1st grow in coco, help

[bearhair]

@St. Tom . Should I be flushing every so often, or should I just take them off the autopots and top fertigate.. tell me some secrets please...

 

[bearhair]

Or like manogreen said, top fertigate once a week?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Thanks @St. Tom and @Mañ'O'Green. Yes I do all ways have the covers on over the valve. And I now have a small ro system I've been using for the last.2 weeks. Just flushed and ph was great. Ec was 2.6 but I think some of that might have been coco as the runoff was slightly brown...didn't really stratify, just mixed in..

Coco does not measure on an EC pen. You had a big salt build up. The brown color might be from the coco.

 

[bearhair]

Oh, crap.. didnt know that. Thanks again Man o green.. I though ec was a measurement of dissolved solids. I know ppm can be calculated from ec.. ahh boy.....

 

[proustdreams]

Growth, Yield, and Water Productivity Responses of Pepper to Sub-Irrigated Planter Systems in a Greenhouse

A sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a container irrigation technique in which water is supplied to the crop from the bottom, stored in a saturated media-filled reservoir beneath an unsaturated soil, and then delivered by capillary action to the root zone. The aim of this study was to optimize the...

www.mdpi.com

Haven't read the study carefully, but it seems to have some good information on how to avoid salt build up in a coco + SIP system.

 

[MIAutomatic]

I’ll have to check that study out, sounds interesting. I have always figured there is a way to make coco work in an SIP, but have never taken the time to get it dialed in. Maybe @St. Tom would share a few tips, what EC ranges he uses in the reservoir, how much calmag, if he top waters periodically?

I am not sure what @Mañ'O'Green means by you can’t use an EC pen with coco? Reliable tools to check EC and PH are your best friend in coco. I check the PH and EC on everything that goes in or out of the coco. Runoff EC is not an exact reflection of medium EC, but it’s usually pretty close. I have occasionally done slurry tests of my medium using the process recommended by Canna, and although it’s not exactly the same as the runoff it’s always been within 0.2 EC of the runoff EC.

On a related note no home EC/ppm device is going to actually give you real TDS or ppm readings. They are all taking EC readings and converting that to a TDS/ppm reading. To get an actual analysis of TDS you would need laboratory grade equipment. That said a good quality EC pen/meter will give you accurate information as long as it’s regularly cleaned and calibrated.

 

[St. Tom]

@St. Tom . Should I be flushing every so often, or should I just take them off the autopots and top fertigate.. tell me some secrets please...

hi bro with these autopots especially growing autoflowers can sometimes be a little hit and miss but my few tips I can give you future wise don't use a row of pebbles in the bottom I buy mine pre-bagged already mixed also some plants more than others get a salt build-up and as soon as you see issues starting to occur your best taking whatever plant completely of the res so you can reset it also I use an ec pen and ph meter but I just don't bother checking the run off when I have salt buildup as I can tell there locked out maybe that's what mog means
edit
also ec and ppm are the same things

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Oh, crap.. didnt know that. Thanks again Man o green.. I though ec was a measurement of dissolved solids. I know ppm can be calculated from ec.. ahh boy.....

Pure water is a very poor electrical conductor it is the dissolved SALT in the water that conducts the electrical flow. The more salt the less resistance the higher the PPM.

Organic matter in the water does not conduct electricity and therefore is not a part of the measure of EC. Coco is organic matter and suspended particles (brown water) do not change the EC.

I see in the article that they discuss salt in the upper layers of a SIP grow but they don't really address preventing it. Top water once a week works!

 

[St. Tom]

Pure water is a very poor electrical conductor it is the dissolved SALT in the water that conducts the electrical flow. The more salt the less resistance the higher the PPM.

Organic matter in the water does not conduct electricity and therefore is not a part of the measure of EC. Coco is organic matter and suspended particles (brown water) do not change the EC.

I see in the article that they discuss salt in the upper layers of a SIP grow but they don't really address preventing it. Top water once a week works!

but you would need to completely remove the said plant out of its res tray correct if your going to top feed to reset as that's what I do if my leaves start showing issues and I know I'm within my feed range so lockout or build-up . as I feel you can fix coco girls pretty easy this way I normally just put it over a bucket or in my bath

 

[bearhair]

Thanks @Mañ'O'Green . for that explanation. I had it backwards. Thought pure water was the better conducter.. I super appreciate you taking time to help me..