100% coco advice wanted

if you have good drainage you wont over water, ive ran 100% coco a few times and i water everyday, and twice a day when they get big, never had a problem.
but start liftin up you containers and get a feel for there weight, a dry plant will be much much lighter than a just watered one, wont take to long to know when you will want to water.

 

18L of coco is a lot, and IMHO too much, to grow with. Especially pure coco.

Coco can definitely be over watered.

Work on building roots and only watering when required until the roots fill the container. Then you can start with regular feedings although I doubt you'll need to water more than every other day.

18L of coco can hold approximately 8L of water at any one time. There are factors that determine how quickly that water is consumed, like the evaporation rate, and the VPD. What most growers do is to water by weight, as Weedpipe suggests. Lift the planters regularly. They should feel very light before you water.

Consider that 8L of water is going to weigh close to 18 pounds, so you're definitely going to notice that the planter will feel much lighter when you lift it. Until the roots are totally mature and filling the entire container you will want to water by feel/weight.

 

sound advice from both weedpipe & SCMC

 

967, choosing 18L of coco to grow in is not a mistake. The assertion that 18L is too much suggests there is a right and wrong amount of media to choose, in fact it's just a matter of choice. Whether 18L is justified is dependent on how long you veg and how big a plant you intend to grow, nothing else.

When to water coco is pretty ambiguous in a sense. The advice in soil is to follow a strict wet dry cycle to guard against anaerobic bacteria, rot etc, how much truth is in that is for the soil growers to debate. Coco grants you a certain amount of freedom in that respect, ie plenty of growers water daily whether the pot is still wet or not, and others follow a similar wet dry cycle to compost. Personally I do the latter, and I also find there is really no need to lift the pot.

If for some reason you want to let the pot get to the point where it is almost bone dry before you water, then you might have to lift the pot to find that point, but such a ritual is not bound in any scientific or biological reasoning and all evidence suggests it certainly won't give you any tangible gain and in fact and is only likely to run you closer to the point of root damage. In other words, water when the top inch or so is visibly dry, or maybe leave it longer. Like cooking a steak, you should naturally know when the pots are dry enough to justify a good watering based on your plants and experience, and if you don't, and the pot is still mostly moist, you're in no trouble whatsoever because coco is forgiving like that, it's air holding capacity is such that it really won't mind if it didn't need a water and you gave one anyway.

Making sure your root zone temps are always nice and warm is far more important.

Based on the fact that many people use auto irrigation systems which water daily sometimes even more so, and don't determine whether or not the pot is dry, and full coco hempy buckets which store water in reserve at the bottom, I'd imagine you'd need to really try hard to over water your medium.

People grow in 30, 40 and 50L of coco. I have grown and am currently growing a couple of plants in 22L tubs and have grown in 30L in the past. There's no reasoning behind any claim that it is too much. Bigger pots are, in my own opinion, the way forward with coco. They give you ample time in between watering which is nice.

So from where I'm sitting, not only are you good to go, but I think you'll find it really quite easy growing in big pots of coco. I do and I love it.

 

^^WOW... 99% of us coco growers have been wrong all this time...

 

In what way?

 

Just because you add more coco, say go from a 1 gal to a 5 gal filled with 100% coco doesn't change anything except that it will need less frequent watering and the roots wll have more room to grow, I can't believe anyone would try and argue that more coco is in some way worse. If this was true we should all be growing in dixie cups because less coco is better yo.

 

There is a happy medium. Too little space will leave you with small roots which will leave you with a small yield, and too much space and your roots won't fill out the container wasting coco and nutrients. If you wanna water less often you should grow in soil, coco is meant to be used in hydroponics.

 

Wesside, you're completely omitting fundamental things like veg time and plant numbers, thing which play an integral part in any grow. This post is a complete non sequitur.

I don't know where people on this site are getting their misinformation, but I just ask you to do one thing and step back and challenge what you're saying.

There's no right and wrong amount of soil or coco to grow in. That is completely dependent on the target yield and allocated veg time. Like the poster above, I also can't believe anyone would suggest there's a right or wrong size of pot to use, without taking into account any other variable. It's completely illogical.

 

One question to wesside, scmc, and anyone else who thinks 18L of coco is too much:

How much coco would you use if you wanted to yield say 15oz per plant?

 

I suppose I wasn't fully clear with my statement. I know you can use 100 gallons of coco and veg for eight months and yield 50oz per plant, but in common indoor (semi)perpetual grows with minimal veg time (month or less), there is no need for anymore than two or three gal of medium. This topic started before you got here watcher, and it started with some guy who had tiny plants in giant pots

And dude, if you are so knowledged then tell us how to do it right.o All you have done is tell people they're wrong. Your right, none of us are prestigous scientists, but nobody has ever claimed to be. We're just a bunch of growers trying to help each other out and to shoot the shit. We're not in here telling everybody to grow like us, we are only saying what has worked for us, and different things work for different people. We don't need the watcher in here grading us. Why don't you chip in or shut up.

 

I am chipping in; with an opinion on what has been said. What else do I have to go on?

I see what is said in front of me and I reply to it. I don't understand how the start date of the thread is in any way relevant.

With regards "grading you" isn't that another form of judging what's written? If so, are you implying that I shouldn't give an opinion if the opinion is that the advice is wrong?

I can only argue the points put forward in the thread based on what I know and if you find that offensive then I question what you regard as "help" if not the challenge of statements which can mislead the reader/grower.

The op says he is in 18L of coco. Not how long he intends to veg or his target yield.

A reply stated that 18L was too much. Not too much based on veg time etc, but just too much pure coco. There's no such thing. So I said so.

.... So far I'm finding it difficult to understand your objection...?

Now you've made a post of your own with exaggerated points which imply that the use of large pots is only an option for someone willing to dedicate "8 months" of veg time. How does that help the coco community in any way? It's a silly statement which again discounts important factors like wattage of light etc.

It is perfectly possible to yield 15oz per plant with not far from a single month of veg time under 600W of halid/hps lighting, I'll chip that in, in case people get downhearted about the inefficient media you've made coco out to be with the 8 month projection.

100 gallons equates to approximately 450L to us over here in the UK and metric Europe. Well you'd need around 5% of that to yield somewhere in the region of the 15oz target in my question. In fact, 10% of that could get you near double that amount. And 8 months is obviously just a figure plucked from the sky. 8 weeks would be more accurate. And that's at the far end of the plant number spectrum.

You're misrepresenting coco here in a big way and that's what I'm challenging.
Coco is a medium which, unlike compost where transition from small pot to final is not advised, allows the user freedom to do so and reap the results which follow. If you haven't tried it, you should and you will see what I mean.

An 18L pot doesn't require an excessive veg time and there's no reason whatsoever that, to quote you, "roots won't fill out the container" if given just a few weeks of veg time under a high powered light, or that it couldn't be fitted into a perpetual/continual cycle.

 

I'll repeat the question I asked, because I never got an answer. I don't want an argument about silly personal things. You can find that on facebook if you want it. This is about coco and egos shouldn't play too big a part.

 

everyone, PLEASE, dont feed into their bullshit. their just here to argue w/ people

both thewatcher & thecrazybotanist

i would suggest everyone put them on your IGNORE LIST. it will make your time here much more enjoyable when you dont have to read their endless bullshit arguments

 

Is it just me...

Don't feed the fucking trolls fellas, seriously!

The guy is going to split every hair, attack you from every angle, and provide absolutely no advice of his own. He'll misconstrue, he'll avoid topics he doesn't want to address, and he'll continue to claim that we don't know what we're talking about.

We don't need to address him at all. It is clear, VERY clear, that all of us were doing just fine before he arrived with the methods at our disposal. Please, for the sake of the community and the knowledge base we have all worked to build, ignore the guy.

If no one replies to him, if he just spins his wheels trolling, it will become more and more obvious to the casual observers why no one will discuss anything with him. By his own admission he is here to debate and argue with us, he is not here to simply educate. This is the troll. To behave in a manner that will excite us. The guy obviously has no life, and very little actual knowledge or experience using our methods, so to feed his fire will only cause further degradation of our community members.

So please, for the love of all that is good, ignore the crying baby and he will fall asleep.

 

also, if we can report enough of his outrageous posts...... the admins will eventually ban his ass

and i believe thats what we all want

TheWatcher hasn't broken any rules here at GC. We don't ban people because you disagree with them. It's probably a good idea to use your ignore feature if you can't engage in civil discourse. I've read this entire thread and everything he has posted is consistent with a grower that is trying to share what works for him. Everybody needs to take it down a notch.

Chunk

 

What's this "troll" shit?

What have I said that's wrong? That you can prove is wrong? I see a lot of stuff which is wrong and I'm calling it as it is. Plenty of people outside this forum would agree with me.

I'm not "splitting every hair"

Yea maybe you got by without knowing what's right and wrong, or more to the point what's advisable and what's not, but weed is an easy to grow plant, it doesn't mean you're not doing and saying a lot of stuff which is misleading to a grower who wants simplicity and results as part of their program.

But I'd hardly say you were getting by "fine"... getting by yes, but fine? I've seen your plants and I know the problem, but you'd rather put me on ignore than listen because yourego's writing cheques your skills can't cash. You clearly overcomplicated you regime and suffered problems as a result, but you'll tell people to ignore me?

I can point you towards a grow journal right now which I took from being wrecked, to a successful outcome using the basics of growing. I consistently get results time after time and am more than willing to share any knowledge and answer any questions put to me.

I've said this time and time again: If you want to challenge me on a grow level, go for it. If you don't, and you want to keep "trolling" by personally insulting me and telling people to ignore my advice, go for it.

You've failed to answer any of the questions or meet me head to head. People can interpret that how they want. I know why that is.

 

What have I said that's wrong? Why are you so uptight?

You want me banned? That's so ironic on a cannabis forum. Think about it. A campaign to get enough of my posts reported that I'll be banned? It's like the prohibition movement replayed in message board form. Fuckin hell. Unreal.

Is there a single thing I have said that you can say is wrong and argue or debate with me is factually incorrect, without personally abusing me?