Ph For Coco-Resi Vs. Hand Watering?

Interesting question i've never seen covered before that will only be an issue for a week or two longer but all advice for setting the ph for my nutrient mix in coco to be at 5.5, but i don't run a large resi atm, they are all in 15l pots and i mix up a new batch every watering so my nutrient mix never has a chance to drift up above about 5.5, whereas running a large resi conventional advice is to allow the mix to drift up to 6.5 before setting back down. My question is- by only feeding at 5.5, am i restricting the uptake of certain nutrients further up in the ph range? Or should i water at closer to 6 considering the mix is new every watering rather than sitting in a resi and floating up and down? I only ask because i've noticed constant small niggling problems i've never had before and setting my last watering to 5.7 as an experiment saw the foliage explode across the garden overnight and all the new growth is now finally vibrant, standing straight and tall like they should. Anyone hand watered in coco to this stage before and what was your ph? Granted not many would because it's a pita to be honest, can't wait until my setup's complete and auto lol cheers and rep for help

I hand water AND use a res. Coco should be watered at 5.8 - 6.0. I let the res drift up to 6.2, but ph it if it goes higher. You will find that to be the best range for coco.

Thanks for that evilmonkey, i went with my gut and adjusted the ph to 5.7 for yesterdays watering, didn't wanna jump straight up to 6 and shock the girls, what's your runoff ph or what is a safe reading? I put in 1100 ppm in at 5.7 and got average of 1000 out at a ph of 6.2, is that ok? I know the ppms are low for week 5 of veg but these barney's strains seem to be very nute sensitive early on, where would your ppms sit at this stage? Using the full dutch master gold range if that helps. Sorry for the onslaught of questions, i've always grown small ccob plants in my own supersoil, first time in coco with synthetic nutes

coco is a hydro based medium and should be ph'd between 5.5-6.0 . Personlly i would keep it closer to 6.0 . When you get down to 5.5 you can risk lock out of nitrogen. Have you noticed any yellowing at the bottom of your plant?Also once you have gotten your PH where you want it, Try to keep it as consistent as possible. A lot of people don't understand that keeping your PH consistent plays a large roll in your harvest. The more consistent the PH the more consistent the yield ! happy growing ! any more questions pm me. I don't grow CoCo, I use soil. But questions never hurt !!

Thanks for the informative response. I always keep my ph stable, i have noticed weak growth for lack of a better description, droopy leaves and weak side shoots, some yellowing to the new growth on the bottom and constant niggling burns, either from over or under fert. Ph'd to 5.8 for todays run, gonna work up to 6.0 by weeks end but all the girls are improving already, growth is exploding and standing up with no sign of burn, hoping once i get to 6 i can work my ppms up a bit more

I don't worry about runoff. If you are hand watering and have a good runoff (I believe about 30% is recommended) the plants will stay healthy and your coco will not have salt buildup.
I personally do not go above 1000ppm (hanna) or 2.0 EC. This will depend on what your strains require. I have gone as high as 1200-1300ppm in the past but found that it wasn't necessary for my setup.
There are 3 things that I have found to be important with coco.

Always water with plenty of runoff to keep the coco clean. If your setup makes this difficult, at least flush occasionally. How often will depend on your methods. Im my res/gravity fed system I flush about every 3 weeks. My handwatered plants are flushed every time with a 30% runoff.

Do not let the coco get dry. It will mess up your ph. It's hard to overwater a plant that is older than a couple of weeks.

In most cases you will need to add a Cal-Mag supplement. It depends on your water. My water is 70ppm out of the tap so I add about 2.5 ml of calmag per gallon. If you use RO, you will definitely need it.

There are a couple of great threads that will help with all of the ways of using coco. There are some very knowledgable growers there that know all of the tricks.

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/225396-official-canna-coco-nutrients-thread.html

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/163510-coco-growers-unite.html

EM

i ph 5.7-6.4 and my plants are fine.................i hand water.

All the hype about ph is rubbish if your using canna cocco i neva test the ph of my grows not even once and never get problems like nute lock out !! Id b more worried about ppm than ph in cocco but as long as you stick to your nutes instructions ur shit should b fine

Think i've got it nailed for now, 1000ppm today at 6.0, secondary growth and side shoots have gone mad in the last two days, i mix up a fresh batch of nutes daily in my 20l res, this is just enough between my plants to get a nice 30% runoff, i still test it because i'm like that, they are all in normal coco now but there being transplanted with canna in a couple of weeks, don't add any calmag atm as my tap water is a crazy 330 ppm but in the two weeks i'll be switching to ro aswell. Thanks for all your help everyone, my plants have never looked better this site rocks

good shit ! glad to hear your girls are doing better. Now that your growing start playing the roll of madd scientist . If you want to test something out, try testing it on 1 plant instead of your whole crop and see what happens. People on this forum will tell you all kinds of shit and Humans these days tend to listen and follow instead of trying to figure shit out for themselves. Start reading as much as you can and **(pay attention to your plants)** they will tell you whats going on. Its not rocket science , its growing a fucking Weed , literally !

Oh and btw , straight up i'll tell you this because i have learned from experience. If your about to go into flower and your girls look like shit, do yourself a favor and throw those plants away and start over. It will save you $$ electric and nutes. !

I was going to flower a week ago but the girls looked a bit sad, week or two from now they'll be more than ready i've started doing that, everyone told me not to trim auto's but my to pea had crazy growth, twisting into each other and blocking most light to everything but the top cola, did it anyway and everyone said i'd ruined them, my yield would suck etc, i stripped them back to pretty much just sugar leaves-so many of these though, two weeks later and they're more than anyone expected now, drinking 1300ppm, completely covered in frost and still growing i've quickly realised to follow my gut and my girls rather that 'conventional wisdom' unless given by those with knowledge, most of whom popped up here to my luck lol

I ph to 5.8 everytime, hand watering with roughly 30% runoff.

Needed to start adding calmag about 2 1/2 weeks in veg, showing calcium def.

I've been feeding about 1000ppm for a couple weeks and my girls look like they want more. Might bump it up a bit.

Overall I'm very happy with the Canna coco line.