Hand watering Hydroton

[Hasnain]

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to gain some knowledge.

what I'd like to know is, can i start my seeds in cocopeat jiffyplugs and once the roots start poking outta the plugs.. can i place the plant into.. say a 1 or 2 gallon smart pot filled with ONLY hydroton.. and manually hand-water the plants from then on? if so, how often will i need to water the hydroton?

Also, what if i filled up a 1-2 gallon pot with say about 80% hydroton and 20% coco-peat? will that work? what ratio of Hydroton to Coco-Peat is likely to work?

my goal is to to water the plant say once a day.. or once in two days, which will enable my plants to take in more nutes.

i dont wanna run a hydroponic system as of now, but i wanna try out hydroton, so will hand watering 100% hydroton or a hydroton+coco-peat mix work?

Do let me know,

Thank You!

 

[smeghead]

Hi hasnain
This plant is so versatile you can literally do all of the above, if you like to experiment.
The suggestion of just hydroton in soft sided pots seems as though there would be to much movement of the balls inside a pot, may damage roots or plant?
As for a coco mix, like I said it would work.but im more of the opinion if you don't want to set up hydro, to go straight coco. This works brilliantly as hydro, but you can hand water every day/twice a day and get great results.
If you just want to experiment, then knock yourself out buddy, best way to learn.if it was me I'd go for coco.
Just remember if you going soil less then it becomes hydro, then you want your PH at around 5.8.
Happy growing

 

[Hasnain]

Hi hasnain
This plant is so ...around 5.8.
Happy growing

Hey thanks man,

The reason why I wanna experiment with hydroton is because I find my coco-peat soil not drying as quickly as I would like it.. I have even added about 20-30% perlite.. but the pots take a long time to dry, for example right now.. my plants are a month old in a 1 gallon pot and I watered them 4 days back and the plants till don't look like they need any water.. the soil is almost getting to the point where it needs watering.. so maybe I'll water tomorrow or the day after. So it's roughly taking about 5 days to water.

So I thought that maybe if I added a good amount of hydroton to this coco-peat, maybe it'll dry faster and I'll be able to feed my plants more..

 

[MickFoster]

Hey thanks man,

The reason why I wanna experiment with hydroton is because I find my coco-peat soil not drying as quickly as I would like it.. I have even added about 20-30% perlite.. but the pots take a long time to dry, for example right now.. my plants are a month old in a 1 gallon pot and I watered them 4 days back and the plants till don’t look like they need any water.. the soil is almost getting to the point where it needs watering.. so maybe I’ll water tomorrow or the day after. So it’s roughly taking about 5 days to water.

So I thought that maybe if I added a good amount of hydroton to this coco-peat, maybe it’ll dry faster and I’ll be able to feed my plants more..

Coco is not supposed to get dry - it's drain to waste hydroponics and should be fed at least once a day to refresh the nutes and pull in fresh oxygen to the roots. Don't treat it like soil or you will be very disappointed with your results. I have grown in 100% hydroton (hempy style) years ago and it worked very well - it required twice a day feeding when the plants were in flower. Adding coco to hydroton will hold moisture longer but you will still have to feed at least once a day. May I suggest a 50/50 coco/perlite mix for explosive growth?

 

[smeghead]

There you go hasnain..
Some solid advice above from mick.
Like he said, its best not to let soil less mix get dry.dont worry you won't over water it...once/twice a day is golden.

 

[Hasnain]

Thanks guys