Bottom Feeding

[MrAutoGrower]

Has anyone done bottom feeding in fabric pots? I have done it with solo cups and get some good roots.

I’ve placed a litre of feed into each saucer and within about 30 seconds the water is gone. My only concern right now is salt build up in the root zone. My reason for bottom feeding is that im in late flower and have some fungus gnats I want to take care of, and was thinking I can possibly feed a litre every few hours then do a heavy top feed to push out salts in a couple of days. My goal is to dry the top of the coco out to kill the gnats with DE.

Any advice and information on bottom my bottom feeding situation would be amazing. My plants usually go through around 3L a day. Thinking I can maybe feed a litre into the saucer and let it sit there until the water is sucked up. If it doesn’t suck it up, then discard it.

Thoughts plz brothers/sisters :smoking:

 

[blue]

Has anyone done bottom feeding in fabric pots? I have done it with solo cups and get some good roots.

I’ve placed a litre of feed into each saucer and within about 30 seconds the water is gone. My only concern right now is salt build up in the root zone. My reason for bottom feeding is that im in late flower and have some fungus gnats I want to take care of, and was thinking I can possibly feed a litre every few hours then do a heavy top feed to push out salts in a couple of days. My goal is to dry the top of the coco out to kill the gnats with DE.

Any advice and information on bottom my bottom feeding situation would be amazing. My plants usually go through around 3L a day. Thinking I can maybe feed a litre into the saucer and let it sit there until the water is sucked up. If it doesn’t suck it up, then discard it.

Thoughts plz brothers/sisters :smoking:

Sounds like a good plan to me!

I always use an autopot, which is basically and fancy bottom feeder and never worry too much about salts build up.

Also if feeding at the right strength (and i know you already do that) and not letting the medium dry out (kept at the right moisture level)- there shouldn't be any salts build ups!

 

[MrAutoGrower]

Sounds like a good plan to me!

I always use an autopot, which is basically and fancy bottom feeder and never worry too much about salts build up.

Also if feeding at the right strength (and i know you already do that) and not letting the medium dry out (kept at the right moisture level)- there shouldn't be any salts build ups!

I just added a litre into the saucer from a 10L bucket full of feed. The ppms of the entire bucket was around 460-470ppm. If I feed a litre every few hours, and it continues to uptake the water, i assume it will be similar to autopots right? Multiple fertigation in a day... I have senzizym in there too which is a few enzymes to help break down debris.

Let’s say I attempt to feed four times a day, every few hours for example... do I simply assume they’ve had enough when they stop wicking up water brother?

 

[Qbgrower]

Has anyone done bottom feeding in fabric pots? I have done it with solo cups and get some good roots.

I’ve placed a litre of feed into each saucer and within about 30 seconds the water is gone. My only concern right now is salt build up in the root zone. My reason for bottom feeding is that im in late flower and have some fungus gnats I want to take care of, and was thinking I can possibly feed a litre every few hours then do a heavy top feed to push out salts in a couple of days. My goal is to dry the top of the coco out to kill the gnats with DE.

Any advice and information on bottom my bottom feeding situation would be amazing. My plants usually go through around 3L a day. Thinking I can maybe feed a litre into the saucer and let it sit there until the water is sucked up. If it doesn’t suck it up, then discard it.

Thoughts plz brothers/sisters :smoking:

Yup. I use the autovalve with a cover in a large tray. Have done many grows this way with no problems.

Can you get yourself some mosquito bits or similar? They kill those little fuckers real good. Also get yourself YELLOW sticky traps. They need to be yellow. I fucking hate fungus gnats!!

Qb

 

[blue]

i assume it will be similar to autopots right? Multiple fertigation in a day... I have senzizym in there too which is a few enzymes to help break down debris.

Let’s say I attempt to feed four times a day, every few hours for example... do I simply assume they’ve had enough when they stop wicking up water brother?

The difference will be that autopots will always have a little available (because of the valve), but i think your plan is good.

If you're going multiple times a day, i'd give them a feeding Time Limit to drink it up - not sure how long - 30 minutes!? I seen a thirsty dry pot suck up water in what felt like no time.

I think you'll want to avoid having the bottom totally saturated for long periods of time, and allow the soil to wick the water up in between feedings.

That's my thoughts - (no real science, just feeling and observation)

 

[MrAutoGrower]

Yup. I use the autovalve with a cover in a large tray. Have done many grows this way with no problems.

Can you get yourself some mosquito bits or similar? They kill those little fuckers real good. Also get yourself YELLOW sticky traps. They need to be yellow. I fucking hate fungus gnats!!

Qb

I just spent some money on nutrients there and didn’t get mosquito bits sadly. I know diatomaceous earth kills these little fuckers as long as it’s dry. That’s why I’m not wanna top feed because it will keep their cycle up. Trying to keep it dry to force them to hatch and get cut to pieces at the top. I have sticky traps and have like 18 gnats stuck to them. They are effective but the gnats like to fly around the plant and don’t always get stuck to the sticky tape. I have the taped placed on the walls around the tent. I’ve had a few troubles this grow. I was an idiot and used an old pegged closed coco batch I had to start the seedlings whilst I awaited a fresh batch of coco. I believe my old batch eventually developed gnats from being sat closed in a cupboard/closet. Chances are the coco had still been dampish in there. I had slow seedling growth and had to bin one because the solo cup was just soaking wet for days which made me assume not enough drainage in my solo cup. I was correct, but I had a feeling that seedling developed gnats and I binned it. Small time later (few days), I noticed a few flying around. When I binned the solo cup seedling, I noticed some gnats flying around my bin a day later. So I believe my assumption was correct, and they’ve obviously slowly but surely ate at my plants roots which has stunted them. The plants are in okay condition, but I don’t want these bastards sticking to my buds and I want them to live out their last few weeks a bit better

 

[Qbgrower]

I just spent some money on nutrients there and didn’t get mosquito bits sadly. I know diatomaceous earth kills these little fuckers as long as it’s dry. That’s why I’m not wanna top feed because it will keep their cycle up. Trying to keep it dry to force them to hatch and get cut to pieces at the top. I have sticky traps and have like 18 gnats stuck to them. They are effective but the gnats like to fly around the plant and don’t always get stuck to the sticky tape. I have the taped placed on the walls around the tent. I’ve had a few troubles this grow. I was an idiot and used an old pegged closed coco batch I had to start the seedlings whilst I awaited a fresh batch of coco. I believe my old batch eventually developed gnats from being sat closed in a cupboard/closet. Chances are the coco had still been dampish in there. I had slow seedling growth and had to bin one because the solo cup was just soaking wet for days which made me assume not enough drainage in my solo cup. I was correct, but I had a feeling that seedling developed gnats and I binned it. Small time later (few days), I noticed a few flying around. When I binned the solo cup seedling, I noticed some gnats flying around my bin a day later. So I believe my assumption was correct, and they’ve obviously slowly but surely ate at my plants roots which has stunted them. The plants are in okay condition, but I don’t want these bastards sticking to my buds and I want them to live out their last few weeks a bit better

I'm not familiar with your method. I only heard of diatomaceous earth recently on here and read it had bug killing qualities whilst leaving the soil life untouched. I hope you get them under control soon and you have some nice gnat free bud.

The one plant I've had that got really badly eaten by gnats the buds ended up a really deep purple colour and the smoke was amazing. It obviously effected yield but sometimes stressing your plants gives surprisingly good results in other ways.

Qb

 

[MrAutoGrower]

I'm not familiar with your method. I only heard of diatomaceous earth recently on here and read it had bug killing qualities whilst leaving the soil life untouched. I hope you get them under control soon and you have some nice gnat free bud.

The one plant I've had that got really badly eaten by gnats the buds ended up a really deep purple colour and the smoke was amazing. It obviously effected yield but sometimes stressing your plants gives surprisingly good results in other ways.

Qb

Yeah I swear by DE. I have won a battle against spider mites with this and dr zymes. I have watched it kill insects in real time, including the likes of fleas and so on. It is really effective bro. But soon as it gets wet, it’s useless. That’s why I’m having to try bottom feeding for a few days to attempt to kill their cycle. My Mephisto jammy dodgers has a purple tinge at 5 weeks in flower. My Bruce banner has somewhat weak buds at 38 days into flower. I snapped her because I trained her when she was too dry. I did tape her but the branches got skinnier after the snap. This has happened to me twice now. Don’t get me wrong, the buds are packed with crystals but I’m hoping when my big bud and overdrive comes tomorrow that I will be able to have the buds get harder before they finish. I’ll more than likely let her flower for 9 weeks. Jammy dodgers is fairly dense so far and she is around 5-6 days behind Bruce. Wish me luck broski’s

 

[Qbgrower]

Yeah I swear by DE. I have won a battle against spider mites with this and dr zymes. I have watched it kill insects in real time, including the likes of fleas and so on. It is really effective bro. But soon as it gets wet, it’s useless. That’s why I’m having to try bottom feeding for a few days to attempt to kill their cycle. My Mephisto jammy dodgers has a purple tinge at 5 weeks in flower. My Bruce banner has somewhat weak buds at 38 days into flower. I snapped her because I trained her when she was too dry. I did tape her but the branches got skinnier after the snap. This has happened to me twice now. Don’t get me wrong, the buds are packed with crystals but I’m hoping when my big bud and overdrive comes tomorrow that I will be able to have the buds get harder before they finish. I’ll more than likely let her flower for 9 weeks. Jammy dodgers is fairly dense so far and she is around 5-6 days behind Bruce. Wish me luck broski’s

Good luck.

Qb

 

[MrAutoGrower]

Been bottom feeding for like two days with the DE at the top of coco. Haven’t noticed any negative effects so far. My big bud finally came but I’m on week six of flower. Just gave a good dose of it and will continue big bud for this week, then overdrive next week and hopefully it will help these buds dense up a bit. The plants seem to absorb the bottom feed rapidly. Only thing I’ve noticed so far is some salts/hairs (maybe roots) in the bottom of the saucer. Means I need to clean the saucers afterwards. It’s a nightmare because water spillage is easy and I have to lift the plants up each time to put water in lol. My flood tray isn’t long enough to fit my girls in there anymore and they are at different stages so I can’t just add a feed to the flood tray. Just hoping these gnats get the drift and fuck off rapidly. Still some flying around