Jon705's Multi Strain HPS LED Hybrid System

jon705 said:
I ve never actually looked up the right way to do it, sizing up just made sense to me. Just about everything im doing now is new to me, Ive been a hydro guy my entire growing carreer, so im sure I ll make mistakes along the way but learning new stuff is part of the fun of it for me really, the same old same old gets boring after awhile:)
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You're doing fantastic bro. Trust your instincts, everything will be fine ;)
 
Jon......I upped the water by a cup....r/o water btw, and the OTHER pot drained this time! SO...that's a half gallon each. I did have to water a day early......with my soil, my pots, my light, strain .....everything combined, I think I'm real close to achieving my watering goals. I'm excited as I've never grown in pots this big, and I HOPE that the roots go clear to the bottom. Something is still not just right, I hope this r/o gets it.........I just still keep thinking that mag is getting locked out from a ca overdose..........
 
mcloadie said:
Jon......I upped the water by a cup....r/o water btw, and the OTHER pot drained this time! SO...that's a half gallon each. I did have to water a day early......with my soil, my pots, my light, strain .....everything combined, I think I'm real close to achieving my watering goals. I'm excited as I've never grown in pots this big, and I HOPE that the roots go clear to the bottom. Something is still not just right, I hope this r/o gets it.........I just still keep thinking that mag is getting locked out from a ca overdose..........
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if your soil is really dry it will just run through and run out the bottom, im willing to bet there are still large pockets of dry soil if your only using 2 litres to water 10 gallon pots bro, rule of thumb is 1/4 to 1/3rd of pot size so for a 10 gallon pot it should take anywhere from 2.5 to 3.3 gallons to fully saturate your soil, maybe this is whats causing your issues? im a big strong guy and when these 10's have just been watered I have a hard time picking them up.
 
i use 2ltrs to water a 3gallon pot and 5gallon pots, i find its just enough and gives me very little run off,

sometimes if you water the pots quick the water just runs through the channels in the soil, so now i water slowly and make sure i water the whole of the top of the pot, watering slowly allows the water to wick up in all the soil, if i pour it on quick it just runs strait out the bottom, ive heard you can add some type of dish soap which helps it soak into the soil more, but i either water slow or use one of them pump action spray bottles, that gives a good spread all over the top of the pot and it then soaks down and waters the whole pot
 
that's why I built a drip system it waters slowly and allows the soil to soak up the water before you get runoff.
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some growers even use pots without drain holes, you should really only give the plants as much as they need, if you give them to much then your just washing away nutrients and the plants will need more nutrients more often, letting it soak into the soil gives the plants something to feed off over a longer period instead of the water flushing the soil, i found this out when i used to water with big jugs it just ran strait out the bottom and i was watering more often and feeding more often, when i watered much slower the plants went longer between waterings and i could feed nutrients less often,

a drip system would be ideal, if i had the room id set one up and work out the timing for it, that would ensure nice even watering throughout the whole pot, but i dont have room so i either use the spray bottle or water very slow and it just soaks it all up with very little run off, im throwing away a lot less nutrients without having all the run off,
when i did water fast and i had lot of run off i found using dishes to sit the pots in let the soil wick the nutrients back up and i didnt end up throwing much away after that, i still use dishes now to catch any run off and if the dishes have water in them after an hour then i tip the water out as the plant is not wicking it up,
 
im sure your right, you know the medium you use better than anyone else does so chances are you water method is perfect for the medium you use, my medium tends to hold moisture really well so it tends to hold the water better, im not using perlite at the minute im just using strait compost so my soil is pretty heavy really but plants seem to do ok,

well at least for now anyway, not tried adding perlite to the soil but only because i get similar results with soil and my dwc, if i grow clones one in dwc and one in soil and they both end up pretty much the same, the dwc seems to grow quicker but hydro and dwc tends to do this anyway and i guess its because of the amount of oxygen at root level and nutrients at right doses all of the time, but end results are pretty similar i find its just the grow time thats different by a week or 2,

some say soil grown plants taste better and are less harsh but if i mix my jars up i cant tell the difference between the 2, i can at harvets as the soil grown buds tend to dry quicker than the dwc buds but once cured i dont notice much difference if any at all,
 
Ya jon, I just wanted you to know what I'm doing, I know you're havin fun with the soil...just another reference for ya.........I think about stuff that is posted for months.....I get little nuggets of valuable info from everyones experiences. In my experience, once a person hits a level, sometimes its hard to break it, and what I have found is that little details become useful.
, the elusive search for that magic combination.
 
Well for the Jack, Black Domina #2 and the White Lavender today is harvest day,because the rest of the girls arent done yet I had to pull these 3 out of the flower room, I planned on trimming on the back deck but of course mother nature yet again had different plans for me, its pouring rain.I had planned on bringing them outside to do a photoshoot the best I can with my phone which takes pretty good pics outdoors, my house has terrible lighting for photos but I ll figure something out, I think I ll wait a bit and see if it clears up outside, hopefully I ll have some pics for you guys in a bit:)
 
Happy Weednesday Jon and Mrs.705:circle-of-love:
 
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