Grow Mediums Watering times, frequency's, schedule etc. discussion

[Tony21]

So i have been wasting time and nutes elevating my pots and vacuming runoff ?????....hmmm....so now i will just leave runoff in the tray below the pot...unless the plant tells me otherwise...put another experiment on my list to do. It appears this would raise humidity in tent if not controlled...but hell we control environment anyways and may help with those conditions when rh is on the dry side. Looking forward to do this with next grow.

Sound about right what you say. I was concerned about high humidity too, but I don't notice any difference with these large water surface areas. I've been using only the trays for almost a year so through the seasons. I grow with an open window year round to shed heat, so if anything it will like you say, maybe help when ambient is low but even that I don't see. But again, I have plenty internal ventilation and run 50 nominal air exchanges per hour, volume of flower tent is 10 m3 and inline fan is 500 m3/h. I also feed the exhaust from the veg tents into the flower tent at 150 m3/h to push things along haha

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

Sound about right what you say. I was concerned about high humidity too, but I don't notice any difference with these large water surface areas. I've been using only the trays for almost a year so through the seasons. I grow with an open window year round to shed heat, so if anything it will like you say, maybe help when ambient is low but even that I don't see. But again, I have plenty internal ventilation and run 50 nominal air exchanges per hour, volume of flower tent is 10 m3 and inline fan is 500 m3/h. I also feed the exhaust from the veg tents into the flower tent at 150 m3/h to push things along haha

Thanks for clarifying your setup...will have to drive down your road...sounds effecient...i hate going up and down my basement....foot problems and other shit

 

[pop22]

Tony21's garden speaks for itself and him! T21 and I chat often, we seems to be on the same page about a lot of things. I'm going to trays. May run mine a bit different but should see similar results.

Won't say too much, that's for him, but he recently took down one of the biggest indoor White Widows I've seen! Its 2 sisters were pretty close also!

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

A simple way is put a large tray under the pot and keep it 1-4 cm deep, simple, I like it. Fill, wait 2-4 day, repeat, it's very boring actually haha
If anyone is being finicky, a tray in the tray and on it goes View attachment 913140 View attachment 913141View attachment 913144View attachment 913145

Getting some 200 g or more from a 3 l netpot is not difficult, but 10 L is better for a more solid heavy platform, better contra weight haha

If all goes well it should be like thisView attachment 913152View attachment 913153View attachment 913155

@Tony21 Tony ---might have missed this in a post but what medium or medium mixture you using? For some reason i assumed 100%coco. Or would you use perlite or stones in bottom of pot ?

 

[Tony21]

@Tony21 Tony ---might have missed this in a post but what medium or medium mixture you using? For some reason i assumed 100%coco. Or would you use perlite or stones in bottom of pot ?

yeah, it's just coco with some neem cake and DE, the idea is to control bugs. It seems to work for bugs, except of course for those pesky white flies thats impossible to get rid of with an open window, but they're more a nuisance than actually harmful, neem oil spraying couple times a week.
I don't know if the DE actually release any plant available silica and minerals, if it does, cool, if not so what haha

 

[4tokin]

I have been growing with coco for a few years.
To establish roots in a young plant I would hand water to start, I gently water around the perimeter of the pot letting the water/nutes would flow down around the sides of the pot rather than water in the middle. The aim of this was to encourage root growth, the roots had to chase the nutes to the sides of the pots. In the early stages I would try not to soak the coco fully, trying to aim for closer to damp than wet. Again to make roots chase the nutes.
As the plant progressed I would then move to DTW with a automated drip system starting with 2 feeds a day up to 6 short feeds a day as the plants bulked up.
Then I took the automation one step further and started using blumats, where the plants feed themselves. With blumats I set them so there is no run off from the pots,again I aim for damp rather than wet to help avoid the permeable water table that develops when using coco. The wet coco impedes root growth.
The blumats are gravity fed from the header tank,the black line coming from the base of the header tank.

My reservoir

The bottom barrel is the main reservoir and the tub up the top acts as a header tank that the feed line comes from.
The pipe connecting the 2 units operates as an overflow pipe/drain for the header tank. Nutes are constantly pumped up to the header tank 24/7 mainly to just keep the water circulating. The bottom barrel has an air line running into it to airate the water. In winter a fish tank heater keeps the water at a nice temperature.

Blumats.

Root development

The clay balls are only a thin layer to stop the surface of the coco drying out.

The results

 

[Weedeep]

I have been growing with coco for a few years.
To establish roots in a young plant I would hand water to start, I gently water around the perimeter of the pot letting the water/nutes would flow down around the sides of the pot rather than water in the middle. The aim of this was to encourage root growth, the roots had to chase the nutes to the sides of the pots. In the early stages I would try not to soak the coco fully, trying to aim for closer to damp than wet. Again to make roots chase the nutes.
As the plant progressed I would then move to DTW with a automated drip system starting with 2 feeds a day up to 6 short feeds a day as the plants bulked up.
Then I took the automation one step further and started using blumats, where the plants feed themselves. With blumats I set them so there is no run off from the pots,again I aim for damp rather than wet to help avoid the permeable water table that develops when using coco. The wet coco impedes root growth.
The blumats are gravity fed from the header tank,the black line coming from the base of the header tank.

My reservoir

The bottom barrel is the main reservoir and the tub up the top acts as a header tank that the feed line comes from.
The pipe connecting the 2 units operates as an overflow pipe/drain for the header tank. Nutes are constantly pumped up to the header tank 24/7 mainly to just keep the water circulating. The bottom barrel has an air line running into it to airate the water. In winter a fish tank heater keeps the water at a nice temperature.

Blumats.

Root development

The clay balls are only a thin layer to stop the surface of the coco drying out.

The results

Fantastic grow man SUPER!!! i'm just try. to go automate my feedings, cant decide what to get blumats,autopots or flora flex, i like coco nut i cant any more hand woter it ((( you got one dripper for each pot right? i will have some air pots and Honor the plant pots. can you help me to understand whats best for me, i want to grow 4 plants, and my feeding is some mineral nutes and some organic stuff,what would be better

 

[Weedeep]

yeah, it's just coco with some neem cake and DE, the idea is to control bugs. It seems to work for bugs, except of course for those pesky white flies thats impossible to get rid of with an open window, but they're more a nuisance than actually harmful, neem oil spraying couple times a week.
I don't know if the DE actually release any plant available silica and minerals, if it does, cool, if not so what haha

you got simpliest setup i have ever seen,and the result is like that too ))) respect brotha!!! i just interest if you put some air stones in the tray would it be better ir its have no reason ffor that?

 

[Tony21]

Thank you for saying so, I'm pretty simple minded so it was the best I could come up with. Took a while of course, had to make sure first all the fancy stuff was really above my pay grade, but that's being lazy and simple for ya haha.... Are you by any chance in the market for Autopots , Airpots and such, I can offer some simple volume prices

I did spend some time considering a way to get air into the trays, very flat airstones, paddle wheels, various venturi thingies, and a few other outlandish ways, but it wasn't so simple to figure out how to simply agitate a vanishing shallow pool of water, I actually consulted @pop22 about this possible oxygen debacle but drew a blank there too haha..... How to keep it simply tubeless, cableless, noiseless, snagless, powerless, pumpless, expenseless and mindless, simples, do nothing

I think the large surface area of the tray and refilling every 2-3 days plus the netpots working as Airpots on hormones does the oxygen job adequately. Even pouring in 40-50 l for depth of 5-6 cm when going away for 4-5 days seems to ignore any Oxy deficits haha
I do keep the two 75 l reservoirs(grow +flower) I fill from aerated and each has a small pond pump with a riser tube and bell fountain head at the end like this

Aye, I'm OK with me oxylevels even though the trays are not agitated methinks haha

Here's some recent tray adventures in no particular order

 

[Free Flow]

Just got into flood and drain myself and really liking it. I water 6 times a day for 30 minutes each. Also have dwc which as we all know stays in constant contact with nutrient solution. Coco I prefer to hand water. Every 2-3 days during veg and daily during flower.