Using coco as hydro medium

I'm starting my new grow using coco as my medium, i've been hand watering until i get my hydro set up and am looking to start a thread on how to use coco.
I am a former soil gardener and am still wrapping my head around this coco.
i am in 1 gal containers using straight coir fiber, i was watering every day....too much. then every other day... too much. i am now looking at watering every third day. i was under the impression that coco had such good drainage that i would be watering every day. it seems like coir holds on to the water a bit longer than expected.

if anyone has any advice as for watering and feeding using coco i would greatly appreciate it. right now i am feeding, watering, feeding, watering, by hand and am using 1/4 strength nutes ph'd to 6.0 for my feeding. once i get my hydro set up i guess it would go one week feeding, one week watering? is this correct?

again any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and am hoping this thread can help more people than myself, the coco growers unite thread is way too long and not very organized for a person to find any useful info without 2 hours of reading through.

bump

no one uses coco hydroponicaly?
guess i'll just try and error it.......

yes most def you can do this bro just get the string kind not the broken up shit. i would water ever 2 to 3 days and nute are no problem use them as recommended on them

I also use 100% coco in 1 gal pots. You should be feeding every time you water. The frequency of water will change with the age of the plant. You'll be able to water every day in flower if you want but the plants don't drink that much in veg. Just lift up your pots once a day. Dry coco weighs nothing and wet coco weighs a ton. When your pots feel empty it's time to water again.

Mared thanks for the advice, what im tryng to do is set up my automatic watering. i see where your coming from with the young plants vrs. old plants intake and am taking that into consideration. i have also heard both feed with every water, and feed water feed water and was confused about that also. maybe you can clear something else up for me..... if you feed every water do you get a build up of nutrient salts that become toxic to the plants?

Ok, a little tip that MOST coa-coa growers do NOT know. Coa-Coa does NOT have the micro or macro nutrients that are found in soil. This is not a problem in hydro, fer various reason. If ya want a truly exveptional Coa-Coa grow, then I would recommend not only using a catylist (such as Liquid Karma), but also adition micro nutes (such as GH Flora Micro). There are many other additives, however Coa-Coa is the way to go once ya have found ya like soil, but wanna go better.
As fer yer watering schedule. . .There are so many factors here, it is not even funny. Heat, humidity, blah, blah. Pretty much, yer gonna have to base it off YOUR plant on YOUR grow. Ya have already been growin, so ya know wat ya need to do. Just stay on top of it.
Hope that helps some1!

Yeah there are no nutritional value in coco what so ever, i am using fox farms grow big for nutes which has both macro and micro nutrients in it. i am from the dirt so i do know a bit, but its been about 18 years since my hydro experience. and no experience with coco. thats where i think i am under nuting right now, i am at 1/8 strength right now because im getting over a major ph issue, trying to play it safe until they recover. am i playing it too safe? should i bump it up a bit maybe to 1/4 strenght? 1/8 strenght=.5tsp per 4 gallons....1/4 strenght= 1tsp per 4 gallons. full strenght is 1 tsp to 1 gal.

Yea for flower I use AN sensi 2part + big bud + ionic boost + liquid karma + calmag + barricade. For veg I use botanicare pure blend pro + liq karma + calmag + barricade. As long as you get a good amount of runoff with each water you can feed every time no problem. Recently I've been saving a bit of money on nutes by running plain ph'd water through the pot first and then pouring my nute mix on top. The aim is to get the runoff water to be just the salty rubbish mixed with the plain water, no wasted nutes. And you're right, there is salt in there which needs to be washed out. After a while I get caked salt crystals on the sides of the buckets I drain the runoff into.

I add about 25% perlite to my coco mix to help with drainage and it truly does help and you can add more or less perlite to adjust the amount of drainage.
Check out my Coco grow I REALLY DO LOVE THE STUFF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIH6_...yer_detailpage
Here is a quick idea of my setup though.
4 plants in Coco(About 75% Coco to 25% Perlite)
Medi-One Nutes( A one solution mix from start to flush) N-P-K 4-3-3 Has worked Very well so far for the plants I've had under my care their whole lives.
A COOL MIST HumidifierNO WATER VAPOR+COOL AIR (I recommend for those with heat issues on a Budget).
An oscillating Fan
Six inch ducting venting from hood to end of tent from there I used 12 Inch insulated Ducting running into an Evacuation unit on roof (A whirlybird

I can only get unbuffered unwashed bricks until well into april when the next ships comes in from asia.
Does anybody know the procedure fer washing out salts and buffering the bricks?

figtree said:

Yeah there are no nutritional value in coco what so ever, i am using fox farms grow big for nutes which has both macro and micro nutrients in it. i am from the dirt so i do know a bit, but its been about 18 years since my hydro experience. and no experience with coco. thats where i think i am under nuting right now, i am at 1/8 strength right now because im getting over a major ph issue, trying to play it safe until they recover. am i playing it too safe? should i bump it up a bit maybe to 1/4 strenght? 1/8 strenght=.5tsp per 4 gallons....1/4 strenght= 1tsp per 4 gallons. full strenght is 1 tsp to 1 gal.

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Make sure you are using calcium/magnesium every watering and you shouldn't have major pH issues.

When using coco in a flood type system adding perlight isnt needed. Coco when used normally you will see slight N or
Cal mag def. To combat this use nitrex and when your done dont throw it away! Just wash it out and re use, it get better
Everytime. There is a limit like 6to7 uses if you looking for hydro info come over to the dro section! Peace

There's like 200 guides on the internet about using Coco in a variety of grow styles. Find which one you are interested and research it, or research them all and choose the style that is best for you.

The one thing I thought I would mention is that Coco doesn't necessarily "drain" that well like you mentioned. The real pro to it is that it maintains the proper ratio of oxygen to water within itself, essentially making it very hard to deprive your roots of oxygen and also impossible to over-water.

Coa coa is just like rockwool, when you first start, the plants arnt gonna need to be feed everyday, you have to work your way upto everyday.
get yourself a ppm meter and stay under 1200ppm. oh, and dont feed with only water every other week, flush once every few weeks or somehting, not everyother week.

just my thoughts......