a good watering technique?

[warlord98]

I see a little here and alittle there about watering soil grown plants.I would like a pro's insight.I'm growing in a soilless mix and am using roots organic ferts. My question is do I alternate between water and ferts? And how moist is moist? I would like know how dry every one lets the soil get? Watrering everyday,two days?I need a good rule of thumb. Anybody have one?:thumbsup:

[headshake]

pick your pots up between your index finger and thumb on each hand. bounce it lightly up and down. do this when it's dry and when you have just watered. you should be able to tell a significant difference.

as far as the nutes, follow the directions on the box/bag. start out at about 1/4-1/2 strength and work your way up. once you start getting a "feel" for it you can start to play with your nutes a little bit. i know a bunch of people like a fed-fed-water (repeat) type schedule.

also, keep in mind that you need a way to check pH as all the nutrients a plant needs are only available within a certain range. 6.3-6.8 in soil to be exact.

good growing!


-shake

[redtails]

Like shake said...I feed every other time with my handy little Fox Farms marijuana aoil feeding guide(from the manufacturer). Always easier when the nutes are designed specifically for weed...

[oldmac]

:thumbsup:'shake just gave you the best rule of thumb, pick the container up...you can tell when it's light, then it needs watering. And when you feed or just water, soak it good, you can't overwater at this point.

But since you mentioned using a soiless mix, I would assume Pro-Mix or Sunshine Mix, then you would probably want a PH of about 6 (+/-.2). Check and see if the ferts mfg has a recommendation for both ph and water/feed schedule though.

good luck with it! :D

[redtails]

When watering you keep going till there's a good amount of runoff...you want to wash away any salts or unused nutes that have built up in that crap so your roots are just getting the fresh stuff you intend them to get. That is of course as long as your mix doesn't hold too much liquid.

[headshake]

But since you mentioned using a soiless mix, I would assume Pro-Mix or Sunshine Mix, then you would probably want a PH of about 6 (+/-.2). Check and see if the ferts mfg has a recommendation for both ph and water/feed schedule though.

good luck with it! :D

good catch on the soiless mix OM! i remember reading it, but i be damned if i said anything about it!


-shake

[Farmer Rich]

Hey Warlord98,

First off, OM, Shake and the rest are spot on. As far as 1 on, 1 off, with nutes and water, I think another consideration is the strength of the nutes in PPM. Myself, I generally try to never go above 800 in soilless mix, but have been trying to feed them twice, and flush once to keep the salts down. So far so good, I have 2 in week 7 with all the fan leaves nicely yellow and buds looking outta sight. I\'m also trying to push them to 8 weeks, which is long for me. I\'m usually chopping at day 50. For at least the last week, I change to water + molasses of some sort (bud candy in my case) at 1 tsp per gallon instead of a clean flush.

If you\'re running your nutes stronger than I suggested.. I\'d recommend hanging with the 1 on 1 off sched.

Peace,

Farmer Rich