Do you start adding nutes right away when using super soil or do you wait for the nutes to become depleted some first?
Depending on if it's seed or clone, I'll give them straight water for the first couple of weeks. With seed I can start feeding a little earlier as it has a tap root to store all the nutrient whereas a clone only has the roots it sprouted. The soil and the sprout should have enough of what the plant needs to stay in growth mode. The plant is young with a young root system so I try not to overwhelm it with the soil biology or flood it with available nutrients. My job is to keep them in growth mode always so providing the correct climate and nutrition program to allow them to thrive is paramount. Mistakes only add to the overall harvest time and decrease dry yield.
I like to use a product from Advanced Nutrients called Voodoo Juice. It is liquid bacteria. No BS additives. Just the bacteria you want in your soil. I use this the first couple of weeks to get the bacterial colony going.
Grow tip - Develop your roots early and the foliage will follow.
You also mention in an earlier post that you slowly increase the amounts of nutes until you see signs of nute burn to find out how much nutes your plant can take, then you back off some. Once you start to see signs of nute burn do you flush your plants or just back off the nutes?
I just back off the nutes. Again, I'm presenting immediately available ions for the plant to take up. As long as you aren't making big jumps in terms of nutrient ratios the plant will regulate what and how much nutrient it needs. The soil biology is working in the background to naturally break down the biomass in the soil into available ions for the roots to take up should the need arise. This is the only real chemical difference between synthetic and organic nutrients. Synthetic nutes are derived through a process called the Haber-Bosch process. Organic relies on your soil biology to break down the nutrients into available form. In an organic grow your plants growth is dictated by the available nutrition in the soil. I'm sure a combination of both are being taken up. In what ratio I can't tell you but I haven't had a deficiency in some time now.
For nutrients, 1/2 strength is about all they can take. I don't really go by measurements per se. I use my PPM pen and measure the salts in the water. 1200 ppm is the max that I can usually give my girls at peak growth.
And once you find out how much nutes the plant can take do you try increasing the nutes again later on once the soil has become more depleted and the plant has become bigger?
Because I'm feeding them immediately available nutrients most of the nutrition that is naturally derived through biomass breakdown probably stays in the soil. I'm sure a portion of it gets taken up through microbial activity. I can't say for certain as what I'm posting are anectdotal findings that I can't back up with scientific proof but, again, using this method I haven't had a deficiency for a long time now so whatever the mechanics that are happening in the soil I'm not going to question until I can find some sort of study that can corroborate or contradict my findings.
Sorry for the 100 questions....this post has gotten off-topic but it has given me a lot of good information and a lot to think about and try for future grows, or maybe even this one.
It's the reason we frequent these sites no? To learn new ways of doing things along with dispelling myths to better our grows?
BTW here's a chart I've used before to keep me aware of timelines and what the plants needs are generally within those timelines. The only thing I don't agree with on the chart is when to start increasing Ca and Mg. I'd start increasing a week before flip.
You can also check out a couple of the journals I've posted on the site by clicking on the links in my sig. It'll give you a kind of blow by blow of how I like to setup my grows and the techniques I use to achieve the desired effect. At least that's the plan(t)!
That is the problem with this hobby. It grows!
