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?
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