@SausageMahoney your grow looks fantastic. You must not have deer issues there? Couple questions - do you water with Jack’s every time you water and do you water until run off every time
Could you also look at this picture and tell me what’s going on?
We got deer but they have Cane Corso issues so they stay away from the house.
I do feed Jacks at every feeding. I water twice a day so I dont get runoff. Looking at the darkness of the soil, I see overwatering. Its easy to do. Coco when dry on top will have a more rusty color. Those little babies just need enough to drink on. At that stage im probably putting about 1/4 liter. 1/2 a water bottle or so.
You can see the ring around where I water.
Severely underwatered plant (3 days)
Same plant 1 hour later
Same plant this morning.
Tbey can stand to be thirsty better than over watered. Theres folks that let them dry out that bad regularly. It makes them stretch to find water. As the roots go, so does the plant.
@SausageMahoney - love Cane Corso
We have 2 German Shepherds
Thanks for all of the help. Can you diagnose this plant?
I think it looks overwatered. Underwatered is limp. Over watered looks bloated plus your soil looks wet on top. I’d not water until your top coco looks dry. I meant to say that but didn’t iterate myself well.
Shepherds are the best breed of dog I’ve ever worked with. I used to train them for Heidelberg Kennels. They had many champion dogs.
Thats a beautiful pic.
@SausageMahoney thank you. Those dogs are super smart. The bigger can open gates and other things. So my first 2 grows I used 5 gallon buckets with several drainage holes drilled. So I kept seeing a lot of people using fabric pots. So I’m giving them a try. 3 gallon. Heard they are good for autos
I see you are using them. So I noticed coco mix is bone dry down to a little over halfway. But then it gets pretty damp at the bottom. So do fabric pots dry enough and I’m assuming no one puts holes in them?
Could this be my problem and how do I get the bottom to dry out?
My outdoors stay pretty wet on the bottom half as well. The fabric pots allow the sides to breathe. No holes needed. Are yours up on a riser so the bottom gets air as well? I was getting build up at the base until I got air underneath. That helps a lot with drying.
Mine are not on a riser. Just on the ground and I think that’s part of my problem
The buckets at least had a little ground clearance. I’ll have to come up with something. I’m gonna let these plants go fairly dry. They are outside for good now. I hope they survive a few days without much sun
Everything you’ve described seems like PH/water issues. Your media is a bit of an odd mix and could potentially make things a little tougher than it has to be, but not the end of the world. Mostly it’s just going to be tricky getting the right amount of water. Coco peat and soil(your EWC would count as soil) all have different watering needs so IMO it’s much easier to pick one and work with that. Did you add any aeration to your mix like perlite,vermiculite or pumice? First things first get the pots up on a riser of some sort. You want water to flow through the media rather than pooling up at the bottom.
Coco and peat are neutral soilless media so they don’t buffer like soil does. That means that your PH(how efficiently the roots can use the nutes you provide), EC/PPM(strength of nutrients), nutrient ratio(balance of nutrient elements like Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) is pretty much whatever you put in via watering. For this reason I would highly recommend getting a decent PH meter followed by an EC/PPM meter to eliminate the guess work. Also getting good run off will help rinse out the old unused nutes and replace with fresh balanced nutes each time you water.
@Gl1tch yeah man I know I’ve been screwing up on the watering. Thanks to everyone I’ve learned a few things on this. I’m new so bare with me. For my first 2 small outdoor grows I got some decent rain but I had no idea about checking runoff. Also, when I did have to hand water I didn’t even think of checking PH going in. So for starters I just bought a cheap PH meter so I’ll be checking what I put in and what comes out. I also have learned that I need to slow water and not just pour it all in in a couple of passes by. I’m just trying to figure some things out and then start buying some quality stuff. Maybe that’s backwards but I’ll start there.
Soil - the peat I mixed in actually had some Perlite in it but I’m sure not enough. For my next grow I’ll be sure to mix a bag in and probably just skip the peat altogether. For the castings I just added a small but in. So I should eliminate that? Guys have given me several different options here, with some making their own home mixes and also making their own compost. I like those ideas. I did check the PH of the soil twice now and it was 6.3-6.4
So I’ve not used fabric pots before. I see that they do let some water out the sides. But what you are saying makes perfect sense. I did notice more dampness on the bottom. But did nothing. I will take your suggestion and elevate somehow. And it sounds like my 3 gallon pots are too small
As was suggested by @ChittyChittyBangin, a few others, and now you, I am definitely going to flush as soon as these dry out. A slow flush. I think guys are spot on with too much nitrogen as well. I just started using jacks. Trying to remember who, but someone suggested adding silica? Do you know anything on that? Per @Budbrother, I will be adding a little molasses in. I just don’t want to overload what I’m putting in.
I sure appreciate the help. I am amazed that everyone, being experts, takes the time for me. I’ll see what you have going on with your grows and I’m sure pick up some more info there. Just trying to absorb it all
There is no shame in not knowing something. By all means ask questions and learn. We are all here to improve our craft. Sounds like your getting a good plan together with the water and flush.
As far as your medium and methods go I’d pick one and stick with that for a while. There are many ways grow, but they don’t all work well if combined. For instance, Ewc, and compost are great for organic/ living soil, and can be mixed with peat and aeration to make a fine soil, but will cause coco to retain water and limit the benefits gained from a well drained airy media like a nice coco/perlite mix and a lot of the microbial benefits from the compost/EWC. It’s all about using the best methods for your situation and preference. You can start with nute and media preference then refine from there.
first question is organic or synthetic nutes. Organics usually work better with soil so if you want to get into soil and compost building that might be the way for you. Organic methods provide complex organic material and the microbes in the soil will break that down into simple compounds the plant can effectively use. Keep the micobes happy and they will do the heavy lifting of PH adjustment and balancing nutes. However, all that microbial action takes a couple weeks so you have to be proactive to keep your girls fed and healthy. That can be tough for some people.
The jacks is a synthetic blend. It’s in a form that is already available to a plant to use no microbes needed. Synthetics work well with soilless media like coco or hydroponics, but could also go with soil if you really wanted. This gives you absolute control, and the nutes are instantly available, but you do have to do some of the work the microbes would do like adjusting PH and EC and you have to feed much more often.
Silica is a great additive for soilless media that have no natural source of silica. It helps a ton with plant structure and pathogen resistance. It does need to be used sparingly though as it’s persistent and too much can bind up other nutes and lead to PH problems. A little goes a long way.
I don’t want to contradict @Budbrother. He is certainly more knowledgeable than me and I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m mistaken, but molasses is mostly used to feed microbes. It’s a good booster in a soil grow, but has little value in a mostly sterile media like coco.
Sorry if that’s too much info at once. Sometimes I get going and don’t know when to stop.
@Gl1tch thanks all great info I’ll go over a few times. I think I had told everyone my soil mix was, and this is an estimate - 50% coco, 40% peat with a little perlite in it and 10% castings although that # might be high. I think @Budbrother was giving me an idea how to correct a couple of problems I was having but good God an expert like him can speak for himself. Who knows, maybe I gave him shitty info?
yup, I found it. Molasses for the micros rather than the sugars. I’m just a dumdum sometimes
Oh God last thing I want to do is cause a disagreement with 2 guys who know what they are doing who are trying to help dumbass me. I’ll quit using guys tags as to who told me what. Was just letting people know that I am paying attention. Peace
All nighter on 16 hits of liquid. I’m one eyed and need sleep. I’ll come back
No disagreement. I’m perfectly willing to admit when I’m wrong, and submit to more educated and experienced growers. Now we can both learn something.
Damn brother, sounds like a good night. Gotta say I’m a little jealous.
I’m not quite sure what this means but it kinda sounds fun🤔