I grow in nutrifield dry brick coco and vigoro pearlite. I rinse/strain the coco then put in a large fabric pot to soak in Athena IPM for 1 hr or more. Then soak in calmag for 8 hrs, drained and buffered again another 8 hrs. I rinse the pearlite in same strainer as for the coco.
I mix together and keep in buckets with gama lids that I used in the process as a way to shield from bugs. I like to process in a small bathroom I scan for bugs. Peat from the coco doesnt clog drains, hair does. If no one piles up hair in the sink drain Ive been doing my coco in it fine for years now.
I would just use 2.5ml of bleach per 5 gal solution. Its been ok but today I learned too much can burn them but it takes a lot, a neglectful amount to do. Its not very good for the coco either so Im seeing how it does with out it.
Its really a fix for people to keep large amounts of solution for like a week or more. It tends to work but didnt work for me anymore, my system just bred the bacteria out of control after 3 days.
My way of doing things are a little crazy but people could get away with much less feed. If to do what I do but with 4-6x a day rather than 12x a 5 gal bucket can last a couple days or more. I do half gallon worth of coco per plant.
Ive tried 3 gallons and theres no difference, it just took tons of water but interestingly needs less nutes. I suspect due to such a large thirsty root system it takes up more so it needs less concentration. As it ends up eating the same amount of nutes is my theory anyway.
You asked how long the nutes last, as far as I know, they tell you a week to make money. People have ran their reservoirs for 2 weeks or more. Its more about the water going bad with bacteria.
Yea the flora trio or anything similar is a pain. Paying mostly for water and working harder to mix it up. Maybe that would be good if you wanted precision as with maxibloom you still want to make sure it dissolves. Cold water is a pain as its 3x slower to do.
I use a ec meter to dial in every time. Roots function like a RO system in the sense it uses sugars in roots slightly less concentrated in order to pull up water/nutes. When the ec changes the plant has to accomidate for that and that takes energy that can be spent elsewhere.
Also, I find it doesnt take much to starve or overfeed your plant. So a ec meter is good for that. Like I said, 140ppm was enough to starve my plant when I tried lowering to solve a minor issue. Doing nothing about an issue sounds crazy but it ends up being something unrelated to the ec dose.
Like LED too bright, too much bleach neglectfully poured into reservoir, over transpiration from increased air circulation.. List goes on. Could be dryback and salt build up especially from not allowing enough runoff per feed. Checking ec in runoff is a valuable tool, Ive solved issues with that more than anything else but again lots of time its grower error.
Some people would be fine with a couple clip on 6” fans for circulation but I use box fans which accellerate dryback. Otherwise it doesnt have to be as extreme as my ways. Usually tho people need a drain to waste setup with drippers and reservoirs to lighten the work load; but also because its damn near impossible once feeding 3x a day or more.
Its not hard to dial in, it was always because I didnt let it run off long enough that I got issues. Sometimes salt builds up and you have to add an extra feed per day despite lack of dry back. Like going from 4x to 6x a day with longer runoff to fix that. Im in a similar situation this run that Im feeding an extra time per day where I run it twice.. Just to keep salt build up at bay.
Its not drying out that much so I thought I could drop from 12x a day to 6x a day but nope. Salt build up indicates its drying back. I thought maybe I can shorted runoff and do 12x but nope, wont runoff long enough like at all. So that would lead to salt levels going out of control.
So yea just got to see what works for you, most people do the same thing basically. Its why I like the method over organics, theres no sides to choose and rabbit holes to go down. Some people feed like .8ec which is crazy and I think my light situation is similar, maybe my plants just like 600-800ppfd.
The lowest I fed was 1.2 ec but like I said it can be different in a 3 gallons worth of coco which I did 1.1ec. Some people feed 2x a day in flower by hand and dont measure ec and are fine for many years. I forget methods sometimes choose you in your enviroment which includes microbiome, water quality. That I could be making it look easy therefor.
I like to think dtw coco is easy, much easier than DWC or flood and drain or promix. The easiest hydromethod. If it works out for you. It does involve labor which is why one used to say “We haul water!”
