New Grower Hope She's Gentle. It's My First Time! - Think Different

[Happy Horticulturist]

Agree with Trappers post above about the white washing theory. That's how I always understood it. Kinda like changing out the reservoir of a hydro system. It's giving them new fresh clean nutes and not letting anything build up or get out of balance.

About the wet and dry cycles yip that's probably right for soil. For hydro , for example dripper systems it's basically continuously giving them food. Using a very aerated medium like 50/50 coco perlite then there's no issue of the roots drowning. Also the dripper is set on a timer to feed a few times a day not continously. I think you can give them slightly lower nutrient strength because of this. Like lots of smaller meals instead of one big one every couple of days. I think this way they also grow very fast and dont' need the wet and dry cycle it seems. Same way DWC for example is always wet. I think the issue with wet and dry cycles is not to drown the roots in soggy soil for days and days on end. Thats' my understanding of it anyway.

Anyway I'm blabbering on.

The point is the wet and dry cycle.. that's just to avoid drowning the roots right?

 

[Magic]

Hey trap I will have to jump in because I remember having this conversation with you. I'm going to have to start a thread about this, because our beloved TaNg monster auto grower says he never waters until run off and I never see any signs of build up. Not saying your wrong just saw that and though of this discussion. I think it will spark up some good information!

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Heck if it makes ye feel any better I used to water often..not always but often without draining through or run off..:Sharing One:when I was feeding Chems I mean..lol.

 

[Magic]

https://www.autoflower.org/f26/tangs-new-improved-feeding-schedule-34408.html

TaNg says it here

 

[Darth Vapour]

Ye I've been feeding without runoff lately and haven't seen issues, I will however when I max out my nutes during the late Bloom phase which is when I also add a high strength dry Bloom fortifier

If your nutes are weak enough ie. 1/4 or 1/2 strength than I doubt there would be drastic salt build up for the necessity to water til runoff but than again if your testing your runoff...... You need to water until runoff lol

Just rambling don't mind me lol

 

[Dazed]

I really don't know much, but to me, if I water and have run-off, then am I not flushing the good stuff out the soil? May as well use coco IMHO.

 

[Happy Horticulturist]

I use Autopots with coco/perlite and there's zero run off. The top part does get some salt build up on it but those roots are kinda 'air roots' because the top part is permanently dry (because Autopots are bottom fed). The air roots don't see to be bothered by higher salt concentrations. The lower half is wet or moist pretty much all the time.

The manufacturer of Autopots recommends routinely feeding them 1/3 strength nutes, just to make sure there's not build up for salts. This for Autopots is like run off or a flush. Just feed them lower strength nutes for a short while.

Now I'm off to read Tangs post as he's a god compared to me when it comes to growing pot

 

[Trapper]

Yeah, my knowledge may be very specific to my circumstances as it relates to synth nutes and soil.....I just know I experienced nute build-up or salt build-up or both along with some potential N abundance from watering everyday with no run-off. But I was also trying to get away with 2 of 3 feedings having nutes (smaller concentration to account for interval)...so I may have simply been overfeeding nutes as well (no burn apparent). The pH in the bottom of the pot was in the 5's while the top was 6.4 to 6.7...that's when I started looking at flushing...

 

[ThaGreenBandit]

Day 37
Temp Range: 73.9° - 86°
Humidity Range: 34% - 49%
Solution PH: 6.1
Soil PH: (shallow) 6.7 (Deep) 6.4
Runoff PH: 7.0

Have you been measuring different levels in the soil? like top 2 inches vs. bottom 2"? That will tell you if you have build up...a large variance between those 2 numbers...

So, I did what you recommended, and took shallow PH measurements, and deep PH measurements, and the odd thing is, the higher PH measurements were in the uppermarea of the soil. I stuckmthe meter in three different locations of the soil, took a shallow reading, then pushed the meter deeper for another reading. In each check, the shallow reading was 6.6 - 6.7, and the deeper reading were pretty much spot on 6.4, so there is a difference in the PH of the soil that is closer to the surface, and the PH of the soil that is much deeper. In this case, what should I do?

 

[namvet25]

Mo matter what kind of pot you use watering until you have runoff just shows you that you have watered enough to fully reach the bottom and the bottom roots .I t has nothing to do with flushing.