Nutrients and Daily/Weekly Watering Routine on First Ever grow

[jchern22]

First time grower, hell, first time growing a plant period from a seed in an indoor enclosure so re-educating myself in Biology and the life of a plant and its needs. While doing a lot of research on youtube and discussion forums like the MP, I've made my grow an experiment as this is for my own consumption (Flower and edibles). All 5 plants I have growing are feminized autoflowers. I am in week 4 for 4/5 (1 I killed - lesson learned but I am watching it and trying to get her back but nutrient lockout and transplanting blunder was my bad)) and week 3 for 1/5 and since I started them in Happy Frog, I just recently (Thursday 12/23 introduced a very low dosage of floramicro, floragro and florabloom along with cal-mag and 5.5 ph water. Kept a close eye on them and they are green and happy. so..... here is the question. I need to add some water today. Do I give another dose of week 4 nutrients at every feeding for the week or do they get nutrients once a week and then just 5.5 ph water the balance of the week. Seems like I would be flushing them out of nutrients if I added just water but dont want to give them to much. Now as I type this common sense is starting to kicking in and if the plant is dry and in need of water, the nutrients should be depleted and then introduced again with the next water feeding . Please offer me some feeding advise because I would rather do less than more as I am trying to avoid the beginner screw ups but they are inevitable so trying to limit them at least! Thank you and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

 

[pute]

Got a lot to say there my friend but a bit confusing. I'm on a water feed water feed schedule. I try and do it every 3 days but that also depends on the size of the pots and the plants.

 

[WeedHopper]

I normally only feed once a week and water in between. You can tell if they need water by the weight of the pot.
If your growing in soil your PH should be closer to 6.8.
5.5 is for Hydro.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

Yep 6.5 to 6.8 PH is my sweet spot for soil too
I find that I use half of what the label says per gal my plants grow so much better
Sometimes less is more.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

Oh and Cal/mag for sure

 

[jchern22]

I normally only feed once a week and water in between. You can tell if they need water by the weight of the pot.
If your growing in soil your PH should be closer to 6.8.
5.5 is for Hydro.

Thank you. That's good news as my PH is around 6.8-7.0 and I wasn't sure if that was too high so I tried the last water feed with nutrients and took the ph down to 5.5 on the 1 gal bucket I'll shoot for the 6.8 range moving forward.
I have been checking the weight of the pots and trying not to add any more water than necessary, I am now getting use to the difference in weights. Would help in the future if I stick to the same size (5) gallon pots for all the plants. Like I said first time growing, I have two doing well in 5 gallon pots, 2 doing good in 3 gallon pots and the one I killed I am keeping alive in a 1 gallon pot to see what it does and if it reacts to any treatments, but I think she is fried.
I have no knowledge or past experience so aside from hopefully growing some bud a I can dry , cure and smoke, I am just learning all I can and trying to be patient. Basically just studying the plants each day/week to see what they need instead of being on a schedule. I just wasn't sure if I added nutrients to each watering throughout the week or just once a week. Thank you for your input, appreciate it

 

[WeedHopper]

You will be fine my friend. We are here to help.

 

[zem]

Nice setup. When you are feeding, allow at least 10% of your feeding volume to leach out from the bottom of the pot. This allows the plant to replace most of the depleted ferts and prevent salt buildup. Do not allow the roots to dry too much especially during flowering. Oxygenate the water and drain your medium very well.

 

[jchern22]

Nice setup. When you are feeding, allow at least 10% of your feeding volume to leach out from the bottom of the pot. This allows the plant to replace most of the depleted ferts and prevent salt buildup. Do not allow the roots to dry too much especially during flowering. Oxygenate the water and drain your medium very well.

So I have the plants I am going to hopefully flower and harvest in (2) 3 gallon fabric pots and (2) 5 gallon fabric pots. My greatest newbie fear is over watering. Are you suggesting when I water to water these fabric pots until I get around 10% run through ? I am assuming these fabric pots are designed to discard the unnecessary water and lock in the necessary amount needed for the plant as I assume thats what they were designed for. I have only watered with a Vivosun 1.30 gallon hand held sprayer. I watch the video where folks are using the long neck watering cans to avoid getting the plant wet and some people pour a ton of water into their pots so I understand its related to the size of the pot and stage of the plant. I've just never allowed myself yet to water the plants so much that the fabric pots are releasing the excess run out. So when feeding I should pour enough in to allow a 10% run out through the bottom?

 

[zem]

So I have the plants I am going to hopefully flower and harvest in (2) 3 gallon fabric pots and (2) 5 gallon fabric pots. My greatest newbie fear is over watering. Are you suggesting when I water to water these fabric pots until I get around 10% run through ? I am assuming these fabric pots are designed to discard the unnecessary water and lock in the necessary amount needed for the plant as I assume thats what they were designed for. I have only watered with a Vivosun 1.30 gallon hand held sprayer. I watch the video where folks are using the long neck watering cans to avoid getting the plant wet and some people pour a ton of water into their pots so I understand its related to the size of the pot and stage of the plant. I've just never allowed myself yet to water the plants so much that the fabric pots are releasing the excess run out. So when feeding I should pour enough in to allow a 10% run out through the bottom?

well normally yes, but if your soil is too heavy and does not drain well, then it will be difficult to do that. Typically your soil should be airy enough to allow for that. When you feed, some elements will not be used up by the plant so when you are adding more ferts without washing away the old ferts, then you will accumulate salt buildup. Most people water their plants to full potential and allow for the runoff then wait a while until the medium seems lighter then water again the same way.

 

[jchern22]

well normally yes, but if your soil is too heavy and does not drain well, then it will be difficult to do that. Typically your soil should be airy enough to allow for that. When you feed, some elements will not be used up by the plant so when you are adding more ferts without washing away the old ferts, then you will accumulate salt buildup. Most people water their plants to full potential and allow for the runoff then wait a while until the medium seems lighter then water again the same way.

Appreciate you, thank you!

 

[Europe's finest]

To me it seem a great idea is to get yourself a Marijuana bible a book that can take you from A to Z so you could get a better understanding of growing cannabis it really helps get a better understanding that's what I did 23 years ago, but as far as sprouting my seeds napkin thin I put them in a 4 cube I cut in fours better water retention. No expert far from it but the main goal is to grow some nice bud.

 

[Bugus_Monkey]

Search around here and read up on CARTY and GMO's threads about growing autos. They are doing a lot of great stuff with them. In my personal experience, an autoflower only needs somewhere between a third and half of the actual manufacturers recommended dosage of nutrients mixed in with the water.