very conveniant hand-watering coco method

[bernzoo]

hello folks

first of all i would like to point out that i highly appreciate this forum.

there is so much knowledge and experience floating about i am still digesting and learning tons of new stuff every day, so ICmag rock on

i been growing in coco for over 1 year now.

maybe some of you are interested in a more conveniant way of hand watering your ladies in coco shoes.

i grow under 1kw atm (600w and 400w)

i used 12 pots for each grow area (24 all together), all pots are 11 liters.

with these 11 liter pots i found it to be sufficient to only water every 3 to 4 days. the coco is never really dry (maybe the surface after 4 days).

the EC and PH values stay very stable throughout the entire grow.

i use the entire Metrop series as nutrients + enzyms.

what is important though when watering like this is to consider using enzyms.

i add enzyms after the 2nd week of growth, from then on i add enzyms every time i water.

the results in growth and harvest with this method have really convinced me plus it is very conveniant.

in the next few days i will have my clones ready and start my first grow report in the ICmag coco section.

24 11 liter pots, handwatered every 3-4 days.

peace out

 

[surfingrob]

Awesome man, I'm interested in seeing your results as I'm pretty new to the coco thing. right now I'm just experimenting in 1gal grow bags, putting clones into flower immediately after rooting into cups. I drip feed them 4 times a day during the day cycle only with CNS17 bloom, molasses, and some liquid karma, PH'd to 5.8.

-rob

 

[mikessong]

I think you're on to something Bernzoo that a lot of people here aren't - the drier you can get the coco between waterings without actually letting it get too dry, the more root growth, the better yield and the stickier flowers you'll get. My understanding is Cannabis doesn't naturally grow best in soaking wet circumstances, and I think I've experienced that with straight Canna Coco from the bag watered once a day. I'm only on my second coco grow and have changed a few factors but I'm pretty sure that watering less often and giving less nutes have been the biggest reasons for this explosive growth I'm getting.

I'm still finding the best balance but on average I water every two days (a few of my strains can wait another day or two) in 3 gallon pots with a little runoff. I use these nutes at full strength: Cannazym, Rhizo, BioBoost@8ml/gal (optional), Liquid Karma (definitely optional but helps, most of it is in the Rhizo and BioBoost) at half strength, 4ml. I work up the A+B slowly from 1 ml/gal to 4mL around week 2 of 12/12 and then bring it slowly back down until you flush with just Cannazym and BioBoost (and maybe Liquid Karma) the last week. I'll add up to 3 mL (still experimenting) of Pk 13-14 anywhere from weeks 3 to 6 depending on the plant's needs - definitely not 3ml for the whole 4 weeks, mostly something like 3ml of AB, 1 of PK 13-14. These nute strengths and watering frequency vary a little depending on strain and other factors. Good luck, comments welcome.

 

[Guest]

I have tried watering once every other day and found it acceptable until the plants kick into high gear. I found they wanted more so I started feeding once a day and got fantastic results. This grow I'm watering twice a day, albeit in a drip system, but I can't tell the plants are producing any differently. Yield will be there.

I recommend all new growers water daily to runoff. That will keep them out of trouble. After they're comfortable, they can begin to find their own groove. Coco is very user friendly and will allow a lot of experimentation without pulling the plug on your plants.

Peace

 

[mikessong]

Have you taken into account different strains, different pot sizes, veg times, growing style, nute strength, etc.? If I'm not mistaken, Mojo, you grow sorta trees like I did last time and I too found daily watering to work well. But now I'm training them to produce more bud and less stem/leaf, and they seem to want less water.

I think with daily watering it's possible to run into trouble like slow root growth and leaf curl/droop, especially in the beginning. I know some people disagree, but I think once every other day is a good general standard. I have big 4 foot master kush and lemon kush and SAC OG kush plants hitting week 7 of flower and they don't want water more than once every other day. However, I'll admit a few of my strains like Dabney Blueberry are starting to get thirsty every day in week 4. Mojo, when do you consider "high gear"?

Like Mojo, I'm pretty new at coco, but I've always heard the golden rules for new growers are don't over-water and don't over-fert. I think these are more true if anything with coco, because it retains water so well and allows nutrient uptake so readily. But I could be wrong.

 

[killabrown420]

Dabney does drink up a lot and able to take more nutes than other fickle strains in my experience. She's a beast.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Like Mojo, I'm pretty new at coco, but I've always heard the golden rules for new growers are don't over-water and don't over-fert. I think these are more true if anything with coco, because it retains water so well and allows nutrient uptake so readily. But I could be wrong.

"don't over-water and don't over-fert" well, well with COCO you cannot overwater, I have run it in a constant flow quite happily. Experiments this year pointed to bubbled roots in hydrograins being something worth looking at. I will post the experiments and results in due course.

 

[mikessong]

I think Blackvelvet put it best when Canna themselves said to water less:

"This thread does not surprise me at all. Not at all. I tried to tell you CoCo fools your overwatering in the cannabis infirmary. "No no velvet, its coco, you can't overwater." Let that nut refuse dry out some, eh? It's like growing in perlite. "

I don't know anything about bubbled roots in hydrograins. I just know that in nature, it doesn't rain every day in the places that Cannabis evolved to grow in.

 

[Guest]

I think Blackvelvet put it best when Canna themselves said to water less:

"This thread does not surprise me at all. Not at all. I tried to tell you CoCo fools your overwatering in the cannabis infirmary. "No no velvet, its coco, you can't overwater." Let that nut refuse dry out some, eh? It's like growing in perlite. "

I don't know anything about bubbled roots in hydrograins. I just know that in nature, it doesn't rain every day in the places that Cannabis evolved to grow in.

WTF???? Black Velvet never put anything best as far as I can tell. I don't know though, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

You seem to think I'm lining up on the "don't water too often" crowd. I'm not!!! As I said, I recommend watering to runoff every day. After the new grower has brought in a harvest they should be good enough at it that they will be able to experiment a little and still be able to salvage the grow if the experiment doesn't work out. I've never found a better watering regimen than watering every day. If I had, I wouldn't have chosen to go to two waterings a day. I'd have chosen to water every other day.

Pretty evident when he shows up though.



Peace

 

[Guest]

I think Blackvelvet put it best when Canna themselves said to water less:

"This thread does not surprise me at all. Not at all. I tried to tell you CoCo fools your overwatering in the cannabis infirmary. "No no velvet, its coco, you can't overwater." Let that nut refuse dry out some, eh? It's like growing in perlite. "

I don't know anything about bubbled roots in hydrograins. I just know that in nature, it doesn't rain every day in the places that Cannabis evolved to grow in.

And nature doesn't heap up big piles of pre-washed coco fiber for the plants to grow in either. Know why? Because it doesn't rain every day and the plants couldn't make it without it. lmfao.

Peace

 

[georgexxx]

I've been growing in coco for about a year...straight canna coco from the bag.

IME, it seems to me that it depends on the lifecycle of the plant.
In Veg, Ive found that to get that rootball to expand, just like soil, you water less....and water around the edges so that the roots will go searchin for water. Once youve done your final transplant, and the rootball (and plant) is getting big as hell.....youll want to start watering once a day to keep your big ass plant hydrated.

These methods have worked very well for me. Im still new to Coco though...still learning.

 

[aeric]

Agreed on needing to go slow at first with the watering frequency, but when roots kick in it's time to see what coco is really capable of. Rather than go into detail about why it works....I'll just say there is a noticable difference between even watering 3x/day and 4x. More is better, but haven't tried more than 4x. The important thing is to underpot, since both the coco medium and autowatering will handle the rest. Say 1/2-1gal pot for up to a 4ft plant. You don't know what coco can do until you do this, everything else is just a little better than soil, which is still a plus, but....ya know. Why do you think they only make rockwool blocks up to 6" square maximum, then recommend multiple waterings? Same thing, but coco is even better...no algae, trash issues, etc....

A situation where multiple waterings wouldn't work? Extreme example: 2 gal pot, 2 ft plant, under 400 watts, barely any roots at 12/12, the plant looks big enough to flower but roots haven't completely filled the medium....still there is more oxy and root mass than your typical soil/less grow but not ideal. Alot of folks on here seem to be doing pretty much that....maybe not as extreme, but the plants dont show their full pot-ential. (warning: honest opinion) People that are handwatering are cheating themselves, wake up!

 

[mikessong]

Aeric, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear in detail why your method works better. The way I see it, the plants take up the same amount of width as my 3 gallon pots (about 10" sq), so why use a smaller pot, or even how could you without it getting too dense? It's more watering, smaller margin of error, you would have to be yielding tremendous amounts to make it worth it I would think. I could see how frequent waterings would work great for a coarser medium that would always stay drier, that way you could even recirculate the water, or might even need to.

To me, one of the big advantages of coco is that it can stay wet for a long time, but not too wet, so it's low maintenance, but higher margin for error than soil. That's how I'm viewing it, but if you've got some other tricked out way of using it, please do explain.

Well, we can all agree that coco's great because we're using different methods and all getting good results. Mojo, I'm not one of those that thinks we should mimic everything about "natural growth" when using coco, but I do think you want to keep those principles and maybe adapt them. And I do think something of a wet/drier cycle is beneficial - Canna has said this. Like georgexxx is saying, it's about adapting "optimal growth in nature" to coco. And we've both found that not watering every day produces bigger roots/growth in the beginning. For my setup, that has continued to be true well into flowering. I've notice lots of root growth all the way through week 5.

I leave a couple inches without coco at the top of my 3 gallon pots when I transplant into them for flowering. Once they're jumping out the top, I throw a little more coco on, and then they fill that up, and this continues through week 5. I assume this root growth is reflected in flower growth, so to me it stands to reason that you want to water no more than necessary to continue this growth. Then you're into week 6, when most plants probably will need water every day. But by week 7 or 8 a lot of people say start watering less frequently to make it pump up the resin.

Each unto their own. I'd just say to newbies, which is basically me too, water less frequently at first. Then if you see the plants start drooping lifelessly the next day, you need to pick it up obviously. But if you water everyday from the beginning, you may start to see signs of overwatering, which is a more firmly curled droop, and confuse it for an underwatering droop. Then you start watering more, making it worse...it can get confusing. I think it's much easier to learn the signs at first if you water less often. That said, there are some strains that are real thirsty mothers from day 1 or at least won't mind the extra water too much. The lack of extra oxygen might be a different story Good luck everyone!

 

[aeric]

Watering coco "too much" is not an issue, coco is not soil. Canna is talking about specific situations, you'd be better off following their guidelines for cogr boards. Read the stickies folks....especially Gaius...stubbornness will only get you a Bonsai version of what you could get, on that note, I'm done trying to convince anyone of anything on this forum.

 

[Guest]

Watering coco "too much" is not an issue, coco is not soil. Canna is talking about specific situations, you'd be better off following their guidelines for cogr boards. Read the stickies folks....especially Gaius...stubbornness will only get you a Bonsai version of what you could get, on that note, I'm done trying to convince anyone of anything on this forum.

I understand why you might not want to post more. We keep rehashing the same thing over and over. One grow guide for coco ought to be enough to get folks started but it isn't. You know the one I'm talking about. The basics. From there, people can go whatever direction they want, knowing they can always return to the basics. The one they know won't harm their plants.

Then they can see what maximizes their yields. And report back. Gaiusmarius knows his shit. I grow the way he taught me. It may not be the way he still grows, but it works for me. I tried to deviate and always came back. He uses slabs to grow on and waters to waste. I grow in pots and recirculate. If he grew in pots, he and I would likely be growing the same way.

I'm not saying anything about my way being the only way, but I know it sticks to the rules of growing in coco. I've got harvests coming up at three different times with three different strains. All of them really have different nute requirements but I've been able to hit a happy medium during this grow that has kept the plants happy that I'll harvest first without pissing off the other two strains too badly. hehehehe.

Peace

Edited:

Here are the basics:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=74575

 

[Guest]

We have beaten this topic to death in multiple threads... I just can't imagine a healthy flowering plant not drying up in a few days... unless your environment is outta whack, then its excusable..

I think with daily watering it's possible to run into trouble like slow root growth and leaf curl/droop, especially in the beginning.

Only in the beginning... unless you are going the hydroroute, then your roots are going to go apeshit if they are in a smallish container... Show me one example of someone "overwatering" their coco beyond 2 weeks of veg, regardless of pot size... If they used some garbage, off the wall coco, it doesn't count

I think Blackvelvet put it best when Canna themselves said to water less:

BWAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

 

[BlueHaze]

Once a day watering should be your minium if hand watering with a 10% rtw. I personally like 3 to 4 times a day with a 10% rtw. When you let coco dry up it get high concentration of salt build up. I would like to see a picture of your plant? This thread is bad karma for any noobie. Even my clone i feed once a day. Coco works best when you keep the medium moist. Picture please?

 

[Guest]

Not watering your coco everyday is like neglecting to take a shower once a day... imagine all the microscopic disgusting shit that builds up on you day after day... pretty much the same thing with the coco (salts)... although you and your plants might look fine and dandy, god knows what kinda nasty shit is building up... the less you go without watering, the more buildup you get...

I love being stoned

 

[mikessong]

Have any of you tried watering less, at least when they're vegging? And your personal experiments vegging clones convinced you that 24 hours is the magic frequency? Don't knock it until you try it. I wish I had a camera to show you. I have a Chemdog cola the size of my calf with a stem like a broomstick. Watering it every couple of days...the one thing I can say is that I do spray to a fair amount of runoff, probably 20% minimum and full strength enzymes every time. That might be a waste to some, but it's half the time if you're handwatering it.

I'm just trying to help fellow noobs...if I'm going to be accused of spreading bad karma for adding my voice and maybe challenging the convential wisdom than forget it, I too will grow in silence. I'm not even sure which guide you're referring to, is that something about slabs that gaius doesn't use anymore? I read all his posts, for example I use his pH recommendations that are more recent than the ones I think you're referring to. Last grow I used his old pH numbers from the guide and that didn't work as well. And this general plan of watering less is I think something I picked up in part from him or someone experienced who said it's fine as long as you have a good amount of runoff. And Aeric, I honestly did want to learn from why your method is better! I'm not saying I'm the coco guru after my second grow, just relating my experience.

After all, a lot of people in this thread have agreed that I'm right about veg at least. Put that in your guide!

 

[i_score]

hey easy dont kill the guy, i dont water my plants every day, that means they are not growing like crazy as they might be if i did drip watering,but i am happy at the way they are developing, i water wen i see the up layer of the coco is a bitt dry, but that is me and im not telling anyone this is how one should do, but for me it works fine,and thats what matters really.

I love being stoned

i was thinking just that