Outdoor london back garden grow

[pathway]

Nice 1 knocker, they look ok and the new growth looks healthy It should be warm enough at night in your greenhouse now, just keep an eye on the temps in there on hot and sunny days.

 

[knocker powell]

roger that bro! i hope it will be and yes, i'll deffo be keeping my eyes on those temps. it's got a big double zipped cover on the front that i can open up as and when.

cheers PW - have a good day, mate and thanks for stopping by.

 

[Jraven]

Looks like you're on your way bro. Best of luck on the grow

 

[knocker powell]

hey buddy - thank you. been marvelling at your sunroom grow. you've got such an amazing view. am very envious!

 

[knocker powell]

It does look like they are stretching a bit. This can be either due to a lack of light (you could try adding a couple of CFL lights to your starter setup), or it can also be caused by over watering. When I pot up my Jiffy's I make sure that the soil in the starter pot is well watered, than plant in the Jiffy. For the first week-2 weeks depending on temperature I only add a tiny amount of water around the jiffy. The idea being to draw the roots down and out of the Jiffy. The plants first full watering won't be until the pot is pretty light and dry, then I tend to water from the bottom up - adding water to a saucer and allowing the pot to draw up the moisture - this helps by keeping the top of the soil relatively dry reducing the risk of dampening off.

In any case they're looking good and if they get too floppy you can always give them some support with small canes.

dude, can i ask your advice? regarding watering - am driving myself nuts over how much is the right amount. up until now i've been erring on the side of caution and not giving them much at all. I'm working with 12 litre root pouches and I'm reading conflicting things like only give them tiny amounts.... to.... you need to be watering with a quarter of the volume of your containers - which in my case would be 3litres as opposed to the odd 50/100ml i've been giving here and there....!

ahhhh man, me head is mashed!

 

[knocker powell]

Sunday Update: After a lovely day yesterday, the weather has turned bandit. Overcast, windy, grey. Typical Bank Holiday weather. Temp just touching 60 with overnights around 50 ish. Still fretting over plants being in overnight cold! Now am consumed with watering worries - how much is enough, how much is too much etc! I'm like a shit Woody Allen. Anyway here are the snaps taken this morning when i bought them inside for a bit of a drink. - 100ml each. Whoo!

 

[Jraven]

It doesn't sound like you've overwatered, and your plants don't look real thirsty so you're probably doing ok with it. I ended up with wet soil in a bunch of mine. That is tough to recover from. The weight of the pot tells you a lot. You can fill a pot with soil and no water and compare the weight.

 

[KapScot]

Hi - yer I do it all by weight as well, and the plants are looking fine. As they get bigger they will consume a lot more - especially in the sun outdoors. If you're not sure if the overall soil is dry try sticking the base of the pot in a saucer full of water - if the warer gets sucked up pretty quickly then you are perhaps a bit dry - add some more water to the base and let it draw up some more - once the pot is has stopped sucking up water it will be pretty well watered and should be a good weight to judge others by. Also even if the top of the soil is a bit dry the bottom of the pot won't be this will help the plant throw deeper roots searching for moisture which will be all good when you go to transplant to larger containers/ground.

Once plants start stretching and flowering the water uptake increases greatly - so my indoor Mephistos for example were happily chugging away with a single weekly feed and run off (letting all the water drain out of the pot) of about 3L then a top up as required of about 1L every 3 days. (11L pots). Now in fuill bloom I have to check them daily as one is going thru two fulll waterings of 3L and tops daily as well.

So going by weight is the best advice I can give really - as Jraven suggested you could fill a pot with dry compost as a comparison - then totally soak that pot till its waterlogged and feel the weight of that again - somewhere in the middle is where you want to be - better to be a little drier than waterlogged tho as that discourages rooting.

Not very scientific but it works.

 

[knocker powell]

It doesn't sound like you've overwatered, and your plants don't look real thirsty so you're probably doing ok with it. I ended up with wet soil in a bunch of mine. That is tough to recover from. The weight of the pot tells you a lot. You can fill a pot with soil and no water and compare the weight.

thank you sir! that's a great idea. hope that you managed to recover from the wet soil. think that's what i'm worried about really. read so many things saying that it's better to under water than over water that i'm really cautious about waterlogging them. I shall heed your advice. thanking you very much! have a great day. cheers kp.

 

[knocker powell]

Hi - yer I do it all by weight as well, and the plants are looking fine. As they get bigger they will consume a lot more - especially in the sun outdoors. If you're not sure if the overall soil is dry try sticking the base of the pot in a saucer full of water - if the warer gets sucked up pretty quickly then you are perhaps a bit dry - add some more water to the base and let it draw up some more - once the pot is has stopped sucking up water it will be pretty well watered and should be a good weight to judge others by. Also even if the top of the soil is a bit dry the bottom of the pot won't be this will help the plant throw deeper roots searching for moisture which will be all good when you go to transplant to larger containers/ground.

Once plants start stretching and flowering the water uptake increases greatly - so my indoor Mephistos for example were happily chugging away with a single weekly feed and run off (letting all the water drain out of the pot) of about 3L then a top up as required of about 1L every 3 days. (11L pots). Now in fuill bloom I have to check them daily as one is going thru two fulll waterings of 3L and tops daily as well.

So going by weight is the best advice I can give really - as Jraven suggested you could fill a pot with dry compost as a comparison - then totally soak that pot till its waterlogged and feel the weight of that again - somewhere in the middle is where you want to be - better to be a little drier than waterlogged tho as that discourages rooting.

Not very scientific but it works.

ahhh man - thank you. sorry to be a fanny about this. you know what it's like, so desperate to get it right that sometimes a bit of common sense goes out the window. here, your mephistos sound mad! that's a lot of water eh? - i really like mephisto as a set up, i've been trying to read as much as i can about them. I totally stumbled across a kind of diary/blog they'd written about moving over to spain and all the difficulties they'd experienced (and also, overcome) during their set up. Those guys are living the dream! Imagine that, lovely little set up in spain, doing what you love and getting paid for it.... meanwhile back in rainsoaked UK etc!

Cheers SpliffScot, really good of you to throw in some advice there. much appreciated. have a grand day, mate. all the best, KP. PS am off to have a look at your mephisto grow journal. can't wait!