After coming across Hydro Halos online, i started doing some reading and came across an article on another site (not sure if I can say which, so I won't at this point) on the topic of fertigation for plants in Coco/perlite.
The main gist of it was: If you're growing in Coco, you shouldn't let the medium dry out and should water/fertigate as soon as the surface looks slightly damp (up to 5x a day depending on environment).
The idea is that because the Coco/perlite mix is so aerated and holds moisture but is also free-draining that you can give a more constant supply of nutes in a somewhat similar fashion to hydro, and therefore get better yield than once-a-day or every other day waterings.
You still water to runoff to avoid nute/salt buildup but because you're watering more frequently the medium is 'wetter' so the waterings are a smaller volume and you don't really use much more than you would otherwise.
Of course you have to have the pots elevated and a way to remove runoff to avoid it being reabsorbed into the pot.
Does this sound legit?
It seems to make sense on the face of it, but I'm skeptical about how much of a difference it will make in the end.
I'm only in my second grow and throughout the first and this far through the second I've always followed the advice on GWE about waiting until the Coco is dry to my second knuckle before watering/feeding again. Because the lower parts of the pot still have some moisture it stands to reason that there are still available nutes at the time of feeding so the plant hasn't 'gone hungry' in the interim.
Most of my knowledge is purely theory on this as I'm only 1.5 grows in, but it'd be interesting to see what you journeyman/master pharmers think about it!
The main gist of it was: If you're growing in Coco, you shouldn't let the medium dry out and should water/fertigate as soon as the surface looks slightly damp (up to 5x a day depending on environment).
The idea is that because the Coco/perlite mix is so aerated and holds moisture but is also free-draining that you can give a more constant supply of nutes in a somewhat similar fashion to hydro, and therefore get better yield than once-a-day or every other day waterings.
You still water to runoff to avoid nute/salt buildup but because you're watering more frequently the medium is 'wetter' so the waterings are a smaller volume and you don't really use much more than you would otherwise.
Of course you have to have the pots elevated and a way to remove runoff to avoid it being reabsorbed into the pot.
Does this sound legit?
It seems to make sense on the face of it, but I'm skeptical about how much of a difference it will make in the end.
I'm only in my second grow and throughout the first and this far through the second I've always followed the advice on GWE about waiting until the Coco is dry to my second knuckle before watering/feeding again. Because the lower parts of the pot still have some moisture it stands to reason that there are still available nutes at the time of feeding so the plant hasn't 'gone hungry' in the interim.
Most of my knowledge is purely theory on this as I'm only 1.5 grows in, but it'd be interesting to see what you journeyman/master pharmers think about it!
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