Watering Coco Coir

coco is not anything different. It simply absorbs water and holds it until the plant drinks it up... or evaporates if not drinking fast enough. Despite common belief, pure coco does not have good enough drainage and aeration properties. You want 33% perlite or similar mixed in for an optimal gas:water mixture for the roots. This won't derail your grow, but in future add some vermiculite or similar. Tiny plant in a huge pot is an incredibly bad idea - yes, even with autoflowers. Potting up should never cause 'shock,' and if you cause shock from potting up, it is self-inflicted and easily avoided with a bit more patience and not employing some sort of retard strength destroying the rootball. Don't transplant when it is too dry to hold itself together, either. Use appropriate sized pots for plant size. This may require you to hand-water until it gets into a pot that has a wick, but it'll avoid a plethora of risks and it is worth it. I hand water until my final pots and then the irrigation system kicks in. Small pots are easy to water and not time-consuming, so it's not much of a cost and a huge benefit to proper root growth and avoiding bad watering habits. I also strongly suggest reconsidering a wick or any sort of bottom-up watering setup. It basically takes the primary benefit of growing in a soilless medium and throws it out the window. You will risk buidlup in the substrate or require needless efforts like flushing to maintain a healthy medium. These efforts will only slow growth down by comparison, and again for no good reason. Something 100% avoidable if you water top-down and religiously get 10% runoff ("drain to waste"). This makes diagnosing and adjusting more simple and accurate by completely eliminating the possibility of buildup in the substrate. Yes, you can still overfeed and cause a toxicity in the plant, but it will never be because it built up in the substrate.. a simple formula change avoids it completely. So, every once in a while i'd give a top fertigation and get some good runoff. You may even want a slightly diluted formula when you do this or possibly water-only. This is something that will require some trial and error on your part to find that balance. When does the plant start to show it is getting too much? Pre-empt that with a top down dilution. Maybe every 2 weeks.. really depends on how heavily you feed and other local variables, so it's something you must figure out on your own. as far as wicking.. the natural capillary action and draw of water up due to evaporation or drinking should be okay on its own. Shouldn't have to worry about removing the water or anything like that. The plant drinks some, creates a "pull" and more water absorbs up the wick and into the substrate. It's a constantly occurring thing. You 'can' make a wick system work, but if going soilless there are much better options that don't require so much extra effort to avoid problems that aren't possible when doing things in a more orthodox way. remember, coco is not magic. If you are experiencing any problems it is behaviour related and not the solid substrate that water absorbs into. that's tantamount to a bucket, lol. A bucket doesn't do much beside hold the water. Don't blame the bucket. if you go with sphagnum peat moss, need 50% perlite or similar - i'd recommend vermiculite #3. It adds available silica in addition to a proper gas:water mixture for roots. The only thing special about coco is that if the manufacturer doesn't buffer it properly, it can make your plants sickly or even kill them, lol. Coco is convenient, but it's not magic or "better". in fact research by bugbee shows that sphagnum peat moss is a better soilless base. I guess that kinda makes coco coir "special." lol,, short-bus special.