting your plants upland is how they thrive, where the soil drains. again you are correct many peopleclaim success and prove it in products like the hempy bucket or any wicking system, but its a limiting factor. to max yields and health the roots hate standing water. if the plant wicks it all then its ok except for salt build up. again limiting nute strength limits yield and health, in my opinion. in your coco/perlite set up try lifting the pots up ive used bricks or whatever and perlite filling the bottom of the pot. i bet you do this already, my point is people dont see a disaster until its too late, ive been there, in the days before the internet we were on our own, and wet roots were what we avoided. remember when c.a.p. released the first ebb and grow units, 90% had success the rest failed because of a design flaw,, wet roots. they redesigned it with the sloping inner bucket , at the hydro shop i worked at we advised growers to jack the inner bucket up to keep the roots out of the standing water, that saved many growers. thanks bro for replying