Feeding/Watering Question

[Izzie1701]

First time growing in coco and first time doing drain to waste. I have grown in hydro before but always a recirculating system. I have read a lot that your to feed till 20% run off then flush every second watering. I’m too cheap to waste nutes. Well business minded and see loss of profit. I have been growing in 10g fabric pots and feeding 2 gallons of full strength nutes as per GH feed charts. Have some run off but definitely not 20%. Then I flush the hell out of them every second watering. To be honest I likely give the plant a gallon of fresh water a day as it’s a beast and 35C out so it’s drying out in 24 hours. Then every 2 days I’m feeding or flushing depending where I am in the cycle. The plants growing amazing doing this and I would say I’m not wasting nutes now. Is there anything wrong with this? As this is by far so far my best grow I would think not but I’m no pro so maybe there is? The bigger of the 3 is the one in coco. I’m 6’4 and it sits at eye level with me. It’s easy 5’ wide as well. The pictures make it look smaller then it is. I did an experiment and grew one in soil, one in root farm so called “soilless hydroponic medium” (really not sure how it’s soilless when it says it has compost and worm castings mixed with peat and coco) and one of 50/50 perlite and coco. Next summer there all going coco and perlite.

[Bluey]

I grow photos in 100% coco in 13gal pots indoors.
They have been slow to start this way and I haven't helped them with overwatering but they produce results with patience, a healthy 130 day cycle no problems over a pound/plant.

I don't bother with runoff much any more, so once a week max. I give them a good flush with the regular pH corrected nute mix. Its just a case of emptying my premixed water tank to start a new batch. It holds about a weeks worth for 4 plants..about 26 gallons.

I do like to give it a water flush ocassionally but I think last grow I only flushed with water once a couple of weeks after flipping.

Some people can do an entire grow with zero runoff and only a couple of flushes.

Outdoors on really hot days it will obviously need watering more often and flushing more often as evaporation will be high and you will get more build up.

Your grow is looking good hey

[SoOrbudgal]

Here's my 2cents about what your doing.....I do just about the same as you with my outdoor photos. Yesterday i wet the medium with water just enough to help with absorption of the nute mix. I have 10 & 15gal plastic pots for me they work cause there more stable when i move them. I have been using only 1/2 gal. of nute mix ea. pot no run off and then let them dry overnight or during the day. Your right if this way of doing it works for you keep on going with it... nothing wrong at all. I do not drown with my waterings until the last week of there life. Then i let them fade and drain. My tallest is over 6ft but most are just about 5ft now and stretching. I say do what works for you, if it aint broke........ looks good, watch out for those bugs as the buds develop.

[Izzie1701]

Funny you say that. Literally last night walk outside to water and bump the plant and there’s white flies all over it. I’m sure they were fish flies as we live at the lake but couldn’t get a close enough look so sprayed the plants down with peroxide and water. Likely end up spraying with this quite a bit. I don’t want to spray with anything else during flower. Maybe iso too and hopefully can keep them at bay. Bloody bugs.

[Bluey]

If they are white fly, which I have had prolific in many of my grows, I just give a good shake and I only spray with soapy water all over using a misty spray. I spray every few days or after rain. I just mix a little dishwashing detergent in a little garden pump pack. It works well and they should be completely gone within 2 weeks.
Edit. Make sure you get the underside of the leaves, total coverage, and as a rule I never ever sprayed buds with anything.

[Ckbrew]

I think your reasoning about wasting nutes may be misguided. When you use RDWC and have to change the res, you are tossing out all the nutes that are in that change water. Probably about the same as the runoff. That said, no need go overboard either. I started with the 20% rule. In my opinion that is high. Recently I have been looking for 2-10%. I use the same amount for each watering and when I see an increase in runoff I know to give them less. There is an auto pot system that uses coco and nutes in a bottom feed system that has no runoff. That goes counter to most accounts I have read but the results with that system are still very good.