I’m doing two separate grows with autoflowers. One is with Fox Farm soil and the other is with coast of Maine soil. I just received my Jack’s nutrients. My question is I know I’m supposed to water or feed until runoff but coast of Maine seems like it holds a ton of moisture and I may over water it by doing that. Also how often should I be feeding them
How big is your container? With a 5 gallon pot you have enough nutes for 30 days with both soil.
as far as overwatering goes, i think this may help, cuz i had the same question in a way at one point.
as far as overwatering, that happens by watering too often, not too much.
so you can have as much runoff as u want, as long as u let the soil dry out well in between waterings, usually anywhere from 2-4 days in between waterings or until the soil is dried up good about a knuckle deep or so. dont worry too much about overwatering it, unless you water too often.
since ur using jacks, u will want that runoff to prevent salt buildup
like @ChittyChittyBangin said though, first month or so, i wouldnt be adding nutrients because of the soil u use. i use jacks and i am on a constant feed schedule. i feed every time i water, using jacks 321 schedule but everyone has there own preferences
hope this chart helps
So I should be feeding every time I water? Also how does runoff help the plant flush the salt when you’re adding salt in again at the very next watering.
I’m also in 4 gallon pots
You start feeding nutrients once the PPMs in the medium have dropped below 800, approximately around week 6 for these mediums. You do this by testing the run off on water days and a healthy plant is generally ready for run off around week 5-6 above ground. A PH and TDS pen are 2 pieces of critical gear to have for mixing nutrients and PH and testing the run off of these 2. Run off helps rinse the salts away from the previous feeding, not doing so and it accumulates driving up the PPMs and tanking the PH in the root zone
Also watering to runoff so that runoff pH and PPM can be measured and managed.
using jack’s, i feed every watering.
u are adding salts but also flushing the excessive salts away, if too much salt builds up in the soil, it could cause issues
also allows u to check values on runoff, those values can tell you when to feed and how much as well
Since your feeding every watering do you feed at full strength every time or do you dilute it to adjust the ppm accordingly to the runoff ppm?
i add 3.69g part A, 1g epsom, 2.44g part B per gallon. ppms usually run around 1k goin in. i will run through 2 gallons getting about half gallon run off…
depending on the runoff ppm value, i may run another half gallon to a gallon through and that lowers the ppms, my runoffs read a little high, but with the soil i use it seems normal tbh
my plants are boomin, very little to 0 real problems throughout my grow doing this. never had nute deficiencies.
thats just my experience, different mediums could cause different results. i wouldnt know 100% but, i would safely assume that fox farm and other canna friendly soils would be the same concept
So back to my original question is it okay to saturate the coast of Maine soil until I get run off. It just seems so much thicker and denser than the Happy Frog and ocean Forest. It was wet when I took it out of the bag
Yes, just be sure that you let the soil dry out before watering again.
Where are you keeping your final runoff ppm at ? 1000?
Coast of Main Stonington blend is great soil for cannabis. The longer the pot stays wet between waterings the better so that the soil doesn’t dry up before the roots can extract the nutrients. I use Coast of Main and theres zero issues with over watering. Zero issues peroid. The pH holds at 6.5 and it grows nice plants.
my runoff ppms read between 1k-3k throughout.
usually when its higher towards that 3k i can run some through and drop it under 2, but even over 2k or even 2500 it hasnt caused issues except for excessive growth haha
edit i get what u mean, i water maybe every 3-5 days.
LOL! This is what I’m getting at… so its okay if your PPMs are over 1000 but not over 3000. Great. I guess 1000 is the safe spot for beginners. I would imagine it depends on each plant also, depending on how much or how fast they eat. Thank you. This clears it up for me. I was understanding that over 1000 is dangerous for the plant to go into lock out or nutrient burn.
could cause nute burn i suppose, depending in the medium, but lockout is caused by pH
Lockout is caused by an inproper pH. PPM is not relevant other than chronic high PPM can lead to a mineral salt buildup that lowers pH.
1,000 is a good level for experienced growers too. I run my plants at 1,000. There’s no real reason to run it higher for good results.
Thank you for the reminders. I tend to stray off course and start to try to manipulate things on my own all the time. Sometimes in life it works out for the better but then, theres also it doesn’t. I am still trying to take this all in. Getting close to fully grasping it all… thank you for all the great pointers.