They are doing good. I will try to go get some pics posted later.
What do you think of this: I copied it off the MMMA forum.
I wanted to pass along a technique i have been following from a guy named Riddle Me who used to post at RIU but now has his own forum. I noticed on my own that after i flushed with lowered Ph water that when it came time to feed again the plant would just eat it up and be dry again much sooner then normal. I didnt think much of it until I came across some journals from Riddle me and decieded to give it a try....here is Riddle explaining it.
"But lets get to the prize, for starters then we'll discuss some other things. With your help I have managed to include all of the facts (mantras) that allowed me to see what was happening. Plus I added a few extra clues to help fire up your thinking processes, get the juices flowing as it were. I know that if you are serious that you read my grow journal and saw what happened when I did my first flush and then fed her the so called super tonic ( I will continue that experiment and it will be detailed in my journal).
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Here is what actually happened,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I simply made it rain.
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Ponder on that and if your mind does not click things into place and start running a million miles a second you need to go read some more. Joking, What we hear called the flush is very simply what mother nature does when it rains. Now as I continue this story I am going to put my thoughts into laymens terms so that everybody gets what I am trying to say. I am not a botanist and while I know some of the big words and what they mean I do not pretend to fully understand all of this plants functions. That being said. The one missing third of the flush question in the thread was the fact that buds tend to fatten up towards the end (last 2 weeks) DURING THE FLUSH. Of course in most grows she dies eating herself, because folks tend to let her due to some taste, smell, whatever thing???
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Remember earlier in the thread when we were talking about watering, someone quoted Uncle Ben and said water till you get PLENTY OF RUNOFF, sounds like a flush to me? not a drip, not a tray full, but PLENTY. You will get what looks like over watering and that can be scary the first time, as I detailed in my journal it was cool to see her curl up and droop. In my way of thinking this is when they actually sleep (mother natures way) cause we know they are doing things in the dark period. But I must admit that my research said they sleep in the dark period?
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Now for me I think they are sleeping because during a rain there is most usually no sun (for awhile) and the PH of rain is 5.6 so no nute uptake, and the roots are soaked in water so there is no oxygen. darn she is basically drowning. But I believe she shuts down and waits for the sun to come out, at which point she goes into overdrive to WICK the water out of the ground ( another word you hear UB use a lot) I believe that what I saw happen with that growth spurt (I have proved it with subsequent waterings) was being able to read when she wants water and when she wants food.
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Let me draw the picture for you, mother natures way is to rain, then all the plants transpire the water back into the air and it rains again. Knowing this the best advice I could give a Noob when it comes to watering is to follow the instructions on your shampoo bottle,,,,Rinse & Repeat. Remember I was watering normally and it was taking 5 to 7 days before she needed water again but after the flush (rain) she wanted water after 2 and 1/2 days, this was when I gave her the super tonic. So basically I fed her. I see this as the acidic nature of rain is to release nutes from the soil so that once the water is wicked off the nutes will be available for the plant and the circle of life continues. So to tell you how to read your plants is simple after she has had a good meal, she wants it to rain again and after she has wicked off the water she wants food. WARNING if you do this in veg you will have trees! Remember that as you plan your grow to fit your garden.
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It really is that simple and because you are both God and Mother Nature in your garden you can make it rain when ever you want. And because it takes time for the rain to activate the nutes in soil putting some in there after the wicking process makes them imediately avaiable. Please note that I did not PH my water down to 5.6 (but I am gonna experiment with it) when I flushed which I feel makes the nutes we feed her available even faster as we do not have to wait for the PH to balance itself as much.
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Now lets get to some truths from the forum, everyone says start feeding at 1/4 strength, this makes total sense when you realize how we are now feeding her. If we gave her full strength every 3 or 4 days we would burn/kill her.
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Put your finger in to test the moisture of the soil, this makes sense to understand when she has actually wicked most of the rain water out of the soil. Remember we do not want it to dry out we want to add our nutes right before she runs out of water to wick and while she is in overdrive to do so. Remember also that the next day after I fed her she was dry again and wanted more water. Hell I had not yet figured it out so I watered her as usual and she settled back into that lets go slow thing again. It was all of the total picture and having the mantras in my head that made it click for me"
I have been doing this for awhile now and though i dont do it as often as Riddle yet, im working my way up to that..
I dont do the big 3 week flush at the end without any nutes, i flush every other watering or so in the way described and i dont end up with excessive salt build up and the plant doesnt die off because it doesnt have any nutes.Here is the part i forgot to add from Riddle Me on the "making it rain" technique.
It is all about how mother nature does things and with her being the absolute best gardener there is I set out to copy her style.
The PH of rain (in most places) is 5.6 so I PH my water to 5.8, to understand why you need to understand how everything works in nature and why they say soil is a buffer. This is why soil PH is somewhat important because when it is dry the PH should be around 7 or neutral. When it rains the soil takes on the wet PH of the water in the case of rain it is lowered. The acidic nature of rain activates things in the soil basically processing avaiable nutes and making them available to the plants. But at the low PH the plants can't get at them......
......What happens is the plant is basically drowing and starving when it rains so it goes into hyperdrive to wick the water out of the ground in order to survive, now that they transpire anyway but much harder when it rains. As they do this the soil buffers back to it's original PH slowly and as this happens nutes become available to the plant in the various ranges. (one reason you see more growth on the second day).
Most soil growers will PH their water and nutes down in the low 6's and as high as 6.8 but this does not give the hyperdrive wicking effect, they will just transpire normally and slowly if you do this. Hence the growth you see in my pics from making it rain because I basically only let them rest for one day (to dry out and get O2) between making it rain and it is very important to know how to read them to know that this is where things are at otherwise you will easily fall into the overwater trap and cause them stress and harm possibly even kill them. It is also important that they have a healthy root system in order to be able to wick the water out of the ground faster.
TIP: if they are growing fast and wanting water in short periods of time you know you have healthy roots part of learning how to read them and one of the things to be aware of.
This is also the reason that I use chemical nutes as they are readily available to the plant right away as the wicking process goes through the various PH ranges getting back to neutral, it is a slower process with organic nutes as the rain activates and the little mico critters eat and poop processing the nutes so the plant can use them. now you must also understand that adding chem nutes lowers the PH of your soil with accumulated salt build ups, when you make it rain everytime you are basically doing what we call the flush (though in the other than MJ world it is most commonly reffered as leeching the soil) and washing unused nutes (salts) out of the soil thus allowing you to repeat the process all over again without having to worry about salt building up.
Yet another reason that it is slower when going organic cause you are washing mico's out as well and then waiting for them to multiply back up and this is why I use Jack's because it is one of the best chem nutes available on the market today. JR Peters has a very good reputation and has been one of the best nutes for agriculture and gardening for many years.
The process for container gardening is simple you make it rain with the low PH water and the plant goes into hyperdrive, you watch the top 3 inches of soil for drying out and when it does you feed them nutes but only till you see a slight runoff insuring that the pot is now full of nutes. Plant remains in hyperdrive and now feeds off the readily available nutes, you then wait till the soil dries and repeat. While the process is very simple it is the learning to read them that can be complicated and cause confusion......"
