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I've only grown in pots outdoors, not directly in the ground, so I won't comment on volume of water, but the spots look like nutrient problems. What type of water are you using to water them with? Garden hose?

Also, if you're concerned about the top of the soil drying out but you don't want to water them more, consider putting down a layer of mulch (worm castings, compost, wheat straw, pot leaves, etc.) or cover crop (white clover). That will protect the soil from drying out as fast, and it gives the worms in the soil food. They help aerate the soil for your roots and their castings are a great source of nutrients.

 

Looks like they are not receiving enough sunlight howbmany hours of direct are your girls getting?

 

That should be more than enough direct sunlight. I have a plant on a west facing balcony that only gets five hours of direct sunlight, and it's doing just fine. It wouldn't hurt to remove that shade though.

 

Have you considered picking up a filter for your hose? Municipal water has a lot of contaminates in it that allows the water to be safe for consumption, but it kills the beneficial bacteria in the soil and can prevent our plants from taking up the nutrients that they're supposed to. I bought this one on Amazon for $37. It filters out all the crap that I don't want messing with my beneficial bacteria and messing with the soil pH. 100% worth it.

Alternatively, you could buy a reservoir (I use five gallon buckets for my indoor plants) and stick an air pump in it to aerate it for a day or two so those chemicals and additives evaporate out, but that seems like a pain for outdoor plants.

In regards to the worms, hell yeah, man! Worms kick ass when they're in gardens. They're the biggest ally of my grow -the worm tunnels allow roots to have easy access to oxygen, the enzymes from the castings help the plant absorb nutrients from the soil better, and the castings themselves provide nutrients to the plants. If you're feeding your plants with non-organic nutrients, they won't have as big of an impact, and the salt in the soil may actually hinder your ability to grow in the same spot for multiple grows. I prefer feeding with some compost, teas, and top-dressings, but that's just my preference. It doesn't require mixing nutrients every other watering or any of that. Much more simple. pH becomes less of a issue. If you're curious, check out the Organics forum.

 

There are probably some that are naturally in your soil so I wouldn't stress about adding them. Also, normally, they're only sold in quantities of a few hundred, and it wouldn't be good to just dump that on the ground, but if you do want to buy some, they're called red wigglers or compost worms. Night crawlers are good too because red wigglers stay in the top 6" of soil, and night crawlers only stay below 6". If you add them, loosen up the soil a bit, release them after the sun has set, and place some damp newspaper over them. Most, if not all, should go below ground overnight.

Absolutely! If everybody on GC helped just a few people, we'd all have plenty of weed!!

Yeah, I'm up in Seattle so the sun that you get is definitely more direct than the sun that I get, but I wouldn't stress too much, especially if your girls have been out in the sun the whole time.

Personally, I'd pick up the water filter and give that a try for a few weeks, and see if the issues expand across the plants further. It may take a week or two to have some changes. Don't react too quickly, and don't stress out too much -we've all been less than thrilled with grows before! Live and learn

 

One end of it screws into the spigot, and the hose screws into the other end. It's not supposed to stay on the spigot when it's not in use so I made the process a little easier by using quick attach/detach connectors.

In regards to pH, truthfully, I haven't even checked it. My tap comes out around 7.2, and I just depend on the soil to buffer it. That's another advantage of growing with only organic nutrients like teas and top-dressings -I hardly pay attention to pH. I use the same hose and filter to water my tomatoes, lavender, kitchen herbs, and lemon tree, and so far at least, none of them have shown any major issues.

 

Hahahaha I have totally been there before! That's when I had to consider that this was just a plant, everyone messes up their grow at some point -that's how we learn- and that this was supposed to be fun lol.

Since then, I've mostly automated my watering system so I don't have to stress out about getting home to water or depend on a friend who may (or may not) water correctly when I'm out of town. I've stopped using bottles nutes (was using the complete Earth Juice line), and I started with a super soil base and have used it to go no-till so other than top-dressing once in veg and once in flower and a tea every few weeks to once a month, I don't even fertilize. My lights are on a timer, and my fans and a/c unit run 24 hours a day. I've removed all of the things that used to stress me out about growing, and my plants are happier than I've ever had any plants. I'm back to really enjoying my hobby

 

Lolol it's good to find a kindred spirit. Doing those things makes everything with the grow more enjoyable, imho.

Basically, you start with well-mixed and ammended soil (if you're growing in pots), and you sprinkle (top-dress) the top of the soil with more soil amendments throughout the grow. You can aerate those amendments in water for 24-48 hours (with a submersible air pump) to create teas that you water the soil with. Your goal is to provide all the nutrients to the soil, to have bacteria and fungi that break the nutrients down into a form that the plants can use, and the plant will take up what it needs when it wants to. No flushing. If you're growing directly in the ground, skip the soil mixing part (unless soil in your area is not ideal for pot plants), and just top-dress and use teas.

I think it's common to use different amendments based on how old the plant is and whether it's in veg or flower. Common amendments are neem seed meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, oyster shell, bone meals, earthworm castings (EWC) and compost. If you wanted to get more into it, you could add some rice hulls (for aeration) and ground no2 malted barley (like the kind for brewing beer) (for enzymes) to your top-dressing instead of or with compost. You can also add molasses (I use Earth Juice Hi-Brix since I still have it laying around), Neptune's Harvest fish oil, and Pro-Tekt silica to your teas (I also add Pro-Tekt to my water).

If you look those amendments up on Amazon, my preferred brand is Down to Earth.

The whole idea of no-till growing revolves around the concept that plants are meant to be grown in an environment surrounded by nature -other plants inter-mingling their roots, small grass or clover providing cover and protection to the soil and microbes that live in the soil, layers of leaves and dead plants providing mulch and worm food, dead animals and dead plants providing nutrients and emzymes to the soil so the plants can take them up when they need them. All the things that should be obvious to us, but, instead, we (my past self included) take the plants out of that environment and try to replicate it with bottles of chemicals or liquid organic nutrients that have to be mixed every time they're applied.

Seriously, check out the Organics forum if this sounds appealing to you. It's a massive rabbit hole so try not to get overwhelmed. The guys there are extremely knowledgeable (like, they've been growing this way for years or decades), friendly, and happy to answer questions. This is my first grow using the no-till method, but I'm addicted.

Here is my favorite quote from a super old school no-till grower that used to be on GC:

Here are some pictures from today. It's a link to my most recent entry in my journal.

Sorry for the ridiculously long comment...I just get super excited and nerd out over this