Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[goingrey]

It's kind of hard to say because every plant is different.
I was trying to do everything the same with this plant as with the big plant that I grew before, and that included feeding from the top.


One thing I do remember though is that when I was growing a plant a while back, I was bottom feeding and when I started adding nutes, my plant ended up deficient and was very pale.

I realized that the nutrients weren't getting to the roots even though my planter is wicking up nutrients from the bottom but it took too long to get to the plant, so I started feeding from the top down to get nutrients and proper PH to the roots.

The main reason that I wanted to bottom feed was to keep the surface of the soil dry to help keep mold away as well as the root eating flying bugs.

Now that I'm top feeding, I have the majority of the surface dry with just a 3 inch "moat" that fills with water.






I don't have any mold growing on the surface now, and I think that is because of my low humidity?

Interestingly, the water drains down through the soil all most as fast as I can pour it in.
It only takes about 20 seconds to pour in 2 liters of water.

The coco coir/perlite do a great job of aerating and the water just pours right through it.

The bobber starts to rise just seconds after I start to add water.






Thanks

I've got a lot of plant crammed into a pretty small box. lol

Thanks for the answer!

I've had great success bottom feeding in the past in soil (well, depending on the soil mix) but now I'm trying out coco and something feels off. Sometimes the top feels dry even though there is still water in the rez. This is in straight coco, adding perlite might help but it's quite expensive over here and they say the dust is hazardous so I'm not too keen on using it. The plants seem fine - but maybe they could be even better, might be that part of the media is simply not utilized. I think I'll try top feeding. Your idea of watering around the stalk is good, but not sure if I'll do that. I have covered the top with LECA (hydroton) to avoid the mold problem and obviously the roots are all around the container, not just around the stalk...

 

[f2obsession]

Maybe I'm not telling any new information, but continuous bottom feeding causes salt buildup in the soil somewhere around the top.

 

[PCBuds]

Maybe I'm not telling any new information, but continuous bottom feeding causes salt buildup in the soil somewhere around the top.

That's kinda what I assumed.
I figured that top feeding washes the salts down into the reservoir.

 

[Creeperpark]

With respect PCbuds, all bottom watering must always be followed by dis-charge with run-off out the bottom from the top.

 

[skmatzwonk]

Good daily watering from the bottom. The root ball is happy. The tap root is gettin it way down there. Nice perfect damp soil. Not wet stagnating soggy soil, which eliminates oxygen too. Heh, HAPPY NYE all Ye folks worldwide, stateside and da good ol UK.

 

[PCBuds]

With respect PCbuds, all bottom watering must always be followed by dis-charge with run-off out the bottom from the top.

Thanks for the input.

I haven't been doing any dis-charge/run-off until just recently with this plant, mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to bother. lol

It caught up with me with this plant though.

It seemed to work OK previously, but I'm pretty sure it was my switch to RO water that lead to problems.


I'm curious as to what would happen if my media/planter did have salt build-up?
I'm assuming that it messes with my PH and acts as a buffer holding the PH at an improper level ?

I keep adjusting the PH down and it just keeps climbing back up, but it has settled down a bit now.





I had about 1/3 (500 ml) of my solution left in the reservoir this morning when the lights came on.

I drained it off and checked it.

I dumped it out and poured 2.5 liters of RO water down the tube to try to flush the reservoir.
I drained it out, checked it, and dumped it.

I made some new solution and poured it in at the stalk...

Then I drained it out, PHed it down, and poured it down the tube, drained it out again and checked again...

I PHed it down again and the PPM seemed a little low, so I added a bit more KoolBloom.

The plant is looking OK and I think the leaves are greening up a bit ??

 

[PCBuds]

Good daily watering from the bottom. The root ball is happy. The tap root is gettin it way down there. Nice perfect damp soil. Not wet stagnating soggy soil, which eliminates oxygen too. Heh, HAPPY NYE all Ye folks worldwide, stateside and da good ol UK.

I liked that video !!

He doesn't appear to be draining any runoff, and he's growing in 15% humidity !!

According to the VPD chart, that shouldn't even be possible?


I think the plants have a huge capacity to adjust to their environment and just deal with what they have.

 

[PCBuds]

Good daily watering from the bottom. The root ball is happy. The tap root is gettin it way down there. Nice perfect damp soil. Not wet stagnating soggy soil, which eliminates oxygen too. Heh, HAPPY NYE all Ye folks worldwide, stateside and da good ol UK.

That guy is doing almost the same thing as I did.

I had awesome results !!

I even had roots growing into the tray.
Apparently that's not possible??

I don't care !!
I did it a anyway !! Lol

 

[PCBuds]

I felt inspired by that window plant, so I decided to grow another one.

I got some used soil and the planter from the shed and stuck it in the microwave for 10 minutes to help kill off any bugs.

I'll wait for it to cool off then put a scoop of soil from the closet plant into the planter to hopefully transplant some soil mites.

I've started another seed.
It's one of ReikoX's first batch of seeds.
I've got one seed from that batch left now.
I put it in the rafters where it's nice and warm.

 

[Creeperpark]

Every time I have ever changed my water type the plants freaked out and had problems. Now, if I have to change the water type I do it slowly by adding 75/25% then 50/50% then 25/75% new water to old water. It takes 3 waterings to allow the plants to adjust to the new water. When I do this the plants don't even flinch. During droughts, I've run out of rainwater and had to switch to RO from rain and that is how I do it.

 

[PCBuds]

Every time I have ever changed my water type the plants freaked out and had problems. Now, if I have to change the water type I do it slowly by adding 75/25% then 50/50% then 25/75% new water to old water. It takes 3 waterings to allow the plants to adjust to the new water. When I do this the plants don't even flinch. During droughts, I've run out of rainwater and had to switch to RO from rain and that is how I do it.

I changed back to tap water because I figured that the RO water made my plant sick by raising the PH to as high as 7.5

I have just started using my new PH and PPM meters with this plant and I didn't even know the numbers for the plant last year that worked out fine with tap water and the same nutes.

So I guess my media got really salty and is slowly washing out now and adjusting down to better looking numbers.

My plant is drinking 2 liters a day and the reservoir only holds about 2.5 liters so it gets drained and adjusted daily now.

I have been adjusting the reservoir down to 5.6 figuring everything that had been locked out can now be easily absorbed.
I intend to go with a 6.0 PH for both the media and reservoir for simplicity sake once everything has settled down.

Meanwhile, things appear to be improving, or at least they aren't getting worse.
The plant is still drinking lots, she smells great, and the leaves aren't drooping in a sickly kind of way.



She appears to be greening up, but it's kinda hard to see because every picture looks different because of the lighting and camera exposure.

This is her with both the 5000k and 3500k lights on...

This is her with just the 5000k lights and the cameras brightness turned up...

This is my plant from last year, which looked a lot healthier...

 

[PCBuds]

Wow ! She's thirsty...
I guess she's on the mend ??

She's down to half a liter in the reservoir now, so she won't make it until morning before running out.

I'll make another batch of solution now.

 

[Creeperpark]

PCbuds I'm glad to hear you got an EC and pH meter. You will know what you are doing now by testing everything. Your plant is getting very frosty and sweet-looking and super. I hope you don't mind me sharing with you, that RO water doesn't have a stable pH until it comes in contact with soil. That's why I have to put cal-mag in the RO to stabilize it. If you would have added cal-mag to the RO water your plant would fair better. I take RO and add 2 ml of cal-mag per gallon of water making about 126 ppm water. Tap water has a lot of junk in it and raises the pH over time. RO fortified with cal-mag is the best for growing cannabis.

 

[PCBuds]

PCbuds I'm glad to hear you got an EC and pH meter. You will know what you are doing now by testing everything.

I already had both meters as well as PH drops and test strips, but the meters are junk and the readings are useless so I stopped trying to use them.
I found the drops and test strips too hard to decipher and judge, so I stopped trying to use them as well.

Your plant is getting very frosty and sweet-looking and super.

Thanks.
She is coming along nicely despite her recent health issues.
She has spent the last couple of weeks in detox and is responding well to treatment. Lol

I hope you don't mind me sharing with you, that RO water doesn't have a stable pH until it comes in contact with soil.

I did play around with the meter testing distilled water and my RO water (4 PPM) and only got erroneous readings.
I remember from chemistry class the distilled water has a PH of 7.0 but there is nothing in it to stabilize it, and I found that just blowing bubbles in the water would change the reading.
Over time, the distilled water absorbs CO2 from the air and creates carbonic acid then the PH stabilizes at 5.8

Distilled water isn't good for a digital PH meter though, so I didn't want to mess around with straight distilled or RO water too much.
The glass bulb in the meters probe has a membrane on it that gets depleted by distilled water, and you're supposed to store the meter wet with storage solution (Potassium Chloride) to preserve the membrane.

The few minutes that I was testing the distilled water was enough to change my calibration, so I had to recalibrate my meter.
Luckily I didn't wreck my probe.
Better quality meters calibrate themselves and let you know that you need a new probe when it can no longer calibrate itself.

That's why I have to put cal-mag in the RO to stabilize it. If you would have added cal-mag to the RO water your plant would fair better.

I add all my nutes to the water before checking the PH. I use chemical nutes,.. Maxibloom, (Maxigro at first) CalMag, Potassium Silicate, and KoolBloom during flowering.

All the nutes mixed with tap water gives me a PH of right around 6.0 so I like that I don't need to adjust the PH.
The nutes mixed with RO water gives a much lower PH.
I might give a couple waterings with RO water to help lower my PH, even though it will be quite low going in.

I'm just going to assume that my planter is soiless (even though I have some organic matter in the mix,.. peat and dead roots from previous grows), so aiming for 5.8 should be OK.

I figure that with my big mature plant and huge 34 liter planter that the PH isn't as critical. I think that things are kind of "buffered" by all the volume?

I take RO and add 2 ml of cal-mag per gallon of water making about 126 ppm water. Tap water has a lot of junk in it and raises the pH over time. RO fortified with cal-mag is the best for growing cannabis.

That's the same directions as on my bottle of CalMag, but I end up with more calcium and magnesium when I use tap water.

Right now my PPM is around 800 going into the planter.

 

[PCBuds]

I checked my PH this morning and it was at 6.2 so I PHed it down and poured it back in.

I just checked it again and it had risen to 6.1 again so I PHed it down again.


I mixed up some new nute solution using just RO water and got this...

I'm just going to pour it in at the stalk with my next watering.

I'll check the reservoir right afterwards to see if it is in proper range.

 

[PCBuds]

I just poured that solution through at the stalk and checked the runoff and I was at PH 5.78 so I PHed it down to 5.51 and poured it down the tube.

I'll check it again in the morning.

 

[PCBuds]

More pictures...

 

[PCBuds]

 

[Creeperpark]

Wow, those are good photos PC!!! Man, you are doing a super job growing that strain and bringing out the best of it!!

 

[PCBuds]

Wow, those are good photos PC!!! Man, you are doing a super job growing that strain and bringing out the best of it!!

Thanks

I got in to the sauce again and decided to try and take some pictures...

I have to be in the mood (drunk) to take pictures because my phone is a pain in the ass to take pictures with.
For every picture I post, I take at least a dozen.