Hey there, doing a simple grow with coco mixed with a little perlite and some other goodies (not much, just to help starting plants so i dont need as much nutes on the seedlings) and GH bloom and micro and an enzyme product. Using calmag+ of course as well, that is it for nutrients. Anywho, I'm wondering with coco if it is worse (over the course of 24-30hrs) to over or underwater coco. I failed my last grow because of mold (overwatering/ventilation) and im a little scared to overwater again, so advice would be awesome before i water before bed! Thanks.
Exactly what answer said ^ Biggest mistake you could do is over water. Just wait till it's really dry and you can tell when it's ready. My rule is never ever two days in a row.
I have a SIMPLE solution: When the pots are dry, weigh them. Then water them as normal. Just wait for the weight to get back to the dry weight again before watering again. That's what I do in my small-time, personal grow. The biggest container I use is a 5 gallon garden pot. I grow in TGA Super Soil. When the 5 gallon pot is dry, it weighs about ~10 pounds and takes about a week to dry out in a tent with lots of moving air and fresh air coming in. A 3 gallon garden pot with dry soil weighs about ~7.5 pounds ….takes about a week to dry out after watering A 2 gallon weighs about ~5 …..4-5 days to dry A 1 gallon…2.5 ….3-4 days I don't know what your medium weighs because I've never used that stuff…but of course you can solve that on your own. Hope this helps
Thanks for quick help guys. I like the mantra of letting the plant let you know whats right... i keep forgetting they know best. Thanks again guys Sent from my SGH-I337M using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I've found you have to judge how much watering by how much your plant is drinking. Easiest way is the lift method. On your next heavy watering lift the pot so you know the weight when it's fully saturated. Every day after lift it and you'll feel it getting lighter Once it's dried out it will be very light. I've used this method because I was watering all mine at the same time and found one got stunted and struggled to uptake water (overwatering). Now I feed them all individually depending on how fast each one is up taking the water.
Good plan.. honestly someone with good knowledge should write a watering coco guide. I know there is a bit of info on it in the coco guide sticky but not a lot Sent from my SGH-I337M using Grasscity Forum mobile app
All of these responses are wrong... When you allow coco to dry you have residual salt build up more so than other soilless mixes becauses the CEC binds multiple elements and 'holds onto' them, calcium and potassium in specific. The best way to start is in a smaller pot so you can water daily (with established roots) and always water to run off. This prevents the salt build up mentioned ^. Ideally, you want your growth to match the pot size that allows you to water daily..if that makes sense? Many things can effect the transpiration and water use of a plant, especially RH and VPD (Google it and learn, you'll thank me). Low RH is especially bad because in coco because it increases the transpiration rate, increasing the potassium in the plant because coco has an ABUNDANCE of bound potassium. Coco should always be damp, never bone dry. Should you need to flush coco, NEVER use plain water. By using plain water you're stripping away the calcium you've been adding to balance the CEC. When flushing, flush with a 1/2 dosage feed (If you were feeding 10 ml A/B - flush with 5 ml A/B) and make sure you've balanced your calcium ratios. Read more into Fatmans Nute Mixing guide and learn how to balance ratios in commercial fertilizer lines. It won't come over night, but its worth it. Best of luck
I just started with a coco mix a couple months ago, but see wisdom in Kesey's response. I'm running a drip setup and when I watered twice a day my plants were losing leaves like crazy; I thought it was a nute issue. A couple weeks of different scenarios led to upping the waterings to 3 times a days and the growth has been insane since then. I've been tempted to go to 4 and see what happens but the plants are all doing phenomenal, so keeping it at 3 unless things start to change.