Drain to waste in coco coir. Automated watering systems anyone?

[Bakersfield]

Naw, never had root rot with coco but without a root mass coco can be over watered and can act like soil. Drain to waste in a 20 gallon pot feeding 5 times a day! ( pretty hard to get the entire 20 pot saturated and fully flushed with runoff. Great yields but damn I would not want to throw that much nutrient solution at a plant. I made a major mistake with my first coco gro using 5 gallon pots 8 plants and to get a true 20% run off multiple times a day you are burning through your solution faster than you think. I had to stop getting any drainage when I fed to save my wallet and had to flush every week to offset the buildup. Saved money but a pain in the ass. I guess to each their own and everyone has their own style. I have since switched over to the flo n gro 14 pot hydro system and love everything about it. Very simple to get amazing yields off it and 55 gallons of solution last me 10 days there's no way to get 55 gallons to last 10 days with 14 pots of coco.

You are right about burning through the nutes!
I currently go through 100 gallons @ ec 1.3 in 4 days and that is under 2 @ 1000w hps. I've got another room coming online soon. I feed 3 times daily in 5 gallon buckets and leach with water between refills of the reservoir, until my leachate reaches 300ppm.
I use the KISS method of the Lucas formula. I do substitute 1/3 of my Maxibloom with Maxigrow, add some Epsom salts and Orca bennies. Total cost is about 25 dollars a week. Over half of that amount is for the bennies. I have explosive grow!
I may switch to Jacks to save more money, until I start mixing my own (using a recipe), I'm not a chemist.
I would like to brew my own bennies, for some real savings and start adding silica, kelp extract, fulvic and humic acid to my mix.

 

[visajoe1]

im adding orca and great white to my hydro formula, curious to see what happens

 

[ChaosHunter]

I use the same watering setup as the OP and use a Idevices switch. It only goes down to 1 min but that's all that's needed every day when the lights come on.

 

[motoracer110]

Wow you are set then, I have been wanting to go with the kiss method always afraid to pull the trigger, but would love to cut down my nutrient costs. I've been using the canna line and love the results just hate the price tag. Good stuff good talk.

 

[all coco]

I've got a couple 315w cmh's and tried to put together something simple. I'm using 5 gallon buckets for res's. 172gph pumps feed a 1/2" single line manifold with 1 open ended 1/4" drip tube per plant that are in 1 gallon pots. Also used a T with a couple valves on the 1/2" tube at the top of the bucket to help mixing and control flow. I'm in week 4 and feeding for 1 minute 3 times a day right now, used to hand water 2 times a day.

 

[Bakersfield]

Wow you are set then, I have been wanting to go with the kiss method always afraid to pull the trigger, but would love to cut down my nutrient costs. I've been using the canna line and love the results just hate the price tag. Good stuff good talk.

I've never used the Canna line of nutrients, but I love their coco coir! I think it's worth the extra to have a leached and pre buffered product.

I still prefer the Lucas formula using GC's flora series over mixing the Maxi with hot water, but the Lucas formula cost about double over Maxi.
Eventually, I hope to mix my own nutes and quite giving money to Scott's/Monsanto.

 

[visajoe1]

Eventually, I hope to mix my own nutes and quite giving money to Scott's/Monsanto.

This is where I want to get to as well. Just have raw ingredients. I'm at least a year away from that though, want to do a few successful runs in a couple different mediums first

 

[GreenLegend420]

I use dtw coco and its the easiest thing ive ever done. I just adjust my cycle timer based on how much they need to eat. (Bigger plants more food).

Keep your rez filled and your runoff bucket emptied and thats it.

For waste i would say i empty about 2-3 gallons a week.

 

[visajoe1]

I use dtw coco and its the easiest thing ive ever done. I just adjust my cycle timer based on how much they need to eat. (Bigger plants more food).

Keep your rez filled and your runoff bucket emptied and thats it.

For waste i would say i empty about 2-3 gallons a week.

what is your feed levels and timing from veg to flower?

 

[GreenLegend420]

what is your feed levels and timing from veg to flower?

I didnt put that cause it really is specific to how may plants you have, the size pump you have, and how big the pots are.

Best advice i could give is to set up your plants on the table and hand water till they start to drain. Wait about six hours and use a measuring cup/pitcher to hand water till they drain again.

Ok so now you know they need x amount of water per six hours (for example 400ml each). So what you want to do now is put one of your lines out in the cup/pitcher. Lets say the hand water at six hours required 400ml. You would turn on your pump and time it until it puts out 400ml. Now you should be real close at this point with a twice daily feeding with lights on.

Based on how big or small the plants are you can dial it in based on the amount of runoff. You want a little runoff each feeding to flush out salts but you dont want to much because you will just be wasting nutrients.

Hope that helps!

 

[visajoe1]

I didnt put that cause it really is specific to how may plants you have, the size pump you have, and how big the pots are.

Best advice i could give is to set up your plants on the table and hand water till they start to drain. Wait about six hours and use a measuring cup/pitcher to hand water till they drain again.

Ok so now you know they need x amount of water per six hours (for example 400ml each). So what you want to do now is put one of your lines out in the cup/pitcher. Lets say the hand water at six hours required 400ml. You would turn on your pump and time it until it puts out 400ml. Now you should be real close at this point with a twice daily feeding with lights on.

Based on how big or small the plants are you can dial it in based on the amount of runoff. You want a little runoff each feeding to flush out salts but you dont want to much because you will just be wasting nutrients.

Hope that helps!

that does help, thank you. do you add anything to your coco? im using readygro moisture coco (30% perlite) but I I'd like more drainage to allow for more frequent feedings. the readygro aeration coco is 55% perlite. So, im planning on adding more perlite to my moisture mix when i transplant to 1g square pots.

 

[GreenLegend420]

that does help, thank you. do you add anything to your coco? im using readygro moisture coco (30% perlite) but I I'd like more drainage to allow for more frequent feedings. the readygro aeration coco is 55% perlite. So, im planning on adding more perlite to my moisture mix when i transplant to 1g square pots.

I have about 30% perlite in mine. To help with drainage i drilled four small holes on all four sides near the bottom of the pots. I put about one to two inches of hydroton on the bottom. You can use different stuff though like lava rocks or anything chunky.

 

[Bakersfield]

that does help, thank you. do you add anything to your coco? im using readygro moisture coco (30% perlite) but I I'd like more drainage to allow for more frequent feedings. the readygro aeration coco is 55% perlite. So, im planning on adding more perlite to my moisture mix when i transplant to 1g square pots.

I wouldnt recommend you add perlite to your coco unless you have a very small grow and can afford to throw away more nutrients than straight coco, in a drain to waste system. Straight coco will allow the solution to remain in contact with the roots for a longer period than a super aerated coco mix, while still offering enough oxygen for explosive growth.

Now if you recirculate your nutrients then a perlite coco mix would probably give you awesome results and not cost as much doing so.
However, DTW is simple, while recirculating nutrients has more complications and requires more advanced techniques to maintain the proper nutrient needs of the plants.

Who ever told you that you cannot frequent water straight coco, has never done so and is perpetrating some bro's mythology. With proper drainage, your plants will amaze you, if you can give them what they need, in straight coco.
I use straight coco and have my timer set to run 5 X a day @ 2 minutes with about 10% runoff.
Between my veg and flower room, they currently use 47 gallons of nutrients a day.

 

[GreenLegend420]

I like a little perlite in mine. I use i dunno maybe a quarter of bag or less per 5kg block. Im sure straight coco is fine too.

Soon as charcoir get the coco blocks out of testing and in stores ill switch to those probably. I cant imagine how much better it will be on the back to just open a box of coco blocks that are ready to go lol

 

[visajoe1]

I wouldnt recommend you add perlite to your coco unless you have a very small grow and can afford to throw away more nutrients than straight coco, in a drain to waste system. Straight coco will allow the solution to remain in contact with the roots for a longer period than a super aerated coco mix, while still offering enough oxygen for explosive growth.

Now if you recirculate your nutrients then a perlite coco mix would probably give you awesome results and not cost as much doing so.
However, DTW is simple, while recirculating nutrients has more complications and requires more advanced techniques to maintain the proper nutrient needs of the plants.

Who ever told you that you cannot frequent water straight coco, has never done so and is perpetrating some bro's mythology. With proper drainage, your plants will amaze you, if you can give them what they need, in straight coco.
I use straight coco and have my timer set to run 5 X a day @ 2 minutes with about 10% runoff.
Between my veg and flower room, they currently use 47 gallons of nutrients a day.

Thanks bud, appreciate it. Im planning on gravitating towards a 6 plant SOG harvesting 2 plants every three weeks. Small personal grow. Im currently trying to learn how often I can feed them, but if you're watering 10min/day in 100% coco, then I should be fine increasing my watering frequency. I do like the idea of some hydroton at the bottom of the pot tho

 

[pinner420]

 

[Bakersfield]

Thanks bud, appreciate it. Im planning on gravitating towards a 6 plant SOG harvesting 2 plants every three weeks. Small personal grow. Im currently trying to learn how often I can feed them, but if you're watering 10min/day in 100% coco, then I should be fine increasing my watering frequency. I do like the idea of some hydroton at the bottom of the pot tho

If I had a smaller system, I would fully recommend more aeration and more frequent feeding, for sure. I hear the Tupur guys are killing it, but plain coco will not give you problems and will give great results on its own.

I like a little perlite in mine. I use i dunno maybe a quarter of bag or less per 5kg block. Im sure straight coco is fine too.

Soon as charcoir get the coco blocks out of testing and in stores ill switch to those probably. I cant imagine how much better it will be on the back to just open a box of coco blocks that are ready to go lol

So what's up with the charcoal? I'm not familiar with its use.
I know that permaculture advocates really love biochar to help sequester carbon dioxide and feed certain microbes out in the garden. Is it used for a similar purpose?

 

[visajoe1]

tupur. another great topic. i cant find any info on it, except that its coco fiber based. from close up pics, it looks like more finely shredded coco fiber with perlite. its usage description is nearly identical to readygro aeration mix (45/55 coco/perlite) "designed for multiple feedings per day"
since i already have the moisture mix, i figure i can just pick up a $10 bag of perlite and make my own aeration mix and rock this bitch! lol

 

[GreenLegend420]

If I had a smaller system, I would fully recommend more aeration and more frequent feeding, for sure. I hear the Tupur guys are killing it, but plain coco will not give you problems and will give great results on its own.

So what's up with the charcoal? I'm not familiar with its use.
I know that permaculture advocates really love biochar to help sequester carbon dioxide and feed certain microbes out in the garden. Is it used for a similar purpose?

Im talking about char coir the company not char coal.

I havent used any of his coco but heard only good things. Its triple washed and ph balanced. @charcoir on IG. The coco blocks are in testing i tried to get a box but he already gave them all out.

He made them to have an option to replace rockwool blocks.

 

[cobshopgrow]

i have good results with these plain n simple units.
https://www.amazon.com/CONTINENTAL-AWS-10-Automatic-Watering-containers/dp/B007NHRYH0
There are no dripper to clog.
You need to take care for same lenght tubes and keep on same level.
Used them for 9 cocos plants, went flawless.
Other drawback, you cant avoid watering at night, but all in all, stressfree unit, batteries lastet almost 2 months.