Grow Mediums How do you water/feed your coco?

[Automaticyumyum]

Interested how to see how most feed and water their coco. Do you use drip system or hand water from above? Or any other methods Im unaware of?

I was thinking about trying hempy buckets after dealing with too hot of soil. The thread I read said they work really well with a drip system. Anyone know a good drip system or guide that work with 2 or 3 hempys? Never used one.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey. Personally, I hand water with the pots on a grill over a bucket while the plants are growing and I water them directly in the bucket, letting them sit in the runoff for a few minutes when flowering, but I am growing in very small pots (0.5l to 1l). When I was growing in "normal" size pots (1gl to 5gl) I started by watering with drain to waste in the same fashion until I discovered blumats. I loved them so much that I never went back to hand watering until I had to severely down size my set up and I couldn't use them anymore. I used them both with mineral nutes and full on organic feeding and they worked very well with bot. With the mineral nutes I could drop the ec down to 0.6/1.0 for the full grow and flowering which I really liked and with the organic amendments I just had to add water to the reservoir once in a while which I really like too.

 

[Automaticyumyum]

What ph meter would you recommend? I got one but it didnt seem to work well. Just been using liquid dropper test. I might try out some these blumats they sound like what im looking for.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey. I can't help you with pH meters as I do not own one. I seldom use pH drops as I got used to my water and I know that 3 drops of pH- per liter will give me a pH of about 6.
Blumats are great but you have to set them up correctly otherwise you might get a flood in your grow space. Also you'll have to lower significantly your EC as you don't DTW with blumats so you'll hit salt buildup if you don't have a low EC. Last thing, it is highly recommended that you use a dripclean/ataclean type product in your reservoir to keep your coco salt free.
It's all about setup really, if you do it right, blumats will reward you handsomely with minimal work on your part as your plants will basically feed themselves.

 

[blue]

Hi There,

Coco is a very versatile medium - there's a few good threads which i can link you to in a mo, but in a nut shell, i think most would consider multiple drip feedings per day the way to get best results.

But hand watering (drain to waste) is very effecrtive and easy.

Autopots (passive autowatering (bottom feeding)) have also had great results from Hansbricks and others.

For a PH meter i use and recommend "essentials" - they're not expensive but hard wearing and reliable. or the best bet but most expensive i guess would be bluelabs.

I'll get some links for you and come back to edit!

All the best

Blue ^_^




edit: All the links i was going to provide you with are stickied above your post - there's 4 or 5 good articles (including my collection of canna tips) that pretty much all agree with each other (mostly)

Tip: if you're starting out and just wanna grow the damn thing in coco - aim for a ph of 5.8 and don't over nute it! when the plant roots are establish water to wet and dry cycles like in soil.

(not a pro tip and wont get the biggest and best results .... but will get results)

 

[Automaticyumyum]

Thanks for the info you all and the guides you've contributed Blue! I think I will start with handwatering and canna or an ph perfect nutes. With autos do you still feed starting at day 1 and do you still give 1/8-1/2 strength recommended feeding dose?

 

[blue]

You most welcome ^_^ and thanks!

If you can bare to go the extra mile, get yourself an ec meter.
I like to start germed seedlings off with a very mild nute solution and rhizontonic. between 0.8-1.0 ec should do the trick (before ph management).

 

[regen]

Hempy way to go!

Step 1 watering



Step 2 2 or 3 day enjoy laziness
Step 3 go to step one

 

[BigD1128]

I hand water. My style of coco growing is similar to soil. The only difference is once they hit the flowering stretch I feed daily.

 

[forestly]

You most welcome ^_^ and thanks!

If you can bare to go the extra mile, get yourself an ec meter.
I like to start germed seedlings off with a very mild nute solution and rhizontonic. between 0.8-1.0 ec should do the trick (before ph management).

whoa... 0.8-1.0 EC for seedling... i usually give half the 1ml AN nutes and i`t gets me to 0.3 EC (i use RO) and water in flowering around 1.0 EC...
@blue how do you not burn your seedling with 1.0 EC? share the secret

i second the Bluelab recommendation. I have a Bluelab monitor and i love it. They are connectable with Bee controllers too now.