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Watering till runoff - fabric pots

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Watering till runoff - fabric pots

Dance_Instructor 48 Replies 40,369 Views
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I've gotta pitch in on this subject.....

I am by far a professional grower.....

But.......

I feed till run-off.....

5 gallon buckets......sloooooowly feed till I get at least two solo cups full of run-off.....

Not a flush, but enough to clear the plants feces.....

Yes.......plants have waste also....I try to clear it up.....

That is another reason why I don't " bottom feed " my plants......

I am not trying to step on anyone's toes, but this just seems logical.....it makes enough sense to me....

And for shits and giggles, I've recently installed these......paper plate holders....

View attachment 1999826View attachment 1999825View attachment 1999824

Hope this helps....
Plants feces? Thats totally new to me, Ive never heard of it. I know that they get rid of waste through transpiration and photosyntesis, when they release oxygen or CO2 during transpiration. AFAIK they dont have feces, instead of secreting stuff they take it through the roots and store it in the leaves, thats why having toxic metals in your soil is not good. They do fart (methane) and pee (water) but the methane goes trough the stems. I might be wrong of course, you say youre a professional grower, what are plant feces made of? Also feces are organic matter so in my case I guess Im safe with the enzymes as they decompose organic matter mostly.
 
This might be a bit more than I would water, but not much. I agree with your approach. It all also depends on how big the plants are, how established their roots are, how dry the air is......whether you have a fan or dehumidifier pointing right at the pots......if you have big, established plants and the soil has dried out very well, if you water slowly, like over a full day......that first quart or so may be drunk up by the time you finish with the last quart. So there are so many variables. But yeah, if you're watering and cups of runoff start dripping out the bottom, filling trays with runoff........you're just flooding/stripping the soil and probably leaving an over-soaked pot.
Yesterday I watered 1 1/2 gallons after 3 days, it had been every 2 days the last week or so. I don't water until some of the fan leaves start drooping. Let the plant tell you when it needs something. I have been getting run off but none yesterday so I'm just on the edge of not enough/too much, so perfect! Also consider climate. I'm in the desert, low humidity in fabric pot. They can dry out fast. Temps have been high throughout this grow 70-85. Usually 80 deg at 9:00 am when the lights go off and stays about that during the day.

Day 25 of flower, only topped once. I'm using an organic mix for the first time and I think my one survivor is very happy at 36" tall and almost touching all 4 sides of a 4x4. Not sure what I would have done if I hadn't had to kill off her boyfriend, They would have been spooning right now, lol. Being my first real indoor grow I guess I waited to long to flower and it's a Sativa as well, made her a bit taller than expected. Thankfully the stretch stopped just in time and buds are starting to cluster together.
 

Ok.....clarification......

Feces = old, used, burned, stagnant nutes/water......

I'm not trying to argue with anyone, I promise.....

But to not have any run-off just seems not right.....

We lift our containers off the ground so it doesn't sit in the run-off.......

Just to be clear......I've had issues in the past.......

If you read my posts thoroughly, I will always, always say I'm NOT a professional, but if I have run into an issue in the past, I will let it be known!

These forums are to let everyone know the trials AND errors that have come about with their own personal grows....

It is very dependent on each individuals grow style/space available.....

I will not foliar spray!!!!!!!
I will not use neem oil!!!!
I will not feed butt-chug style.....my friend swears by it.....not for me....

He also uses hot tap water from his sink....straight from his sink.....I would never.....I let it sit out at least 24 hours to let the chemicals that will, dissipate......

That's just my grow style.......
 

Ok.....clarification......

Feces = old, used, burned, stagnant nutes/water......

I'm not trying to argue with anyone, I promise.....

But to not have any run-off just seems not right.....

We lift our containers off the ground so it doesn't sit in the run-off.......

Just to be clear......I've had issues in the past.......

If you read my posts thoroughly, I will always, always say I'm NOT a professional, but if I have run into an issue in the past, I will let it be known!

These forums are to let everyone know the trials AND errors that have come about with their own personal grows....

It is very dependent on each individuals grow style/space available.....

I will not foliar spray!!!!!!!
I will not use neem oil!!!!
I will not feed butt-chug style.....my friend swears by it.....not for me....

He also uses hot tap water from his sink....straight from his sink.....I would never.....I let it sit out at least 24 hours to let the chemicals that will, dissipate......

That's just my grow style.......
I think everyone's input is valuable and if youre a long time grower even more so. I have not had such problems but maybe is because I use liquids that turn all that waste in the soil into food again. I do runoff every few weeks and when I flush as I said before I use A LOT of water but I only flush once, and I use another cleaning agent there, in my case flawless finish from AN (I use the cleaning agent til runoff, wait a few hours and then a ton of water), but thats just to prepare the soil for the next run because I reuse it and I use dry ammendments so I dont mind losing whats left in there, thats the point actually. The plants will be feeding on the leaves if needed the last week or so anyway.
 
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As for the toxins, for plants thats oxygen and co2 and the rest is stored in the plant as I said, they do not excrete toxins in the soil (plants dont have an excretion system for poop like animals, only transpiration which they use to get rid of CO2, oxygen and excess water) but they take them and store them into their leaves because they need to drink that water and thats where the real toxins are, in the leaves, and if you have them is because you did something wrong with the soil. I think this article explains it a bit better, yours is valid but I feel like its vague when talking about those toxins.
EDIT: Im not trying to argue or anything and I know I might be wrong, I just go with what I know and I think it doesnt matter who is right or wrong, by respectfully talking with each other we can get to the truth faster. Also I think this is very relevant for the OP to decide wether or not he wants to flush often. I would say that if he doesnt use liquids to get rid of the salts and other accumulations then yes, flushing is the way to go, just not too much like you guys said.
 
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Since we are talking about water I will share something I recently experienced.

I was using tap water and letting it sit 24 hours or more to remove the chlorine. I decided to try an inline garden hose type filter that is typically used in rv's, basically a charcoal filter that also prevents bacteria. My PH and TDS both went up. Removing chlorine and other minerals raises PH levels and the TDS is likely higher due to not running the filter enough and charcoal still coming through.

From what I understand PH is not as much of a concern with organic soil and the TDS is not necessarily bad depending on what the particles are, ie charcoal. My tap water is around 125 TDS and after the filter it's 285. PH went from 6.8 to 7.2. I think I will run more water through the filter more before testing next time to see if things change.

Been using it for a couple of weeks and plant is happier than ever. Just FYI and was an unexpected result.
 
Since we are talking about water I will share something I recently experienced.

I was using tap water and letting it sit 24 hours or more to remove the chlorine. I decided to try an inline garden hose type filter that is typically used in rv's, basically a charcoal filter that also prevents bacteria. My PH and TDS both went up. Removing chlorine and other minerals raises PH levels and the TDS is likely higher due to not running the filter enough and charcoal still coming through.

From what I understand PH is not as much of a concern with organic soil and the TDS is not necessarily bad depending on what the particles are, ie charcoal. My tap water is around 125 TDS and after the filter it's 285. PH went from 6.8 to 7.2. I think I will run more water through the filter more before testing next time to see if things change.

Been using it for a couple of weeks and plant is happier than ever. Just FYI and was an unexpected result.
As a follow up I moved away from the ph test strips I was using and grabbed my wife's ph test kit for her fish tanks. Test strips were WAY off.

Zero Water Filter we use for drinking water - 6.6
Tap Water - 7.8
Tap Water Using My Inline Filter - 8.0
Tap Water Using My Inline Filter Adding 60 Drops Of Lemon Juice - 6.8

I'm glad I went a little further as organic soil is not supposed be as much of an issue with water ph but I think 8.0 was likely a problem. No evidence of that from plant growth but there is always room for improvement. Particulate (TDS) is still more than double my tap water but that just means "stuff" in the water and the only difference is the filter/charcoal and I don't think that's a problem.

I think the bottom line here is that you may assume your tap water is ok by letting is gas out the chlorine by letting it sit but I was way off with that thinking.

Didn't mean to jack this thread but we are all interested in water quality for the ladies.

Hope this has helped!
 
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