Does this pass the smell test?

[de145]

My second year of growing and I finally broke down and went into a grow shop and bought some actual nutes. I started with a relatively cheaper "organic" A and B kit.

I'm growing in gallon pots with pro mix potting soil indoors under cfl.

The dude at the shop suggested watering every two days and feeding every second watering according to the guide that came with the nutes.

Does this sound like generally good advice?

Given the way I used to water (see below) I'm not sure now how to tell when I've watered enough from the top while the pots are in place. Any advice on how to determine the right amount of watering would be appreciated as well.

Just some background:

My first grow was in organic mix outdoors and it was excellent but I did not want to continue outdoors.

For my past indoor grow I would submerge the pot entirely in the fertilizer solution until it stopped bubbling then drain it and repeat about every 4 or 5 days as required when the plants started looking wilty.

This produced happy looking plants but relatively poor quality end result in the bowl which was extremely harsh and probably over nuted.

 

[de145]

Is this the wrong forum?

 

[SumDumGuy]

My second year of growing and I finally broke down and went into a grow shop and bought some actual nutes. I started with a relatively cheaper "organic" A and B kit.

I'm growing in gallon pots with pro mix potting soil indoors under cfl.

The dude at the shop suggested watering every two days and feeding every second watering according to the guide that came with the nutes.

Does this sound like generally good advice?

Given the way I used to water (see below) I'm not sure now how to tell when I've watered enough from the top while the pots are in place. Any advice on how to determine the right amount of watering would be appreciated as well.

Just some background:

My first grow was in organic mix outdoors and it was excellent but I did not want to continue outdoors.

For my past indoor grow I would submerge the pot entirely in the fertilizer solution until it stopped bubbling then drain it and repeat about every 4 or 5 days as required when the plants started looking wilty.

This produced happy looking plants but relatively poor quality end result in the bowl which was extremely harsh and probably over nuted.

I also bottom feed. I use ProMix all chem ferts and I get GREAT results bottom feeding. I usually leave submerged for a few minutes so that the potting mix pH stabilizes to that of the fertilizer mix so your pH has to be ON POINT! The benefit to bottom feeding is that you dont compact your mix. And when you lift the pot from the water as water exits fresh air is immediately replenished into the root zone. I currently feed 78 small pots this way and it is wicked hard work but I do it because it makes it harder for me. I'm a big believer in that great things should NOT come easy!

The advice the hydro shop guy gave is spot on bro. 1 on and 1 off. Hard to kill your plants that way. As you gt to know your plant better you can increase to multiple back to back feedings with a periodic flush. Good luck.

PS: I'm not sure if you like bottom feeding or plan on continuing bottom feeding but I must add one very important note. "Don't drain your pot back into the nute mix! Drain into a separate pot as to not contaminate your initial mix.

 

[labtec]

Nope, right forum. I think the guy gave pretty safe advice without knowing everything. Usually guides are a pretty decent start. The feed every other watering is what I did in my 150 watt chamber and they loved it. The last two weeks I just gave them straight water.

About the two days though, let the plants tell you when they want water. That is usually one of the first mistakes people make when growing is to either overwater, or underwater. You need to find a medium, and not just overwhelm your plants. What kind of nutrients did you use this last time? Did you feed every watering? Flush?

 

[labtec]

hehe sumdumguy. I see you posted when I was writing excellent advice

 

[SumDumGuy]

hehe sumdumguy. I see you posted when I was writing excellent advice

hehe I just noticed that . Hi LabTec.. I forgot to mention to him that he shouldn't wait for them to wilt. He should do it the day before they wilt and this is easy to tell. Pretty soon he'll get to know his plants so well that he'll know when one of them farts.

 

[Anti]

I have great success with the submersion technique that you are already using.

I water with 1 tsp of liquid ferts per gallon of water, generally every other day (in a mix of peat/sphagnum/perlite.)

If it was hard to smoke after harvest, you had too much shit left in your plant at harvest. Suggestion is to flush the medium every 20 days or so with something like Clearex or Drip Clean to remove salt buildups. I also generally switch to plain water + Clearex for the last two weeks of the flowering cycle to let the plants use up as much of what they've got stored before the chop as they can.

If you have black, chunky ash after you smoke a bowl, you didn't flush long enough. If you have light grey/white ash after you smoke a bowl... you're there.

 

[de145]

Thanks everyone!

Last grow I fed *every* watering with a flush at the end and I used Bio Vega 3.5-1.0-5.5 for the *whole* grow not just vegging.

My old thinking was it's best to flood them from the bottom, drain and then wait until they start wilting to water again, but it seems as though what is being suggested is to water more regularly but less at a time. I actually like the idea of watering top down sparingly because I don't need to pull the pots out of the cab. and carry them around.

So is the idea to find the optimum minimum watering that will allow an every 2 day watering schedule?

 

[supermanlives]

dunking plants is too much work. i put them in trays pour in my ferts and let em suck it up. easy as hell

 

[SumDumGuy]

dunking plants is too much work. i put them in trays pour in my ferts and let em suck it up. easy as hell

HELL YEAH SupermanLives is not lying . Nor does he ever but I will soon work out something else but it's back breaking work. Nice method bro.

 

[de145]

dunking plants is too much work. i put them in trays pour in my ferts and let em suck it up. easy as hell

If you mean the typical nursery trays with the raised channels in them don't you end up with a lot of liquid in the trays that the plants can't get to?

 

[ganjaments]

So is the idea to find the optimum minimum watering that will allow an every 2 day watering schedule?

No, not at all. You want to saturate your medium 100% every single time, and let it get fairly dry between waterings. The advice of every 2 days was poor IMO. In soil/ProMix, you generally shouldn't have a static watering cycle. Depending on your medium, pot size, temps, humidity, leaf mass, and stage of growth, your watering could vary between 2-10 days. You let the plants/pots tell you when to water, not some idiot at the grow store.

 

[psg1]

This is where a soil moisture meter will help you immensely. They're usually under $10USD and will indicate when your soil is dry enough to water. Don't let it get bone dry, but close, then saturate the way you have been by submerging (assuming you have the time). Bone-ass dry is when you'll start to see wilt, so catch them before this happens unless you want your plants to devote several hours to just recovering afterwards before resuming normal growth.

There will be times when you stick that meter in and are surprised by how moist/dry the soil was relative to what you expected. This is why it's so easy to over/under water, because folks simply don't know what's going on under the top layer of soil.

Top watering is so much easier, but in no time at all you'll have compacted soil with channels leading past most of the roots to the bottom of the pot. You'll notice a huge difference in the weight of a submerged pot after watering versus one that's got compacted soil and was top watered.

 

[ReelBusy1]

for bottom feeding you might want to look into a wicking system.
It's easier and less messy

 

[sum420]

i find that soil moisture meters are extremely inaccurate, and have had nothing but trouble relying on them in the past.

the best way to know when ur plants need watering is by closely observing them after a watering cycle. constantly lift ur pots, several times a day (at first) untill u become familiar with the weight of them. when u get to the point where u need to water them carefully pay attention to the weight of the pot. obviously as ur plant gets bigger the weight will change, but through experince u will be able to tell exactly how far along the wet/dry cycle is by weight.