First Time Coco Help

Hey dudes, been a while.

I've grown in soil for many years but I just started trying out coco/hydro. I'm not sure what to do with these. I just flushed them 3 days ago and they're still curling so I'm afraid to feed them. The coco was staying so wet that I was watering/feeding them once a week. I don't think that's enough at all but the plants would droop sometimes. Any ideas? They're still curling but I feel like I should feed them. Here's the setup:

- kava coir coco
- Botanicare Grow, Liquid Karma, Calmag, Silica
- 3 gallon pots
- feeding/watering with 5-6 gallons with 10%+ runoff
- Glitter Bomb & Tangelo
- Growers Choice LED 720e
- 5x5 tent
- temps and humidity are fine
- was feeding at 5.8 runoff was 5.4

They were light bleached from the beginning which rarely happened when I was in soil. I think I fed them too little starting with 1/4 dose at the beginning. Should I feed these today with 1/2 strength since I just flushed? Then continue once a day? Thanks for the help.

I grow in a 5x5 split in half. Two plants each in one gallon pot coco with drip system. Feed 5x a day. Good runoff. I grow plants that fill wall to wall. Hand feeding is too tough and only works if they dont dry out overnight.

Or else 2x a day would be good. I wouldnt add calmag unless its needed for a good reason related to the nutes not coco. A lot of brands buffer their coco if its buffered should be good.

Ive done 3 gal before its waaay too big takes too much water. Even feeding one gallon 8x a day was too expensive so going to 4-5x. I use maxibloom. Fertilizer is expensive. A few benefits lost using 3 gal.

I do have issues I havent had with 3 gal with such root bound roots but Im dialin in the new pot setup.

I can get fried growth from too much light Ive fixed just dimming the light a lot. I feed nutes every feed no plain water. Runoff ec is good to check but ph of runoff Idk what people do with that but the growers I follow, dont.

Heres what my plants look like at the moment. Not too bad especially with the sudden change in things. I run clones.

Nice, yea I'm using RO water so that's why I was using the Calmag. But yours seems to be on the right track watering multiple times a day. These 3 gallons just stay super wet and I don't want to overdo it. I think If I can water once a day they'll get back to health. They should be flowering already lol Maybe next time I'll do one gallons but more plants. I'm also syphoning the runoff right now into a bucket so I gotta figure out a better waste system.

Those look good! I need to get mine up to that health asap.

It might not be dry but feeding once a day or twice in veg even, after 30 days I got issues not feeding 2x a day. But it will stop the ec from spiking to a crazy degree in the pots which will burn the leaves.

I had that happen and solved it and was able to get to harvest long later with no further damage. Boiled down to not enough runoff. It was 1L pots vs 1 gallon which in plastic pots like flora flex can be a pain getting long runoff.

Im figuring it out though with the right dryback just not dry to the touch but it will keep the roots from clogging the pots. Happened to me ever since I got the pots. Maybe if I fill them with yet even less coco.

Ya I use tap that has calmg but its not in the same readily form to uptake or even maybe interfere with other nutes or buffer coco. I usually tell people be careful as Ive seen it be fine but with me and others it just caused lock out.

If you know the nutes well and mulders chart etc its fine. I just use a one part and tweek feed per day and ec. For I forget last thing I noticed plants actually will get more nutes by feeding more per day.

My plants should be like kale right now from the 8x a day feed but theyre still a good light color from feeding only half as much per day.

Forsure. I might go with tap too and use chlorine drops to kill it off. I gotta mess with it to get it down correctly. Much different than soil. The one thing I've never bought is a PPM meter, never really needed it but I should get one now.

Yea a ec meter will help a lot I couldnt grow without mine. The runoff ec fixes issues half the time knowing where its at. Idk what you mean by kill of chlorine, I feed my plants pool shock. I use it to keep the reservoir crystal clear.

The chlorine in tap is usually in a spent state inert in other words. I add it though.

Yea I'm gonna order an ec meter now. The water here in the bay are, ca seems like it has a lot of chlorine in it. I can smell it coming out of the sink and got a shower filter. It doesn't harm your plants?

No I just feed hth pool shock advanced, .3gs per 10 gallons water solution for 3ppm. I overlap a bit to make sure it stays working or it can go bad in just hrs or overnight if I dont. Every 2 days used to be 3 but my conditions are wild.

Wild for a reservoir, 80-85F daily. Thats spring/summer but soon hopefully should be able to keep it 80F or lower with outdoor air. Live up north. Plants are fine. People with less horrid conditions and different water source too dont use pool shock.

Me and others have to use it to some degree.

Pool shock dont even kill everything neither does h202. I read it shouldnt kill the microbe lift bmc in those concentrations. I do try to add them at seperate times being mindful of that. Let one mix in before I add the other.

I got gnats lol. I didnt know I could get them in dtw coco. Its working ok though. It is helping.

Forsure, I'm gonna start using the hose water, getting RO is a pain driving to the store all the time, unless I buy one of those $250 filters.

Never, ever, ever flush your coco........ever.
If you ever have a need to flush because of salt build up due to letting the coco dry or not feeding to enough run off.......use a weak nute solution.
Feeding daily to substantial run off renews the nutes, pulls in fresh oxygen to the roots, and prevents salt build up.
Feed daily to substantial run off using a pH around 6.0.
Never let the coco dry.......it should always be saturated........you can't overwater coco once the root system is established.
Chlorine in your drinking water will not harm plants.

An ro filter is great dont get me wrong I just am getting lucky with my tap. I had an experienced grower look at my water and suggest RO.

Its .5ec lots of calmg in different forms but all the other junk that doesnt need to be there can create guessing games when things go wrong.

I really have nowhere for a ro filter unless I hire plumber to have a tap in the basement somewhere. For a 60 gallon reservoir to take from. Theres just no where for it in my situation.

However I did find that a good 800gph or 1150gph pump from say, vivosun, I pump water from basement to ground floor and vice versa. Across the floor long distance to load reservoir and dump runoff. Its pretty fast and saves labor.

I could use more weight lifting though… Turn this fat to muscle!