How Often Do You Feed In A Drain To Waste Garden? - Lesson 8
Channel: hydro select
Date: 2015-12-11

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So a very common question in drain waste gardens is how often should I feed. What do I mean by a drain waste garden? Typically we’re talking about a peat-based garden potentially with perlite. It could be a coco-based garden, so let’s take the example of a peat-based garden.

How often should I feed, right? Peat has what’s called a cation exchange capacity, which means it has the ability to absorb nutrients and hold them away from the tender root hairs as the medium dries out. Then when you water it, nutrient is released.

In BC, we have taken the step to add a lot of perlite to our peat-based mediums. We are often at the point where we’re putting 60 percent, 70 percent perlite into our peat mixes, so that we get easily runoff out of our medium. If we get runoff out of the bottom of the pot, then we can test the parts per million (ppm) of that runoff and not only do we know what the strength of the nutrient solution we’re putting into the medium is, we know what’s coming out, so we know how much is actually in the root zone.

We don’t have to check runoff for every single plant. We could have a forby table with 32 two-gallon pots in it, 32 plants 2 feet tall, feed the whole table, check the runoff on that table. If we check runoff, we will see a pattern emerge where we realize that our plants are eating about 300 ppm to 400 ppm each irrigation cycle.

If we check runoff, then we know how much to feed so that we can hit the optimum target parts per million range in our root zone. The traditional way is often to go food, water, food water, right? We have people that are not checking the ppm of their runoff so in order to avoid overfeeding, they feed, then they water, feed, water. Let’s say we have an optimum range of ppm in our root zone. If we go food, water, we’re going to spike up above that optimum range, then when we water, we’re going to spike below it. Up, below, up, below so we’re only going to hit optimum range for brief moments. If we watch the parts per million of our runoff, then we can actually feed to hit that target runoff.

One of my maxims is “Plants love consistency.” If we feed to hit a target runoff, what we’re actually going to see is bing, bing, bing. We’re always in the optimum range. If we can provide our plants with a consistently optimum parts per million of nutrient in the root zone, then we’re going to go a long way to achieving a maximum yield.

So the question: how often should I feed? This question is somewhat relevant to whether you’re getting runoff out of your medium and whether you’re checking the parts per million of that runoff.

Let’s say you are in a situation where you want your medium to hold water. For some reason, you don’t want to water that often. In that scenario, you will not be getting runoff. In that scenario, you will probably have to go food, water, food, water because essentially you don't know what the parts per million of your root zone is. You can’t take samples from your root zone 1 part medium to 2 parts neutral water, shake it up, let it sit for 10 minutes, strain it, test the parts per million, find out what’s going on. A little bit more difficult than just checking your runoff. Essentially if you understand how much your plant is eating and how often, you get to know your plant, you reveal this yield-enhancing patterns, and then you can understand how to feed them properly.

It’s kind of like saying how much do I feed a dog? I’m not going to feed a mini pinscher the same way I’m going to feed a mastiff. You have to know your genetics, whether it’s a heavy feeder or a light feeder, you get a track record on it, and we reveal these yield-enhancing patterns.

I know it’s a bit of a complicated answer, but that’s the best answer I can give you how often do I feed my plant.

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