Jack, if I dont water every two to three days the leaves start to sag- and soil is bone dry. How much do you water each plant? i use roughly 1/4 a gallon per plant. Also, when I use the nutrients, I put them in a gallon of water, test PPM then adjust PH. Is there a guide of how much PPM / Nutrients you should use for each stage?
What is causing my leaves on this plant to trip out like this?
- Thread starter dshot420
- Start date
Jack in the Bud
Active Member
dshot,
When I water I always do so until I get a good amount to run out of the bottom of the container (probably at least a pint). That way I know I've got all the soil in the pot saturated.
One potential problem with peat heavy mixes is that if you let them dry out to far it's hard to get them to "re-wet" and you end up with dry pockets down in the soil (which isn't good for the roots in them).
Occasionally I've let one dry out to far (to where the leaves started to droop) and gotten this condition. One indication that you've got this problem of dry pockets and channels down in the soil is that when you water it immediately begins to run out the bottom of the container. It should take a little bit for the water to percolate down thru the soil before it begins to drip out the bottom. Another indication you might have some of this going on is if the soil has shrunk back from around the inside edge of the container.
The only way to correct this problem and get all the mix down in the pot to re-wet itself is to set the container in a pan, water it heavily and then let it stand in the run off for an hour so the mix can wick back up all the moisture it can hold. This is just a fix to a problem though because as a rule you never let a container plant sit in standing water.
From what you're telling me it sounds like you've got some of this going on. One of those cheap moisture meters with a 10" probe will help you check the moisture levels of the soil deeper down in the pot. I've seen it where even though water is running out the bottom and the top layer is soaked there's still bone dry places deeper in the pot.
I'm guessing right now I'm probably using around 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon /plant every time I water. Which right now seems to be around once a week. But this is all based on the water needs of my plants under my growing conditions and won't necessarily be the same for you. Besides the size of the container there's the size of the plant and how much foliage it has, how fast it's growing, the temperature and humidity levels and the drainage characteristics of the soil mix to factor in.
And all my plants don't get watered all at the same time. They get watered only when the individual plant needs it. My main way of telling when a particular plant needs it is by picking up the container and judging how heavy or light it feels. If it feels questionable I use my moisture meter to probe down into the soil and see what's going on there.
Same way with feeding them. I don't give them all the same thing at the same time. The first one or two times I feed them (when they were young and all looking pretty much a like) I did, but now that they're older and showing different characteristics what I give them (and when they get it) is based on what the individual plant is looking like it needs. And I don't know how I (or any one else here) can explain it to you exactly because there's just to many factors involved that are specific to your individual growing attempts. But don't get discourage because an understanding of this will come with the more experience at growing you get. I personally have fucked up more than my fair share of cannabis plants (mainly by over feeding them and not watering them properly) in trying to get it all figured out.
As far as mixing ferts based on ppm and adjusting ph, I don't do it. About the only thing I know about the "ph" in my grow with any accuracy is that the ph of the rain water I'm collecting and using to water with is 6.8. I know this because I've used an aquarium ph test kit to check it. You've got to remember you're trying to grow in "soil" and not doing a hydroponic type grow. You're getting caught up in things that are mostly only critical in hydroponics. All this fretting about "ph" (and adding things to adjust it) you're doing is probably working against you. Most potting mixes have a great capacity to buffer ph and unless you get carried a way and over fertilize (or add a bunch of unnecessary chemicals in attempts to adjust it's ph) it will stay just fine for the 3 or 4 months it takes to grow a cannabis plant in it.
This grow I decided to try Jack's Classic (20-20-20) as my main supplement. But the few times I've watered with it, it has only been at a strength of 1/4 teaspoon / gallon. My plants are around 110 days old (7 weeks in flower) right now and (I'm estimating) none of them has had even a full teaspoon (15 ml) of it all together.
O.K. I'm rambling....
Jack
Jack in the Bud
Active Member
dshot,
Here's another thing I recommend you do to help yourself start to get a handle on this watering and feeding thing. Number every one of your plants and start keeping a chart of what particular plant gets what and on what date it gets it. You should also be keeping a general note book of your grow with such information as the date you started the seeds, their source and strain, what lighting period they're under and when that changes, the date you harvest, comments on what the plant is looking like as the grow progresses, etc., etc. Also try to record some comments about your grow set up and what changes you make to help try and improve it such as new lights, or bulbs of different spectrums or other equipment you purchase. For instance, I can look back at my notes and know the exact date I last put a new bulb in my 400 MH fixture. I've also got a file folder where I put every reciept connected to anything I purchase involving my grow.
I know right now you've only got 4 plants and probably think you can keep it all in your head but trust me, as time goes by and you do more grows and try more different things and get more different results, it's all going to run together to the point of confusion or get lost all together. I'm wishing I'd have done a little bit better job of documenting things on my first couple of grow attempts.
Jack
Here's another thing I recommend you do to help yourself start to get a handle on this watering and feeding thing. Number every one of your plants and start keeping a chart of what particular plant gets what and on what date it gets it. You should also be keeping a general note book of your grow with such information as the date you started the seeds, their source and strain, what lighting period they're under and when that changes, the date you harvest, comments on what the plant is looking like as the grow progresses, etc., etc. Also try to record some comments about your grow set up and what changes you make to help try and improve it such as new lights, or bulbs of different spectrums or other equipment you purchase. For instance, I can look back at my notes and know the exact date I last put a new bulb in my 400 MH fixture. I've also got a file folder where I put every reciept connected to anything I purchase involving my grow.
I know right now you've only got 4 plants and probably think you can keep it all in your head but trust me, as time goes by and you do more grows and try more different things and get more different results, it's all going to run together to the point of confusion or get lost all together. I'm wishing I'd have done a little bit better job of documenting things on my first couple of grow attempts.
Jack
Jack in the Bud
Active Member
Snow Crash,
On the contrary I don't think I'm misunderstanding what you're saying about sulfate sources of these nutrients and tend to agree with you that they're not the best and that over use of them tends to be harmful to a plants health.
Besides looking at what nutrients (and there percentages) these different fertilizer brands contain it's important to look at what sources they're derived from.
For instance... Miracle Grow plant food derives a good portion of it's Nitrogen from Ammonium Sulfate where as Jack's Clasic plant food gets it's same portion of Nitrogen from Nitrogen Nitrates. Another differnce between those two brands is that all though they both supply the micro nutrient Copper, MG does it with Copper Sulfate and Jack's does it with EDTA chelated Copper.
And it's not just MG products either. I've got a bottle of Earth Juice "Microblast" that I bought a few years back to use as a micro nutrient supplement. It's one of those cannabis specific products that's portrayed as being all natural and organic. But if you read the fine print closely it tells you that almost all of these micro nutrients it contains come in the form of sulfates (magnesium sulfate, cobalt sulfate, ferrous sulfate, mangenese sulfate and zinc sulfate). Jack's Clasic products on the other hand supply pretty much all of these same things but in an EDTA chelated mineral form.
I have yet to read every label on every different fertilizer that's used on cannabis that's out there but I have yet to find one that supplies Magnesium in any other form but Magnesium Sulfate. So if you know of any way to supplement Magnesium that's in another form than a sulfate please let me know. Jack's Classic doesn't list any Mg and I'm looking for a source of it.
But in the mean time (and getting back to Epsome Salts) as long as you're not giving your plants all these other trace minerals they need in the form of sulfates I don't think getting them some Magnesium as a sulfate will really do any harm. In fact I think it would be preferable than letting them get Mg deficent.
I like what Cowboy said about doing it with a foliar feed as opposed to watering it into the soil. Based on a lot of my other reading on this subject that seems like it might be the way to go.
I've currently got two plants that I suspect might be showing some Mg deficentcy and I'm going to give them a foliar feed with 1 tsp. Epsom Salt/gallon and see what happens.
Jack