What do you mean water a few times a day? I was trying to water them every time i saw dry coco on top dry. How do you water a few times a day and avoid over-watering?
If you leave them in small pots once they get rootbound you almost can’t over water them and they will dry out in less than a day once they get bigger.
The run I’m doing right now are getting watered 12 times a day just enough to have a little runoff each time. You definitely need a cycle timer and a pump to do it this way. Unless you have severe OCD and are home all day!
Haha! If you do decide to water this way make sure they have good roots before you start otherwise they will drown. You can over water coco despite what some people will say. Also you can’t go back to daily waterings after you start. The plants will have massive roots and dry out really fast leading to salt build up, lockouts, and pH problems. Ask me how I know.
I have to keep the EC low (less than 1.2) when I grow this way, but others don’t have the problems I do and run way higher.
The upshot is that they will grow very quickly. If you treat the coco like soil you will get more soil like results (slower growth)
I have got problems. First time using coco, have been using a 40% strengh on the plants and they seem to be starving but i wanna make sure before throwing 100% nutes on them. What should i do?
We need a LED guru to clarify the distance. The leaves are curling up and scrunching to get away from the light. Some of that yellow could be caused by that also, you could be in the ‘almost too intense’ zone. We will wait for more opinions maybe.
What is half strength in EC and which nutrients are you using? They look like they could use more nutrients. The curling up leaves could be heat stress or maybe Mag deficiency. 250 watts 20 inches away should be fine unless you just switched from lower powered lights. The plants might take a little while to adjust if that’s the case.
I gave them nutes with 800ppm on it. 0.75 ltrs each. They are in one gallon fabric pots, there was a little run off, which i didn’t measure but it came out very clear. There is no reason for the plants not to grow in a healthy way, just gotta get my coco dialed in. Thanks for all the support gang.
At the risk of being a buzz kill, I will insert an oleskool opinion.
Coco is not soil. It has nothing for your plant in it. I grew in coco once but will only use it as a suppliment to soil ever since. I had the same issues till I figured out that nothing about it resembles soil except that it fills a pot. Too complicated. Now it’s only good ole dirt for oleskool. Keep it simple @MadScientist. Much love.