A theory on watering with wet and dry cycles
15 days after seed was planted (Amherst Sour Diesel)
]
About 40 days old (Buddha's Gift?)
This is what I think I understand about watering.
Most of this info probably came from my brain interpretting posts by Doc Bud, DrZiggy, and others.
In the top photo this girl is not growing above ground because most of her energy is growing good roots undergroud. There is enough energy from photosynthesizing the light to grow, but she needs to go down into the soil and seek out the nutrients and elements that will be building blocks for growth. She is sending the search parties through the soil to locate good stuff.
In the bottom photo, this girl has located some good stuff in the soil, now she needs more leaves to gather more light energy to power the machinery of fetching those nutrients and elements from the soil and beginning construction of new light harvesting leaves and stems above ground.
If the soil stays moist, she will continue to build above ground until she has used up all the elements and nutrients she has discovered.
If the soil is allowed to dry out, she will be forced to grow more and more roots in search of water - and incidentally locate several new sources of nutrients in the soil. As the roots spread she has access to almost all the elements and nutrition in the soil, more than she needs at this stage.
So if you run wet and dry cycles in veg you create this vast underground infrastructure - the bigger and better the root system, the more access she has to the building materials to grow above ground. She has built a large network of roots to efficiently transport those nutrients. You transplant into the largest pot while still in veg because you want a bigger and bigger network of roots before flower.
On 2/13 I tossed 2 plants into flower that were 11" and 12" tall and 24" wide..
On 2/24 they were both 24" tall and 24" wide.
Because the lights are on a flowering cycle (11 on/13 off) most of that growth is focused on making bud site, some on more leaves.
If I did my wet dry cycles right, they have access to all the nutrients in the soil. They have a strong network of roots to move good stuff in and out of the plant.
In flower, I give the soil all the water it can handle, I give all the foliar spray and nutes that they can use to encourage the girls to produce the best possible crop of buds.
This is my philosphy of watering.
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Please, please, please nitpick and correct me - I want to get better at helping cannabis grow big buds.