When to water Coco? Firts coco grow needs assistance with watering frequency.

[MN green2]

That is hard to describe. If you pick a handful of media up you should have to put some pressure on it get water to come out at about a half hour after watering. You are only trying to replace the water the plant is using plus some to wash excess salt/nutrient out the bottom. Very small plants in large pots are hard to keep happy until the roots reach the outside of the pot or the bottom of the pot. A commercial grower would pot into a larger pot a few times to keep the pot from being to big.

How big is the plant? Some where around 20-25% of the water you put in should come out the bottom to keep the salts from going up. If your plant is 6 inchs high the amount of water for each watering may only be half a cup several times a day. An instructor I had said the time to water a plant is 5 minutes before it starts to wilt. Hard to predict the future but the idea is if the plant is not wilting it has plenty of water. Maybe not plenty but enough. The Idea with small amounts of water is so that the growing media does not stay soaking wet to long. Roots die when they do not have enough air. What is the brand of coco that you use? So you add any perlite or other non coco material to the media? Like so many times, not many answers but lots of questions.

 

[shottafire]

Coco is hard to overwater once roots are established. 2 gallon smart pots are really nice when doing multiple waterings a day.
Coco is not to be treated like soil either. If you wait until 5 mins before it wilts and try to water there's a good chance you will burn the plants roots unless your feed is on the light side.

 

[shottafire]

I always run straight coco nothing else. From clone to half gallon plastic pots inoculated with bene's. they stay in the plastic pots until they need to be watered once a day. Then they go to final resting home in 2 gal smarties. Let em hook and once they need watered once a day go to flower. Usually I have plants 24-30 inches after about four to five weeks this is my schedule. Not saying it's the only way but it works good. Trellis netting in flower for the win and if you want to get serious dual layer trellising.

 

[MN green2]

I agree with shottafire that once the roots are established coco can be hard to over water. It does drain well if it has enough coarse particles and not all fines. With finer media you end up with less air in the media and over watering is actually not enough air not to much water.

The 5 minutes before they wilt works because the wilting is caused by not having enough water for the plants to take up. It is an ideal or a fantasy depending on how one looks at it. More people kill plants from over watering than from under watering. I have used feed water at EC of 3.5 mS with drain water at EC of 4.2 mS and had no burn. Small amounts of water but more often keep the water, air and nutrient balance around the roots in a more optimum level for a greater percent of the time in a day. The small amounts still have to wet the complete pot and some drain to keep the salts down.

 

[MN green2]

Sounds good. People like me can have all the thoughts and ideas they want but having a system that works is a great place to be. Getting the roots well established in a pot before watering on a schedule is key to keeping the plant happy. An open coco that drains well makes everything else so much easier. And if you can not run the coco straight without anything to keep it from holding to much water you are using the wrong coco.

Think about watering the plants 3-4 times a day. Same amount of water and nutes for the day. Just split the water into 4 equal amounts and spread it out over the day. Just as the day begins for the first and the last 2-3 hours before dark. Unless you are using 24 hour light then spread it evenly over the 24 hours. Keeping the growing media evenly wet through out the pot and the day.