How much water would you feed around week 3 vegging soil seems to be drying out rapidly ?

Joker90

Well-Known Member
At the very least, I'd want some standoffs involved. Otherwise mounted right to board isn't an effective way for airflow.
The fans are on rubber legs which basically stick the aluminium on the board they are also securely taped in place . They do the job. On future I will come up with a more secure fitting. As I have these from grows in space buckets they still fit the purpose for keep the qb cool. They aren't powerful enough to make much of an impact in the overall tent temps . Barely make a dent . But up close to the light the light is ice cold while the tent is 26°c and there on the lowest setting
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
This sounds overly complicated. If you only have a few plants, mix up your nutrients in a 5 gallon bucket. If the bucket isn't big enough buy a res. You don't need to freshly mix nutrients for every use.
Its not bad.

Couple things...first is that while I have plenty of 5 gallon buckets, transferring water to them and from them would just be a bit of a hassle and a mess. Definitely trying to keep water slop in my workspace to the barest minimums as well as having less 'apparatus' to sort of have set up or whatever since the tent shares the utilities room as well.

I fill my containers right after I've just used them, and I bypass our water softener, let the water run for a few minutes make sure the softened water isn't what I get, cap it and let it sit until the next usage. That lets it warm up, etc.

When I water, I pH test the first jug only and adjust that one using a 1ml syringe. Once I've done the first, I just add the same amount to all the rest of the jugs. Since it's all the same water and I've used a measurable amount, its easy to just go down the line. Any time I've spot checked they've all matched.

Same with feeding... Nutrients in all the gallons, pH one gallon then match the rest. Cap 'em shake 'em and they're good to go.

I'm a slow waterer too. I found watering cans with bigger bore spouts are fast but you don't get as even coverage. I tried a few and went back to my smaller can with slower pour. I found I get more water staying in the soil with it, heavier pots, etc.

Luckily I'm only doing 4 plants at a time.
 

Pine crest 99

Active Member
Buy a cheap 2-n-1 soil meter.
Stick it in the soil and tell if it’s moist
And general ph .
Probably don’t want runoff water every day with soil just saying.
Blow some air across with a fan . Just my guess.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Yucca extract helps evenly hydrate the soil, it's great to use anytime you feed/water and also for every foliar. I use it in both soil and coco, it's one of the few additives I still use besides the 2 part dry nutes.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Pretty much anytime I'm watering or feeding (soil) I'm doing it to run-off except for the very very first maybe two weeks when the plants are still tiny and haven't spread out much roots.

I think the water-to-runoff thing is scary for a lot of first timers...It freaked me and there's plants in our house I water to runoff every week for years.

There's so much focus on not overwatering but not explaining that overwatering isn't about quantity, but about frequency.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
How do you measure your nutes if you don't know how much water . ?
For those of us that like to know how strong our nutrients are we add our nutes and then test the resulting mix with a nutrient strength testing meter.

Stop worrying about how much you’re giving them. Obviously you need to know how much your water is so you can add 2ml per litre or 5ml per gallon etc etc whatever you are using.

But just concentrate on watering the entire thing until you get some runoff out the bottom of your “pots”

As has been mentioned pick it up and feel the weight.

water again when it feels half that weight.
 

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
The board makes keeps it ice cool . Doesn't work as hard and lasts longer
I mean they look as though they have zero airflow considering there's no heat sink under it.the boards themselves will always be hot nature of the btu and watts. Most good boards will last 10 yrs. I have an old hlg 600h that grows its ass off still and zero fans and somewhere like 7 years old I think.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
I don't have fans on my LEDs at this point, mostly because they've got decent sinks but also because if I fan them from above that drives the heat downward in the tent and I'd much rather it go up to the filter/exhaust and not make a mess of the convective airflow.
 

Joker90

Well-Known Member
Buy a cheap 2-n-1 soil meter.
Stick it in the soil and tell if it’s moist
And general ph .
Probably don’t want runoff water every day with soil just saying.
Blow some air across with a fan . Just my guess.
I've actually got one , doesn't seem very accurate. Says it's verge of drying out when it's been watered 2 litres the day before
I mean they look as though they have zero airflow considering there's no heat sink under it.the boards themselves will always be hot nature of the btu and watts. Most good boards will last 10 yrs. I have an old hlg 600h that grows its ass off still and zero fans and somewhere like 7 years old I think.
Don't know but they can get hot as hell . Anything that heats under continuous stress will wear away faster it's the same for pc components they are run constantly and can reach up to 90°c which have to be liquid cooled to help performance. Keeps the tent that one degree cooler and keeps everything chill
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
I've actually got one , doesn't seem very accurate. Says it's verge of drying out when it's been watered 2 litres the day before

Don't know but they can get hot as hell . Anything that heats under continuous stress will wear away faster it's the same for pc components they are run constantly and can reach up to 90°c which have to be liquid cooled to help performance. Keeps the tent that one degree cooler and keeps everything chill
Yeah, those soil moisture testers are crap, don't bother.

My only thought on those fans is that there may be a way to get higher efficacy out of them for the expended electricity, but they seem to be doing what you need. I wonder if you could have a similar payoff with just a couple of them if set up differently.
 

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
I don't have fans on my LEDs at this point, mostly because they've got decent sinks but also because if I fan them from above that drives the heat downward in the tent and I'd much rather it go up to the filter/exhaust and not make a mess of the convective airflow.
My Spectrum King SK600s have the wildest heatsinks of all time. It's like 30 pounds of copper tubing / fins. They still get very hot though. My HLG 650R has no heatsink and gets super hot. The fans are blowing from the side, basically just to shake the heat off into the air for my extraction fans to suck up.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member

Blowing across the heat sink is better than blowing down on the sink. I'm using HLG 225's (three of them) so this is my sinking:

IMG_2159.JPG

4809110_grow-journal-by-leastexpectedgrower.jpg

So, I would add a fan that blows laterally across these so the heat wasn't directed straight down on the canopy tops, and/or creating a barrier from the heat from reaching the exhaust above. (fans are now flown and all boxes, etc. removed).
 
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