alot of questions about coco

[quote name='"VietDaNinja"']Hi everybody, i got a friend who wanna start growing in coco but needs some info, thanks in advance if you could help,

drain to waste sounds abit better then recirculate but its a waste of nutrients, we notice that in a recirculate system, the ph and salt is hight, would this be ok for the plants? (we didnt realy notice eny differents in a soil grow, no yellowing of leaf or nut burnts ect, pulled 7 o per tree and thats with recirculate system)

in coco would you have to flood the pots several times to get it completly water coverage inside the pot or just flood it onces and it would be even?

how many L of nutrients would you have to water for a 20L bucket? pure coco with 10-15% drainage?

on a drain to waste system, would it be ok if we watered with nutes, then plain water then back to nutes then plain water ect, or do you reckon with nutes all the way, and flush it with water onces a week?

what would be the best nutes to go with? we got the complete line of house and gardens that hasnt been tested yet, but is willing to try other stuff too,

coco vs dwc both 20L buckets whitch would yeild more? same temp, light, ect,

eny body got eny tips or tricks that has enything to do with coco?[/quote]

The recirculating system you are talking about sounds pretty intense. Definitely not a flood table, I'm assuming a bucket system. Most coco growers choose to do a DTW setup because there are issues inherent to recirculating systems, usually solution stability. It can definitely be done but there might be some growing pains. I am unaware of any growers here who use a recirculating system although I am sure there is someone around.

Coco wicks water very well. You probably only need to flood once per day for maybe 20 to 30 minutes, but you are going to want to keep an eye on that. Also, I assume that you are using fabric planters inside of the buckets because loose coco in a hydro system can build up and create clogs. I once had the idea of converting one of the 6-bucket expansion systems into a runoff management system for a top feed DTW. That's what I would do with your setup.

There was a time when I knew almost exactly how much water coco could hold. But, the amount required to get x runoff will vary depending on how much solution the coco still holds from the last feeding. I can only guess that with 5-6L of solution you might get 500-800ml of runoff, or about the 10-15% figure you wanted.

Use some nutrition with every feeding. I like to alternate "full suggested strength" with a watered down half-strength solution like how you described. Some people prefer a slower and steadier approach with a very mild nutrient solution. There are many ways to use coco in DTW.

For you I think the best nutrient is going to be a simple 1-part system. I cannot know what you may or may not have access to but Botanicare's CNS17 Coco/Soil Grow, Bloom, and Ripe are what I would choose for you. Follow the feed guide and you'll do fine in DTW.

 

There is a really good sticky for ask Ed with all the coco info you need.

What I do though is use AN at 3/4 strength. I feed nutrient every time and once or twice in a cycle I flush with water then immediately feed with nutrient again. Feed to waste is the way to go IMO, coco is kind of a soil hydro hybrid. You water like it was soil but use nutrient like it is hydro. It's very easy.