A question of a fellow grower:
What’s your take on watering/feeding schedule for coco coir grows? It seems like if you ask 100 people. 50 of them say to water often. Even multiple times a day. With run off. And treat it like hydro. While the other 50 will tell you to let it dry out a little before you water it. Feel the pot’s weight and all that. This drives me nuts. I’m on my second grow now. My first one I kind of did both methods. Sometimes I’d let it go days with no water. Other times I’d water a couple times a day. Depending on how the plant looked. This didn’t seem to have any negative affects that I know of. But I doubt I can just stick to that method. It didn’t feel right lol. Especially when I get into other, not so forgiving strains. This time around the strain I am growing is listed as moderate difficulty. And I really don’t wanna screw around with it.
So what do you suggest?
I use and amended coco/perlite medium called roots organics original potting soil. I am currently in the “water often to significant runoff” camp. I water every other day with 1/4 nutrient dosage. The downside is the battle with fungus gnats which like the moisture. In my first grow I was under watering and over nuting. Once I got straightened out, I have been please with how it is working out.
3 Likes
@Myfriendis410 knows the best schedule
1 Like
I let my coco dry out before I water again. I’ve been trying to get use to the pot weight method and I have seemed to do well with that. It ends up being a watering every other day once they get a little bigger. I use 50/50 coco and perlite in cloth pots. Love them cloth pots 
Coco can be watered to runoff every day and many do (@Not2SureYet I think) but I like the every other day regimen for as long as possible. Use more pot size rather than less. Later in flower the extra volume will help buffer the PH but depending on the plant, may have to water daily. Feed/water/feed/water. Cal Mag on water days. Always water to runoff. PH for me is 5.8 to 6.0 for best results.
Hope that helps!
4 Likes
Yep, I water every day but there are times when every other day is needed. More times than not when the plants are young as @Myfriendis410 mentioned.
1 Like
i think this is the determining factor.!
use coco/perlite like hydro and the pH needs to be low like hydro,
if u use it like a ‘soil’ mix then it needs a ‘soil’ like pH, 6.2 - 7.0.!!
used like ‘soil’ it helps to add a little dolomite lime, it buffers the pH.
the ‘best’ results i have seen is DtW watering 1-3 times a day with low EC solution in root bound conditions, super responsive like any hydro system.!
1 Like
Pot size and state of plant affects things in late flower; we saw a plant in coco throwing back salts so quickly that it was not possible to PH the media which caused all kinds of issues. The fix was to grow in a larger pot.
u have to flush often when feeding everyday,
a true flush with a salt extractor like Clearex,’
also a max of 1.0 EC is all they can handle.!
check out Soil2Coco on Grass City,
he was rocking a 4x4 space and multi-feeding a coco mix, Tupur Royal Gold,
u will have to look at an old journal, i think he’s changed media recently.
1 Like
Did all of that. The plant was root bound in a 5 gallon fabric pot. And it had to be watered twice a day due to the state of the roots.
2 Likes
I have been trying out a mix of 5 gallon and 10 gallon with coco. The only downsides I see to the tens is the amount of water it takes to get significant runoff (~30%), and that they are heavy if you need to lug them around. Otherwise, I think the tens are way better than fives. Fives dry out too fast and the plants don’t get as full and bushy. I may try 15s or bigger at some point, although fitting those into the footprint of a grow tent may become a challenge.
1 Like