watering schedule in coco

[rockman]

I'm curious if I can water and feed my plant, using the nutrient schedule that GWE has given us for coco coir, without having to alternate each feeding with plain water. I would like to let my soil dry out a bit between waters, but (especially in my final 6 gallon smartpot) if I need to always alternate with plain, I often pass the scheduled feeding waiting for appropriate dryness to feed. My coir is mixed with about one third perlite for aeration. Would I be doing the plant a disservice by skipping some of the plain waters? I got the impression that the schedule posted by GWE was already using a lower level of nutrients than normal. I always check PH before watering. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

 

[D-TrainCA]

I've grow in 80/20 coco/perlite exclusively since my first grow. You'll see a lot of variation in suggested feeding/watering schedules for coco because it's so forgiving that you can't easily screw it up, and whatever people try usually works . I've read the GWE info on coco and it sounds good.

I grow in 3-gal smart pots and feed about 3 quarts every other day, and flush about once/week with 1 gal of pH'ed water. I use 1/2-strength nutrients as a base when I feed and I get about 20% runoff when I feed 3 quarts. The coco is moderately dry after 2 days.

With larger pots you can probably feed less often.

With coco you can under-water but you can't really over-water as long as your pots can drain, so I find it easier to water on a schedule rather than waiting and judging how dry the coco is. I adjust for nutrient issues by +/- the nutrient ppm rather than changing how much/often I feed.

I have tried alternating feed/water and didn't really see any difference, but then again, I'm not in a position to really a/b results. I'm sure you can't go wrong alternating and Nebula/Sirius have probably done more testing of coco methods than I have.

 

[Royal Nugs]

Since coco is an inert media, you should be feeding every time IMO. Many nutrient companies classify coco as hydro.

 

[Green75]

I use coco loco..it's a coco and perilite mix.My bigger plants I have to water every other day smaller ones every two days.If it's dry to first knuckle time to water them.

I use emerald harvest nutes.their schedule calls for no flushing till before harvest

 

[rockman]

Thanks for that info! I'm going to try with my new baby giving it the half-strength nutrients with each watering and not stress over trying to alternate with plain water. Life is an experiment! 😊

 

[rockman]

Like that. thanks!

 

[Beach_Town_Brit]

I started out alternating nutes with plain water as per GWE but these days I find I only do plain water once a month at most. I use Canna Coco at a little below their light feeding schedule, and some occasional cal-mag. My water is SoCal tap water filtered through a Brita. I use smart pots and tend to water/feed 2 gal pots every 2 days and 3 gal pots every 3 days on average. I water based on whether the pots feel heavy or light. As I'm in SoCal my temps tend to be a bit high (70-90 degrees) and typically humidity is pretty low. Strangely it's been a really humid summer here this year.

I have wondered whether the alternating plain water advice dates back to early coco days when the coco that was available wasn't necessarily rinsed properly and carried a bunch of salts. I think the last batch of coco I bought was Botanicare.

 

[rockman]

Thanks for your input. As mentioned in a previous comment, I am going to skip the alternating plain water this time and make a judgment later from the results. I also use the weight of pot to gauge when the next watering is due. Mine is an indoor grow, and I repot into a 6 gallon early, before roots undergo any stress from crowding. That has meant that watering is not needed every few days, even can go for up to a week before needed when plant is still relatively small. My outdoor grows are in organic soil, so there is a whole different approach then, when daily watering can be necessary sometimes. Thanks again...I love hearing from other growers!