Originally Posted by TanzanianMagic

I would like to make a contribution to this excellent thread.

What is missing from this discussion is the importance of bottom watering/feeding, as well as keeping EC levels low.

Plants have three types of roots. The lowest roots are for taking in water. The middle roots are for taking in nutrients, and the top roots are for excreting salts and other wastes.

This is why high salt levels and crusts will always form at the surface of the soil, and specifically around the stem. The reason is that the plant's foliage will deter most of the rainfall away from the stem, preventing the wast materials from washing down to the feeding roots again.

If you water from the top, you will continually re-introduce these salts to the feeding roots, massively stressing the plants and even poisoning them.

Obviously this will also have an influence not only on the salt levels in the soil, but the salt distribution throughout the soil.

Nitrifying bacteria, enzymes and mycorrhizal fungi will have an influence in breaking down the salts at the surface of the soil.

I think this is important in a discussion on EC levels in the soil.

You can bottom water just enough to keep the soil moist. If you add just a little water (say, 1/64th of the volume of the soil or less, depending on evaporation and water use, temp, etc.) to a saucer, you can water every day never even fear overwatering your plants. In effect you are watering the soil, not the plant, and are keeping the soil nice and moist, while maintaining much of the oxygen content.

At the same time, bottom watering does not compact the soil before the roots have established, or flush small particles and nutrients to the bottom of the pot or out of the pot.

The message is: bottom water as much as you can. It will make a huge difference (including mellowing the taste of your buds).

try a full submerge watering technique with a controlled wet/dry cycle. with pure wormtea/or low ec chems.
the soil must be well draining.

[TanzanianMagic]

Right now, I'm getting great results putting a lot of the nutrients into the plant through foliar feeding. This works with both organic and mineral nutrients.

I keep the soil nutrients at a low EC, usually 0.6 EC for the water, and then 0.2 to 0.4 EC for the nutrients. This is more like a backup for when the foliar nutrients wear off, so the plant can keep on growing - and it does.

I foliar feed in two ways:

1) Spraying all of the plant

Nutrient concentration - lower than the soil EC, anywhere from 10% to 20% of recommended strength. This is because at higher concentrations, the plant gets burned.

2) Only spraying the lower leaves, about 1/10th of the foliage max.

Nutrient concentration - 150% or more of recommended strength, if not more. You can get very high with the concentration without burning the plant, and having a massive effect within hours, let alone a day. Water EC 0.6, nutrient EC 1.4 for a total EC of 2.0.

I first tried this method using very concentrated non-aerated worm tea/water that I have stored in an old wine bottle (about 1/4 to 1/3 filled with worm castings, topped up with boiled tapwater which still has all the calcium, iron, etc. in it).

The first time I tried it, it turned the plant a very deep green, which has stayed with the plant throughout it's growth. I thought I had poisoned it, but it never stopped growing.

There must be an evolutionary reason why plants can take up nutrients through their leaves much more efficiently than through their roots system.

Considering that in nature, plants don't get hosed down with nutrient solutions, I think that at some point we may discover that plants can take up much or most of their nutrients in gas form, possibly as exudates of other plants or maybe nitrogen and other gasses that are 'lost' to the air during the process of composting.

Most people already know that plant's favorite way to get carbon is by processing CO2 gas through their leaves, stripping off the carbon atom and expelling O2 through their roots, where the O2 feeds the aerobic bacteria.

Why not SO2, NH3, NO2 and other gasses as well?

The question is: where do these gasses come from? If we could supply them to the plant in a consistent manner, they could replace a lot of the soil feeding, and keep the roots and the plant happy throughout it's life.

[NewAgeGenetics]

loved this read Mike, so true!

the first title was "Art of fertilization" if I remember well

[konopenko]

Hello MandalaMike and comrades!
Im having 3(7males) Kalichakras flowering for 34 days...they are all fed via blumats-tap water.
I have read all Mandalas guides so now I know there are more reasons for wrinkled yellow leaves.
Soil: 11l pots are filled with 70% light mix, 30% allmix Biobizz with half tea spoon of guano.Im using very mild dosage of Bioheaven,Bloom and Algamic-less than 1ml/l
Next time Canna Compo Universal without guano dust and with some wormcastings instead..




It looks like lack of N but wrinkled leaves are not right sign, could be Magnesium, Potassium lock...I dont know how hard our water is-but its good drinkable water-little hard as I know. I have to buy myself Ec and Ph meter to know better. I flushed her with 2 l of Radenska-natural mineral water rich with Mg and now tap water.


Never seen leave bud before! I have to say I like your plants Mike. Affected plant have best smell possible..like fresh tropic fruit and very frosty for only week 5.
Temps are now max. 25C and low 20C
RH: 56% to 60% at day and 53 and 58% at night few weeks ago in strech there were higher rh 70-80% but with thin buds...



I ordered some Satori, Far out and Chillom last week at Original seed org, all regular. Can I expect same problems with any sativa pheno? Im glad I found this thread..
any interested in good ferts guide: https://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/F...ng-Smart-Guide