I have a couple general questions about plants. Do plants use or absorb water through their roots during lights off.light does the plant shut down and rest somewhat and only use water in the medium and absorb it only during the daylight? reason im asking is i know its def better to water in morning hrs so during the day it can get evaporated and the medium isnt WET during night hrs promoting high humidity and pests and even overwatering problems.so is it pointless to water close to lights off if the plant isnt even going to need to absorb the water. If the plant is somewhat dry(moisture meter) in late hrs close to lights off should i just wait till next morning hours to water(dealing with 2 wk old seedlings anyway) and my last one: is salt a natural bi product of the process of photosynthesis.i know nutes cause salts but does plant waste or photosynthesis within the plant cause salts in the medium also??
It's best to water when the lines turn on because they will use the most nutrients when the lights are on. However, they will still use the water/nutrient at night, just at a lower level. The plant still keeps on growing when lights are off, therefor it must be using water/nutrients to maintain it's growth. As long as you are making sure you aren't overwatering your plants you should never have problems with pests/rootrot. When my plants are vegging, I like to right before they go to bed give them a foiliar feeding of a small amount of grow big. I only do this once or twice during the whole veg period. Basically this makes it so when the lights turn off, none of the water on the foiliar will be evaporated by the lights. I can't confirm if this has helped with my success, but it's never seemed to hurt, I just don't overdo it. As far as salts, yes it's natural. The plant will create salts and sometimes the nutrients will leave some. Basically when you are done growing check your containers, you will have a small layer of white stuff; that is salt. This is a part of the reason we flush the plant, and part of the reason some people flush when they switch from a grow nutrient to a flower nutrient. As long as you are being careful of your feedings, and aren't overdoing it, salt buildup should not be a problem.
The plants have pores called stomata that they can open and close. They open to allow CO2 in for photosynthesis; water evaporates out as a consequence. Since the plant is not photosynthesizing at night, it has no need for CO2, and closes the stomata. Since the stomata are closed, water doesn't evaporate out. The plant does perform cellular respiration at night, though, so at least some water is used. Probably not enough to worry about as far as the plants being deprived overnight. As far as salt being a product of photosynthesis....no. Photosynthesis makes glucose and molecular oxygen.
well thanks for the info guys.you really answered all my questions to the t. I used to grow in coco and it was alot easier to know when to water bc the weight of the pot and coco dries out so fast.with soil the pots are always heavy bc soil is pretty heavy as a product.i switched from coco to soil bc i made my grow space larger thus more potted plants and didnt want to flush a ton of plants once a week.im now going to be flushing once in the end of veg and every other week in flower with my roots organic soil. ive been have problems "over doing it" in veg and being to on top of my babies thus overwatering them..stunting them..and causing deficiencies or ph problems in the soil and therefore have shitty flowering plants/yields. i just wanted to know how the plant actually worked in terms of usage of water so i dont overdo it.appreciate the help guys
That's way too much flushing if you are in soil I'm not really sure why you would flush that much if you are using amended soil you are flushing out the nutes in your soil which might be one of the reasons your plants aren't doing well just flush at the end of flower unless you are using a shit ton of synthetic nutes Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
No...it works the same way. If the container isn't light, the plant hasn't used enough water. Same thing...regardless of whether it's coco or soil. If your pot is heavy, your plant hasn't dried enough. And remember...it's good light that grows big plants...not nutes. Nutes are just plant food that supplement the growth of the plant. But you can pour chemicals in them all day long and they won't grow any larger in size or produce any fatter buds than the quality of light you are supplying each plant with during flower. Each plant needs the absolute best quality and wattage of light you can provide without them being crowded together and shading out growth. Better light gets you a better harvest...plain and simple. TWW
Good to know. I've been watering my plants abkut an hour or two before the light goes off because of work schedule . I did notice a rise in rh after feedings. I might have to teach my gf how to water them during the day when I'm gone