When to water coco for seedlings

[NoFrillsNoBills]

So I am growing in coco, and am concerned due to overwatering the seeds initially. I know coco needs to be watered often and not allowed to dry out. Today is midday Friday and the last time I watered was midday Wednesday. The bottom half of the fabric pot is still quite wet it appears from the side of the pot and the top is quite damp still. I read a trick to knowing when to water coco was to take a piece of TP/napkin, fold it, then gently press the coco and if you bring back a decent amount then it's likely still too damp to water again.

Is this a true tip to use? If so, would this amount of coco put a pause in your watering schedule? when I watered on Wed, each 5gallon pot got roughly 1 qt of water each. They are raised and drain in to large 16" saucers quite quickly as far as runoff is concerned.

 

[Olderfart]

How big are your seedlings? Any roots made it out the sides of the pot yet? Do you have perlite in the mix, and if so, roughly what proportion?

I irrigate with autopots/fabric pots once the plants are established, so I am using a different setup, but what I can tell you is that with fabric pots and coc/perlite, my plants were happy with the coco being moist pretty much throughout the pot once I went to subirrigation. The balance here is dependent on the drainage in your medium. If straight coco with more fines, you are more at risk than with coco/perlite or coarse coco on its own. Bottom line is that those roots need to be regularly if not continuously aerated, so watering frequency will vary according to the drainage and permeability of your grow medium. Having said that, your fabric pots will help with aeration no matter what medium you are using.

Good luck with it.

 

[NoFrillsNoBills]

How big are your seedlings? Any roots made it out the sides of the pot yet? Do you have perlite in the mix, and if so, roughly what proportion?

I irrigate with autopots/fabric pots once the plants are established, so I am using a different setup, but what I can tell you is that with fabric pots and coc/perlite, my plants were happy with the coco being moist pretty much throughout the pot once I went to subirrigation. The balance here is dependent on the drainage in your medium. If straight coco with more fines, you are more at risk than with coco/perlite or coarse coco on its own. Bottom line is that those roots need to be regularly if not continuously aerated, so watering frequency will vary according to the drainage and permeability of your grow medium. Having said that, your fabric pots will help with aeration no matter what medium you are using.

Good luck with it.

70% coco / 30% perlite + fabric pots. Quickest grower, mango, is at about 2" I popped the jiffy pods in to the coco the day after their first true set deployed because i was concerned I was going to do damage by multiple transplants. The NCH was the fastest grower initially, i left for a morning, and came back in the afternoon and it had grown a 3" root. By the time I had the 5 gallon pots set up the next morning that 3" root had shrivelled up and there were a lot of smaller roots trying to explore out the jiffy netting.

I'll definitely 'play it by feel' as you suggest. It drains quickly for sure, but right now the bottom of the pot is definitely staying damper than the top half which is exposed to the circulating air and heat from the lights. Perhaps that's the difference? Perhaps the dampness at the bottom will become a non issue whats the root network develops and begins sucking that part up? Im ready to learn and find out

I irrigate with autopots/fabric pots once the plants are established

I'm going to look in to this more. This is interesting. Thanks

 

[Olderfart]

Ok, so the plants are early and still in root building mode. In that case, I would suggest fertigating in a ring around the plants not next to the stems, and do it often enough to keep the surface moist for the next week or so. If the surface of the coco starts to show patches of light dry color in your fertigating ring, it's time to wet it again. The idea is to encourage lateral root growth into as much of the growing medium as you can. The moist pot bottom is not a problem right now, and given my experience with autopots and a similar medium, it is unlikely to become one later.
I doubt that with your coco/perlite mix in fabric pots you have to worry excessively about overwatering. Just keep it to a ring around the plants, not the whole pot, and you do not need to water to runoff for a while yet. I also recommend using a bit of yucca or other surfactant to help keep water in the coco distributed throughout the pots. Just my 2 cents of course...

Good luck with the grow.

 

[NoFrillsNoBills]

Ok so I looked in to what you were talking about a bit more and came across this. DIY auto water system Is this something like what you are talking about?

If so, is it possible to switch to a system like this mid grow? I sourced most o the parts but it looks like most places have covid issues and delivery could be upwards of 3 weeks.

 

[MesaBoogie]

Oldfarts got ya covered with pretty good advice. Something to add in addition to his advice that I found really helpful to watering seedlings is take a small pop bottle and poke 3-5 small holes in the lid. I fill it with about 100ish mil of water and a light dose of nutrients. I find this helps me get a nice even distribution of water when the plants are young. I use the pop bottle until the plants are using up the whole 1 liter worth of water. I find this method works out pretty well with the timing when I start watering to run off every time.

 

[Daipot]

You’re doing fine. I’ve always grown in coco until recently when I switched to hydro. It’s pretty hard to fuck up a coco grow. It really is. And if it does fuck Up it’s usually another issue unrelated to the coco. Water daily and your golden. As mentioned above, autopots will make you life much easier. Only thing I would do different to you right now is that I would have started them in smaller pots then potted up.

 

[Olderfart]

Oldfarts got ya covered with pretty good advice. Something to add in addition to his advice that I found really helpful to watering seedlings is take a small pop bottle and poke 3-5 small holes in the lid. I fill it with about 100ish mil of water and a light dose of nutrients. I find this helps me get a nice even distribution of water when the plants are young. I use the pop bottle until the plants are using up the whole 1 liter worth of water. I find this method works out pretty well with the timing when I start watering to run off every time.

Good idea. I use a turkey baster myself, but it is less effective due to smaller capacity. Perhaps I should get my butt in gear and make up your pop bottle tool.