A surprise in my bucket

jake43

jake43

Well-Known Member
I just had a quick question for someone with experience, this is my first grow.

I was changing out my nutrients yesterday and the plant that is doing the best drank almost all of the water in the bucket (there was about a tablespoon left). 1.25 gallons gone in a week. I didn't check that plant as it was doing the best, I figured everything must be perfect, why bother. All of the other plants had about what you would expect left, around a gallon.

I guess the question is, was that normal for one plant to use up significantly more than the others?

I have learned my lesson and will check ALL the plants every day. The plant is a good 6"+ taller than all of the others, I wonder how big she would be if I didn't screw up?
 
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forseti

Well-Known Member
jake43 said:
I just had a quick question for someone with experience, this is my first grow.

I was changing out my nutrients yesterday and the plant that is doing the best drank almost all of the water in the bucket (there was about a tablespoon left). 1.25 gallons gone in a week. I didn't check that plant as it was doing the best, I figured everything must be perfect, why bother. All of the other plants had about what you would expect left, around a gallon.

I guess the question is, was that normal for one plant to use up significantly more than the others?

I have learned my lesson and will check ALL the plants every day. The plant is a good 6"+ taller than all of the others, I wonder how big she would be if I didn't screw up?
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Just wait until it gets a little bigger, it will go through that gallon in a day or two. Probably gonna want a bigger reservoir or bucket for real.

And yes it's normal. Could be the same seeds and everything but like siblings they are going to have varying traits. Probably has a larger root mass than the others, hence it's taller and drinks more.
 
jake43

jake43

Well-Known Member
I just thought of something, why do they tell you to top off with plain pHed water if the plant is soaking up all the nutes?

If you top off with nutes of the same strength, is that how you overload the plants with nutes?
 
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forseti

Well-Known Member
jake43 said:
I just thought of something, why do they tell you to top off with plain pHed water if the plant is soaking up all the nutes?

If you top off with nutes of the same strength, is that how you overload the plants with nutes?
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Because you don't know what nutes the plant has uptaken out of the solution. So if you started off at 800ppm and 2 days later it's down to 600ppm, what is the makeup of that 600ppm? It's very unlikely the NPK ratio is the same as when you mixed the solution.

So if you top-off with more solution, the plant may not even need the nitrogen you just added, so now you've got the right balance of PK, but N is too high. Make sense?
 
olosto

olosto

New Member
forseti said:
Because you don't know what nutes the plant has uptaken out of the solution. So if you started off at 800ppm and 2 days later it's down to 600ppm, what is the makeup of that 600ppm? It's very unlikely the NPK ratio is the same as when you mixed the solution.

So if you top-off with more solution, the plant may not even need the nitrogen you just added, so now you've got the right balance of PK, but N is too high. Make sense?
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Holy crap that makes sense!! Thanks! :weed:
 
FilthyFletch

FilthyFletch

Mr I Can Do That For Half
Plant will use different amounts of food and water so its not unusual at all. The plants will get as big as you let them. Depends on the lights, the food, the size of the root zone, the strain all variables. I assume you have 5 gallon buckets and growing hydro? A single plant under perfect condition with 1000 watt HID can be a good 8 feet tall 12 feet around but you dont want to do that really.
 
dan.knell

dan.knell

Active Member
forseti said:
Because you don't know what nutes the plant has uptaken out of the solution. So if you started off at 800ppm and 2 days later it's down to 600ppm, what is the makeup of that 600ppm? It's very unlikely the NPK ratio is the same as when you mixed the solution.

So if you top-off with more solution, the plant may not even need the nitrogen you just added, so now you've got the right balance of PK, but N is too high. Make sense?
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Yes but if you just top it off wont there be missing nutrients if the plant takes up more N than P or K then you will be lacking nutes?
 
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forseti

Well-Known Member
Its a possibility, you just have to watch your plant for deficiencies. If you change your res water once a week, it shouldnt become an issue though. I think youre more likely to burn it by topping off with same strength solution than you are to get deficiencies from topping off with plain pHd water. And the nutes wont be missing, just not as strong as when you originally mixed it.
 
otwa2002

otwa2002

Active Member
i got 2 girls each in 2 gallon buckets and they go through over a gallon in 2 days but are looking real nice. i think i am gonna go to 5 gallon then should be good for a week.
 
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forseti

Well-Known Member
This baby is drinking close to a gallon a day:



Grew this plant out in order to get clones and a mom going and figured I'd flower it out. It's taking up my entire flowering tent, which is 4'x4'x6'. It's about 1.5' from the ceiling.
 
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