I am the worst at organizing my time. I will do what ever it takes to develop at strict disciplined scheduled for feeding and nutrients for my super sensitive babies. I have sour diesel, and now know her flowering time is definitely 12 weeks. Please help me by describing how you get the best results from your crops.
The first thing you should be strict and disciplined about is...not being strict and disciplined about your watering routine. Water when your plants need it, not according to the calendar. Water as much as your plants need, not a fixed amount. You will find that the interval between waterings and the amount of water needed can vary throughout the grow. When you water, soak the soil until you get good runoff. Then don't water at all until the soil dries out a bit, test by poking a finger an inch into the soil and if it feels moist then wait. Feed no more than once a week, and probably only need half strength of what the fert recommends. Less is more.
Is this what you do? and do you think your harvests are of the highest quality? I think you are having a bad reaction to my needing some structure. Seriously I am asking for an outline of a routine. How do you practice vigilance in your practice of growing ganga?
I don't think I have ever doubted Toasty. He is always spot on with his advice as far as I can tell. With that being said, it seems I am pretty much doing the exact opposite of what he's telling us to do! I currently water my plants a set amount every 3 days... Feedings consist of smaller amounts (1/4 gallon) twice a week (day 3, 6) and then a 1/2 gallon of fresh water on the 9th day. Feed-Feed-Flush is how I have always done it, every 3 days. The downside of this is that they HAVE to be watered every 3 days. Missing one single feeding/watering by 1 day will cause my plants to dry out and wilt. Sounds like I need to start doing bigger, less frequent feedings.
Toastybiz is awesome, I always appreciate advice, thank you for yours. This is exactly the kind of description that is helpful. Also, I have soil and dwc and coco so I have multiple mediums to account for. As my garden grows and I add plants the labor increases, especially since I have a bunch of stuff going on. This is why I am looking for description of what growers actually practice with their own patch. I am not, but, say I am doing a scrog with 20 plants in a 5x5 tent. Stinking your finger in each plant seems accurate but inefficient.
Yes it's what I do. What I am advising is that you turn the premise of your question around -- you are presuming that the plant needs a structured and regimented schedule, but that's missing the point. You definitely want to be disciplined about being in tune with and responsive to your plant's needs, but those needs won't fit an exact schedule. The amount of water and frequency of waterings will change throughout the grow, so you should be disciplined about being adaptable to giving the plant what it needs. The plant will tell you when it needs water, follow the plant's lead.
Toasty already said it, but I'll repeat it. Water when the medium is dry enough to be watered again, and with the amount of water that that individual plant needs. That is it, period. Watering in any other way will lead to over or under watering. I use coco, so I have more flexibility than soil growers, but the rules are still the same.
Gracias ya'll I got it. Thank you. I am such a noob, but I want to get it all down. Now I got 4 in coco 3gal pots, 3 in soil. One of the 3 in soil is untopped and the buds are more round and tight. Shout out to Toastybiz for patients and sharing. Anyhow they are all on different schedules and it keeps me busy enough. It is great to get the perspective from all you all. I do have to stay on top of the watering and will take good care of the babies.
Just get a good soil. Add some mico's and go half strength and feed every week or so. I personally like to wait untill the leaves are showing slight deficiency before i feed. The leaves are like a buffer for your buds. If the plant doesnt have enough nutes it just starts to take from the leaves. Aka time to feed. Just make sure you dont let the soil get too salty. If it does just flush.
Yeah. Some will need watering at different times than others, nothing you can do about that. I have 2 of the same strain even that have to be watered at different times just because one is a much faster grower. More growth means more roots and bigger plant with more leaves, which makes it transpire water faster than the smaller, slower growing plants. That's why you can't make any kind of schedule unless you are using some type of hydro system that requires a schedule be made.
I had a dwc batch in there with the my soil plants and it taxed my abilites. I am now strictly soil, except the plants I have in coco, which are doing pretty good. My 50lb bag of ffof showed up today. :smile: I need to produce a batch with little pH, h2o, or nutrient issues. I will keep trying. Harvesting my third batch, this week, the buds are pretty big, but they seem to have developed a bad issue with dry leaves, before that they were stellar. I am not sure what happened. Rock and Roll people.
So last night I was getting everything ready for feeding time and I was set on doing what I said above, a bigger feeding and giving it more time before the next. Then I thought to myself "If it isn't broke, why try to fix it?" The method I use has been working for me, and until I see signs that it isn't working, I think I'm going to stick with it. I don't over-feed and nute burn has never been an issue. I don't over-water. If anything, there have been a few times I have missed by a day and let my girls get droopy, but that's user error (me!) So I continued with my normal schedule. I gave them their second feeding this week of 1/4 gallon each with 7.5ml micro - 20ml bloom - 7.5ml Cal+mg - 7.5ml Bud Candy. I'll hit them again in 3 days with a 1/2 gal each of pure H2o. But... Just because this method is working for me with my current grow doesn't mean it is a guideline for everybody. Each garden has it's own needs. It's up to us to find the sweet spot and go with it.
How do you equate the growing on ganja or for that matter 'vigilane' with some rigid , discipline oriented schedule? What if it's " on your schedule" but not what the plants are asking for at that time?
Well, one thing the OP said he was looking for is to fulfill his own need for structure, not necessarily the plant's need for structure (or lack thereof). So to that point, you can be structured about checking and tending to your plants on a regular basis and then giving them whatever they need at each check-up. For example, you could check them at 8pm every night. After you water you could make a routine of re-filling the water so it is ready to go the next time you will need it. You can take measurements of your plants if you want to track their progress. Keep a grow log and write down everything you do each day (satisfies the urge for structure but also can be a helpful reference for future grows). Add to that schedule that you will check pH once a week, re-tie LST every 3rd day, things like that. Definitely ways to discipline yourself without holding your plants to a rigid schedule.