the Hand Watering coco thread

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

base nutes plus ph adjust in neutral or relatively clean water for the win. ec dictated by runoff or slurry after starting with 1.0 -1.2 as a baseline. maybe slightly higher if feeding less than twice a day.

 

[WatonV]

Thanks guys!
The laws are not on our side, but these new year things are changing so probably you can grow in your house with any problem, dont know how much or what but we are waiting.

One question, my ec meter is in factor 0.5, so that 500ppm means 0,5ec.
You use other factor or thats ok!

Thanks again

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

at 500 scale 500 ppm is equal to 1.o ec
at 700 scale 500 ppms is about 0.7 ec
700 ppms at 700 scale is 1.0 ec.

 

[WatonV]

at 500 scale 500 ppm is equal to 1.o ec
at 700 scale 500 ppms is about 0.7 ec
700 ppms at 700 scale is 1.0 ec.

Thanks a lot my friend!
What scale do i use? 500 or 700?

 

[DONAJTHEIII]

Thanks a lot my friend!
What scale do i use? 500 or 700?

dude I know your a newbie but forreal ? ahaha


your supposed to tell us what scale your using !!!!!

EC FYI is always universal which is why its me pref. when talking here on the mag

just match up the numbers with your combo meter mang




AJAE

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

it should say on the meter somewhere.

 

[WatonV]

it should say on the meter somewhere.

Thanks again! The meter is a hanna grocheck, when i bought it it came with 700 factor, thats why im asking because you can change the factor to wathever you like, i was asking so i leave it with the most acurate one.

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

id go with the e.c. setting honestly unless you are using it to individually dial your salts in a custom manner which im guessing youre not. i dont. i use jacks epsom and calnit mixed in that order. i have a given ratio of weght and i eyeball it for a 80 % tank and then fill my tank with water till the e.c. gets to the right number. then i ph.
that way if you need to jump on line and talk about nute strength everyone will be able to quickly calculate the feed strength you are referring to.

 

[Limolax]

Newbie

Newbie

Hi every1 since its a question and answer basis thread and is 100+ pages I am just gonna ask my questions(red 30 first pages lol)
Whats the best way / technique to hand water your plant in coco ? How often ? How do u know it's wet enough? Ive red with soil u just touch the top inch. What about coco?
I've killed 3 seedling so far. If u wanna help me on that here is the link:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=300083
Any info would be very much appreciated.

 

[Limolax]

Sorry forgot to ask about this
What about germinated seeds and young seedling in coco. How often do I water or mist? When do I add fertilizer to it? I don't have access to coco specific nuts shall I just start growing in a different medium since I am a first timer anyways?

 

[lumberjack.mr]

My experience is limited , however, i have had great success using the seed cubes for germinated seedlings, and coco as a medium for the roots to expand out into. As far as watering- coco typically takes less water than normal soil, however , this can be dramatically different depending on how much air circulation you have. Naturally if the fans are blowing too much, the water will evaporate quicker. Remember; seedlings need air, water, and soil to grow.. empty your drain pans, and watch the plants- they'll tell you when they are thirsty or hungry... Lj.

 

[Cap. Greenbeard]

QUESTION TO ANYONE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH COCO!!!

Is it really necessary to water flush every single time after feeding? And is it really necessary to then wait for the flush to dry up just as much as you would after feeding?

I mean, as far as I have understood water flushing coco is that it's something that you need to do in order to remove any possible salt build-up, couldn't I theoretically feed them, wait 3 or even 4 days so the coco dries up a bit, then water flush and give them a new feed straight away after the flush? Why this waiting game for the water flush to dry up? Is there a legitimate reason to why I need to wait or is this some remnant from growing in soil, some fear of over-watering that has sneaked its way into coco growing? Because as far as I have understood coco growing is that it's a hydro technique and when growing in hydro the plants can take a lot more nutrients than what they would need when grown in soil, right? Or have I misunderstood this?

I'd like for someone to clear this thing up for me if possible.

BTW
I know that the coco shouldn't dry up completely but everywhere I've looked in forums all around - everyone says that it needs to dry up a bit before feeding/flushing again.

 

[newtothiscoco]

QUESTION TO ANYONE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH COCO!!!

Is it really necessary to water flush every single time after feeding? And is it really necessary to then wait for the flush to dry up just as much as you would after feeding?

I mean, as far as I have understood water flushing coco is that it's something that you need to do in order to remove any possible salt build-up, couldn't I theoretically feed them, wait 3 or even 4 days so the coco dries up a bit, then water flush and give them a new feed straight away after the flush? Why this waiting game for the water flush to dry up? Is there a legitimate reason to why I need to wait or is this some remnant from growing in soil, some fear of over-watering that has sneaked its way into coco growing? Because as far as I have understood coco growing is that it's a hydro technique and when growing in hydro the plants can take a lot more nutrients than what they would need when grown in soil, right? Or have I misunderstood this?

I'd like for someone to clear this thing up for me if possible.

BTW
I know that the coco shouldn't dry up completely but everywhere I've looked in forums all around - everyone says that it needs to dry up a bit before feeding/flushing again.

First of coco should never get dry (it only cause problems)

-if you grow in straight up coco you can count on flushing every 2 watering if you want to water only each 3-4 days. but if you get a good amount of perelite in it or some lava rock's or what ever rocks you have around. you will get better draining so you cant overwater as easy as if you grow in straight coco. and ofc you flush your medium just dont over do it or over think it or you can just give less water and feed multi~ times a day its better then you wont get the saltbuild up as much if even at all, if you ask me. (ofc only if you get the time in hand)

 

[Heimdallr]

First of coco should never get dry (it only cause problems)

-if you grow in straight up coco you can count on flushing every 2 watering if you want to water only each 3-4 days. but if you get a good amount of perelite in it or some lava rock's or what ever rocks you have around. you will get better draining so you cant overwater as easy as if you grow in straight coco. and ofc you flush your medium just dont over do it or over think it or you can just give less water and feed multi~ times a day its better then you wont get the saltbuild up as much if even at all, if you ask me. (ofc only if you get the time in hand)

It's worth noting that if you're going to flush your coco (which you shouldn't until the very end, water till run off and try and maintain a consistent moisture throughout the medium and you shouldn't ever have a salt problem) then you should do so with a very very low E.C feed, something between 0.5 - 0.8. If you flush your coco too much you risk flushing the 'buffer' away, the coco will then compensate for this by 'stealing' the nutrients from your nutrient solution away from your plants until the buffer is full and then allows the nutrients to become available again.

So always flush with low E.C feed apart from at the end of your cycle to avoid this issue.

 

[DEATH BY SNUSNU]

Hey Limolax 1st off just want u to know I'm relatively new to coir as well, its been a 2 yr experiment. I know the threads are vast but that data is there for you to use, it is amazing its all here anyway. Some major things you need to understand with coir, it has an irregular cation exchange and will hoard, block , flood elements to your roots at different stages of your grow and stages of the life/age of the fibers. Those nutes which I don't use either will help growers through the coco issues as they are specialy balanced for coir. Forgive me if you knw this already. Get the nutes or be prepared to fortify your coir with crazy amounts of microrganisms ca mg N and ewc. Keep ph low like 5.5-.9, and keep moist for max greenage. READ THE THREADS you'll see...

 

[DaytonaBeach83]

i've been growing in 5 gl buckets an i have to water once a day, at least...sometimes i have to water twice a day, an the biggest plant i have has to be watered twice a day, EVERY DAY...

an that's in a 5 gl grow bag...an it's only been in that grow bag for about three weeks, maybe closer to two an a half...an they went straight to the 5 gl bags from 1 pt cups...

point being, water the shit out of the coco lol...once the root system is developed, even a 5 gl container will likely need water at least once a day once the root system is fully in place...

i'm gonna try upping the amount i give the big one, cuz i haven't even started flowering yet an i'm at twice a day...that's gonna be like four times a day in flowering lol an that's too much work...

 

[Cap. Greenbeard]

It's worth noting that if you're going to flush your coco (which you shouldn't until the very end, water till run off and try and maintain a consistent moisture throughout the medium and you shouldn't ever have a salt problem) then you should do so with a very very low E.C feed, something between 0.5 - 0.8. If you flush your coco too much you risk flushing the 'buffer' away, the coco will then compensate for this by 'stealing' the nutrients from your nutrient solution away from your plants until the buffer is full and then allows the nutrients to become available again.

So always flush with low E.C feed apart from at the end of your cycle to avoid this issue.

I'd like to try to get one thing straight and that's terminology. Everyone understands what "feeding" means but when people use the word "flush" it seems to mean different things. Some use the term with the meaning - "lots of plain water with a heavy runoff" while other seem to mean "low strength nutrient feed with a heavy runoff". I'v also come across people who instead use the term "leach" with the meaning - "lots of plain water with a heavy runoff".

So if I understand you correctly you are talking about multiple feeds per day, like the system that Hundred Gram Oz use, right? If so - he says that his multiple feeds have a EC of [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1.3 or 650ppm which isn't really that low and he gets great results by doing this and he never "flushes" (whatever that means).[/FONT]

As far as I have understood it (and please correct me if I'm wrong) when you let the coco dry up the salts are harder to flush out, no matter if you use plain water of a low nutrient feed. I imagine this means that the salts get crystallized or something and therefor harder to get rid of, is this correct? So when Hundred Gram Oz feeds his ladies 3 times per day (or even 5 times per day as he does in late flowering when the buds goes into swelling-mode after the flower-stretch) the salts never get the chance to crystallize properly and a small runoff is enough to wash out any potential salt buildup. Or have I misunderstood why coco should never dry up?

 

[Heimdallr]

Nope you haven't misunderstood, you've nailed it there buddy that's the exact reason.

Coco holds salts better than most things, if I remember this is actually due to where the coconut plant grows (next to the sea) so it can withstand silly levels of salt, then when it's cut down the husk is left to decompose in big piles floating on the sea. Even after it's washed, it holds salts like a good one.

But yeah, you're on the money. Keeping it wet allows it to move, so to speak

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

As far as I have understood it (and please correct me if I'm wrong) when you let the coco dry up the salts are harder to flush out

Don't let your coco dry out.. it's not dirt.. you should not treat it like dirt.. feed daily and be sure to keep it wet.

mgk

 

[TURBD]

What sort of issues should I expect?

What sort of issues should I expect?

Well I had a friend helping me transplant the other day and we went to pick up our load of soil. He mentioned to me his buddy uses coco and every time I'm at the grow store it's truck after big jacked up truck buying coco.
I am a old school soil guy but was interested in what all the fuss was about so I asked the guy at the store. (Usually really helpful guy)
He gave me the you need to water the shit out of it story and I asked if I could mix with soil to stretch the waterings out a bit. I know one of my friends runs 25% coco 75% soil with good results. So I figured I would do better with 50/50. First watering I did 6.3 ph in room 1 and the plants didn't look well. So room 2 got 5.8 and look amazing.
I now wish I went straight coco as I'm not sure if I should water the shit out of em like coco and flush out the high ph right away or let em dry out a bit more?
I feel like a fool for just jumping into this without thinking it threw more first.
Hopefully I can get threw this without any major fuck ups.
Running GH flora series.
Thanks for any help.