Indoor Watering Coco

[Catcohern]

Hello AFN. I've been thinking about this for a while now and have read several conflicting reports so thought I'd put it out there and see what everyone's thoughts/experiences are. What is the best method for watering coco? Do you let it dry out in a similar way to soil or keep it moist? I am using 6 litre airpots with a 70/30 coco/perlite mix. In the main I've been letting the pots getting pretty dry before watering. I have read though that by doing this you can increase nutrient concentrations in the pot? Thanks everyone, Cat

 

[JAYAR]

I'm nearly done with my first coco grow so I'll tell you what I did. I watered until runoff since seedling, and for the first 3 weeks I let it dry for 3 days before watering again. From my understanding the extra dryness lets the plant build more roots. After that when the plants started getting taller I would let it dry for 2 days, now they are on day 60ish and I'm letting it dry for one day.

 

[dingo]

Two right ways to grow coco.
Soil type method = water well then wait till top of coco is dry then water well again
Hydro method = keep coco moist all the time but not saturated. Good drainage in pot essential to view run off on every watering.

I prefer the coco hydro method. Seedlings are delicate but coco has good aeration so not likely to over water(as long as good runoff possible from pot).
However maintain room temps(18-26c) or seedlings may not forgive you. Too hot or too cold and seedlings will most likely become stunted.

 

[Catcohern]

I'm nearly done with my first coco grow so I'll tell you what I did. I watered until runoff since seedling, and for the first 3 weeks I let it dry for 3 days before watering again. From my understanding the extra dryness lets the plant build more roots. After that when the plants started getting taller I would let it dry for 2 days, now they are on day 60ish and I'm letting it dry for one day.

Thanks for the reply JAYAR. That's interesting as I started off by giving mine small amounts of water during the seedling stage and quite quickly increased the quantity as they got bigger. Did yours react well to watering till runoff during the seedling stage? What size pots are you using? Now that yours are day 60 are you finding your pots to still be fairly moist when watering i.e damp top layer? I'm at day 49 and just trying to gauge how often I should be watering. Thanks Cat

 

[GCase]

"kudos"

Two right ways to grow coco.
Soil type method = water well then wait till top of coco is dry then water well again
Hydro method = keep coco moist all the time but not saturated. Good drainage in pot essential to view run off on every watering.

I prefer the coco hydro method. Seedlings are delicate but coco has good aeration so not likely to over water(as long as good runoff possible from pot).
However maintain room temps(18-26c) or seedlings may not forgive you. Too hot or too cold and seedlings will most likely become stunted.

Very good dingo.

 

[yodabuds]

What I'm doing is I got a 3x3 flood tray that rest slightly on one end on the base of the oscillating fan causing the tray to tilt a little, I water until I see run off and usually let the top get slightly dry before flooding again... I than suck up all the waste with a shop vac... Seems easy peasy... Excited to bust out the canna coco bag I brought with the canna a&b, also going to grab a bottle of the sensi gro and bloom for coco to use up my an nutes.... Is it cool to mix in with the coco some mosquito dunks and some great white?

 

[NixonIsNow]

Hey'all;
I mixed 1/3 COCO in my 50/50 perlite/verimculite medium.
The pots a good 28L (7 gallon) vase shape.
My plant is at week 5 and it has stopped vegetative growth with no flowers.

Had the whole hydro drippers doing their thing in the beginning and found that unreliable since the water becomes reused and naassty
I noticed somewhat of a salt build-up, and flushed it with some clearing solution yesterday.

Guess my question is; How soon do you think the medium dries up with the coco all up in there?
Also, since the pots are so big, the flowering process hasn't started even in week 5.
Since it's an auto, will it only produce some buds and finish it's cycle all together?
I thought they were on a time schedule....
Any help will be highly appreciated.

 

[JAYAR]

..That's interesting as I started off by giving mine small amounts of water during the seedling stage and quite quickly increased the quantity as they got bigger. Did yours react well to watering till runoff during the seedling stage? What size pots are you using? Now that yours are day 60 are you finding your pots to still be fairly moist when watering i.e damp top layer? I'm at day 49 and just trying to gauge how often I should be watering. Thanks Cat

Yeah they reacted good I think, the growth has been steady 1 plant is 24 inches tall and pretty big, 1 is 20 inches tall, the other 14 inches tall lol not sure if it had positive or negative effects, though next time I'll be trying it like you did and water less when they're seedlings.

I'm in 3.4 gallon air pots which are pretty large. Now I water till slight runoff every day and my plant is still thirsty I might start feeding twice a day. The top of the pot dries out very quickly for me since I have a fan blowing air through it. I stick my finger in there pretty deep to gauge it. When a quarter of my finger is dry, i water again.