How do you deal with the excess run-off water?

I

IINsecure

New Member
I am curious to see what methods people use to discard their excess water when they water their plants in soil/coco.

I have been finding its a real pain to water my girls then wait for the excess water to run into the trays under them, then to lift the plants up and tip the water out of the trays into a bucket. My girls are in 25L bags and its quite a mission to do alone without making a mess. I'm sure there will be other people who have this issue, has anyone got any tricks to overcome it?
 
SxIstew

SxIstew

Well-Known Member
Use less water.....
Slow down. Let it fill, the plant will suck up what it wants the medium will soak up what it can.
then if needed add a little more or leave it.....
 
I

IINsecure

New Member
I'm not sure you understand what I am saying. I am growing in coco and when I feed I always water until I get a 20% runoff to avoid a buildup of nutes in the bottom of my grow bags. This way any build up is flushed out each feed. I then use the excess to feed the vege garden.

I'm just after ideas on how to deal with the run off without having to move the plants around.
 
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urban1026835

Well-Known Member
I leave mine elevated on a platform that has a drain hole in it & then when i water i place cups or a bucket underneath the drain holw so i catch about 95% of what comes through a tad still oes over the edges of my contraption which is just a 3x3 sheet of some laminated type board set on top of small buckets with a 4 in round hole punched through.
 
BustinScales510

BustinScales510

Well-Known Member
These bucket head shop vacs from home depot are awesome for sucking water out of saucers. Although I do want to add, watering to the point of that much runoff probably isnt necessary. The salt buildup is from nutrient residue..usually from using too high of a ppm mix. If the plant isnt uptaking the nutrients at the same rate as it is evaporating water..it results in salt build up. Putting more nutrient water through the pots/grow bags just adds more nutrients..so when the soil/coco dries it will still be there. I grow in coco too and rarely water to the point of run off..I just use a little lower of a ppm to avoid buildup. Another good method to avoid buildup is once a week or so watering with a diluted mix of like 200 ppm. Either way,the bucket head attachment oughta work for you :)
 
naimad1234

naimad1234

Well-Known Member
when i water if i land up with more excess water in the trays than will evaporate within an hour or so, i have a large syringe and use it to suck up the water and put it in a bucket and dump it. syringe was cheap and the best solution i've come up with since my rooms don't really allow me to have drainage in them. if you have a lot of plants thought this would obviously be a pain in the ass.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
urban1026835 said:
I leave mine elevated on a platform that has a drain hole in it & then when i water i place cups or a bucket underneath the drain holw so i catch about 95% of what comes through a tad still oes over the edges of my contraption which is just a 3x3 sheet of some laminated type board set on top of small buckets with a 4 in round hole punched through.
Click to expand...
Same here.

My plants are elevated about 8" off the floor on a framework.

My plants sit in 1mx0.4m drip trays with a hole punched at one end and I have a small incline away from the holes.

image.jpg


As above.


J
 
Nitro1990

Nitro1990

Active Member
Move all my plants into my wetroom and water them there leave them in there for 20mins and most run off is gone

I used to just water them with 20% of the pot size with water so a 10 litre pot will get 2 litres of watter an so on
 
333maxwell

333maxwell

Active Member
I have the luxury of only ever having a few plants at a time.. I never water them in my tent as I don
t want to contribute to excess humidity in the tent if it can be avoided.

Like the fellow above me, I take them to my wet room (outside balcony where I can spill all the water I want and water them to decent runoff there (I am soil these days and I never flush, but I do run a couple cups extra through them every time, for the small pots I use, some runoff each watering I have found to be beneficial.

That's just me.. I ran/run small.. not everyone has that luxury.. for the larger guys that shop vac the other fellow showed would do the trick dandy and be nice to have around on a grow site anyway.
 
justanotherbozo

justanotherbozo

Well-Known Member
BustinScales510 said:
Click to expand...
yeah man, i'm with BustinScales, i love my bucket head, no lifting heavy plants for me, i just water around the room and when i'm done i just vacuum up the runoff and dump it down the toilet, problem solved.

...btw, i used to do that turkey baster 'syringe' bullshit and i also spent time picking the plants up and dumping the trays, ...then someone suggested a bucket-head and i near shit myself at my stupidity. ...now i don't know how i managed without my bucket-head.

peace, bozo
 
Krabby

Krabby

Active Member
It's good to water to the point of having decent run off, it's a good idea to check the PPM and PH of the water coming out, that being said as mentioned above buy a cheap shop vac it makes things easy when it comes to emptying the trays and sucking up dead leaves.
 
Trousers

Trousers

Well-Known Member
IINsecure said:
I'm not sure you understand what I am saying. I am growing in coco and when I feed I always water until I get a 20% runoff to avoid a buildup of nutes in the bottom of my grow bags. This way any build up is flushed out each feed. I then use the excess to feed the vege garden.

I'm just after ideas on how to deal with the run off without having to move the plants around.
Click to expand...
10% is fine.

Measure your ppm before you feed and then check the ppm of the run off. If the run off has a higher ppm, you are feeding too much and will get build up. That is the best advice I was ever given here. I realized I was over feeding one of my plants and setting myself up for possible lock out.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
Trousers said:
10% is fine.

Measure your ppm before you feed and then check the ppm of the run off. If the run off has a higher ppm, you are feeding too much and will get build up. That is the best advice I was ever given here. I realized I was over feeding one of my plants and setting myself up for possible lock out.
Click to expand...

Best advice for COCO!

I prefer 20% though.

J
 
I

IINsecure

New Member
Some really cool ideas here thanks guys!
I generally only have 4-6 plants flowering at a time so I think I'll have a go at elevating them with a larger drip tray underneath. That vacuum bucket looks neat but unfortunatly I have never seen anything like it where I live.
 
jjoe75

jjoe75

Active Member
The floor of my grow room is a large tiled walk in shower 4.5' x 4' so my runoff goes down the drain. I use organic nutes so I dont have to worry as much about pollution.
 
D

Donqua

Active Member
SxIstew said:
Use less water.....
Slow down. Let it fill, the plant will suck up what it wants the medium will soak up what it can.
then if needed add a little more or leave it.....
Click to expand...
Can I also do that when flushing or should I flush over a drain
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
A perforated platform with 4 legs spaced enough to slide a tray under.Dont have to lift the plant then.Also a 4x4 tray with a bulkhead and a little slope works really well.Providing you have the room/height.
 
NeWcS

NeWcS

Well-Known Member
As suggested; I use a buckethead shopvac. I'd love to get a 7 gal bucket for mine. But 5 works good
 
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