Catching the run off

[ratdog]

 i was considering getting coco nutes with my prize this month, so am i right in saying you don't want the pots touching the trays/sitting in the feed at all? this coco lark gets more complicated the more i hear

[catweazle1]

Fine. Just letting him know that there's more than one view. I prefer not to set a beginner up to fail, they don't have to learn the hard way and come here moaning about poorly plants because they are overwatering and not undertstanding how to moderate moisture in a poorer draining medium until the plant is more mature and it's roots have populated the pot. Also, a more porous medium helps plants  be more tolerant to lower temperatures. That's my tuppence anyway.

[Guest]

@ratdog it's piss easy, everyone should do it once and most people wouldn't go back.

If you don't mind lugging water about its the easiest way to grow going imo. 

And no, you don't want them sucking up the run off, it should be full of old salts.

Edited May 5, 2022 by fatboy77

[ratdog]

Just now, fatboy77 said:

And no, you don't want them sucking up the run off

 

 

so you hold the pot above the tray when watering?

 

what i'm getting at is the pots would have to be in contact with the heat mat, then to water i would have to raise the pots, slide a tray under and catch the run-off and then remove the run-off and replace the trays, or can the pots sit in run off for a few moments and suck that up?

 

is there any step by step guides to coco, covering this and ec/ph mixing feeds etc for idiots like me?

 

i'm a dyed in the wool organic grower who is only using salts because i have such shit water, otherwise i wouldn't even give it a second glance tbh

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by ratdog

[Guest]

@ratdog yeah a few minutes is cool.  With coco you water to a good run off, so the medium is saturated anyway, no room to take on extra from the ground.

I didn't use saucers or heat mats and just used to flood the lot and mop up at the end.  Ideally you'd want medusa trays or something for an easier life, never got round to it. 

If you can count to 3 (you won't need to go that high, don't worry) you can smash coco. 

Eta - loads of guides via diaries.  No doubt you'll get the local masters owd and gszz pop in yours with the goods at some point. 

Edited May 5, 2022 by fatboy77

[catweazle1]

@fatboy77 You are being too modest. You could carry someone through to a good crop.  

[Darknight420710]

@ratdogI'm a beginner and choose coco as I read it was one of the better mediums to avoid pests. Not sure if thats true but so far I'm all good. 

 

I also read you can't over water the plant when in coco and I'm feeding my plants around 3x a day, 1st feed is 1.5ltr after lights on then 1litre through a 15hr cycle. 

 

When I started I wrapped electric blanket around my pots to keep them warm, black pots tend to get warmer than others I find, I was forever going on with radon questions but now I just let things grow and query when problems happen. 

 

Problems I've found are to high ec which can be easily fixed with a good flush, and the wrong PH when pens have started to break but with coco you can have a good turnaround in fixing the problems. 

 

I thought about going soil and never feeding but I like coco and don't thunk I'd want to risk the time and effort into trying something I'm unsure would work fir me. 

 

Just get a decent PH pen and EC reader and your nutrients and I think you'll be good 

[highgrower]

34 minutes ago, ratdog said:

 

is there any step by step guides to coco, covering this and ec/ph mixing feeds etc for idiots like me?

 

 

I was a bit confused with the whole EC thing but its really quite simple.

 

For first water - fill containter with water to a round litre(s) - add nutes according to bottle(s) at ratio per litre on bottle.

 

Stick in EC meter - unless you are using basically water with no background EC you will probably have a reading more than 1.6 - so just add a bit of water slowly to reduce it to 1.6.

 

Now get pH pen - put in water and see what pH is - for me its usually about 7.0-7.2 - i then add about 0.1-0.2 ml of ph down and shake (this is for about 3 litres of water) to get pH to 6.0-6.2

 

Thats it - then water.

 

Once you have watered once you will have some idea how to adjust the amount of nutes according to how high your background EC is and not have to dilute it down.

 

 

 

 

 

[OddNut]

I agree with @Owderb straight coco for the win. No need for other things in there. I started off using 60/40 coco and pebbles but soon realised the 40 pebbles were taking up valuable root space. Cocos a piece of piss once you get the grasp of a few principals, however having a way to clear run off is vital to grower ease! Especially if watering multiple times a day. I love the ideas people come up with for getting round  this problem. I’ve built assorts of contraptions in the past  now I have a fully heated wet room floor falling into a channel drain. The run off goes into a barrel in my garage below then straight on my outdoor plant when needed 

[Wacky Wardrobe]

53 minutes ago, ratdog said:

what i'm getting at is the pots would have to be in contact with the heat mat, then to water i would have to raise the pots, slide a tray under and catch the run-off and then remove the run-off and replace the trays, or can the pots sit in run off for a few moments and suck that up?

I'm doing coco hempys at the moment.

I stand the buckets in deep sided containers to catch the run off.

The hole in the side of the hempy is about the same height or higher than the level the run off I aim for so it can still drain for a while without sitting in it.

It's nice and easy this way to check run off ec per plant and then suck out with a turkey baster.

No perlite in my coco and I'm using Hydrocrop dry nutes with no calmag needed in soft water.

Very happy plants.

:-)

E2A:: The bucket is still in contact with the floor this way too.

Just the base of the outer tub between.

Edited May 5, 2022 by Wacky Wardrobe

[ratdog]

Just now, Wacky Wardrobe said:

and then suck out with a turkey baster.

 

 

how many times a day are you feeding?

[ratdog]

8 minutes ago, OddNut said:

now I have a fully heated wet room floor falling into a channel drain.

 

see, this is where this shit leads someone, and this is getting silly

 

i bet your plants fucking adore you mate

[Wacky Wardrobe]

Just now, ratdog said:

how many times a day are you feeding?

I'm at the start of week 3 of 12/12 and I'm giving them one an hour after lights on and one a couple of hours before lights off.

I think I may have been running a bit warmer than I needed to and they were drying out quite a lot. I was getting an ec spike but I've reduced temps and run a good amount through them a couple of times and now they seem to be easing up a bit.

Might even get away with once a day but I know they probably like the extra one even if they're not bone dry.

[catweazle1]

@ratdog Multiple times a day might improve your yield if everything is pukka, but once a day is fine most of the time. When you measure your runoff and it seems to be rising quickly,when it's really hot from evaporation say, another watering in the cycle will bring it down. Generally, how often you water is dictated by how fast and how much the runoff ec rises or falls (it corrects ec drops too because it will bring it up as well) . Your watering frequency is the tool you use to regulate the runoff ec between your desired high and low runoff ec numbers. Having a total target ec (base water ec as well) of 1.2ec is a good number, so you aim to keep it between 1ec and 1.4ec as your high and low boundaries for plants over 6 nodes. The more practice you get the nearer you will stay at your actual target. You will be measuring everytime at first, but you know how it goes, eventually you get the feel and know when the plants need it or not.

Edited May 5, 2022 by catweazle1

[Budelaire]

I use hempie buckets for coco mainly and feed every 48 hours. 
 

40 secs per pot with the watering lance usually gets me 5 secs runoff and then I zip em back up. I’d say I give around 50% pot volume.  
 

It’s like an almost soil timetable that you’ll be used to @ratdog. 
 

I have lined the hole area in a damp proof course before. As above the buckets are fine sat in it as they are a sealed unit, bar the single drainage hole 1/5-1/4 of the way up the bucket.  Also used Medusa trays and madr diy tables which is Simply trays with holes in sat on top of trays without. Pump out the bottom one. 
 

I’ve had 500g plants like that and 300-350 is the norm if packed in. That’s 21ltr buckets 50cm2 net on top. 
 

Usually pure coco on top of a clay pebble base.

 

#TeamHempy

Edited May 5, 2022 by Budelaire