Need Watering Advice!! MattyG

Its been a few years since Ive had a new grow of my own. I actually took two females from my mom's grow ( hehe ) and moved them over to myplace. Same light and such. Not sure what her soil mix was but they look really heathly. Basically I wanted to make sure I was not over watering, or under watering.

When I moved the plants from the other house, she hadnt taken good care for a couple weeks, so the fan leaves were becoming yellowish and a lil burnt. I have since raised my 400MH about 20" above the tops. But it seems like my plants are using alot of water. Am I correct in assuming keeping the top soil damp everyday, or every few days. Also, I know this sounds dumb but Im not too sure on what to feed the plant during the Flowering stage. Besides water

Hope You can help me
all the way from colorado

Matty G
:jointsmile: :rastasmoke: :thumbsup:

you stole your mom's plants ... dude! WTF!! :wtf:
and you know nothing about growing goto barnes&noble and buy a grow book!

Hello there, I'm no expert on growing, I'm actually doing my first grow. I usually water them every 3 to 5 days, depending on the plants. There are several way to check the humidity on the soil. There are some probe that you can buy to check the moisture, another way is the pot lifting method. This is a simple solution, you lift the pot and remember the weight it has. After 2 day you lift again to pot to check if it feels lighter or not, if it is then you need to water, if not everything should be ok, check the other day. If you over water or underwater you will see the plant "dropping". If there is always too much water you risk of having roots rot.

As for the ferts; "Early stage flowering plants can often use a fair measure of nitrogen as they stretch. As flowering progresses, the plantâ??s need for nitrogen diminishes. After a plant has been flowering for two or three weeks, we prefer to avoid any Nitrogen in our fertilizers." I personally use Earth Juice as they are organic. As for more advise on this you'll need to ask someone more experience... At least if you're not using Earth Juice, if you ever pick it up let me know I'll give you my recipe.

As for the the distance of the light from the top of you're plant with a 600W you should be all right at only 1.5 foot over them. There is my reference for that : Text

Hope this help a bit, let us know and post some pictures if you have the chance.

well hey thanks veggii, actually my mom didnt really wanna take care of them anymore.. and i give her enough of my personals to keep her sane, but thanks for the "constructive criticism". Anyone who can read these threads knows well enough that buyin a book may help... but reading free books and threads probably doesnt hurt either. I have had successful grows about 5-6 years ago, but was trying to refresh my memory on nutrients added in during the flowering stage. I also have an older cannible in storage, I just knew I could get the information here too. (while at work). But I do appreciate any "good or bad" replys. Like they say, its always a learning process.

It sounds like your mom may have been overfertilizing. With luck we can solve BOTH your growing issues!
The link in my sig will be a really good place to start. Note things that you are doing differently, and we can discuss them- how they may or may not still work.
Do you have pics, and can you fill out the troubleshooting form based on info from your mom?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LuciferN

Hello there, I'm no expert on growing, I'm actually doing my first grow. I usually water them every 3 to 5 days, depending on the plants. There are several way to check the humidity on the soil. There are some probe that you can buy to check the moisture, another way is the pot lifting method. This is a simple solution, you lift the pot and remember the weight it has. After 2 day you lift again to pot to check if it feels lighter or not, if it is then you need to water, if not everything should be ok, check the other day. If you over water or underwater you will see the plant "dropping". If there is always too much water you risk of having roots rot.

As for the ferts; "Early stage flowering plants can often use a fair measure of nitrogen as they stretch. As flowering progresses, the plantâ??s need for nitrogen diminishes. After a plant has been flowering for two or three weeks, we prefer to avoid any Nitrogen in our fertilizers." I personally use Earth Juice as they are organic. As for more advise on this you'll need to ask someone more experience... At least if you're not using Earth Juice, if you ever pick it up let me know I'll give you my recipe.

As for the the distance of the light from the top of you're plant with a 600W you should be all right at only 1.5 foot over them. There is my reference for that : Text

Hope this help a bit, let us know and post some pictures if you have the chance.

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Thanks lucifer,

I'll take some pics tonight, like I said I was not sure of the soil mix that is in the current pot. I think my best bet is to check the ph and make sure its normal for soils ( 5-6 ?). And you said lower the Nitrogen in the later stages of flowering, but am I right that right before harvesting to only give the plant water? Also I believe that she was just growing it the "simple way" without training and proper ferts during veg stage, so I have a massive bud at the top and many smaller colas below on other branches, but the stems of those branches are much smaller and seem to be more spaced apart. I have grow lights on the walls around them and white painted walls, so I know my lighting is adequate. Would this be due to not training earlier, or because of lost nutrience????

Thanks for all the help,

Optixx

optixx,srry about being so harsh but you made it sound like you stole your moms plants and thought that it was funny. stealing anyone's plants is not funny. know with info from your additional post, you did not steal them.....:thumbsup:

pH for soils should be around 6.7.
You DO need ferts, and as much light as you can POSSIBLY get in the space before it gets too hot, and lots of ventilation. These are the keys to a good indoor grow~ light, quality soil and nutes, drainage, ventilation.

I believe the room I'm in is 6X4.. washer and dryer storage....all white walls, white linoleum floor. Im using a 400w MH hanging. I have two t-8 flourescent tubes with grow lights runnin down the sides. It does feel a lil hot in there. I do have a fan blowing off the walls, keeping fresh air in and moving it around. Just enough to see the leaves move just a little. I think I may move my light up off the tops a lil more. There about 1.5 feet away from it now. Lets just say its all soil and needs ferts now, especially while flowering. What would I do or get to help this? Would the ferts helps create a wider spread with more side branches? or is this from training?

:jointsmile:Ok so here are the most recent pictures of my two ladies. Remember I did not have any part of the veg stage so Im wondering what I should do to get these to flower properly and stem off a lil better. As well as cure the deficiencies it obviously has now. I moved the light up off the plant a lil more last night because it seemed like the area was generating too much heat. Its now about 20" above the plant.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0824.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0826.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0828.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0831.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0830.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0834.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0835.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0836.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0844.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...i/IMG_0839.jpg

also... how can i post just pictures and no links?
I tryed though photobucket and the code showed up in the thread... so


annyways any advice I need it bad

thank you

optixxxxxxxxxxx :rastasmoke::rasta::jointsmile:

Okay, your plants are FLOWERING. They need to be on a perfect 12 on/12 off light cycle, with NO interruption to their sleep, no matter how tempting it is to stick your head in at 'night'.

They should actually be VERY close to the lights- with tube flouros, about 2" is correct.

They have been slightly overfertilized, which is why they have crispy tips.

They also look to be both overwatered and sitting in acidic soil, as you can tell by the magnesium lockout going on onthe lower leaves. You will want to water only when the pots feel a bit light, and if you have a good drill, add some 1/2" holes even in the sides of the pot to help the soil dry out faster. I'm familiar with the type of pot that has that built-in tray under, and it's a real drainage problem! Blech. :(

Your mission if you choose to accept it is to find a hydro shop and grab a $7 bottle of liquid pH indicator and a small bottle of pH up. There's a new link in my sig all about soil pH correction, and you will want to test your runoff pH. That looks like a peat-based soil with maybe some bark chips in there? ACID CITY! :eek:

When you have enough posts, and you already might be able to, when you hit the 'post reply' button in the bottom LH corner of the last post, you can scroll down to the 'manage attachments' option and it will prompt you to upload pics from a drive on your computer.

Good luck, keep us posted. Those plants will be just fine.

Ok one more question before I do that. Last night before they went to sleep was when I was takin the pictures. I think the one plant in the back is some blueberry or purple strain from one of my dealers. But when I looked close at the pistils it seemed a lil fatter then normal. Could I be beginning to herm? Here is a pic of what im talking about....

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t.../dani/fefe.jpg

thanks for the quick reply stinky... is there any way of messaging on this site... besides threads and stuff? Like if I wanted to message you directly about a question?

Optixx

As for the pictures, I think you need like 50 posts to be able to post pics directly into the thread. No worries... we like pics a lot so we don't mind doing an extra click :thumbsup:

What the hurrrrl is your soil made of? I don't really have any advice for you... I was just wondering. It doesn't even look like dirt. How's the drainage in the bottom of those pots too? Not sure if you covered it already, but the combination of the soil, drainage, and leaf burn could mean you need a flush. Although, without knowing your medium... drainage... and since you haven't used nutrients, I would hold off until someone can steer you in the right direction. Don't want to make things worse now.

Good deal on getting your moms plants. My mother just admitted that she is familiar with the growing arts (or was back in the 60's). Blew my freaking mind! I was talking about the complexities of the Cannabis plant... trying to explain certain behaviors and sexual reproduction. I was "dumbing it down" so she could keep up and she stops me and says "Umm... I guess you're assuming that I have never grown bud before?" I've never seen her smoke anything but a turkey :jointsmile:

Edit: Oh yeah... my $5 moisture meter was a waste of money. The method mentioned above, going by weight of pot, is my favorite. As for watering technique? I would say, as long as you have adequate drainage in your container, you should FULLY saturate the soil with water/nutrients and allow all run-off to stop. Then, as mentioned, wait until a weight difference is noticable indicating need for water... and repeat. And read the link in Stinky's signature.... and better yet ALL of her stickies too. Better than any grow books I've read :hippy:.