I get brown tips using living soil at times. Just means they are pulling in max they can.
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Ah, interesting! May be a good thing, then. In that case, if it does mean they are pulling in at max, does this mean they’re getting enough light? I have been trying to err on the side of caution, so they have for sure at least had some moments where they were not getting max light (but hopefully enough). And it may be that there was never a “too much” light situation in the first place.
To me, the Cookie buds look yellow, but maybe it’s not from too much light either.
If you had to much light the leaves will become crispy critters. You literally show that its not the case.
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Nice pics!! They don’t look light fried.
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You have a light schedule for 18/6?
Nope, 20/4. I had thought about trying 19 or 18, but I’ve always done 20 with most everything. Maybe they need a longer break!
This is a statement that jumped out at me. This practice basically guarantees you are feeding a plant what it doesn’t need. Everything in runoff is what was not consumed initially. So what makes you think it is beneficial to feed it again? At some point more problems will occur, you will be instructed to collect and measure pH & PPM of runoff. When you do this I can assure you the pH will be well out of range (low for soil) and PPM will be in the stratosphere. Bottom feeding also pushes salts to the top. Then top feeding recycles them. All I can say it is not a good or successful long-term practice.
I see you have a rain science bag. Excellent & I love them. Some patience is needed when first watering when using fabric pots. You have to start slow. Let it absorb into & expand the soil. Then you can add more and at a slightly higher rate.
You can certainly keep a 24 hour light schedule, but… Personally, it makes more sense to back down to 20 hours and adjust height & intensity to max PPFD over the canopy. Plants need rest and recovery time.
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Nope-- I’m on a 20 hour light schedule! I’m not sure where the 18 and 24 came from. I was thinking 20 on, 4 off was pretty standard for autoflowers.
The reason I started bottom-feeding is because of the rain science grow bags. The water always ended up pooling at the bottom, and instead of letting it soak up, I would suck it up with a vacuum. My plants all burned and died and withered. They’ve all made it and been useable, but getting a GOOD plant instead of just okay is a challenge. These are my best so far, and my first using tap water actually. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but I finally realized the root ball never got down to the super soil. That was disheartening.
And that’s another reason, is I’m using supersoil, so I’m not adding anything to the soil usually except organic cal-mag (and what is in the tap water, fairly mineral-heavy). In the past I still sucked up run-off, but not after the repeated disasters of not getting enough water and getting too much light while not getting enough water. Most of the “run-off” I was sucking up was just deflected by the soil and ended up at the bottom. (That was reverse-osmosis water that I had to raise the pH… my tap water is about the perfect pH, 6.4-6.5)
I can try watering from the top extremely slowly… Tomorrow is watering day again. Bottom watering has been working til now, at least for the AK, and there are certain types of Autopots that water from the bottom entirely. I would like to get Autopots, actually, and have heard some supersoil growers really liking them. So I wanted to test out both tap water and bottom feeding. Tap water seems okay, at least!
The AK usually gets too much, and I still end up sucking up some (could be why it looks better). The Cookie always soaks up all the water, and I was thinking it maybe needs more than it’s been getting. The Cookie is also losing some leaves at the very bottom now, very slowly (or they are looking like they’ll be lost anyway). The AK hasn’t lost any (except the very bottom ones, long ago).
So this time I’ll try to water really really slowly from the top until there’s a little run-off, then suck it up. Just don’t want to end up with the same issues as last time, where certain parts aren’t soaking up water and then I remove the water before they can.
Thanks for the help!
Adding some pictures from today…
Cookie losing some really bottom leaves… AK hasn’t lost any, although it’s further along and has gotten the same treatment (but less water since it’s smaller, and it runs off more sometimes!) Usually I’ve lost more leaves by now.
I think some of the dark spots are from me spilling Angel on it (using Bread Bud, Coming of Age and Angel or whatever they’re called, pretty sparingly, but I have given a few full doses of the Angel and had planned a full dose of Coming of Age in case Cookie is lacking something…also got blackstrap molasses and kelp juice if they might help but hadn’t decided yet).
Daily, before applying, I recommend you check the TAP water PH.
Ensures no changes from expected.
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If you haven’t, prop something under the fabric bags so that the runoff doesn’t build up extra salt at the bottom. I can’t tell if you have something under them or not. I assume you do. Just asking for clarification.
I use pvc pipes under my bags. I never do run off, ppm, pH and everything else. So I can’t
help you there.
Here is an example of my handy-work. I didn’t use nutrients at all. You can see the Pvc pipe on the left side of the bag.
The plant ate her fan leaves for nutrients.
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All of my soil plants suck up the runoff and I never have issues from it nor do I flush unless needed.
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Yes I am familiar with them. I use them. The difference is once you fire up the autopot you stop top feeding. Primarily for the reason I mentioned. It pushes excess nutrients back into the rootzone.
And I like rain science bags. I want a lot of runoff and high root zone oxygen levels
4 weeks into 12/12 light schedule
@Bluntsmoke what soil and nutrients are you using?
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My understanding of bottom or top feeding is once you start one way stay with it. That way you are nut pushing nute salts up and down. They say that is bad. Many people feed from the bottom and have beautiful plants. Not only in the cannabis world but with all kinds of plants.
Now for the down side. You are at a place where some very good growers hang out and give experience to those having problems. The majority of those growers top feed. So for them to help you would need to follow their lead and also top feed.
I can’t figure where the 18 and 24 came from either you said 20/4. To me that means 20 hours of light and 4 hours of darkness.
Actually, I don’t have anything under them! I have the plastic trays, and they have a little raised bit which mostly lets runoff out, but maybe I need something more than that… But since it’s supersoil, I didn’t want a ton of runoff.
Your plant is beautiful! If my tent weren’t so short, I wouldn’t bother with LST. I like to let them grow like Christmas trees. They always get too tall when it’s a little late to bend them over, though. Alas.
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That’s a pretty setup. That makes sense, but with supersoil, I think with high run-off I’d be washing out all the nutrients wouldn’t I?
That makes sense! Well, I have been doing one “can” (I think about 1.5 qts) on the bottom, then usually 2 cans on top. So maybe I should just switch to top-feeding now. I just don’t want to end up with the issues I had before, where the bottom of the plant is dry as a bone and the water all just runs out.
I don’t do any training at all. I let Mother Nature determine the growth and shape.
Want X-mas trees here you go.
The top photo is all Sativa dominant plants.
The middle photo I had to cut on half just to get it out of the tent. It was 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide.
Last photo is a small Cola. I can also reach well past 7 feet in the air due to my gorilla arms.
My big girls I learned to grow horizontal. I had no choice but to learn.
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Wowza those are gorgeous… I can only imagine what it must be like to stand face to face surrounded by cannabis plants taller and wider than humans. Got to be incredible, wonderful smell and wonderful feeling. I love these plants. I hope someday I get a chance to grow some bigger than myself!
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The inly question I have is was there much of a difference in trichome maturity top if those long ass colas versus the bottom?
You are probably right. I gave up on soil quite a while ago. If you are not using nutrients or at least salt based ones, reusing runoff is less of a problem