OlderStoner
Well-Known Member
My plants are in their 7th week of 18/6 since they sprouted from seeds. Today I will move the them to 12/12. In my last grow I f'ed up with the nutes so I'd like to ask for some advice from experienced growers.
At this stage all of them, and I do mean all of 11 of them look beautiful. The Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil has done it's job getting the seedlings will into the veg cycle. I have used only the smallest, and I mean only 1/8 of the dose recommended in some of the plants with the FF nute regime, Big Bloom, Gig Grow, Tiger Bloom, thus far. I noticed some red streaks in some of them earlier so I gave some of them Cal-Mag at 1/2 strength and I sprinkled only a small amount of epsom salt into their water for some of them.
At this point, I'm reasonable sure the nutes in the FF soil are about to play out. Or are they? This stuff comes with a huge dose of N because all of the plants I've grown in take off like crazy with growth and turn a very dark, deep green, almost black in color. The newer top leaves coming in now are still rich and lush but a little lighter green in color. So now I'm ready to give them all a big drink and some nutes....or am I?
Yes, I know I sound off my rocker. I'm just so paranoid about when to add these nutes. Even the organic stuff I have around here, which I plan to use for most of their flowering period.
As for watering, I have them in mostly 12" deep pots. I can tell by the weight when they need water. But, like last time I used some really tall (19") pots for some of the plants. What I've noticed with these pots is than even though I added lots of Perlite to the soil mix and these large pots do drain well, there is a tendency for the water to dry up in the top 6" to 8" of the soil but down deep, where I know the roots are by now, the soil is still very damp. I can pick up one of these pots and it's still heavy with fluids. But the top part of the soil is bone dry. And the heat from two 600w MH lamps has been on them 18 hours a day. I worry about giving them any water at this point because the deeper soil is still very wet. I've also used a meter which measure dampness. When I plunge it deep down in the soil, below the 8" point, the needle pegs all the way over the "DAMP" zone of the scale. So there's water for the roots. I just worry about keep the soil wet higher up in these deep pots.
At this stage all of them, and I do mean all of 11 of them look beautiful. The Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil has done it's job getting the seedlings will into the veg cycle. I have used only the smallest, and I mean only 1/8 of the dose recommended in some of the plants with the FF nute regime, Big Bloom, Gig Grow, Tiger Bloom, thus far. I noticed some red streaks in some of them earlier so I gave some of them Cal-Mag at 1/2 strength and I sprinkled only a small amount of epsom salt into their water for some of them.
At this point, I'm reasonable sure the nutes in the FF soil are about to play out. Or are they? This stuff comes with a huge dose of N because all of the plants I've grown in take off like crazy with growth and turn a very dark, deep green, almost black in color. The newer top leaves coming in now are still rich and lush but a little lighter green in color. So now I'm ready to give them all a big drink and some nutes....or am I?
Yes, I know I sound off my rocker. I'm just so paranoid about when to add these nutes. Even the organic stuff I have around here, which I plan to use for most of their flowering period.
As for watering, I have them in mostly 12" deep pots. I can tell by the weight when they need water. But, like last time I used some really tall (19") pots for some of the plants. What I've noticed with these pots is than even though I added lots of Perlite to the soil mix and these large pots do drain well, there is a tendency for the water to dry up in the top 6" to 8" of the soil but down deep, where I know the roots are by now, the soil is still very damp. I can pick up one of these pots and it's still heavy with fluids. But the top part of the soil is bone dry. And the heat from two 600w MH lamps has been on them 18 hours a day. I worry about giving them any water at this point because the deeper soil is still very wet. I've also used a meter which measure dampness. When I plunge it deep down in the soil, below the 8" point, the needle pegs all the way over the "DAMP" zone of the scale. So there's water for the roots. I just worry about keep the soil wet higher up in these deep pots.
