Soil volume and containers

Underground Scientist said:

Did you use a chiller?

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i did not . my room stys the temp i set it to and the res' stayed within workable parameters for me

Underground Scientist said:

What mediums are you testing? Cuz I've been using Advanced Sunshine #4 for 3 or 4 months and experimenting.

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I have 3 mediums to try. Promix HP-CC, Promix HP-M, and B'cuzz Hydromix HP.

I'm going to try using between 1.5 and 2 gallons of mix in the 3 gallon pots and transfer from there to the 5 gallons.

The feeding method the guy at the grow store recommended was feed/water/feed/water...

Feed = drain to waste 40% of solution as the flush so if the plants need 1 gallon of solution to reach capacity I should water with about 1.5 gallons.

Seems wasteful... I'm thinking about PHing plain water and adding that first then using the nutrient solution to flush and replace the water. Does that sound like a good plan?

Jennygrows2 said:

Hi you guys,

I'm not new to growing but new to soilless medium. I've done some looking around for info on how much soil to use but it's never specific... I'm looking for gallons per square foot for growing indoors. For instance if someone was using nine 5 gallon pots in a 4x4 that would be 45 gallons/16ft = 2.8 gallons per foot, but I come up with different figures looking at different people's grows.

I'm also used to doing ebb/flow so I don't know a lot on the effect of a plant being root bound. Is the goal to have enough media so the plant never get's root bound, or just enough that it get's root bound in the final weeks of flowering?

If I start rooted clones in 3 gallon pots for a 1-2 week veg and transplant to 5 gallon pots going into 12/12 would that be a good plan? The footprint will vary between 15"x15" and 17"x17" per plant, so for the sake of argument assume all my plants will get 16"x16" grow space. I could start in 1 gallon pots, transplant to 3 and then 5, but I'd like to cut out the first pot if possible.

So that's basically three questions, if anyone can help that would be great.

Thanks!

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It would actually be better to cut out that 3 gallon. I go clone to solo cup...to 1 gallon then finish in a 5....to allow quicker drying in between waterings when the plant is young to create more oxygen to speed up root growth.

Jennygrows2 said:

I have 3 mediums to try. Promix HP-CC, Promix HP-M, and B'cuzz Hydromix HP.

I'm going to try using between 1.5 and 2 gallons of mix in the 3 gallon pots and transfer from there to the 5 gallons.

The feeding method the guy at the grow store recommended was feed/water/feed/water...

Feed = drain to waste 40% of solution as the flush so if the plants need 1 gallon of solution to reach capacity I should water with about 1.5 gallons.

Seems wasteful... I'm thinking about PHing plain water and adding that first then using the nutrient solution to flush and replace the water. Does that sound like a good plan?

Click to expand...

40% seems like too much to me. It sounds like a plan...i hope you have good luck. I've found that straight up soilless is hard for me to keep the perfect nutrient levels in. I've started blending mine 50/50 with Fox Farm Ocean Forest and so far, they look good.

I've been filling the 3 gallon containers a little less than half way full. The plants don't use all the water in a week. I could use less soil but it would be getting thin at that point. I may switch to smaller starting pots eventually but they don't seem to mind so far. 400 PPM of a hydroponic grow solution -w- a lil cal/mag.

I have 3 plants that were transplanted into the 5 gallon pots and are in flower for a week now. All very healthy and green. I've only used the Hydro-CC mix so far. I've been using about 3.5-4 gallons of mix in the 5 gallon pots. So far the watering has been with 600 PPM coco nutes, 1 gallon straight PHed water followed by 2 gallons of nutrient solution. Plants seem to like it and PH of runoff is exactly the same as the PH going in. I could probably use 1.5 gallons of nutes but I like knowing all the plain water has been flushed out.

@Underground Scientist can you say what kind of deficiencies you were getting in straight soilless. It's probably not been long enough for me to see them with my plants, hoping it won't happen.

I'm very happy I made the switch from water culture so far. There's a little more work involved but nothing I can't take care of in an afternoon.

I had calcium issues, and other mild issues too I think. I'm liking the blended soil so far.

Okay so I've been using the Promix HP-CC exclusively and using HG Cocos A/B, PHing the feeding to 5.8.

I'm on week 3 of flowering and am noticing a slight N deficiency. I just watered yesterday so I put a few pints of water on top and collected the runoff. The PH meter which was recently calibrated is reading 6.2-6.3.

After doing some reading it seems 6.3 is an acceptable PH in soilless, but this is usually prefaced with "if the plants look healthy".

The plants are getting 800 PPM at feeding and I'm putting a gallon of PHed water in the pot (5 gallon pots with about 4 gallons of soil) prior to feeding and getting at least a gallon of runoff so I don't suspect there is a lockout.

Any ideas? I'm thinking about lowering the PH of water and nute solution to 5.5 to hopefully get the PH down a bit.