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

[Seraphim]

I have grown in soil in the past with good success. In soil, you allow the media to get as dry as possible before watering again. Is that not the case with coco?

I have2 X 3.5 gal hempy buckets with 60% perlite and 40% coco and one of them is going on 10 days without water and the media is still felling moist. I tipped the container to drain the reservoir as much as possible. That was several days ago. Still moist.

Is there a consensus of when to water when using coco?

Thanks!

 

[budcicles]

Coco should be treated as hydroponics and not soil. Water to runoff at least every other day; however, daily is better. This has provided me with the best yields. You can treat it like soil; however, you will get soil results. If you go this route, be sure to not let the coco dry out completely.

 

[Seraphim]

iiiinteresting!

I will try this.

Thank you for answering budcicles.

 

[shottafire]

Budcicles is on the money.

I like to water multiple times per day using smaller fabric pots in the two gallon range.

 

[Seraphim]

Thank you for your confirmation shottafire! I watered my hempies today and will do so every other day to start and see how the ladies respond. I am sure as they grow I will have to increase the frequency of water accordingly.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I've been using coco for about 3 years, and had varying results. When I treated it like soil, i.e. letting it dry out so the pot was lighter, I still got better results than soil. However, I always had plants issue, especially toward mid flowering.

I figured out why this is. It is because coco holds 30% oxygen when fully saturated, thus why it is a hydro medium. Second, because when you let coco dry out too much, air pockets form and dries out the root too much. Those small roots die, which in turn rot, which is turn causes issues, PH problems, etc.

To keep all the roots happy and healthy, keep the coco moist. By this, I mean keep the pots heavy.

I water every day to every other day now. In my new grow, I am using pure coco and have been watering every day to every other day. My plants are green and healthy. However, I do notice sometimes when I water less than 24 hours apart, some of the leaves drop a bit, don't stick up to the sky. The leaf is of nice texture, but the stem will be a little weak feeling, limpy.

Because of this, I choose to wait 24 hours or a bit longer, like 32 hours or so. If whatever duration I wait to water causes the leaves to remain a bit droopy, then I extend the time between waterings. I also only water with little run off.

 

[Seraphim]

Thank you LEDRF. Learning as I go.

 

[Colesdad]

I'm building my first grow w hempy also. This thread answered my watering question. Thanks!

 

[PeytonManning]

I water my perlite hempy everyday with full strength nutes. Never had a deficiency or problem yet

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Yeah, with a hempy bucket, I would water every day for sure because you want to replace the oxygen in the small res. When I grow hempy, I water with a little over the amount that fits in the res, so that all water is displaced.

 

[Seraphim]

Update. Watering every day now with very healthy growth!

Thanks everyone!!

 

[Zombiewoof]

I'm in anywhere from 2 gallon pots to 45 gallon pots ,
I water twice a day drain to waste @ 1st just before the sun hits them & then a hour after the sunsets
this would be fully mature plants , I water an amount that runs outta the larger pots in 5 min. later
I shoot for 10-20% run out
new trans plants just get water to keep the coco real moist @ 1st couple days or more till I see the coco look different
(coco gets a look when fully hydrated ) , that's best thing of coco drain to waste is that you can't over water
but will stunt the plant if the moisture level is not consistent
my mix is cana coco , pumice , hardwood charcoal ( that's crushed & has various sizes ,fines )
I use larger charcoal chunks as a bottom lining instead of rocks
I also use the FloraNova line , Dark Energy , Terpenator , Floroluisous , Flora Necture , KoolBloom , Ca/mag
the Girls are pushing huge buds & the sugar dust fairy is a nightly visitor
the Purple Berry girls smell like a French whore house if i brush up agaist them the hairs on my arm all start sticking together from the resin the ladies are throwing

 

[Johnboy6006]

Are you running your nutes every watering?

 

[Zombiewoof]

Always maintain nutes in 'every' watering you throw the plant outta balance not have a constant % Of PPM .
Coco is hydro ; the hydro guys do not run plain water every other day in the rez , so the coco is your rez remember

 

[MN green2]

There is never a consensus on almost anything. Cause every setup is different. You get a different environment so you need a different watering regime. Plant sizes different, plant density different, finer coco, coarser coco... each thing changes the needs.

My two cents worth. Water as many times in a day as you can and give smaller amounts of water as the number of times you water goes up, nuts every watering. If you give larger amounts of water the water seems to get to a certain amount of weight and then just flow down to the bottom. Small amounts, say 80-100 ml will going and move sideways so you get a more even distribution of water through the root area. You still need to give enough water each day so you have a roughly 20% run-off (drain) to keep the EC of your growing media in a desirable range. Measure you drain water EC and pH everyday to know where you are at. Coco can be very forgiving but when it bits it can bit hard if you have not been watching.

Zoombiewoof makes some very good points.

 

[TH3K3YK33P3R]

I usually water my plants Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, but always 3 times a week. Like many already mentioned it, you want to water your plants and always have some run off, colect some of the run off and keep tracking your ph, ppm/ec of it.
Peace

The Little Amazon Welcomes All Visitors!

 

[MN green2]

My thoughts on water is to have the growing media around the roots as optimum as you can for as much of the time as you can. If you water every 2-3 days how much of the time is the root system to wet and how much of the time is it to dry? How much time is optimum? Small amounts a number of times per day distributed evenly over the top of the pot so the whole root mass is treated the same. Not an answer but a way of thinking about watering.

 

[TH3K3YK33P3R]

I am just switching this week to water everyday, but less water than before when was MWF.
Peace

 

[MN green2]

Th3k3yk33p3r,
As I said not an answer but a way of thinking about water and feed. If you watch the EC of the drain water it will keep you on track. If it gets to high you need more water if it is the same as the feed water going in you are giving to much. As with all things in life 'answers are few and questions are many'. If you like the results of the watering every day try watering several times a day. As a commercial grower I used to water up to 15 times a day, computer controlled, each emitter would give around 80 ml per watering. In a 2.5 gallon pot we would have 2 emitters to give enough water and distribute it better. Changes take time. Change and then watch to see that you like the result. Then the next change. Peace.

 

[TH3K3YK33P3R]

Th3k3yk33p3r,
As I said not an answer but a way of thinking about water and feed. If you watch the EC of the drain water it will keep you on track. If it gets to high you need more water if it is the same as the feed water going in you are giving to much. As with all things in life 'answers are few and questions are many'. If you like the results of the watering every day try watering several times a day. As a commercial grower I used to water up to 15 times a day, computer controlled, each emitter would give around 80 ml per watering. In a 2.5 gallon pot we would have 2 emitters to give enough water and distribute it better. Changes take time. Change and then watch to see that you like the result. Then the next change. Peace.

How moist did you keep the medium when you were feeding multiple time a day? My plants for being potted in a considerable big (3G) pot for their size, aren't drinking as much. I believe I could go with 2g or even 1g so I can water multiple timed a day.