Newbies (Me) and overwatering---even if your careful

[Yohimbe2]

Those are good temps if a little low.
The warmer the tent the quicker the soil dries between uptake and evaporation.
The felt pots will assist also.

Thanks, went with low temps to control odor, its a secret grow with people standing inches from my cabinet all day long. So far, so good, although week 5 of flower had me running to install my carbon filter. It had some odor starting at week 5 ! I've been burning incense for a while now, so nobody thinks its odd that I've been burning more for the past month or so !

 

[drsaltzman]

If you have a good charge in your soil, and you only veg say 4 weeks, you don’t even need a “grow” nute.
You can go straight to bloom. Something like Floranova. One part. Has everything. Some myco in your soil and Recharge in your feed once a week and your plants will never finish like that again. I would venture that it’s not just overwatering that did those fans and sugars in.

 

[drsaltzman]

Thanks, went with low temps to control odor, its a secret grow with people standing inches from my cabinet all day long. So far, so good, although week 5 of flower had me running to install my carbon filter. It had some odor starting at week 5 ! I've been burning incense for a while now, so nobody thinks its odd that I've been burning more for the past month or so !

Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Yohimbe2]

I think Spock would deem it so simple as not to require a convoluted process. It would be similar to such a mundane and automatic task such as breathing air.

Cloudy the waters to make them appear deep much? Its the content, not how its said. So far, I'm seeing all smoke screens and little content from you, do you live life this way too? Say something smart simply-----instead of saying something stupid overly complicated.

 

[BestBudz_Grow]

Something like Fox Farms I wouldn't be watering till runoff, like, at all. It has really good water retention, not like Coco. Coco you can water everyday, and never overwater. soil you can not. I'd recommend trying Coco.

 

[Yohimbe2]

Something like Fox Farms I wouldn't be watering till runoff, like, at all. It has really good water retention, not like Coco. Coco you can water everyday, and never overwater. soil you can not. I'd recommend trying Coco.

Yep, funny you mention this I just watered my second plant in Fox Farm Happy Frog and went light with the watering, no runoff this time. My plants seem happier with less water, in fact NL seems to like a really dry day it seems.

Here is an interesting fact I just learned using my postal scale. I weighed my dry soil pot after adding soil right out of the bag at at 13.5 ounces, as a test I let my plant go one day beyond that dry weight to see how light it would get. With a 5 node plant now, it took the weight to 11.9 ounces. So, out of the bag the soil is not dry. This scale is very useful for a newbie like me ! My plant seemed very happy at that dry weight as well, leaves up, no drooping.

 

[BestBudz_Grow]

You can also water from the bottom if you have it in a saucer. The medium/roots will take up what it needs and it won't get overwatered.

 

[xtsho]

Cloudy the waters to make them appear deep much? Its the content, not how its said. So far, I'm seeing all smoke screens and little content from you, do you live life this way too? Say something smart simply-----instead of saying something stupid overly complicated.

You need a damn postal scale to water a plant in a small plastic pot. Net time fill your pot up with soil. Is there some reason why you only fill your pot half way? Or am I stupid for asking that simple question?

Don't worry about how I live. In fact pretend I don't even exist. I've already done the same with you.

There is an ignore function. Use it and don't read my posts.

 

[Kerowacked]

You need a damn postal scale to water a plant in a small plastic pot. Net time fill your pot up with soil. Is there some reason why you only fill your pot half way? Or am I stupid for asking that simple question?

Don't worry about how I live. In fact pretend I don't even exist. I've already done the same with you.

There is an ignore function. Use it and don't read my posts.

Filling less than full leaves room for more soil if the seedling stretches.

 

[iggy097]

Let me piggyback off this post as it applies - I was overwatering - now I feel like I've gotten it - however, 2 of my 5 plants go through water faster than the other 3. Do I have to just water them on their own schedule now? What a pain

 

[xtsho]

Filling less than full leaves room for more soil if the seedling stretches.

I suppose but preventing seedlings from stretching in the first place seems like a better method. But that doesn't apply to the half filled pot above which looks like a rapid rooter stuck into a half full pot of soil.

 

[iggy097]

For this go around I used the Fox Farm Trio at 1/2 to 1/4 strength (feeding every other watering), but my problem with leaves yellowing and dying never stopped and I tried just about everything. I went the first 5 weeks without nutrients as my plant was getting nute burns from Ocean Forest (and losing leaves). My new plant is the same strain, Nirvana Northern Lights Fem and its doing great in Happy frog. I also bought a Sensi CalMag supplement, but used it sparingly and it did not solve problems. I PH'd to approx 6.5 or so using General Hydroponics drops to test. ( using yellow as the color)

I've done a lot of research on Fox farm soils, and many say that it is possible to get a bad batch especially on the east coast. At my local gardening store, they really tried to get me to avoid it and recommended Coast of Maine Platinum. I was also watching a youtube video where some guy grew a bunch of different vegetables in 5 different store bought soils and guess which one roasted his plants? His exact comment was, " they must be putting something bad in the ocean forest". Who knows, but at this point my only option is to try something else which I'm doing now.

And, I DID OVERWATER. So maybe its a combination of Fox Farm ocean and my overwatering that hurt my plant. Apparently aeration in Fox farm isn't great unless you mix it hard with perlite.... Its a shame too I bought a huge bag of it which I'll probably dump outside.

Last thing, this hobby has become an obsession of mine, I'm enjoying it that much. (please excuse my excess typing)I've been dealing with what I think are fungus gnats and BTI seems to work well getting rid of them. Is it possible I have root aphids? I've spent countless hours trying to figure out the difference between the two but the flyers look very similar. All symptoms appear to be either a lockout or something like root aphids. My plant lived off eating its own leaves all the way to the end.....Luckily it didn't eat its flowers !

I also chose FF ocean for my first - added perlite , used fabric pots - and still overwatered

 

[Dank Bongula]

Let me piggyback off this post as it applies - I was overwatering - now I feel like I've gotten it - however, 2 of my 5 plants go through water faster than the other 3. Do I have to just water them on their own schedule now? What a pain

It happens like that sometimes....some plants are heavy drinkers, some are not.

I also chose FF ocean for my first - added perlite , used fabric pots - and still overwatered

Overwatering typically comes from watering too often....regardless of what pot you are in provided it has drainage.

 

[iggy097]

It happens like that sometimes....some plants are heavy drinkers, some are not.

Overwatering typically comes from watering too often....regardless of what pot you are in provided it has drainage.

So would you then water the 2 plants that needed it today - and check the remaining 3 in a day or so? Or wait until all 5 need it to keep the schedule easy?

 

[Nixs]

It happens like that sometimes....some plants are heavy drinkers, some are not.

Overwatering typically comes from watering too often....regardless of what pot you are in provided it has drainage.

I think some plants are more sensitive to nutes than others, I noticed a couple plants that I've overnuted a little, slowed down on their drinking, I even over watered one of them.

 

[Dank Bongula]

So would you then water the 2 plants that needed it today - and check the remaining 3 in a day or so? Or wait until all 5 need it to keep the schedule easy?

If one needs water, I try to not keep it waiting. One of my blueberry plants is a heavy drinker. I water when it needs it and give the other two what's left over as long as they don't feel very heavy when I lift the pot. If they feel too heavy, I just skip watering them. The leftover water I give the other two usually ends up being roughly half or less of what I give the thirsty one.

 

[Yohimbe2]

 

[Yohimbe2]

Above is a picture of the scale being used, this plant is much healthier than my last, and my main stem is green instead of a light brown. It seems this strain enjoys a day of really dry soil, and with the scale I know exactly when that is. I got tired of dicking around and guessing how much water was in the soil. I'm betting overwatering was my problem last grow, time will tell.

I took a cardboard box and hung a 9 watt grow light bulb from Home Depot (10 dollars) as a seedling starter, I'm surprised its gone this far as I didn't plan to have it in this pot long. (Hence the half filled pot) I'm giving a few drops of nutrients now and a little Calmag, PH'd to around 6.2, the soil runoff seems to be around 7. Leaves are folding a bit as they are hitting the side of my box in spots, but who knows, all hell could break out again in the next few weeks. After all, I'm a newb.

She's a stubborn bugger who acts quite pissed off when I pull her down low, she pops up quickly! After this pic, I pulled her down lower than the outside of the pot. I don't have much space and need every inch I can get.