Drip feeding using coco

[TheTreeBoundRat]

Hey dudes. Has anyone had experience with dripfeeding coco?

 

Im doing this experiment with the setup in the pic. The pot is 75 liter, the drip feeders are 4 liters per hour each. What im looking for is an even spread of water through ther pot without any dry patches so that the coco isn't wasted. When i see some water i the tray underneath i'll pull out the coco and see how it went.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

cheers RR

 

 

 

[bufo marinus]

I've tried coco quite a few times now, it's good stuff.

It is sort of in between soil and sterile media such as perlite.

The pic you show is quite a good one for demonstrating how the coco appears to be too dry.

This makes you think it needs more frequent or even constant watering which will lead to damaged upper roots from overwatering showing up as clawed leaf.

A 75 litre pot even with a massive plant/plants should not need to be watered any more than once a day.

Aim for a little bit of run off of water out the drain holes in the pot each water and increase the amount as the plant/plants grows.

Letting the coco dry out a little between waterings will be far more beneficial than keeping it too moist, it will improve airation of the coco and thus root zone, and limit the spread of fungal pathogens such as Pythium which attracts and encourages fungus gnats/sciarid fly.

You can feel the weight of the pot to guage how much moisture the plants have available and is surprising how dry they can be kept healthy at

[TheTreeBoundRat]

Thanks bufo for the watering tips. I agree once every one or two days seems to be all thats needed. I had plants in 45 liter pots that sucked up 9 liters of water every 1.5 days. The bigger the plant the faster they dry out.

 

ok some waste water has apeared at the bottom now.

 

1/4 of the way down (dry aroung the edges)

 

 

 

1/2 way down (still dry round some of the edges)

 

 

[TheTreeBoundRat]

3/4 down (very dry round edges)

 

 

 

2 inches of bottom (moist all way round)

 

 

 

 

It seems the last inch out outer edges aren't getting enough water while the center has heaps so i'll have to put the drippers closer to the outside.

[bufo marinus]

Great pics mate, this is the stuff of real growing 'shop talk'

Good example of how the nutrient flows through the coco and the need for many watering points. Top stuff

[Tom]

Hey dudes. Has anyone had experience with dripfeeding coco?

Yeah, check out the "Easy Watering System" link in my signature.

 

[bufo marinus]

I don't see any coco there Tom, just perlite and they are different when it comes to watering.

Constantly drip feeding coco is a good way to end up with over watered plants

[Tom]

I don't see any coco there Tom, just perlite and they are different when it comes to watering.

Constantly drip feeding coco is a good way to end up with over watered plants

I don't run the drippers constantly, they are on a timer as shown in the 7th post of the description. I have grown 3 indoor crops in coco using the system with no problems and 2 crops using soil (Dynamic Lifter brand) as well. Of course some mediums retain more moisture than others so you need to vary the watering times to suit.

 

[bufo marinus]

Of course some mediums retain more moisture than others so you need to vary the watering times to suit

 

Correct, and the main point.

Carry on

[ozzybella]

Hi there, I find if you have your drippers running down the inside edge of the pot and not dripping near the centre, it seems to wet the coco better, (the water draws in to the centre better than it pushes out to the outside), also the more drippers the more even the soaking. If you put a tap in the return line you can create back pressure by having the tap partially closed, this back pressure will ensure an even flow to all drippers even on a multy tank system. Also you may need to put an extra (bigger catchment ) reservior under your pot so you can run the flow for longer because the longer you do your drip feed for the better consistency of the soaking. It usually takes more flow than the catchment on the pots hold to properly soak the coco, it means you waste some water each time, but a small sacrifice really given the outcome. you can put your pots on a brick or something inside a low bigger plastic tub for instance to catch the excess water. (you will have to try longer watering cycles untill you get your pot soaked properly. Hope this helps you.