Am I using too much water?

[opek]

I have three plants sitting under a thousand watts. Each is in a 3 gallon pot. I use a small pump connected to a timer and I have to water for 6 minutes to I water four times a day. This equates to about 2 gallons of solution per plant per day. if I reduce my water time to 5 or 4 minutes I get no runoff. it has come to my attention that no one else uses as much as I do. What am I doing wrong?
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[Snow Crash]

Why do you think you're doing something wrong?

That's definitely a lot of solution for a single plant to use in a day, but if the plant is large enough then this shouldn't be abnormal. My 1 gallon plants use about 2L of water per day, so you're probably okay.

 

[Arminius]

Depending on mix, environment, and stage of flowering, your plants could easily use 1 gal per day, per pot.
I don't worry about content of solution, rather slight runoff after each feed. Using a cycle timer, my frequency ranges anywhere from once every 3-4 hours, to once an hour. Generally feed duration is 60 secs or less. But I use 2 gallon pots, with an aeration mix, so YMMV...

 

[Skunkpassion]

What do your plants look like?

Do they look overwatered?

Best advice is learn what your plants are saying to you...

 

[opek]

In the Veg+Bloom thread I made a comment about how much it costs and how I just bought a bunch of maxibloom. And a few people said my water use was tremendous, unnecessary, and made no sense.

Just to be clear I am in pure coco. No amendments. The CHHC says 75*F night 84*F day, 40-55% RH, 1000/400ppm co2. I water with 1-1.4 EC solution throughout flower, 4 times a day, watered to ~10% runoff, using 2 gallons of solution per 3 gallon pot. 3 pots under a single 1k.

And this is the response I got:

We run 50 gallon drums as our reservoirs. One 50 gallon drum feeds about 20 plants under 3kw. For Veg and the first week of flower we fill the drums to half way and run Veg+Bloom at 5-6 grams per gallon. For weeks 2-8 we fill the barrels all the way up and run 6-7 grams per gallon. Our total cost for nutrients to produce about 5 pounds of top shelf is about $100. It's actually less because I use about 100#s of Dirty a month and buy it at the 25#price


5#s of top shelf herb for $100 in nutrients

Yeah i'm sorry but 50 to 60 gallons a week for 1 light ????? even a 10' tree outdoors wouldn't use half of that !!!

I usually run 3-4 plants in 3 gallon air pots or smart pots, but under much smaller lights - I use (1) or (2) 315w CDM lamps or @ 450w of LEDs, and my plants peak consumption is well under 1/2 gallon/day per plant with blumats keeping the moisture level constant.

That seems like a hell of a lot of juice to go through for one light. You might think about blumats to match the input to the plant's needs without any waste.

What gives?

 

[Arminius]

In the Veg+Bloom thread I made a comment about how much it costs and how I just bought a bunch of maxibloom. And a few people said my water use was tremendous, unnecessary, and made no sense.

Just to be clear I am in pure coco. No amendments. The CHHC says 75*F night 84*F day, 40-55% RH, 1000/400ppm co2. I water with 1-1.4 EC solution throughout flower, 4 times a day, watered to ~10% runoff, using 2 gallons of solution per 3 gallon pot. 3 pots under a single 1k.

And this is the response I got:









What gives?

For someone to state what your plants need based on their experience, environment, etc... just shows they don't know what they are talking about, or should allow for different circumstances necessitating different needs.
I will add my personal experience. In early flower, 8 plants in #2 pots will make a 40 g res last 7-10 days. In late flower, that same tank will last me 5-7 days.

 

[dansbuds]

I still say 2 gallons of water everyday in a 3 gallon pot is unreal . the plants have to be huge ! or your in 90 plus temps & its drying out to fast .

any pics ????

 

[Greenums]

i feed 1gal to a 5gal bag of coir daily divided by 3 feedings. so for 9gal of coir isn't too far out of whack on that feeding schedule.

 

[opek]

For someone to state what your plants need based on their experience, environment, etc... just shows they don't know what they are talking about, or should allow for different circumstances necessitating different needs.
I will add my personal experience. In early flower, 8 plants in #2 pots will make a 40 g res last 7-10 days. In late flower, that same tank will last me 5-7 days.

I'm not very far off of that. How many watts or what is your ideal yield for those 8 plants?

I still say 2 gallons of water everyday in a 3 gallon pot is unreal . the plants have to be huge ! or your in 90 plus temps & its drying out to fast .

any pics ????

I am running 84 at the canopy with AC ducted in from the top.

Pics? I do!
Please excuse the first pic, apparently all of the far shots were blurry. Here are some shots 10 days of just ro water, no nutes no ph. About another week to go.

 

[opek]

Excuse some of the larfier big nugs. There was a lot of bending going on during stretch. It really fucked up two or three of what would have been the biggest colas.

 

[dansbuds]

I dunno dude .... just seems like ALOT of juice to me

but if your using that much & theres not a shit load of runoff ..... they must be using it .

i do 3 gallons of coco per pot , 4 pots per light . 1 feeding per night for 2 minutes & they're not dried out by morning untill late in flower then i'll add another feed . but i'm still not using half of what you are . i have an 18 gallon rez & that will last 4 days on 4 plants in 3 gallon pots .

just goes to show how every situation can be so drasticly different . alot of people feed coco in very different ways & get great results !!! your feeding 4 times a night where i feed 2 times to get basicly the same results of runoff . my environment runs a little cooler than yours so i don't need to feed as much .

& the buds look great dude !!!

 

[rives]

For someone to state what your plants need based on their experience, environment, etc... just shows they don't know what they are talking about, or should allow for different circumstances necessitating different needs.

Actually, that is not what was said at all. When someone says that they cannot afford a nutrient and lists consumption rates that are 4x higher than my experience, suggesting that there are other methods that might be more economical seems perfectly in order to me.

opek, the plants look great.

 

[Arminius]

Actually, that is not what was said at all. When someone says that they cannot afford a nutrient and lists consumption rates that are 4x higher than my experience, suggesting that there are other methods that might be more economical seems perfectly in order to me.

opek, the plants look great.

I meant no disrespect to you, but was more commenting on the fact that no other parameters were clarified before people in general were injecting their personal water use.

 

[Arminius]

I'm not very far off of that. How many watts or what is your ideal yield for those 8 plants?

For 8 plants I use 4 600s stacked in pairs for 6-7 foot vert trees. My best runs have been 4, and 4.5 pounds from that set up with that feeding schedule.

 

[opek]

Thanks for the reassurances. I'm still using at least twice as much water as anyone else. I will try smaller pots next run and see if I lose weight or fatten my wallet.