Ebb & Flow w/coco - what's the watering schedule?

[digdepp]

Ok here's the setup:

2ftx4ft flood tray filled with 6inX6in square pots (holes on bottom).
Light - 2ftx4ft 8 bulb T5.

The pots are filled only with coco.

How often do I flood?

I was hoping for once a day, but can't tell if that's too much.
After two days without watering, the coco isn't dry but it doesn't feel that wet either.

Any suggestions?

 

[seaweed]

dude,
I flood and drain coco. I start plants out in 4inch pots. And flood them once a day with Cutting Edge Nutrients.When the plants start to grow ( 2-5 days) I switch to 6 waterings a day. When roots appear out of the bottom I transplant into 6inch pots.At first top watering my be needed if the roots are above the flood level of your tray. I flood 6 times a day.
I have tried all types of water scheduals. For flood and drain ,with these size pots ,this works the best.

 

[digdepp]

Thanks!!

I guess it also depends on how high you flood your table.
How high do you flood?

3 inches??

 

[seaweed]

It must be 3 or 4 inches.

 

[zor]

question : if you guys are doing ebb and flow, why not just use hydroton clay pellets? it would seem easier since its totally inert and doesnt hold nutrients.

 

[seaweed]

Several resons
1) My yields went up when I started using coco.
2)When I am done with the coco I dump it on my lawn. You should feel my kushy lawn.
3)After years of cleaning hydo rock and pulling them out of every corner of my life I became frustrated with the rock.
4) Yea coco has a range of ec readings . In good coco the "salts" are made up of potasium, and micro nutrients. Both of witch weed likes. Bad coco has sodium cloride that give it a high ec.

 

[digdepp]

Any tried using both?

Once you see and feel coco....you get a better understanding of it.

 

[Kenny Lingus]

Hi folks!

The last 14months I've used coco-slabs and a few potted plants on drippers for flowering. (I've just tried handwatering once a day and experienced great results there too)

I'm now interested in making a flow/flood table to bottom feed bonzai moms in coco. (I've seen regular tables with only an inlet and outlet at bottom level that are used for watering tomatoes and other larger container plants (it seems as a way of using NFT on a timer to water wicking grow media...

Anyone have experience in this kind of water managment, or will e/f be a better approach?

PS! I wanna use bottom feeding to get the surface area drier and hopefully avoid gnats.