So I might be leaving town for 4 days and currently feed my flowering plants twice a day in coco. I had an idea to feed an airline into the bottom of my 3 gallon nursery pots and set them in a few inches of water with the bubbles acting to provide air to the roots. Is this a good idea? Another idea is to have a slow drip about 1 drop every two seconds going in which should slowly feed a half gallon over the course of 2 days. What can I do? Would my plants be ok with no feeding for 4 days?
You can treat coco like soil at times watering to complete saturation then leave it for several days depending on pot and plant size. smaller plants drink less larger pots hold more moist mediumI routinely water my plants every 3-4 days during veg in promix with added perolite so depending how airy you coco could be just fine with a heavy watering
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Also could use wicking method leaving pots in larger tray of water with airstone to keep water aerated
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Cool thanks! I’m super paranoid about losing my plants since they are so huge. They are drinking lots of water lately. Was thinking also doing a slow drip of a gallon per plant and putting an airline in the bottom. My plants are raised up in the containers so it would take 4 days before the bottoms would be submerged, then the airline could provide extra air to the roots. Timing is bad since it’s the same time I would be planning to add a pk boost but I could wait till I got back to do that.
NO! Quite simply, if it’s pure coco they will be dead when you return. Pure coco needs water-to-waste at least every two days. Every day if they are big. I have one plant in 5 gallons of coco and got sick. Three days and the plant was VERY droopy and a whole gallon of nute mix leaked nothing from the bottom.
I would rig a continuous hydro system. Put a collection basin under the pot with the pot well above it. Put a little fountain pump in the basin with the output hose by the plant stem. Fix it there very well so it does not come loose. Then put several gallons of pHed nute mix in the basin and put the pump on a timer so it comes on once or twice a day for 15 minutes. Make sure 15 minutes is long enough by watching it run and look for dripping out the bottom. Make it longer if you have to. Voila: You should be good for several days.
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@D-Tron @hogmaster mentioned some success using a carrot system. There’s components on amazon but I haven’t seen a rigged setup
I just got back from 4 days away and left my flowering plants in coco unattended for the whole time. Here’s what I recommend:
Reduce the amount of light they’re getting and cut back the day schedule to 11 hours. Air pots into trays and water without nutes at 5.5 to 5.8. Add a measured amount (2 gallons? 1 gallon?) of ph’d water to the tray. Cut down the amount of airflow and turn off the dehumidifier if you have one.
Here’s my reasoning (which worked): reducing the amount and duration of the light will reduce heat and photosynthetic action which shouldn’t hurt it. Reduce airflow will cut down on moisture loss too.
The additional water I added I used a little trick. I ph’d the water to 5.5 several days in a row which tends to stabilize it.
Using water instead of nutrients will allow the plant to discharge salts without any toxic buildup while away.
I got home Saturday and they are in fabulous shape. All in 7 gallon fabric pots, 2 SCROG’ED and one supercropped at 45" high. None of them small.
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My first grow. Out for 3 full days. Watered heavy before left. 3 gal fabric pots in coco. Just starting flower. Tent grow. Will it be ok?