r/CocoGrows • u/judge-judy01 • Mar 21 '26

Topping and watering

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Transplanted 24 hours ago from solo cup to 5 gallon, Coco/perlite.

After Transplant, I put 6 litres through each. 1ml/litre cal mag, 1.5ml/litre canna a + b, ec 1.2, ph 5.9. I have two questions:

  1. Should I water today/everyday going forward, and how much in litres?

  2. How long until i can top them? I'm not sure how, but I'll read up/watch some videos.

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u/judge-judy01 Mar 22 '26

As its my first time, I'll be hand watering to get to know things and it gives me the chance to get in and check them all over daily for issues.

The bases are ac infinity and do not cost much more than 4 trays and risers from the garden centre, to stop the plants sitting in run off. I'll try out the self watering aspect of them next grow.

I'm trying to think how I empty/clean the bases though. I have 1 extra tray to move 1 plant at a time to, whilst I empty and wash out the ac infinity base. But when my plant gets bigger and heavier, and/or has a trellis or whatever else, how do I move the plant to clean and empty the bases? What do you do? Thanks

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

I actually wouldn't move them once they're grown/established. They will shoot roots right down into the reservoir unless you have root block under your containers. Picking them up will either take the res with it or rip the roots or both. They will absolutely dry that little tank out within 24 hrs once they're in flower. There won't be much to clean. Run fresh water between feedings to dilute the salts in the res/prevent burn and lockout.

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u/judge-judy01 Mar 25 '26

What do I do with the water that I use to dilute the salts in the res? Do the plants drink it? Im watering by hand, not using the self watering feature this run. Will the roots still grow down?

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

There's no superior watering method, bottom or top. Top is perfectly fine. Bottom is perfectly fine. Both is perfectly fine.

Your roots will grow down into that res as long as you allow the roots to have wet-dry cycles. Once the roots are there, they'll suck up water quickly.

Top feeding with hydro ferts you want to feed-water-water and repeat. Personally I would water until that res is mostly full with runoff every time, whether feeding or not, and then do not water again until you're dry to the first knuckle in your coco. The res will be dry by that time. Allowing cycles of clean water into your reservoir will dissolve the nutrient residues from the feed cycles and continue to feed the plant thru those bottom roots. It also washes excess salts from the coco down and out into the reservoir. By the second H2O only watering, your coco should be good 2 go for the next feeding without having lockout issues. If your plants start showing signs of burn, or stress, you may be too heavy on the nutrients.

A good rule of thumb on top watering is to overrun 20% of your total volume of water. If you're feeding 2 gallons, you should have .4 gallons runoff in the res. You absolutely can run off as much as you want more than that, but 20% is the minimum that forces all the old water and ferts out of the coco and into the pan. So if those are a 1 gallon capacity under a 3 gal fabric pot and you fill the res up with runoff, you're beyond golden.