Watering Revisited

I'm not sure that blumat would work. Aren't they gravity fed? After looking into it a little, it seems that the reservoir would need to be higher than the spike.

 

I do not think they are gravity fed. Capillary action.

 

I use a few of those slide under the bed storage containers filled with perlite with 7gal smart pots, I have found if the water is not wicking up enough I haven't seated the pots deeply enough, I occasionally withhold water to facilitate a soil soak of azamax just before flowering, sips have made a big difference on most strains, I ran sog with a bunch of sour diesel in 1&2 gal smart pots easiest sog run ever, I gave the 2 gal smarties a spin to prevent the roots from digging deep but let the 1 gal go made no difference they were all healthy the whole cycle...

 

Cool. You fill the entire bin with perlite? How high is the bed of perlite?

 

Indeed I fill the almost to the brim, first I lay landscape fabric in the bottom leaving enough extra to cover the top, cut holes for your planters it keeps the light off an retards algae growth, I also painted the outside with primer then white paint to keep light from reaching the contents, they are 58qt and about 8in tall, they take around 5gal of water first fill up even more if planters are dry, some have wheels so you can move them around if necessary...

 

outstanding health and vigor. Was that SIP?
What was the end result(if you don't mind sharing)?

 

Lol, I love it.

 

Were you hand watering, or using the AWS? Just curious.

 

I don't know how people are adding so many nutes to FFOF. I have two 7-gallon smarties on this run, and I've only been adding 3ml of tiger bloom for every 5 gallons of RO water. Previously, I was adding nothing to water for many weeks. About 1 week into flower, started with 2ml, then moved up to 3ml (per 5 gals of water). Keep in mind, a normal feeding would be 2ml/gal, so 10ml for my 5 gallons of RO. I am using less than a third of that. I came back from a 10 day business trip, and the top of my fucking canopy is fried. I've got leaf curl, burnt tips, and brown spots on many leaves which are getting the best light. Ugh, I'm so pissed off. My job is getting in the way of my hobby, damn it. Oh, and I did a soil test. My phosphorus levels are through the damn roof. First day back from an international business trip, exhausted from 26 hours of traveling, and I'm here flushing my damn soil.
How are people adding so much to FFOF without lock outs? I think the whole "FFOF is depleted after 4 weeks" is a bunch of bullshit, especially when you're using large containers.

I'm very annoyed, if you can't tell. Here are some photos - you can't really tell how bad it looks from the photos, but they're not good. I just feel like complaining. Thanks for listening.

 

dude....you are using SIPs right? Always start at 1/4 strength on a SIP then slowly bump to about 1/2 strength. If you still need fert then go up very slowly from there. SIPs do NOT get concentrations of nuts like drain to waste soil grows or hydro. Its is the nature of SIP. If you are not using SIP then sorry for my post. FFOF is not all that hot in my experience. Clones seem to have no ill effect when put in it. I did once have a problem with "some" not all seedlings from beans I popped in it.

 

They don't look that bad---true they are not centerfolds but very salvageable.

 

They're not terrible, but I was really excited for this run - they were beautiful before I left for my trip. Beer is helping me cope.

Yes, running SIP. I have been very gradual, and thought that I've been pretty damn light on the nutes. Anyway, hope they bounce back. Burn and lockout sucks.

 

Well, my first SIP grow of 2 plants has not been going all that well, truth be told. I'll do better next time, and I plan to obviously correct the problems I experienced this grow.

The situation is that there has been a deficiency manifesting in the top of the canopy. It started around November 1st, and during that time, I was giving about 1/5 strength nutrient solution (weak) since roughly about October 20th on a constant basis.

I've been giving pure water (some RO, some tap) since November 13th. In that time, I've top watered until runoff in an attempt to wash away some excess fert approximately 3 times.

I've tested both soil and runoff water collected in the reservoir with a rapitest soil test kit. Samples indicate every high levels of K and P, and moderately high levels of N. PH of both soil and water has and is perfect.

I believe the problem has been not only too much bottles nutes, but also overwatering in the last two weeks.

The nutrient problem, I believe, was because I'm using large containers which did not have nutrients depleted and in which the soil was actually still very nutrient rich. The girls went from 1 gallon containers to 7 gallon containers (FFOF, dolomite lime, and 15% additional perlite) on Sept 26th, about 8 weeks ago. They spent only about 2.5 weeks of their veg stage growing into them, leaving lots of nutrient rich soil still available. Bottled nutes were, in my assessment, not required at the time I started giving them.

On the overwatering, I think top watering to runoff in an attempt to flush out some of the bottled nutrients resulted in root issues making the problem worse, since they were also getting water from the SIP. The soil didn't get back to an ideal moisture easily or quickly, and instead stayed pretty saturated. I've read on growweedeasy that this can result in manifestation of nutrient deficiency. Leaves never drooped, though.

What I've learned so far:
Next time, I need to get better wicking and have the smart pot better seated in the perlite, as this has been a problem during the whole grow (we've already established this earlier on the thread). Also, I'll need to change the nutrient regimen, and intend on waiting as long as possible before giving any nutrient solution, assuming I'll be in FFOF. I may also go with an organic set up, but I need to study up on this.

Below is a picture of day 39 of flower. It's not pretty. In fact, I think it's my worst grow. I'm just hoping that the problems stop spreading and the two plants finish. The buds are super dense, at least.

 

Glue: listen to me please. ......relax. That grow doesn't look that bad. Nice colas. Problems are spider mites in the 5th week ... Finish em out and enjoy. You want centerfolds and so do I. I think resisting temptation to mess with things is hard to do esp with SIPs We want results with our alterations yesterday. That doesn't happen with soil grows. Soil grows take time to manifest any change. FWIW I am trying water only organic next go in SIP. I will PH water for the first go to satisfy me OCD. But eventually I only want to fill the rez with tap water and be done. Occasional Tea though..I have high hopes.

 

Thanks, storz. Spider mites? I don't have any of those little guys, fortunately.

 

Well, SIP update: triple cheese is coming down. Sour D will go another day or two until I can find the time to get to it.

Got through half of it last night. I tried lifting the pot out, but the roots must be so entrenched in the perlite wicking basket that the wicking basket was completely attached, so I dropped to whole thing into a plastic 5 gallon container so I could move it around without making a mess. I'll post a pic once I get my Tapatalk working again. I would have let her go a little longer, but the sugar leaves were starting to go yellow, and the fans never really recovered from the problem I had in week 5/6 of flower. Difficult to say how much yield was affected, but flowers look and smell great.

I'll examine the second root zone in the wicking basket after she's all chopped up and send a pic.


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