overflow question

[diggydabomb]

i have always wondered if it is absolutely neccesary for water to drip from your drain wholes on the bottom. when i water i practically flood my pots and i have only seen water come from the sides of the pots maybe once.(the run off drain on the pots are around the side of the pots not on the bottom of the pot)..should i continue to water untill there is a considerable amount of water draining through the bottom?? what are the benifits if any by allowing it to overflow "drain". and what are the negative effects of just watering with no overflow if any.....always wondered this, my plants are 3 weeks into flowering and budding up nice with great growth and like i said i have had little or no runoff thanks in advance

 

[BBFan]

Hey diggydabomb!

You're growing in mg soil, right? Are you using moisture control soil?

"Short" waterings can lead to a shallow, undeveloped root system. But since you're this far, and you say you've got great growth, maybe it's working for you.

Personally, I've always preferred less frequent, heavier waterings: allowing the plant, even more so in flower, to dry out between waterings.

The benefit of watering to runoff is being able to test the ph of the runoff to see how the soil is affecting the ph of the water you put in so you can adjust accordingly. It also ensures your medium is getting enough water for the roots to grow out.

Got any pics to share?

 

[diggydabomb]

will have some pics here at 7 30 my time its 630 now...got an hour to switch them out and i will take a few pics to share.... i am using regualr MG no moisture control.... thanks for the info on the runoff. like i said in a previous post im considering going organic next grow and adding nutes. just need to get a proper meter, you know where i can get a decent digital one? went to lowes they just had an analog meter that was garbage i ended up throwing it out

 

[db33322]

I know this is off the subject but you should give the MG seed starter a try it works great without any of the problems that you can run into with the other MG that are out there. I will send a PM with a site for you to get a good PH meter.

 

[diggydabomb]

here our pics of my clones i took 7 days ago and pics of my 2 baby white widows in pics 3 and 4 are two plants from some bag seed a little over a week into flower and pics 5 and 6 have been in flowering for 2 weeks 1 day the only negatives i see in this grow is the yellowing leaves at the bottom of the plant seem to be making their way to the top... as you can see in plants 5 and 6 not quite sure what this is from but im sure if i had a meter i could come up with a general idea. as you can see i have tied plants in pictures 5 and 7 in a circular motion. i did this about a day after i put them into flowering they where just shy of 4 feet when i did that. since then bud sites have popped up everywhere and i think it is a great idea to get all the light at the same level since im dealing with HO flouros rather than an hps..... i definitely think im going to change my soil next grow i got some sharksbreath, lsd, la woman, lockstock, rocklock, and some lemon skunk coming very soon.. MG hasnt totally turned me away but i do like the idea of being in control of what your babies are eating. anyone have any idea of why the yellowing leaves?? nitrogen deficiency maybe??? built up in salts?? my PH is right where it needs to be. also another quick question i noticed since i moved my plants into flowering the stems have become almost a violet purple color. could this be from tieing them down?? or could it be from it being close to 60 when they are lights out? thanks for the info on the meter gonna pick one up next wednesday

 

[diggydabomb]

p.s. what does everyone think about the bud production at 2 weeks? are they normal size? or below average?

 

[PencilHead]

Purple/violet stems are common in many strains, particularly the fan leaf stems.

Rule of thumb: water 20% of your container size. Example: Use 1 gallon for a 5 gallon bucket; use 1 1/2+ quarts for 2 gallon pots.

Don't know about MG, but I'd think you're gonna need some heavier P and K as your ladies fill out with buds. Somebody around here grows nice stuff in MG but Ican't remember who at the moment. Was it JBonez?

Shoulda added that the amount of water I suggested will "flood" your container. I let it sit for a couple of hours and it usually pulls the water in the run-off pan back into the plant. I usually only water like every 5th day.

Peace and luck.

 

[diggydabomb]

interesting concept with 20% of pot size thanks for the info

 

[BBFan]

I used mg soil for a couple grows and didn't have a problem. My last grow got really burned from it though. Don't know if the bag I had was too hot or what. You have to be careful adding nutes cause you can never be sure what's still in there.

Hamster Lewis is a big fan of the MG seed starter that db33322 mentioned. May work for you in the future if that's all you can get.

Purpling of the stems is usually strain related but can also be signs of too cold temperature or could also be a phosphorous deficiency- an important nutrient during flowering.

Yellowing of leaves could be lighting related. Flouros lack penetration- though it can also happen under HID's. Too much nitrogen in flowering is not a good thing, and since you're in mg soil, I'd be careful adding more.

You're looking good IMO. Nice growth, good bud sites. Good luck to you!

 

[Droopy Dog]

Hey diggydabomb!

You're growing in mg soil, right? Are you using moisture control soil?

"Short" waterings can lead to a shallow, undeveloped root system. But since you're this far, and you say you've got great growth, maybe it's working for you.

Personally, I've always preferred less frequent, heavier waterings: allowing the plant, even more so in flower, to dry out between waterings.

The benefit of watering to runoff is being able to test the ph of the runoff to see how the soil is affecting the ph of the water you put in so you can adjust accordingly. It also ensures your medium is getting enough water for the roots to grow out.

Got any pics to share?

:yeahthat:

Perhaps this a hold over from container gardening, but as noted, 'short' waterings just led to problems. Besides the underdeveloped root system, the medium would not be equally moist and salt build up becomes a problem.

Put me in with the 'less frequent, heavier watering' crowd.

DD

 

[legalize_freedom]

I always try to get a good 20% run-off from the bottom of my pots, washing away any salt build ups. I, like these others, like to water only when necessary, I am using 5 gl containers at the moment, and have been able to water 1 time a week this way. Since I am doing it like this I have done a couple good flushes 2 or 3 times through out my grow to make sure to wash away any build ups.

With the time release ferts this won't work though, because every time you add water you are feeding...until the ferts are used up.

 

[diggydabomb]

well its been 11 days since last post and i thought i would share what they look like....keep in mind this is my first grow and i am very satisfied with my results thus far IMO i think everything is going smooth....my white widow just went into flowering yesterday... i will show some pics of it when it begins to bud i also have Barneys LSD and utopia haze with DNA sharksbreath, lemon skunk, la woman . and rocklock that just arrived i will be sprouting these once i get more supplies. i am also going to get another 8 bulb 4 foot HO T5 setup with all blue bulbs and start my clones under it and new seeds. and put all red in my other and alternate 12 flowering plants splitting them up 6 and 6 with 6 under the light and 6 in another room completely dark flowering which turns one light into two these pics are of the good bagseed im growing and are now in their 3rd week of flowering about to go into their 4th 3 days from now they have tripled in size since my last post hope everyone agrees that they look good

 

[legalize_freedom]

Looking really good for the light you are using...just think if you had 1000w what you'd be able to do!

 

[BBFan]

Looking good? Are you kidding me?

They look awesome! Major kudos to you on your first grow!

 

[diggydabomb]

Looking really good for the light you are using...just think if you had 1000w what you'd be able to do!

thats exactly what i told my wife last night....lol i have been leaning on the idea of HPS but i dont have suffucient ventilation (IMO) Really nervous about the electric usage and F.L.E.A.R. (COPS)

 

[diggydabomb]

thanks for the kind words of encouragement i am seriouslt addicted to growing your own. seeing how much they grow daily just amazes me seeing the fruits of all my hard work its truely a great feeling

 

[Mokey1]

Diggydabomb, Yes everything looks fine but I do have a question. Why didn't you just top those tall plants and make them shorter and much fatter before going into 12-12? I let mine veg. 3 months (from seed) and topped them a plenty. Now I'm about a week into flowering and each one of those babies have 15 or 25 tops for colas to grow. Just an idea you might consider. When mine went 12-12 they were about 2 foot of plant and now can double in size if they want to. Just food for thought my friend.

 

[diggydabomb]

i did top them about the 5th node up and then topped all the side sprouts....i read somewhere that it is not good to top so much but i have seen grows where people have topped the heck out of their plants and they blew up huge and beautiful i will try this on my next grows on a few plants to see the difference. i think what i did was effective but i could have created more "tops" for my first go though i think turning an almost 4 foot tall plant into shorter than 2 feet worked good i will experiment in the future

 

[legalize_freedom]

Mokey...if he has the headroom for these plants they will yeild the same as if he would have topped the heck out of them. It is just a matter of weather you want one or 2 big colas or several smaller colas...the plant will yeild the same. The only reason to top or LST is to keep an even canopy, or keep your grow short enough to keep them out of the lights. But the plant will only yeild what it is geneticly able to. More buds does not mean more weight...it's basicaly a matter of prefernce, and space.

 

[Mokey1]

Thanks for clearing that up, legalize freedom. Truthfully, I don't even know if I should post. In the past I had done two greenhouse grows that were good for a new grower. This year we went inside with HPS. Head room is about 6 foot but with the lights and the grow containers naturally you have less head room. My 6 girls are twice as full and will most likely give me 4 times the yield of last year. Then again it's all under lights. Plus we've just added another 600w HPS. Always willing to learn.