How often do you feed (asked for the 4,732nd time)?

I've searched and found a few items in this regard but a lot of the answers were "it depends based on what you have and what you're doing".

So here's mine..

3x3 Tent
SpiderFarmer SE5000 LED Light
Soil Grow
Tomorrow will be 6th week in Veg
5 Gallon Smart Pots
Started in Happy Frog
Transplanted into final pots with a 4-3-1 combination of Ocean Forest - Happy Frog-Perlite 2.5 weeks ago
All topping has been completed
Up to needing to water about every 4 days at this point
I water seldom but completely when I do water
-First Gallon Slowly to get everything moist and moisten any dry pockets
- Wait 30 minutes
-Water the second gallon or at least until I get a decent run-off
Using Fox Farm Cultivation Nation Nutrients. The last watering I fed full dose of Bloom+Micro for a 5-5-5 combo
Last watering was 5 days ago
Just been starting with tap water and Ph'd to ~6.8 after nutrients are added. Tried R/O water before but got some deficiencies.

I need to water tonight. Do I feed again this soon (less than a week)? How often do you feed with a setup like mine? I plan on probably switching to flower in like2 weeks. Hopefully I'll have enough tops but it's time to switch. LOL

Thanks!!!

When I was hand watering in soil it was once every 4 days, and feeding every other time. Though I don't think you need to wait 30 minutes in the middle of your watering schedule. Just rotate through the plants, doing one gallon each and by the time you get done, start from the beginning with your second gallon.

LeastExpectedGrower said:

When I was hand watering in soil it was once every 4 days, and feeding every other time. Though I don't think you need to wait 30 minutes in the middle of your watering schedule. Just rotate through the plants, doing one gallon each and by the time you get done, start from the beginning with your second gallon.

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Thanks! Ended up being more like 15 minutes but that was just because I had to get the trash out. You're absolutely right, by the time I slowly did the first gallon cause they were getting crusty on top, plenty of time had passed but the time I got passed the 3rd girl. Unfortunately I did this last night and ended up giving them a full feeding again but, checking my calendar, their last watering before that was the 10th so it had really been like 5.5 days so maybe I'll be ok. They were LIMP when I took them out of the tent for haircuts and baths last night. While I knew they would perk back up after watering, I was AMAZED at how quickly all the fans perked back up after that first gallon. So cool!

You guessed... it depends?

Pot size, plants age your environment, medium all play a part in the frequency of feeding/watering.

You need to replace what's evaporated, how much and how quickly water evaporates is relevant to the environment, plant size, pot size etc.

There is no answer for this.

calvin.m16 said:

There is no answer for this.

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Nice... LOL

But if yesterday was 5.5 days since the last watering and I was to the point of being wilty with a crust on top then I feel like the watering frequency is about to increase. As in, I probably should have watered them after 4 and as they get into flower it "might" even get down to every 3 days? I know some people like to water more frequently but less but I could swear that people used to tell me that you should let them get dry and tell you that they need water and THEN you water but water to the point of good runoff. I'm old though, is that still the pattern (most) people still do that use soil? I'm scared of Hydro so I stick with soil.

Prodigus said:

Nice... LOL

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Too many variables to have a set answer and it's not a secret hidden answer either it's just not possible for someone from online to predict how fast your plants are going to dry out or need nutrients/water.

Prodigus said:

But if yesterday was 5.5 days since the last watering and I was to the point of being wilty with a crust on top then I feel like the watering frequency is about to increase. As in, I probably should have watered them after 4 and as they get into flower it "might" even get down to every 3 days? I know some people like to water more frequently but less but I could swear that people used to tell me that you should let them get dry and tell you that they need water and THEN you water but water to the point of good runoff. I'm old though, is that still the pattern (most) people still do that use soil? I'm scared of Hydro so I stick with soil.

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I use Coco instead of soil because I can hit them daily or every other day with nutrient solution instead of relying on dirt. Soil is cool and all but if you do lots of research "organic soil" can have more harmful things like heavy metals and other shit in it because you're trusting residential compost that has been processed into bags to be safe. I've found fish hooks, huge chunks of rusty car body panels and other shit in Fox Farms before. I quit using that brand in 2019.

I use mother earth coco/perlite and feed with cyco nutrients per basic feed chart never have issues and spend way less money in the end. You can grow plants in WAY LESS coco than what soil requires. I think the best pot size for coco is 5 gallon for most people in my setup I use 7 gallon.

If you want something less water sensitive maybe look into coco growing because it's the best of both worlds you can still use microbes, organics etc just a way more forgiving medium to grow in, hard to overwater if not "impossible" and cannabis plants love growing in it.

I'm not biased, I used to grow in soil and know it has its place but maybe try coco it sounds like you want to be giving your ladies attention more often than your typical soil grower.

A good basic rule to follow when it comes to watering cannabis plants is wait until the growing medium is not DRY but light/moist and then water, don't water if the pot feels heavy or real wet. Get an idea of what the pots feel like almost dry and you will get a literal feel for it.

Answers:

Hydro growers: Three+ times a day.
Salt Based Soil: Every other watering or feed, water, water: depending on nutrients.
Organic Bottled Soil: Every other watering, every time maybe.
Nectar Growers: FFT,FFT,FFT,FFT,FFT,FFT, flush flush flush.
No Till: What's a feeding?

calvin.m16 said:

I use Coco instead of soil because I can hit them daily or every other day with nutrient solution instead of relying on dirt. Soil is cool and all but if you do lots of research "organic soil" can have more harmful things like heavy metals and other shit in it because you're trusting residential compost that has been processed into bags to be safe. I've found fish hooks, huge chunks of rusty car body panels and other shit in Fox Farms before. I quit using that brand in 2019.

I use mother earth coco/perlite and feed with cyco nutrients per basic feed chart never have issues and spend way less money in the end. You can grow plants in WAY LESS coco than what soil requires. I think the best pot size for coco is 5 gallon for most people in my setup I use 7 gallon.

If you want something less water sensitive maybe look into coco growing because it's the best of both worlds you can still use microbes, organics etc just a way more forgiving medium to grow in, hard to overwater if not "impossible" and cannabis plants love growing in it.

I'm not biased, I used to grow in soil and know it has its place but maybe try coco it sounds like you want to be giving your ladies attention more often than your typical soil grower.

A good basic rule to follow when it comes to watering cannabis plants is wait until the growing medium is not DRY but light/moist and then water, don't water if the pot feels heavy or real wet. Get an idea of what the pots feel like almost dry and you will get a literal feel for it.

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I'll look into coco. I see people talking about using it all the time but for some reason in my head I had associated it with hydro grows so thought it wasn't something for me to dive into. I do check in on my ladies every day. I don't have some crazy need to jack with them every day as far as watering or trimming or anything. We just talk for a bit and I ask them if they need anything. One of the main reasons I use soil is because it is more forgiving than Hydro (I've heard). If coco is even more forgiving then I should definitely look into that!! LOL

Prodigus said:

I'll look into coco. I see people talking about using it all the time but for some reason in my head I had associated it with hydro grows so thought it wasn't something for me to dive into. I do check in on my ladies every day. I don't have some crazy need to jack with them every day as far as watering or trimming or anything. We just talk for a bit and I ask them if they need anything. One of the main reasons I use soil is because it is more forgiving than Hydro (I've heard). If coco is even more forgiving then I should definitely look into that!! LOL

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Coco is a hydroponic medium; it's popular for good reason.

Prodigus said:

I've searched and found a few items in this regard but a lot of the answers were "it depends based on what you have and what you're doing".

So here's mine..

3x3 Tent
SpiderFarmer SE5000 LED Light
Soil Grow
Tomorrow will be 6th week in Veg
5 Gallon Smart Pots
Started in Happy Frog
Transplanted into final pots with a 4-3-1 combination of Ocean Forest - Happy Frog-Perlite 2.5 weeks ago
All topping has been completed
Up to needing to water about every 4 days at this point
I water seldom but completely when I do water
-First Gallon Slowly to get everything moist and moisten any dry pockets
- Wait 30 minutes
-Water the second gallon or at least until I get a decent run-off
Using Fox Farm Cultivation Nation Nutrients. The last watering I fed full dose of Bloom+Micro for a 5-5-5 combo
Last watering was 5 days ago
Just been starting with tap water and Ph'd to ~6.8 after nutrients are added. Tried R/O water before but got some deficiencies.

I need to water tonight. Do I feed again this soon (less than a week)? How often do you feed with a setup like mine? I plan on probably switching to flower in like2 weeks. Hopefully I'll have enough tops but it's time to switch. LOL

Thanks!!!

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your mileage may vary, but the general rule in soil is feed once, water twice...that gives the plant time to use up whats in the soil, without over feeding it, or washing still good nutes out as run off...
if you follow that, and the plants still look hungry, bump up the ec of their feed a little

Prodigus said:

I'll look into coco. I see people talking about using it all the time but for some reason in my head I had associated it with hydro grows so thought it wasn't something for me to dive into. I do check in on my ladies every day. I don't have some crazy need to jack with them every day as far as watering or trimming or anything. We just talk for a bit and I ask them if they need anything. One of the main reasons I use soil is because it is more forgiving than Hydro (I've heard). If coco is even more forgiving then I should definitely look into that!! LOL

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COCO is the most forgiving grow medium that I know of. I feed every time I water, mainly letting pots get where they are moist but not DRY and then water until a little runs out the bottom into the trays.

Feel free to PM me I can share my nutrient recipes and all that.

Prodigus said:

I'll look into coco. I see people talking about using it all the time but for some reason in my head I had associated it with hydro grows so thought it wasn't something for me to dive into. I do check in on my ladies every day. I don't have some crazy need to jack with them every day as far as watering or trimming or anything. We just talk for a bit and I ask them if they need anything. One of the main reasons I use soil is because it is more forgiving than Hydro (I've heard). If coco is even more forgiving then I should definitely look into that!! LOL

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i've run coco hempy buckets for 7 or 8 years now. if you use a little pool shock every other watering, they stay nice and sterile. i'm very happy with coco, and once you learn it's slight peculiarities, it is very stable and forgiving

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i've run coco hempy buckets for 7 or 8 years now. if you use a little pool shock every other watering, they stay nice and sterile. i'm very happy with coco, and once you learn it's slight peculiarities, it is very stable and forgiving

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Care to share what shock to use in particular? I've been wanting to experiment with that a bit and see if not running beneficials will make any measurable difference in the end result.

I worked in a hydro-medical facility that used coco, they ran about 6 waterings every 24 hours and you could tell the plants were over watered, but nothing about that place made any sense, it was a distillate farm, so whole flower never left the place.

I'm currently in year 3 of using Nectar and we run my plants dry compared to most, I've had nectar hold water up to a week with micorhyza in the soil. I almost never water to runoff unless there's a problem. I take soil PPM readings using the slurry technique and adjust my feedings as necessary. I water just enough to get the plants to 4 days before they start flagging and then water them every 3 days. Nectar feeding is designed to be customized but the basic philosophy is that plants almost never get just plain water. So we use a Feed-Feed-Tea feeding schedule.

When I ran bottled organics, 4 different brands over the years, I most often would feed, water, feed, water. Every 3-4 days depending on the soil and how it held water.

A friend of mine runs no-till living soil and just has a tub of water on a solenoid that just waters his soil with RO water at a trickle.

There are so many ways to grow this plant that there is no one answer. My waterings at week2 of veg are dramatically different from my waterings at week5 of flower. The little plants get like 2-4 oz of water at most and it's basically droplets of nutrients. By week5 of flower they're getting up to 3/4 gallon of nutrient sludge that almost pours like syrup every 3 days.

Hydro grows you fast plants, after working the distillate farm I can't argue that point. If a plant drops off the irrifation for more than 24 hours it's dead. I pulled more than a few completely dry and dead plants out of the greenhouses when their irrigation got disconnected. I saved a few that had less than 24h of no water, but they never fully recovered once the all the leaves flagged.

I agree to stay away from FoxFarm, I've never had any luck with that stuff. In 13 years I think did 2 grows on it and was frustrated all the way through both cycles. My philodendron loves it though, especially after it's been used for weed once.

I won't say any of the above methods are wrong or right, but each one is its own method. Once you build a system that works for you stick with it until you get bored or want to try something new.

calvin.m16 said:

Care to share what shock to use in particular? I've been wanting to experiment with that a bit and see if not running beneficials will make any measurable difference in the end result.

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i just use plain pool shock from walmart, 2 grams per gallon of distilled water. then i use 50 ml of that per gallon of feed i make up, every other time i water. haven't had any root issues since i started using it.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i just use plain pool shock from walmart, 2 grams per gallon of distilled water. then i use 50 ml of that per gallon of feed i make up, every other time i water. haven't had any root issues since i started using it.
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Thank you very much for the reply. Didn't mean to threadjack either. I was going to say why not make a more concentrated solution so you don't have to feed so many ml/gal or weigh out grams every time?

calvin.m16 said:

Thank you very much for the reply. Didn't mean to threadjack either. I was going to say why not make a more concentrated solution so you don't have to feed so many ml/gal or weigh out grams every time?

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very simply, because it doesn't stay stable once mixed with water. after 4 or 5 days it's probably half the strength it was the first day, so i only make a gallon at a time, which i can use in a little less than a week.