The reason I went coco, day of harvest

Hey folks, Sky your a breath of fresh air, LOL.
Well with watering, there are two schools of thoughts, but I am going to talk about the method I use because I have found that most use it and i think that it puts plants on par with hydro.
I hand water my plants every day, rooted clones get just enough to get a little run off and once in the 3 gallon pots they are on a half gallon a day feeding. This allows the roots to be like the roots in a hydro system IE massive.
I water every day and the coco is still very wet from the day before, but there is really no fear of over watering coco for the fact that coco carries a 60% airation with in the medium and as I water the new water pushes the old stagnate water out and as the new water sinks into the soil it not only brings in new O2 threw the water, but pulls in new O2 from the room. When I water I can litterly hear the water and air penetrating the coco, kind of like a bowl of rice crispies.
I use 3 gallon pots because I want 4 to 6 ounces off each plant give or take, but with 2 gallon pots I think that 3 to 5 ounce yields are reasonable too. The one thing is you do use allot of water, but I just have a 15 and 30 gallon Tupperware container that I constantly keep full with 5 gallon buckets so I am not making new batches of water every day. I keep 1 air stone in the water to keep it from going stagnate. Warning, not all organic nutes should be constantly aerated because they can loos some of there NPK values.
On the other hand coco holds so much water and O2 that if you want you can just water every few days and will have no problems, but the roots will grow more like a soil grow and you will need bigger pots for bigger yields IMO.
Sky, that pump should be fine for a 8 large plant set up, 3 gallons at a half gallon per day, or more plants with smaller pots. Once my room is on the same cycle, all the girls starting at the same time I will automate the room and just run a dripper to each pot and have them on a timer.
Sky you should be able to find coco at most garden stores from what I am starting to notice. If you can get the bags of loose coco it is nice, but I use GH coco bricks because know one up here carries the bags. The brick can contain some sodium so I just flush it by adding a bunch of water when I expand the brick and the run off that the coco gets when I put in the pot seems to be sufficient to flush the coco.
Now with nutes, many will only use coco specific nutes, but I have great success with the GH and CalMag IMO is a must when in coco for the fact that coco buffers calcium and magnesium different that soil and strait hydro, so that CalMag at half strength every feeding keeps me from running into defs.
Well, I am sure I will remember more later, as a matter of fact, the coco is nice because unlike hydro temps are not a medium problem like when you have water in a res which may need a chiller that can run approx 500 bucks. The coco seems to stay somewhat cool, cooler than soil and I could probably find out why, but I just don't feel like digging all around for one small point of why I use it.
Well, hope that this info helps. Feel free to ask any more questions, this seems like a short essay in it self.
PS, Sky SuperThrive is at my local store, but if you don't find it I would just keep using the vit B from Home Depot. I would put a ML in a gallon and thin a spray bottle for misting as well.

bluebear, what do you think about adding some perlite to the coco and still watering everyday, better?, more o2?

Can you tell me more about the feeding sched., or howe bout a link. I saw you said latewoods, from the FAQ section...progressivegrotwh.com?

Do you feed 1/2 gal cuz thats what it takes to get 20% runoff? 3 gal pots you say?

thanx so very much bear, i'll be looking for coco, and i'll let you know when the goods are in and i'm ready to set up. i'll need some advice on drippers, lines etc, for the irrigation thing... i have the pump, but that's all right now... maybe i'll get by lowe's tomorrow.

what is the vitb called at hd? i've not seen anything like that at lowe's (except root stimulator, 10-20-10)

love, Sky :abduct:

OK, Dusto, many do add perlite, and I do sometimes with clones, but overall I can't say it makes a different. One thing that I do try to always do now is add a layer of hydro rocks at the bottom of the pot because it seems to help with drainage. I use 1/2 gallon because it seems to give me a nice 5 to 10% run off and some shoot for more, but I have noticed that some coco nutes who used to say 15 to 20% have lowered it to 10 to 15% and you have to remember that the more you use to water the more nutes you use and the more money those companies make.
Sky Lows/HD carry these gallons of vitamin B that is a nice tool to have in the stable and it is maybe $10 or $20 and is worth every penny IMO.
With setting up your drip when ever that happens I would just get the black tubing from lows, 1/4 or 1/8 in and shoot one or two lines to each plant, meaning you don't need all of the drip heads and so on because they tend to be unnecessary IMO. You can make a manifold that connects all of the lines with PVC piping and drill 1/4 holes or a little smaller throughout it and put your lines in it sealing the lines with aquarium glue or a hot glue gun. You can also get shut off valves for the lines incase you need to regulate the pressure on a particular line that is putting out more water than the others. Of coarse there is more to it, but this is the basic set up. Many sights have diy instructions on setting up drip systems that can give you some good little tips.
Adieu

sounds great, thanks for your time, we'll see how the next venture goes.

will the restriction of flow hurt the pump? ie, if i use small drip holes and cap the end of the line so it creates back pressure, will it cause the pump to burnup?
drip ends
pump--I--I--I--I-->cap/plug

^^ like this?

Sorry Sky my vision is too bad to make out the diagram. I don't think you will have a problem with back pressure and this is why, you will only be running the pump for a minute or 2 a day and the pump will be able to operate at a healthy level. The goal isn't necessarily to stop the pressure flow from the pump, but rather to evenly distribute it throughout the lines.
I will try to explain the connection, 1.Pump, 2. PVC, 3. drip lines going out of the PVC, 4. valves at the end of the lines, 5. about 6 to 8 inches of more line on the other end of the valves going down to the pots, oh yes, at the end of the PVC pipe you would place a cap. Hope that is a little understandable.
Adieu

Sky I re read what you were trying to explain and I think that you could do it that way, but you just want to make sure that you are getting the amount of water you want. For a few bucks you can order, or rather in some cases go to a land scaping/irragation secction of a store and find this tubing that has drippers in the hose every 12 in, you just fit the tubbing or hose on to your pump and posission the hose around your pots angling the drippers into the pots, but you would have to do some real munipulating of pots and hose to get it set up right.
Adieu

then you would simply time how long it takes to run the amount you want? wow, sounds easy...

almost too easy... lol, i can't wait til i find some coco!

Exactly. The only thing that is a problem for me is starting all the girls at the same time since I always have some new strain geting put in the mix like these 2 little BB and BBxTW I have going, LOL. A good friend dropped them on me.
You see my nute formula changes up half way threw flower so it wouldn't work rright now to have them all getting the same water, but in a couple months that should be different. Another thing, since a small of run off is necessary I do this, I use 3 gallon pots with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom and keep that pot on a 2 gallon bucket and the run off go's right into the bucket and I just change the run off water once a week approx. Having the run off is also nice because you don't get any salt build ups in the medium.
Adieu