- Thread starter
- #461
I always water really slowly and to runoff but not a ton of runoff. The plant usually sucks it up within an hour or two.
Sure it could be rootbound.
Sure it could be rootbound.
420 Magazine's Official Girl Scout Cookies Comparative Grow By Beez0404
- Thread starter beez0404
- Start date
You can try watering quickly. It should bring more oxygen to the roots.
So your plants are always drinking the runoff water? You do grow beautiful plants, but I recommend tossing the runoff. It has lots of excess salts and ions in it that should be cleared from the substrate every time.
So your plants are always drinking the runoff water? You do grow beautiful plants, but I recommend tossing the runoff. It has lots of excess salts and ions in it that should be cleared from the substrate every time.
To add what @InTheShed said. If you let the plant suck up the run off. You are starving the lower roots of O2.....
Beez0404, I use bird suet feeders, those vinyl covered little cages, to elevate my pots off my saucers. I will try to find a pic from a previous grow. Best part less than $1 each. Cheers
- Thread starter
- #465
I would like to find a very small 1 gallon shop vac to use to suck up the runoff. Because I water so slowly I don't have very much runoff at all. Glad to learn this though after all these years.
Around 10% runoff is recommended with synthetic nutes.
- Thread starter
- #467
10%? I'd have a mess. My little plastic saucers wouldn't hold 10%
I need to find a tiny 1 gallon shop vac and as the runoff comes out I'm sucking it up with the vacuum.
I need to find a tiny 1 gallon shop vac and as the runoff comes out I'm sucking it up with the vacuum.
10% of 128 ounces is 13 ounces. If you get the pots out of those saucers with risers like cr8 showed, there should be room for 13 ounce in there, no? And you wouldn't need a gallon to get 10% runoff in a 3 gallon pot anyway, so even less than 13 ounces.
Dump the water in the plant and let it run out. Better for the roots all 'round.
Dump the water in the plant and let it run out. Better for the roots all 'round.
- Thread starter
- #470
Someone find me a 1 gallon wet vac and I can put this problem to rest. 
1.5 gallon is the smallest I can find but it's nearly twice the price of a 5 gallon Bucket Head from Home Depot!
Bud Love
Well-Known Member
Huh!
Prescription Blend
Well-Known Member
The root zone gets O2 in several ways:
1) O2 dissolved in the nutrient solution prior to use is carried into the root zone
2) As you feed, the turbulence of the flow of nutrient solution around media particles makes more O2 dissolve into the solution. (this is where watering fast vs slow comes in)
3) As the media drains and dries out, air penetrates into the spaces between the particles of the media This creates a wet media surface in contact with air and O2 can dissolve into the solution that remains.
It's all about the contact between air and liquid. The best way to ensure your root zone has sufficient O2 is to start with a media that does not compact to much in the container and had good drainage (Peat, Coco etc, are all good) and to feed using solution that has O2.
Everyone's water source is different, many household faucets have little aerators that add bubbles to the stream as it comes out but some people fill their tanks from a hose. Here are a few ways that you can make sure your starting nutrient mix has as much O2 as possible (in order of my personal preference).
Best- Add a small air pump and bubble stone and let it run for 15-30 min before you feed and if you have extra solution you can leave the air pump on and keep it for the next feeding. For a small batch of nutrient a 10-15$ pump will be fine you don't need anything fancy but the deeper your res tank the more power you need to get air to the bottom.
Good- Use a small (SMALL) water pump at the bottom of the res tank, pointed up. This will make the surface turbulent like a pot of boiling water help O2 dissolve.
Basic- Put your solution into a bottle and shake it gently for a few min before feeding.
On the topic of run off, if the plants soak up the solution from the trays then is not really run off. Its showing the entire media is saturated but everything still remains in the pot at the end of the day. Having 10% run off is not needed every time in peat media but its not a bad idea to do it every few feedings.
1) O2 dissolved in the nutrient solution prior to use is carried into the root zone
2) As you feed, the turbulence of the flow of nutrient solution around media particles makes more O2 dissolve into the solution. (this is where watering fast vs slow comes in)
3) As the media drains and dries out, air penetrates into the spaces between the particles of the media This creates a wet media surface in contact with air and O2 can dissolve into the solution that remains.
It's all about the contact between air and liquid. The best way to ensure your root zone has sufficient O2 is to start with a media that does not compact to much in the container and had good drainage (Peat, Coco etc, are all good) and to feed using solution that has O2.
Everyone's water source is different, many household faucets have little aerators that add bubbles to the stream as it comes out but some people fill their tanks from a hose. Here are a few ways that you can make sure your starting nutrient mix has as much O2 as possible (in order of my personal preference).
Best- Add a small air pump and bubble stone and let it run for 15-30 min before you feed and if you have extra solution you can leave the air pump on and keep it for the next feeding. For a small batch of nutrient a 10-15$ pump will be fine you don't need anything fancy but the deeper your res tank the more power you need to get air to the bottom.
Good- Use a small (SMALL) water pump at the bottom of the res tank, pointed up. This will make the surface turbulent like a pot of boiling water help O2 dissolve.
Basic- Put your solution into a bottle and shake it gently for a few min before feeding.
On the topic of run off, if the plants soak up the solution from the trays then is not really run off. Its showing the entire media is saturated but everything still remains in the pot at the end of the day. Having 10% run off is not needed every time in peat media but its not a bad idea to do it every few feedings.
- Thread starter
- #474
I decided to go with a 3 gallon size that I can also use to vacuum my jeep and boat also. Helped me justify the purchase.
Well done...amortize it over a few different projects!
- Thread starter
- #476
Exactly, I probably won't have to pay taxes next year thanks to this purchase.
- Thread starter
- #477
Girl Scout Cookies Update for today 15 Days Post Flip
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.
Today was feeding day. I broke from tradition and watered the plants fast as opposed to REAL slowly. I was armed with my trusty new toy shop vac which actually did a good job. So a couple observations you may or may not be interested in but I'm finding well, interesting. The largest plant in the back right of the photos was just tied down with no defoliation whatsoever. This is what she looked like after her bondage.
The plant in the back left of the photos was tied down and was pretty much stripped of it's foliage except for the ends of the branches. Here is what I mean about the plant back left.
Is it a coincidence that the plant back left is the smallest of the four? Or that the plant back right is the largest of the four? I thought I would try different training methods to see how the plants reacted. Totally scientific? Nah! But scientific enough for me I reckon.
So here are some photos I took today just after feeding and watering the girls. The product Recharge did seem to perk up that small girl back left corner. I'll keep experimenting with it. This is the plant from the back left corner today.
Everyone else.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.
Today was feeding day. I broke from tradition and watered the plants fast as opposed to REAL slowly. I was armed with my trusty new toy shop vac which actually did a good job. So a couple observations you may or may not be interested in but I'm finding well, interesting. The largest plant in the back right of the photos was just tied down with no defoliation whatsoever. This is what she looked like after her bondage.
The plant in the back left of the photos was tied down and was pretty much stripped of it's foliage except for the ends of the branches. Here is what I mean about the plant back left.
Is it a coincidence that the plant back left is the smallest of the four? Or that the plant back right is the largest of the four? I thought I would try different training methods to see how the plants reacted. Totally scientific? Nah! But scientific enough for me I reckon.
So here are some photos I took today just after feeding and watering the girls. The product Recharge did seem to perk up that small girl back left corner. I'll keep experimenting with it. This is the plant from the back left corner today.
Everyone else.
They are looking great! I personally like the scientific methods. LOL. I am trying a bunch of different things with my grow. With seeds though, it seems their vigor can vary which then makes our scientific methods inaccurate. Oh well.
Unless you're running clones we'll never know for
Brett Blaze
Well-Known Member
My post this morning addressed this for my grow. My #1 plant received a major pruning when flipped. This caused a delay and it now lags #2 by several days.
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