Better to water daily or every other?

[Far East Buds]

So lets give you a little run down of my deal here. I run Coco and drain to waste on automatic timer feed. I have been feeding daily with a little excess. So the pots never get dry. I have run a few plants through in this fashion and when I check the roots after harvest I really am not getting the roots I feel I should. I am growing very well don't get me wrong but I just think I could gain even more with better roots.

So do you think it is true that if you let them dry out some in between waterings the roots will search for water and grow more robust. Thus taking in more of the water in the feedings. Thus better results.

Has anyone out there played with this at all?

Results?

Thanks for looking!




FE

 

[AKgramma]

Roots have no need to grow and search if you always keep them wet. The larger the rootball the larger the plant and the yield. Let you plants dry out between waterings, to the point of almost wilting, then really water them well to runoff. This will allow oxygen to get to the roots, and make them grow and search for water.

 

[TheFertilizer]

You might find this experiment interesting
Under-Watered Or Over-Watered With Pictures & Examples

 

[Weaselcracker]

I'm not an expert on coco- but my understanding, and experience, is that it is very fluffy and drains well enough that it can be watered multiple times a day. What brand are you using? According to Santb he noticed a massive difference when he switched from some generic brand of coco to a high quality one. If you check the first page or two of his journal you'll see the the roots he's been getting, which are quite impressive.
- having said all that... I don't know or remember how often he waters.

Here's a link to the root pics though. Four Girls One Guy Seek Audience For Bondage - Wait - Do I Have The Right Forum?

 

[santb]

Yep. Weasel speaks the truth. Thanks, Weasel for posting my Journal.
I'm a noob, FarEast, but I love my coco. I mix it into a soil with other stuff and am currently watering 20Ltr cloth pots once per week, from the top until run-off at the bottom. I have awesome root balls!! I saw a huge difference just by switching to a good brand. The girls are about to start day 26 of flower, so I'm expecting to have to water a bit more from here for a few weeks but yeah... You can let coco dry right out (within reason!) and the plants seem to love it. I've got little bits of root sticking out 4/5mm at the bottom of the pots... They sit on a layer of perlite to allow air to get to the bottom. When i harvest I'm just as keen to see my roots as I am the buds.
Well, almost as keen..

 

[Far East Buds]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am running botanicare Coco from a block and I add growstones in about 15% or so. Every time i have checked my roots post harvest they always look pretty impressive. But I run a #5 pot and it holds alot of coco. I feel like I could be getting better. The root ball from it being in a 1 gallon usually is pretty dense. But the uppot to the #5 Those roots don't show as good or developed. So I am just trying to rethink things a little.

Thanks for getting in on it....




FE

 

[Weaselcracker]

A five gallon pot of coco, assuming that's what you have, sounds big enough to grow a huge plant in. Again, I have only grown in coco twice, and so I'm not very knowledgable with the stuff. The first time I used it pretty much as soil- growing 30" plants in 3 gallon pots and watering a couple times a week. Results were so-so- not that it means much because I was a newbie at the time.
The second experience was ten years later - growing in a solo cup. That's the plant I won POTM with, and results were great. Still a newbie- but I have the impression that a smaller pot size is better with coco drain to waste.

 

[Emilya Green]

I will add that the method described above is just one of the ways to use coco... but there is another:

Coco can also be used as a passive hydro, by keeping it wet by watering it to runoff 2 times a day. In order to do this you have to aerate the nutrient mix so that the roots can get oxygen, but this essentially turns your coco into a hybrid hydro system. I have seen people using this method get phenomenal growth rates, just like in hydro.

 

[Far East Buds]

I will add that the method described above is just one of the ways to use coco... but there is another:

Coco can also be used as a passive hydro, by keeping it wet by watering it to runoff 2 times a day. In order to do this you have to aerate the nutrient mix so that the roots can get oxygen, but this essentially turns your coco into a hybrid hydro system. I have seen people using this method get phenomenal growth rates, just like in hydro.

This is how I started running it but with a long once a day feeding. I run a nute res aerated. I just started tapering it back as the coco was always wet and coco holds alot of liquid. I had two plants that didnt like it maybe among other things. But I figured i would ask the best place how others use theirs. Coco seems like it can be done like hydro but similar as well to soil.

Thanks for everyone piping in





FE

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah it's pretty flexible stuff. I haven't seen that wet hydro style with bubbler that Emilya mentions. Makes me think I should put a bubbler in the water reservoir for watering my ten gallon pots...
Grizzwald also uses it a little differently -more like soilless, not drain to waste style- watering it every few days or 'whenever' as he put it. Santb as I think he mentioned leans closer to the full blown soil style amendment-mix thing. In the solo cup grow I watered three times a day with low strength bottled nutes. Had about 14 ounces of coco in the cup and the plant grew an ounce and a half of bud in perfect health. Lots of runoff and wet-dry cycles there with a small pot.

 

[Far East Buds]

Yeah it's pretty flexible stuff. I haven't seen that wet hydro style with bubbler that Emilya mentions. Makes me think I should put a bubbler in the water reservoir for watering my ten gallon pots...
Grizzwald also uses it a little differently -more like soilless, not drain to waste style- watering it every few days or 'whenever' as he put it. Santb as I think he mentioned leans closer to the full blown soil style amendment-mix thing. In the solo cup grow I watered three times a day with low strength bottled nutes. Had about 14 ounces of coco in the cup and the plant grew an ounce and a half of bud in perfect health. Lots of runoff and wet-dry cycles there with a small pot.

Well I don't run it over a res like DWC but was feeding it from a aerated res. And I was keeping the Coco wet. I started leaning towards how Grizz does it and letting them dry out some. Went to every other day on the waterings. I will attach some pics. I looked today at the BK i cut at week 7.5 (hermied) and the roots really weren't that bad.

So long story short that was why i was curious and started the thread. I love the feedback people. I know all of you from prior correspondence. Thank you for joining in..



FE

 

[Weaselcracker]

You can definitely see that it has 'hydro roots'- those big thick roots they get. The solo cup girl in coco had lots of very fine thread roots same as my peatmoss soilless plants- whereas the solo cup plants I grew hempy style under the same watering schedule, which presumably had less dry time, grew hydro roots.

 

[Far East Buds]

You can definitely see that it has 'hydro roots'- those big thick roots they get. The solo cup girl in coco had lots of very fine thread roots same as my peatmoss soilless plants- whereas the solo cup plants I grew hempy style under the same watering schedule, which presumably had less dry time, grew hydro roots.

Thanks Weasel.
I "think" I have come to the conclusion I should be pretty happy with those roots. As long as future plants continue with roots like that then I should keep doing as i did. This plant had daily watering pretty much through week 6.5 or so. The fact it hermie'd has to be unrelated as it looks as good as I can ask for under ground.

Ultimately I need to remember that I shouldn't try to run right on the edge in the hopes to save stuff. I constantly find myself dialing back on nutes etc trying to balance that fine line. Well then I just start to push too close and get a hermie reminder or etc. They weren't under fed. Just that I didn't run enough to have much runoff could have been an issue from it. Run off should help them stay cleaner and no salt build up.

Anyway again thanks all for the answers and help as this thread could help some peops in the future too!



FE

 

[santb]

Yeah, I gotta say, that root ball looks fine.. Coco is really quite versatile... I commented on another thread the other day that I'm almost as keen to see my finished root balls as I am the bud.. Now I'm really keen; curiosity has got me!
Should start a root thread..
Emilyas post was interesting too! I'm kinda conditioned to think that very few plants of any species like wet feet... I might try that on a plant one day.. Poor mans hydro. And could still go organic.. Thanks, Emilya!

 

[Far East Buds]

Thank you all for posting on this...
My Summary...?

I chatted last night with a trusted friend and his recommendation is nothing... j/k

I am going back to the original brand coco I was using as it has what he calls long fibers. I had switched to the bricks to make my own. He says that is short hair or fine. It gets very dense when dry and can hard pack. So seeing as I had pretty good roots on that one. I will just use the better Coco and keep going forward. I think I could run dryer or wetter in that stuff.

I think I will stop being so stingy and run wetter. I have had good luck and like to be efficient but extra run off and wetter is better than a plant going south...This is how I was doing it and changing it probably was unrelated to the BK's being crap.

After the investment my grow really doesn't cost alot. I mean yes the hydro store likes me. But I am not coming anywhere near how much the dispensary liked me..

Have a good week!



FE

 

[santb]

PS Root ball thread started! In my sig...