That's the ticket! The plain water between feedings is essential to flush out the excess nutrients the plants aren't using. This prevents toxic salt buildup in your soil.
jagle said:
The schedule i read about water/feed is what ive read about online and spoken with alot of people about.
i dont have a schedule, just working it up myself/
yes only nutes every second freed, gives the plant a break stops the soil becoming too hot, stops nute lock out, reduces risk of nute burn.
and no i am feeding her 100% strenght each time i feed, just the next time igive her some plain water
Thats what i figured the reasons would be,
becoming too hot - how?
stops nute lock out - if its flushed properly and not just watered, yes.
reduces risk of nute burn - isnt the opposite true? (see numbers below)
Wouldnt these reasons actually be provided if the plant had a more stable medium if it was watered with 50% nute each watering, rather than twice that every second watering, emulating cycles of overfeeding and starving?
I might be missing something here, but adding 100% nutes has twice the chance of nute burning the plant at each second watering. The time line i made out below, unless its mistaken shows at the same rates, this happens.
While 50% each watering would half this risk?
As for flushing out the salt build up. Wouldnt this only be true if they were giving a proper flush each second watering. Simply normal watering levels wouldnt do much for flushing the salts out with only a little (10%?) run off.?
Perhaps this is what you are doing? If so, let me know. A good flush is great for the plant, but i doubt you are doing that every second watering?
And if you were, and this is required, wouldnt using less nutes reduce this need?
On a time line comparison in my head.
if a plant burns at lets say anything over 140% nutes. with each watering time meaning the plant eats up 40% of the nutes given.
contains 0% - 100% watering - high of 100% - plant uses 40% = 60%
contains 60% - 0 % watering - high of 60 % - plant uses 40% = 20%.
contains 20% - 100% watering - high of 120% - plant uses 40% = 80%
contains 80% - 0 % watering - high of 80% - plant uses 40% = 40%
contains 40% - 100% watering - high of 140% BURN)-plant uses 40%=100%
contains 0% - 50% watering - high of 50% - plant uses 40% = 10%
contains 10% - 50 % watering - high of 60 % - plant uses 40% = 20%.
contains 20% - 50% watering - high of 70% - plant uses 40% =30%
contains 30% - 50% watering - high of 80% - plant uses 40% = 40%
contains 40% - 50% watering - high of 90 - plant uses 40%=50%
contains 50% - 50% watering - high of 100 - plant uses 40%=60%
contains 60% - 50% watering - high of 110 - plant uses 40%=70%
contains 70% - 50% watering - high of 120 - plant uses 40%=80%
contains 80% - 50% watering - high of 130 - plant uses 40%=90%
contains 90% - 50% watering - high of 140(BURN) - plant uses 40%=100%
Twice as long before same toxic levels are reached.
There would be other benefits too infact, the plant has twice as long to grow accustomed to the levels and may not even burn at the same level. Might develop higher tolerance.
Hope you dont mind me asking and debating this here, it just might be relevant to your grow. Ill move it to a new thread if you'd prefer.
