Steelcurtain22: Soil, GSC - 2022

Okay, so watering the edges has been done. Was not sure how much to give each girl as it’s just to manipulate the roots to grow out horizontally towards edges of the pots and maximize as much soil as possible. So I made up one full 4L bottle as I normally would (both took the same, 4L’s til runoff after transplant) but only gave each not quite 1L, seemed sufficient? Maybe you can weight in on this Emilya? Now to let them drink up til dry, before watering again. Also, I started the nutrient dose at half the manufacturer recommended dose. So next full watering I will slowly increase providing the girls don’t tell me otherwise. Couple of pics showing some peek-a-boo roots at the drainage holes! :)

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looking good, but a word of caution based on what you said above. In soil it is important to water with nutes one time and then every other time give just plain pH adjusted water. Giving nutes every time will overload the soil with nutes and eventually you will have a lockout or will need to flush all the extra nutrients out of the soil. Giving plain pH adjusted water every time helps keep the soil clean, and since the soil holds some nutes, its not like you are not feeding on the water only passes.
 
looking good, but a word of caution based on what you said above. In soil it is important to water with nutes one time and then every other time give just plain pH adjusted water. Giving nutes every time will overload the soil with nutes and eventually you will have a lockout or will need to flush all the extra nutrients out of the soil. Giving plain pH adjusted water every time helps keep the soil clean, and since the soil holds some nutes, its not like you are not feeding on the water only passes.
You know I’ve often wondered as I see a lot doing that. Now the reason I have used nutes every watering is because I have never used more than half what is recommended. I see a lot giving the fully recommended dose and go every other. I guess my thought was that because I only use half of what they recommend, I’d be fine, did exact same in last two grows, see Quebec Blue Grow (which was one of them) in the Signature, never experienced lock out? Never fed them just ph’d water, both grows turned out really well.
 
You know I’ve often wondered as I see a lot doing that. Now the reason I have used nutes every watering is because I have never used more than half what is recommended. I see a lot giving the fully recommended dose and go every other. I guess my thought was that because I only use half of what they recommend, I’d be fine, did exact same in last two grows, see Quebec Blue Grow (which was one of them) in the Signature, never experienced lock out? Never fed them just ph’d water, both grows turned out really well.
Bet it could go better. You are combining methods, never the best option. Soil was designed to be a buffer against time, so that you could water and walk away, not being a slave to your garden having to do something to it every day. There is a reason that a soil dosage of nutes is much stronger than a typical hydro dosage, because with every feeding, you are actually feeding for two water cycles. You have cut that in half and are feeding every time, treating your grow as if it was a coco hydro grow, a hybrid method. I can see why it is working for you, but consider for a moment the thing you are giving up by using this timid style of growing.

You are missing that first big strong hit of nutes when you water/feed/water/feed, at the full strength. Your soil captures 1/3 - 1/2 of the nutes given for the water only pass, and then feeds the rest to the plant on that feeding run. Instead of just getting survival nutes at 1/2 strength, your plant gets a full dose of fertilizer. With this strong application of nutes, the plant goes into hyperdrive and you get a growth spurt. The plant hits the accelerator and enjoys the extra feed while it can, growing quite a bit more than a plant on just survival nutes would do. A plant using a proper water/feed/water/feed regime at full strength should end up bigger and with juicer buds than a plant on steady half strength nutes.

Lots of internet gurus out there recommend a timid routine like this, usually involving half or even quarter strength nutes. It is safe to give this advice, knowing that the timidly grown plants will rarely develop problems and they will produce well enough to make the guru look like a hero... at least until someone actually tries to use the nutrients as the fertilizer they were intended to be, by actually following the directions, and sees that their plants become 30% bigger and better producing by doing so.

Take a chance... use the nutes as they were intended... no matter how popular it may seem not to do so.
 
Bet it could go better. You are combining methods, never the best option. Soil was designed to be a buffer against time, so that you could water and walk away, not being a slave to your garden having to do something to it every day. There is a reason that a soil dosage of nutes is much stronger than a typical hydro dosage, because with every feeding, you are actually feeding for two water cycles. You have cut that in half and are feeding every time, treating your grow as if it was a coco hydro grow, a hybrid method. I can see why it is working for you, but consider for a moment the thing you are giving up by using this timid style of growing.

You are missing that first big strong hit of nutes when you water/feed/water/feed, at the full strength. Your soil captures 1/3 - 1/2 of the nutes given for the water only pass, and then feeds the rest to the plant on that feeding run. Instead of just getting survival nutes at 1/2 strength, your plant gets a full dose of fertilizer. With this strong application of nutes, the plant goes into hyperdrive and you get a growth spurt. The plant hits the accelerator and enjoys the extra feed while it can, growing quite a bit more than a plant on just survival nutes would do. A plant using a proper water/feed/water/feed regime at full strength should end up bigger and with juicer buds than a plant on steady half strength nutes.

Lots of internet gurus out there recommend a timid routine like this, usually involving half or even quarter strength nutes. It is safe to give this advice, knowing that the timidly grown plants will rarely develop problems and they will produce well enough to make the guru look like a hero... at least until someone actually tries to use the nutrients as the fertilizer they were intended to be, by actually following the directions, and sees that their plants become 30% bigger and better producing by doing so.

Take a chance... use the nutes as they were intended... no matter how popular it may seem not to do so.
So if I mix 4L bottles, what should I be adding currently? My guess is that I feed 4ml per litre x 4, so 16ml per bottle as it’d be considered mature, more than 4 sets of leaves. Also my order has always been Micro/grow/bloom but see that I should at this stage be doing grow/Micro/bloom and when I go into flower it switches to bloom/grow/micro. It says for mature plants to use all weeks of plant cycle? So I’d be watering twice a week, once with nutrients, once with just ph’d water ?

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So I as per usual have the mind running now with what to do going forward in regards to watering. So glad you responded Emilya, it led to realizing I was on the wrong train of thought. I went directly to Advance Nutrients website and found this. Turns out my first grow week actually matches their first week on the grow schedule. Thus meaning I’ll now just increase the nutrients as I go and follow this. Now would I consider this schedule to actually be 8 weeks as I would water just ph’d water every other week? So it’d be first water since transplant -(already done) 4ml for one 4L bottle,
second watering- just ph’d water
third watering- 8ml for one 4L bottle
fourth watering- just ph’d water
fifth watering- 16ml for one 4L bottle
So on…until start of flower, then follow bloom schedule same way?

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I didn't realize you were running a system like AN. With this system you should be following the directions exactly, using the amounts their calculator tell you to use. Any deviation from their instructions will cause problems.
I will be now. I always read that should never start at full recommended dose as it’s geared towards all perfect exact conditions and grows vary with strains. Just trying to understand as you say only use nutrients every other watering but then why isn’t it listed or because I’m using AN I don’t water just ph’d every other and use nutrients every time?
 
I will be now. I always read that should never start at full recommended dose as it’s geared towards all perfect exact conditions and grows vary with strains. Just trying to understand as you say only use nutrients every other watering but then why isn’t it listed or because I’m using AN I don’t water just ph’d every other and use nutrients every time?
I have never run AN so I am not familiar enough with it to be able to answer your questions. I know it is a complicated system and that you use their calculator to figure out what your exact feeding requirements are, but I don't know if they want you to feed every time or not. We need to find an expert online here that uses this system and is very familiar with it. I would bet that with a bit of time with the search engine, you could find a thread that explains exactly how to use this grow system, and maybe you can find a member who uses it to this day and who could advise you better than I ever could. When I was new I used the Fox Farm grow system, and became somewhat of an expert in that... but in this one, I am just as new as you are.
My best advice in every situation however is to follow the instructions to the letter, at least for one full grow, before making any adjustments.
 
I have never run AN so I am not familiar enough with it to be able to answer your questions. I know it is a complicated system and that you use their calculator to figure out what your exact feeding requirements are, but I don't know if they want you to feed every time or not. We need to find an expert online here that uses this system and is very familiar with it. I would bet that with a bit of time with the search engine, you could find a thread that explains exactly how to use this grow system, and maybe you can find a member who uses it to this day and who could advise you better than I ever could. When I was new I used the Fox Farm grow system, and became somewhat of an expert in that... but in this one, I am just as new as you are.
My best advice in every situation however is to follow the instructions to the letter, at least for one full grow, before making any adjustments.
Uhm I find this makes it simple, I use pro mix bx soil. I’ll follow the schedule they have which is simple really. Only thing I do in the way of calculating is they will say 2ml per litre, I use 4L bottles of distilled water so I just times their dose by four: 2ml per litre X 4L’s= 8ml per 4L. It’s also PH Perfect so I rarely check ph levels, just out of curiosity I check runoff to see and has always been on par with where it should be. So I find this line allows you to keep it simple. My very first grow I used a powder nutrient line and it wasn’t fun. I’ve really enjoyed the PH Perfect AN Line.
 
Uhm I find this makes it simple, I use pro mix bx soil. I’ll follow the schedule they have which is simple really. Only thing I do in the way of calculating is they will say 2ml per litre, I use 4L bottles of distilled water so I just times their dose by four: 2ml per litre X 4L’s= 8ml per 4L. It’s also PH Perfect so I rarely check ph levels, just out of curiosity I check runoff to see and has always been on par with where it should be. So I find this line allows you to keep it simple. My very first grow I used a powder nutrient line and it wasn’t fun. I’ve really enjoyed the PH Perfect AN Line.
I am just realizing I wasn’t using it quite right. It’ll be fun to see if I see a difference from last two grows to this one now that I’ll be following the schedule off AN’s website which is different then what I’ve done.
 
Day 24: Veg, day 19 So the girls seem to be doing good. I can definitely see a difference in weight since watering until runoff on Sunday but not nearly enough to need a feeding yet. They’re both a lot perkier which is nice to see! Also seeing nice growth where I topped them.

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Day, 25: Veg, day 20 So not much to report other than they are both considerably lighter. Might need next watering later tonight but sure it’ll be tomorrow when the lights go on. This would mean a full 7days between watering’s, not sure that sounds right, but also includes the very small outer edge sprinkle I did on Thursday. Also noticed this on a top fan leave? Not sure if something is in here as this was the only spot or I hit it by accident?

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Just chilling on a somewhat snowing day and came across a pic of the ‘Hulk Creator’ strain I did on my second grow. The forum I kept a journal for it went down all of a sudden and even now can’t get on the site, hence how I ended up here. Best thing that coulda happened really, lol. The strain was created by another member who did a contest to name the strain which was a cross between Bruce Banner and Sweet God and ended up being named by the member who submitted the ‘Hulk Creator’ entry. It turned out great, had five plants going but only two were female and made it, but they were very nice!

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Day, 26: Veg, day 21 Was not sure what to expect opening the tent at lights on today but looking good! Took a few pics of the stalks underneath, very strong looking plants! Also measured the distance between each girl from highest point of reach to the net and Laverne is 1.5” away, Shirley is 1.75” away. As for watering, both feel decently dryer but still not ready and not looking like they are asking yet? Laverne(right) may be ready later tonight, Shirley(left) will definitely be tomorrow at some point. Happy Sunday all, stay safe!

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So I was looking at the girls and sure enough I couldn’t help myself to manipulating some fan leaves to expose some underneath growth, why not! Before/After.

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They good and healthy . Kinda look like mine. How green they are.. if you got fireplace. Wood ashes sprinkled on top of soil will keep that green and give it few chemical to help to boot. Some the liquid doesn't have it needs. Like baron, nitogen, potassium, and few more.. I swear by it.take hand full and go around and as you water it goes down naturally.
 
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