Correct watering/feeding help

I am a soil user, 400W hps ladies are about a month old.. I am using foxfarm soil and have the foxfarm trio on nutes... I am just wondering if anyone could help me out... It seems like I need to give them something about every other day to third day.. so If I feed on Monday, then water on Wed, then feed again on Friday I wont get another watering in before monday comes around and I need to feed.... maybe I am thinking into it too much but it seems to me like if they only get nutes twice a week... are they getting enough? and when should I consider them in the "first week of vegetation"??? foxfarm says to start feeding week one so I am just wondering so i dont kill them off... it just seems like it is taking them a while to take off!

so the question is... how often to feed? keep them on a schedule?(monday and thurs feeding) is that good or bad?

some are taking a lot more and drying out quicker than others, what should i do about this? i dont want to under feed at an impt time

Keep in mind that their feeding schedule is for a full week, so if you need to water more often than twice in a week you should split up the dosage e.g. 1/2 strength on Mon, plain h2o Thurs, 1/2 strength Sat or something. Mine get watered every 3-4 days, so it's just full feed, water, repeat. Maybe try adding less perlite next time or use more water so it doesn't dry out so quickly...

The soil has nutrients and holds onto the ones from the water you give, so you really don't need to constantly feed like hydro, some people never give nutrients or only once when they start flowering.

thats a good idea and def sounds good i appreciate it redtails.. def like hearing your point of view on a lot of things... i was also wondering how early should i start giving it nutes? after about 5 nodes appear consider it at week 1 vegetative and start on the nutrient feeding? also.. in the pics is there anything i can do for my leaves? do you think this has ruined the plant? and what do you think I did wrong?

sorry for some reason i cant add a picture... dont know why.. link is to my grow log if you want to check out what i was talking about with the leaves

http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post2071615

Slowed growth + curled/drooping leaves (symptoms of overwatering, though not necessarily) + needing to water often = rootbound

Put them in new pots, and they will take off :thumbsup:

Also, they look pretty dark green to me, which tells me that maybe you're giving them a little too much nutrients... maybe. I don't think it's really an issue at this point. Rusty is a fan of FF nutes, and recommends (or at least practices) a flush once a month to get rid of the salt build-up. You can try using a drop of non- antibacterial dish soap to help in the flush also. Use 3x the amount of water in relation to pot size (1 gal pots should be flushed with 3 gals water). Take your time with this, it won't happen in 5 minutes.

As for the bottom leaves, I had this happen before also, when my pots were too small. But don't worry too much about them, as long as the new growth is good, you're fine. Old leaves = old news :jointsmile:

I've tried 4 different way of starting the feedings since I got my FF nutes: 4th or 5th node-week one, 2nd node-week one no Big Bloom (plain H2O ;)), 1st water-week 2 (severe overdose), and 1st water-week 2 half strength (on a clone). Except for the plant that got nutrients in the water straight from seed I didn't really notice much difference if any.

so if i feed on sunday and dont need to water again till past wed.... should i hold off on giving them the nutes on thursday? and just go ahead and water on thursday then do nutes sunday? one feeding a week.... is that ok?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marcaka

so if i feed on sunday and dont need to water again till past wed.... should i hold off on giving them the nutes on thursday? and just go ahead and water on thursday then do nutes sunday? one feeding a week.... is that ok?

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I'll go ahead and gives Rusty's advice, which is to split up the weekly FF feedings into half. So take the recommended weekly dosage, and give them half on Sunday, and half on Thursday. Then flush with 3x the volume of the pot with plain water once a month. (Hope I got this right Rusty)

Keep in mind though, that while it's good to have a schedule, don't get too fixed on it just yet. Try to learn what the plants want, when they want. If the pots still feel heavy, don't water. If the leaf edges start to burn, cut back on the nutes, etc. After a while you will get the feeling of what your plants need and when. Then you can set a better schedule if needed. Also, different plants may have different needs, so they shouldn't all be treated the same (unless they look happy when you do ;)).

Happy growing :jointsmile: