Advice please on how much and often to water

Hello, I am on my second grow and still haven't dialed in how much to water my plants. Everything else is going great thanks largely to this site. My set up is 9 plants put in 3 gal smart pots with 50/50 coco/perlite. I water with flood and drain. This is under a 5x5 scrog so I can't lift the pots to check weight. I have tried twice a day, every other day and every day, all intervals seem OK??. I'm totally new to coco which seems to drain quickly yet still hold moisture. Should I let my plants dry out a bit more? I am thinking about doing my next round in drain to waste using organics..I don't want to waste nutes yet obviously want them to thrive. Any thoughts here? Thanks a bunch.

I grow in pro mix and water by hand currently but....

I have done a small time ebb n flow table 3 x 3 and had great results. In hind sight I didn't need to change my water as often as I did (I changed water/nutes every 5 days, however I've read you can go a whole flowering cycle on same water just keep topping it off. I would probably go every 10 days if I was to do it again)

I grew with 2: rockwool cubes placed into expanded clay pellets. I flooded for 15 min every 4 hours during veg and same during flower but did not flood during dark period.

Drying them out isnt always bad see how long it takes to wilt after watering and water before that time after that. Ive also heard there are techniques using irregular water patterns and also drought techniques . I let my plants tell me instead of me telling them . My 2 cents


greenstreet

Restricting watering to when its dry and starts to really need it allows the plant to extend its roots. I use the weight technique, I can tell when its dry and needs water by how heavy the planter is.. Its harder to figure that out when it gets bigger, but by then you can judge by how the soil feels. Flood and drain, but not too much drain because you'll just be flushing nuts. Mine soaks and drains into a tray a little, and then it gets soaked up soon after automatically.

Thanks. I will let them go to the point of first wilt and use this as a guide. If i go with drain to waste next round and watering every day does 1/2 gal a day sound about right (for 3 gal pots)? Is this amout in the ball park?