Soilless growers, what's your feed schedule/strategy like?

I mostly treated my Promix HP as if it was something in between soil & hydro and have played with Blumats, etc. in the past. And for the most part that worked fine. I pH'ed water and feed to 5.8-6.2 & worked with signs from the plants to find a comfy EC feed strength with GH Maxi.

This time around I'm doing a pair of 'Chocodope' (Victory Seeds' Chocolope strain)...and it's been going just fine and the plants are taking more EC than some of the previous stuff. Running 6g of Maxi+2ml of Ca/Mg is the new comfy zone.

I'd been doing alternating water/feed every 4 days but now that the plants are getting bigger (I'll flip to flower in the next week), I've noticed that they were getting hungry by about day 3 of my water schedule. I moved to doing feed/feed/water and again, they seem to like that just fine but are hinting at underfed a few days into the 'water' part of my schedule until the next feed and back to normal.

Considering my options...go to a feed at lower rate all the time, or possibly something like Feed/Feed/Feed@half-strength or something like that.

What's your strategy been in similar grows and what's worked best?

You got it... Either feed lower everytime, or when you just water use a lower ec instead. I found with feed water schedule you've gotta go a little higher ec. Then water it out. Instead of a set schedule maybe try to judge by the look. If hungry feed low ec if not, just water.
I've been experimenting with coco and it's pretty simple to use. Might just switch over entirely. Really can't beat the growth rates I get outta coco, and it seems easier to fix mistakes.

I've found coco to be good, but coco quality to be inconsistent.
Tried 50/50 mix perlite/canna terra pro last grow, liked it a lot. Trying roughly two 3rds perlite this time around and liking it more. Next time going to try 100% perlite automated.
Currently using 18L pots, 1.8EC, about 6.1pH, 2 feeds per day, minimal waste.

Easy life really. Canna Terra isn't cheap by any means, but it's a good product straight out the bag.

BongerChonger said:

I've found coco to be good, but coco quality to be inconsistent.
Tried 50/50 mix perlite/canna terra pro last grow, liked it a lot. Trying roughly two 3rds perlite this time around and liking it more. Next time going to try 100% perlite automated.
Currently using 18L pots, 1.8EC, about 6.1pH, 2 feeds per day, minimal waste.

Easy life really. Canna Terra isn't cheap by any means, but it's a good product straight out the bag.

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Hm I went about 30% perlite. I like it more than promix for flowering

I just switched to sips, but 60/40 or 70/30 coco perlite were my go to. Watering Every 5 days is crazy. I watered 4-6 times a day when in coco/perlite and they loved it. Could have done more I’m sure. Point is in coco and perlite watering to often can’t happen, impossible other than just putting them under water.

Jjgrow420 said:

You got it... Either feed lower everytime, or when you just water use a lower ec instead. I found with feed water schedule you've gotta go a little higher ec. Then water it out. Instead of a set schedule maybe try to judge by the look. If hungry feed low ec if not, just water.
I've been experimenting with coco and it's pretty simple to use. Might just switch over entirely. Really can't beat the growth rates I get outta coco, and it seems easier to fix mistakes.

Click to expand...

I haven't gone to coco yet. Still enjoying promix. But yeah, I'm thinking that I'll do a couple feeds at 6g where I am (I may even go a little heavier I think I have some headroom), but I'll water at something like 3g, or maybe do a gallon of water followed by a gallon at 3g or something.

The plants aren't showing any signs of underwatering (or overwatering), it more a matter of them looking like they're running out of available nutrients and starting to look mildly hungry.

LeastExpectedGrower said:

I'd been doing alternating water/feed every 4 days but now that the plants are getting bigger (I'll flip to flower in the next week), I've noticed that they were getting hungry by about day 3 of my water schedule. I moved to doing feed/feed/water and again, they seem to like that just fine but are hinting at underfed a few days into the 'water' part of my schedule until the next feed and back to normal.

What's your strategy been in similar grows and what's worked best?

Click to expand...

Myself, I was used to coco dtw style indoors and wanted a good substitute.
Had used coco/peatmoss mixes in the past. But generally found the peatmoss specifically to be too soggy when wet and stayed soggy too long.
Wanted something that would drain well, have heaps of aeration, yet hold a fair amount of water.
So far, so good.

I've been very surprised/impressed at how well perlite holds onto water. (If only for a short time)
So next-time experimenting with 100% perlite. It's cheaper than coco or potting mix in my case.
Going to try a 6 Dutch/Beto style, automated, recirculating.

LeastExpectedGrower said:

The plants aren't showing any signs of underwatering (or overwatering), it more a matter of them looking like they're running out of available nutrients and starting to look mildly hungry.

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Maybe more perlite?
Say roughly enough that you'd be feeding every day, or every other day, rather than every 4 or so?
Reasons being added aeration and drainage, less chance of salt build-up, more regular and consistent feeds.

I used 70/30 garden soil/Coco fibre this time around with uxp pumice and rock minerals (palagonite, gypsum, volcanic and soft phosphate). Threw 2 tbsp 8:4:10 slow release in when I up potted into the 17.5L pot around week three. Don't know if you would call it "soilless" but what the heck. Its potting mix.

Strategy has been tap water for 92 days this time round. Amnesia haze auto.

Just pulled a gatorslade frost in the same medium a bit early due to mould (note to self, air doesn't circulate well in a closet with no exhaust). Buds came out nice and frosty.

It could have been far healthier, but considering I didn't have to add anything for 92 days it was a breath of fresh air.

Next feed schedule will be similar, but with quicker acting fertilizer instead of 4 month release. I'll be using green planet back country blend grow and bloom. 16-10-8 grow and 8-12-16 bloom alongside the rock dust mix and mycos at transplant.

I'll initially add two or three tsp grow at potting and top dress bloom come stretch. Each application should do 4-6 weeks. Interested to see if mycos at transplant give any noticeable boost. The whole stick of mycos was on sale for $5.

I use whatever the warehouse has in stock, Promix, Sunshine#4, Berger BM6 and then add 1cu.ft perlite per bale. The extra aeration keeps the plants from getting the droop right after watering.

Then I feed every time with 20% runoff at around 1.4EC, depending on conditions.

BongerChonger said:

Myself, I was used to coco dtw style indoors and wanted a good substitute.
Had used coco/peatmoss mixes in the past. But generally found the peatmoss specifically to be too soggy when wet and stayed soggy too long.
Wanted something that would drain well, have heaps of aeration, yet hold a fair amount of water.
So far, so good.

I've been very surprised/impressed at how well perlite holds onto water. (If only for a short time)
So next-time experimenting with 100% perlite. It's cheaper than coco or potting mix in my case.
Going to try a 6 Dutch/Beto style, automated, recirculating.


Maybe more perlite?
Say roughly enough that you'd be feeding every day, or every other day, rather than every 4 or so?
Reasons being added aeration and drainage, less chance of salt build-up, more regular and consistent feeds.

Click to expand...

The 4-day thing hasn't been a problem before...it seems like this strain/pheno is just hungrier than what I've done before. The last run was Durban Poison and it was way more finicky about feed, wanting to burn at anything over about 4.5g of maxi and being hungrier for magnesium than these. And to be honest, 4 days is awful nice for having a real life and going away for weekends and things.

At this point adding perlite is sort of water under the bridge no matter what...the plants are just about where I want them to go into flower and in the largest bags I'm going to use, and doing any amendments to the Promix will have to wait for the next grow.

7CardBud said:

I use whatever the warehouse has in stock, Promix, Sunshine#4, Berger BM6 and then add 1cu.ft perlite per bale. The extra aeration keeps the plants from getting the droop right after watering.

Then I feed every time with 20% runoff at around 1.4EC, depending on conditions.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been fairly happy with the Promix and the last few grows haven't been a problem as-is...Just that this ChocoDope seems to be more aggressively feeding than others. I also have been careful not to push the nitrogen very hard and they've not had a huge amount of over-greening. I've been getting about 20% runoff as well, which is my typical.

On the parts of my cycle where I'm feeding, everything is going fine. The part where I water, by the end of the cycle I'm getting a hint of yellowing at the lowers after 2 days that goes away when I feed again.

Tonight is a feed night, and I may try to bump up a little more, I know some are pushing 7g of Maxi successfully, so maybe I'll hit 6.5g and then on my 'water' in over the weekend I'll water with something like 3.5g for hold-over for now.