Bottom feeding plants in a 1.2m tray with no saucers

[highgrade-singh]

Hey all, I've been reading up a lot about bottom feeding in coco recently, I've read it gives vigorous root growth at the bottom of the pots and its easier to feed the plants among other benefits. What I was wondering was would it be possible to place the plants directly in the tray without saucers? Then to feed the plants I pour the nutrient into the tray, leave for 30mins then drain the tray completely? I currently have a 1.2m squared tent and tray with 8 plants in 6.5L pots.

 

Usually I top feed and have plants raised on saucers then let the run off sit in the tray and drain it every few days before the run off hits the height of the saucers. 

 

Thank you in advance for all replies 

[Magicmunchietree]

As long as your floor is completely level, I can't see it not working they should all get an equal amount. I know many o folk that bottom feed when plants are young, to make the roots get to work. But then they transplant into final pots they tend go switch to top feeding or drippers.

 

Ive tried it once, but I didnt get vigorous growth, but I could have been giving them way too little in the fear of drowning them. I just prefer to saturate until 20% run off, no salt build up that way. I have mine raised up like you.

[golf.007]

I did this before using drippers and it works great. I would cut corex from a nft tray to cover the top as it can evap quick leaving salts to build up. I used a autopot valve to top it up and pebbles in the bottom of the pot.

 

atb

 

[Sidi Hidi]

2nd vote for a tray and aqua valve.

[stickyblack]

Works very well ... havent run hydro/coco for a while but found flushing once a week-10days prevented salt build up, especially when feeding bottom up.

 

Get yourself some wick rope, buckets and sump pump.. and your good to go for a week easy  feck cleaning autopots lines&valve each grow. Knew a few peeps that had floods mid-grow.. unless they used somesort of drip clean, im sure it added some off-ish taste to the flowers.

 

Plan it right, the only hand water is the flush; if you take into considerarion res size, you will be refilling at this point which makes the flush a peice of piss, if it wasn't anyways

 

Eta. Someone remind me why I grow in compost

Edited February 7, 2018 by stickyblack

[Fonz]

Works well 

 

I did a home made flood and drain in a half meter tray placed on top of a tank with a small headder pump heater and air stone in it , with just a few plumbing fittings it would pump up into the tray  on a timer , I put in an overflow at about two inches high so it could flood the tray for 15 minutes at a time then it would drain back out through the pump easy peazy lemon squeeze. 

Worked a treat.

[highgrade-singh]

On ‎07‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 9:27 PM, Fonz said:

Works well 

 

I did a home made flood and drain in a half meter tray placed on top of a tank with a small headder pump heater and air stone in it , with just a few plumbing fittings it would pump up into the tray  on a timer , I put in an overflow at about two inches high so it could flood the tray for 15 minutes at a time then it would drain back out through the pump easy peazy lemon squeeze. 

Worked a treat.

 

 

I'm thinking of trying a similar feeding method, it sounds simple yet effective. I've got a 1.2m tray and tent, the tank is outside the tent, so I'm thinking of running a maxijet pump from the tank and the 13mm piping into the tray. Flood the plants for 15mins or so and then drain it out using another maxijet pump into a waste tank or something.

 

The only issue is when I drain the trays of the waste water there's always a small layer left in the tray usually. So I can either mop the remainder everyday or raise the plants slightly so it doesn't sit in the waste water. This way I might be able to do 2 feeds a day if the coco ever dries up 

I'll most likely do a top feed once a week to make sure there's no salt build up. I've only been taking my e.c. upto 1.2, just grow A & B, so use small amounts of nutrients. 

 

Maybe on my next run...If I do I'll try get some photos uploaded and let you know how I get on  

Edited February 21, 2018 by highgrade-singh

[neural_rust]

You guys are making it too fucking hard.. 

Coco pots drink about 1/4th of liquid of the size of the pot..

 

So, if i have four 10ltr pots in a saucer, I'll dump 10ltr of feed in that tray, and that's that.. Once a week i "flush em" from the top with dripclean and some zyme..

 

KISS ❤️

Edited February 24, 2018 by neural_rust

[highgrade-singh]

So your plants drink all the feed and leave no run off in the tray? Or are they raised off the tray

[GSZZ]

Bottom feeding in coco is, in my opinion and experience, the quickest way to ruin a coco grow. Im not saying it can't be done, it can just be done alot better. Flood & Drain is differen't to bottom feeding, it might feed from the bottom but it drains also which is important.

 

With bottom feeding there is no EXIT POINT, if growers are overfeeding which tbh most people are, that means no draining of excess salts. Flushing them once a week is like eating burgers every day of the week and sticking to just brussels sprouts on a Friday. Pointless. Same thing applies for oxygen as unless running air stones and stuff the only real oxygen exchange thats happenings in the pot is during a weekly flush. I'd like to see a grower breath just once a week and see how they do. 

 

Then there comes the chronic under watering, unless using an aquavalve (which comes with its own host of problems). Case in example:

 

23 hours ago, neural_rust said:

Coco pots drink about 1/4th of liquid of the size of the pot..

 

So, if i have four 10ltr pots in a saucer, I'll dump 10ltr of feed in that tray, and that's that.. Once a week i "flush em" from the top with dripclean and some zyme..

 

If I was hand watering a 10L pot I would expect to be putting between 3 and 4 litres through it a day after veg, with about 10/15% run off. Are you giving them what they want, or are you giving them what you want? 

 

 

 

Alot of growers who commit to bottom feeding fundamentally just do it completely wrong, I wouldn't bottom feed by hand it doesn't make sense in my head when better results and quality are gained from top feeding, and  with an autopot system I wouldn't even turn the tank on until the plants were out drinking me. As in I can't keep up with what they want.

 

@highgrade-singh personally I would stick with what you're doing as you described in your opening post. You get what you put in.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Golden Syrup

[neural_rust]

never had a problem with bottom feeding..it did take couple of runs to get everything working, but once that's out of the way, it's just smooth sailing..

I'm usually feeding them with 1/2 strength nutes, so not that much salt build up occurring.. 

 

YMMV, off course..

 

 

 

 

[neural_rust]

On 2/25/2018 at 2:37 PM, highgrade-singh said:

So your plants drink all the feed and leave no run off in the tray? Or are they raised off the tray

yeah, i've measured the amount that they need based on the stage of the grow, so i'm pretty much on top of things..

they use it all from the tray, so no algae or anything can grow on there..

 

[ilikebigbuds]

Run to waste all the way!! Trust. Not saying bottom feed can't be done but I wouldn't risk it unless you try it with just 1 as an experiment 

[Daskalot]

What @GSZZ is saying sounds completely logical to me, but from experience i've been using bottom feed similar as @neural_rust for more than a year and never had a problem, although sometimes i wonder how

I use 1x1 trays and i put 15 11l plastic pots in each. I feed with 11 litres water each 48 hours. Plants usually absorb the water in around 30min.  To be honest after i'm done and i trim i measure EC of the runoff of the coco and its extremely high, although i reuse the coco (without soaking it), and run another grow with the same method. Never ever had problems with my crop, yields are normal, quality is top. No yellowing, no nothing...