COCO, drip feed timer schedule advise?

[gmanwho]

Hey guys, I just finished building my first drip system. Tired of hand watering in COCO. 4x3 table w/12 sites for veg. and building another larger one in the flowering room when i get this to work correctly.

TIMING? i have a variable repeat cycle timer, but i am unsure of how often i should set it to in early veg, mid veg, late veg. then flower.

I hear some say they feed " X "amount of minutes twice a day.

I know there are alot of variables that make this question very different depending on setup.

But whats a basic schedule for veg, TO START, drip 2 times during 18 on. for however minutes it takes for me to obtain some runnoff.

maybe every other day at first? then to once a day, then twice a day. Variable dependent i know. But just need a starting point.

Also, now in 12 hr feed sched. Should i hook up my repeat timer to my 12 hour light timer? then set the sched to repeat at 5 hrs for " X " amount of minutes.

So that setup would make my feed pump run twice, 1st run at hour 5 of 12/12, then 2nd at hour 10 or 12/12. in most cases, Would this be to many hours in between 2nd feeding & first.

Example... They feed at 2nd feeding, then have 2 more hours of light, then 12 hours of darkeness, then 5 hours of light before feeding of the 1st cycle.

Is it better to feed when lights on?
Any ideas? Am i on the right approach?


Thank you all for all your input, Have a great New year and as always, B-safe.

 

[Guest]

go by what you did when hand watering, You know how much water you were giveing them in each stage of growth, just set the timer to do the same, should be easy as long as you know how much water your drippers put out,

 

[gmanwho]

Grizz: My methods of hand watering where similar to hand watering soil somewhat. The wrong way for sure. I never vegged in coco before, vegged in aero/sprinkler type system, then dropped them in 5 gal full with coco in flower. And things where fine.

everything i've done w/coco untill recently was wrong in terms of water schedule.

Read a bunch of coco threads recently, but not much theory in detail of waterings.

Cycling more often with lower feed times ,Or cycling less with longer feed times?

What has worked best in your experiences? what did not?

Do you use a timer? Whats your approach in repeat feedings? What makes you choose the set of times you currently run???


B-safe

 

[3dDream]

gmanwho, I have found the easiest way to water coco is to bottom feed. Get some trays that hold a number of pots tightly with not too much excess space. Pour 1-1.5 inches of water into the tray. When the tray is bone dry water again. That is it! You will need to flush every 2-3 weeks to be safe. Also, I run 100% coco. When the plants get a bit larger they will need to be watered a few times a day or you can go with an autopot(like) setup. I only hand water in veg and the start of flower. Filling a tray that has 5 plants is much easier than watering 5 individuals.

 

[Bozo]

I would hate to be one of yer plants dream .How do you feed your dog cut open a bag of food and let fido fend for himself?

Letting your roots sit in stagnate water is wrong in so many ways I wouldnt know where to begin

I dont even grow in coir so I cant give advice .Yes feed with lights on ...is that a trick question?

And people remember giving bad advice is not better than giving no advice at all
Happy New Year

 

[Guest]

ok, to start with in veg early they dont need that much water, onece a day untill water comes out drain holes, as they grow they are going to need more so after 1 month i would set my timer for twice a day, same , water untill you get run off, as they go into flower just check cocco for dryness or look at your plants, they will tell you if there thirsty, Im new to cocco myself and am no expert, you just have to learn what they want and give it to them. it aint rocket science just a lot of common sence.

 

[wonkanobe]

i feed mine 3x a day during the 12 hour light period for 5 to 8 mins. some of my trays are 5 and some 8. for eg i would go to 5 a day. I use botanicare premix coco that has perlite added great stuff they have a couple diff kinds.

 

[3dDream]

I would hate to be one of yer plants dream .How do you feed your dog cut open a bag of food and let fido fend for himself?

Letting your roots sit in stagnate water is wrong in so many ways I wouldnt know where to begin

I dont even grow in coir so I cant give advice .Yes feed with lights on ...is that a trick question?

And people remember giving bad advice is not better than giving no advice at all
Happy New Year

Bozo, coco only soaks so much water and cannot over water itself. I have done the same in soil, but used a layer of perlite to protect the roots. There are many systems that bottom feed plants, search around and you just might learn something, bozo.

 

[Bozo]

Well I sure have lots to learn but letting coir pots sit in trays of water till there empty is one lesson i think I will skip. What ever works for ya I just like to put alittle more effort into my set up . Its more work than settin up trays and pouring water in them but in the end it is less work and I think my plants are worth the effort . Oh and btw he was asking for a feeding scedule for a drip system not yer lazy ass way of doing things

 

[gmanwho]

Hey all, seems like we have a little action finally over here.

3D, i'm not ganging up on you by all means, i appreciate every input.

But i want you to think about this... i would think bottom feeding will prevent any flushing. you need flushing. Even if it is 10% or so, but that 10% continues to add up, and eventually older feed is pushed out. That feed thats flushed out contains poorly oxygenated water, salts, and excess NPK and trace minerals that the plant rejected, or in some cases stored there. BAD, flush tht Sh*T out.

Im sure it "works", But not optimal for high growth rate in all departments. I can bet the house on that.

Thou, if you had to leave for a few days, i would consider this as a method to use. Could work. Not all interest lost there.

Grizz: I know its not rocket science. But i was looking for details more then i pobably properly communicated. But thanks for the advice.

Just trying to read them abit more now.

For the time being, i haven't set the timer up, Just turning the pump on and watching and counting, trying to get a feel.

I feed till some flush, everyday for the past 3 days. Some seem overwatered, some grey brown circle spotting on large fan leaves visable, not calcium for sure.

So i will water every other, till i can get them to feed enough to set the timer for once a day. then maybe twices and so on.

Was just looking some ideas on sceds.


B-safe and thanks for the input.

 

[3dDream]

Bozo- to each their own then? Lazy for one is easy for another.

gmanwho - I only flush once every 3 weeks and have had zero problems with either root rot or salt. Remember coco stays wet and should not dry out like soil. Keeping wet prevents any major salt buildup. I do use hydroguard and my water is highly oxigenated to prevent any problems. One advantage of no runoff is 0 waste of nutes (it's a glass half-empty sort of thing I guess). As for being optimal or not, I wouldn't bet the house just yet. There are only a few of us "bottom feeders", for reference, checkout Johhny Chimpo's grows (I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning him). Johnny does an amazing job bottom feeding with autopots. One last thing to remember is that I am using very small containers that dry out very quickly. It is not like the plants are sitting in 10 times their volume of water, they are usually in .25-.5 times. More here: http://www.futuregarden.com/hydroponics/autopots.html

Back to the topic at hand (sorry things got off track): I guess one thing you could pull away from my minority way of watering is that coco can take a lot of water and your plants will live. Just make sure the coco does not dry out. You can't grow in coco and think like soil. Well you can, but it's like using an airplane for a car. Sure you can drive around fast and stuff, but you can fly! Flying is sooo much better.

Good luck!


Some of my abused girls in flower:





This last one was in soil and vegged for 2 weeks (not including germination time). The plant is 36 days in the pic (not including germination time). It can't be as easy as feeding a dog can it?

 

[gmanwho]

3d, im glad you showed those pics. i appreciate you taking the time. That Cleared up a few things around here. Seems like they are doing quite well. I would have believed different at this point, but you have showed me otherwise.

Note taken again on not letting them dry out to too much. Seems to be the general consensus there.

As for wasted nutes im attempting to run a recirc system, so nutes wont be wasted. Unless i am flushing.

On another note, alot of my plants lately come form a aero vegger, then i drop them into coco. So far has worked pretty well. Eaase of watering again is key as life is sometimes to busy to spend an hour or 2 everyday caring for our ladies.

2 plants in perticular who are doing veryyyy well for only about 15 days into flower, i tested the runoff, 1700 ppm @ 6.3 and they are very healthy. too high in all departments i think. So I Flushed about 1.5 gal of 5.9 @ 1000 ppm of PBP bloom soil & 3 mill of calmag through. Lowered ppm runoff to 6.1 @ 1300 ppm. Still higher then my feed/flush? Also using Botinacres presteamed coco. Strange how the ppms got so high.

Meters are calibrated often.

Any clue on that one, the high ppm runoff? They have only been in coco for 15 days of the 12/12. How could my ppm's run so high? is the coco already breaking down possibly, causeing high k ? could it be because of the shift in nutrient uptake when the plant goes to flower and reduces N uptake, so extra N is reverted to root level?

Hummmm.....

B-safe all.

 

[3dDream]

Did you flush the coco to start with? Did you run 2x the volume of water? Have you tried flushing with plain water or with molasses or a fushing agent like clearex? I normally flush with clearex and use 2x the volume of water when flushing. I have to admit that I rarely test the runoff.

 

[gmanwho]

I didnt flush, it was presteamed & balanced. Now i know better.

B-safe

 

[la-jake]

hi does anyone have a schedule for a hydro setup with coco? thats what im looking into getting and im totally new. i was told like 3-5 times a day when the lights were on during veg and the same during flower but water once when lights were off each watering for about 10-15 min with a drip system. does this sound good to you coco experts out there? also can i start my seeds in small rockwool cubes and just stick em in the coco?

 

[gmanwho]

well. im no coco expert, BUT, my question before is the same as yours. I have found there is no real answer for the question you seek, as i once did.

Every element is different. the size of containers, the feed strength, the stage of growth. the surrounding temperatures.

they make timers with a photocell to differentiate light on off.

If you plan to grow in coco, stay away from the rockwool, i have heard some say the rockwool stays to wet and can cause rot at the stem area. I've only read that. not witnessed.

the sced timing changes alot depending on stage of growth & size containers, the time change depending on how quickly the media drys out. That
fact right there makes your timing dependent on your situation. So its something you have to learn.

for me, young ones in solo cups feed every 2-3 days, then every other day @ approx 600 then 800ppm. If you get yellowing & spotting at early stages, wait longer in between waterings. Some plants act different.

Moved to one gallons, feed every 2 days at first, upped to 1000ppm. then every other day. now once a day at 1200ppm. Cal mag seems a must for som e nutrients. Im running Pure blend pro @ 5.9.

flowering moved up to 2 or 3 or 5 gallons depending on size. some feed every other day, some every day, all depending.

Hope this may answer some questions..

B-safe

 

[la-jake]

ok thanks. ill prb start off my first try with some cheap seads and once i get it good ill get something nice.
thanks

 

[Onepunchko]

I just switched to top feed myself after using a coco/soil blend in botanicalbrothers buckets. It worked good for me but I did get some lockout due to the fact that I couldnt flush with those buckets. They have a rez built into the bottom of the pot with a feeding tube at the top that led to the rez. I think they work great for someone looking to make things easier since they dont have to be watered as often. It works because the roots dont sit in the water because of the rez built into the bucket being blocked.Here is a pic. of what Im talking about.

 

[yts farmer]

hav you checked the sticky about slabs and drippers in this coco section?

 

[odium33]

I have two drip setups, one with cocogro boss cubes, the other with hydroton in net baskets, both sixteen plants, under the same light, same flood tray, fans etc. The hydroton gets fed 7 times a day for 6 minutes and the coco gets fed once a day for 4 minutes. These seem to be working well for me.