Oni's 2nd grow. Lessons learned

Not a trick no. I added water to the soil last night so I wouldn’t waste the water before it went bad and figured it would be a good weight as a control after I watered to compare to when it’s dry. I’m really confused how a gallon jug of water I cut the top off of weighs less🤔 I know the pot weighs some weight and the plants aren’t nothing either, but I don’t think the plants are heavy enough to be more than 28g at most rn with roots and water weight in consideration. The soil seems moist, but not that wet. No transfer at all when handled. I scraped a tiny chunk from the bottom out and it left no residue after I handled it and pressed it between my fingers to see how wet it was. I could squeeze anything out, but it’s not so dry it’s dirt. IDK how to put it best into words. I’m high AF RN trying to go to bed in the next 2.5 hours.

Edit: I should specify I meant the soil outside not the soil in the pot growing plants.

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Aerates the soil. When water freezes it expands. Kills bug eggs too.

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Sorry if I’m just too dumb to follow easy. Does that mean the soil beneath would be drier than normal?
I’m grabbing fabric pots, nursery bags, Perlite, and mycorrhizae soon.
While not ideal it’s within my budget rn to grab taht combo. When I can get them it’s all same day shipping, so I’ll be able to start a few seedlings with the new mix after that and if I still see issues I’ll be just calling it a wash until I can grab better soil.
I’m currently unemployed making getting anything hard. My dad bailed on me like usual after asking me for help.

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What I mean is that when you very thoroughly drench the soil, the container remains kind of light, the materials that are gluey (compost) are unable to bind together in such a way as to block out air. Water should drain very quickly through the medium. When you squeeze the drenched material, its sort of wet and fluffy all at once.

Understanding soil is not an easy thing. Please do not denigrate yourself. You have the respect of people here, you know?

Sorry for your parental troubles. Right at the heart of the troubles we seem to have as a nation.

Keep it tuned here. I will too.

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My bad. I meant that part as I’ll just have to deal with what I have. I’ll continue to learn. If nothing else I’ll learn the way to grow in higher clay content soil by the end of this journey when I can put some spare change together for a proper setup.

Also my 2 corncob lights are 2700k and 6000k. The cheap LEDs I have in the middle are 3700k and 5000k

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All good brother.

Throw us a few pics every now and again.

We’ll have you chasing after some trichomes soon enough.

If it is of any interest to you, I am not a huge fan of fabric pots. Too difficult to keep clean.

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I figured, but I’m not expecting to reuse them too many times for 8.99. it’s five 7 gallon pots. For that price I’m honestly not expecting to get more than 1 grow out of it. The nursery bags though are what I’m most interested in. They’re biodegradable and in 4 different sizes. I can give it a small amount of soil and pot up before it grows too big without having to do much of anything. Final pot being the 7 gallon while they had a easy time growing roots up until that point.

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It sounds like a plan. 7 gallon is a very large container for indoor growing. Currently, I am using 3.7 gallon Storm Trooper Helmets for flowering.

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Should I go with a smaller size? I’ll be growing both photos and autos. Gives me different things to do while the autos grow.

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You probably could manage with smaller containers. Especially if you plan to grow in a tent.

I have read on more than one occasion that the autos need to be placed in their final container either from seed or very soon after, but I have never grown one out and can’t help much here.

I move my regular photos from 12 oz containers to 1 gallon containers and finally 3.7 gallons at or shortly after the time they go into 12/12. Having pretty good luck this way.

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7 is way too big for the autos. They only grow for a few months. 3 is good

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Sorry, also if you plan to uppot or transplant regs I personally didn’t like the fabric pots. I had major anxiety everytime I had to transplant as you literally have to cut the bag and tear the roots from the bottom of the bag. They were great though for the autos as I never had to transplant them.

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Today was watering day. I’ve found out that 1 pint is enough to cause 10% runoff. I tested it for shots and goggles and I saw the runoff is at 6.7 now.

The seedling is showing a odd color now. It was immediately after watering and I saw it in real time. It stopped at the point in the pics here.


And I meant to use the nursery bags to up pot. They are biodegradable, so I’m not expecting them to be much trouble. Especially when I’m getting 400 for $9😅 I’ll rip them if I have to, but I’m not expecting to need to

I just saw the bits left by the paper towel I used to soak up the water. I filled a water bottle with straight water and sprayed them after I saw the color change so rapidly. I figured I’m better safe than sorry on that one.

I checked the deficiency chart and it looks like a phosphorus lockout from cold temps. It was sudden and immediately after watering, so IDK for sure. Either that or they got locked out from something in the soil. It was getting worse until I watered until runoff started. I’m thinking there was something in there if it wasn’t too cold. It was room temp water I’ve been stirring repeatedly and letting it rest for a hour or so on and off. The water was at 6.6 pH and was at 70f.

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tbh I think it will be fine if you practice some LITFA and stop messing with the ph and let the soil buffer on it’s own. Autos like the least amount of fussing and any faux pas will mess with growth and final yield.

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I really admire people who can simply do the weight test to figure out if their plants need water. I’ve smoked way too much weed in my life to remember how the plant felt at perfect water level or without from like 2 days ago by lifting it. lol I suffer from CRS (can’t remember shit) :joy:

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@Meesh that’s why I love coco. Looks dry on top? Feed it. Feels lighter than usual? Feed it. Bored? Feed it. OCD? Feed it. It just drains out, no harm done.

As for soil, I do lift up the pots. When it feels like “holy shit it’s so dry my plants are gonna die”, its time to water :wink:

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@HappyHemper Hahaha! Cracking me up over here! I don’t lift them anymore (especially the outdoor regs close to harvest, too heavy), but as a former overwaterer, I err on the side of waiting an extra day if I even have the slightest hesitation when it comes to watering.

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That’s an excellent idea to wait before watering. Its kindof akin to what I do at the bar - before a “yes” to “another pale ale, happy?” I drink a glass of water. Sure makes me piss a lot, but I have not blacked out in public in years, a solid improvement in my social skills! Cannabis is kinda similar…

Sometimes my solo cups with coco dry up to the point of actually letting the leaves wilt. I give them a feeding and they come back with a vengeance. You could probably wait 2 days in dirt when in doubt and still not underwater. :wink:

@OniTenshu, you are doing great, and your seedling looks good. I know exactly how hard it is not to mess with things, but I would like to respectfully encourage you to let the plant do its thing, and not worry too much about details. That dirt should have enough nutrients of all kinds in it to take this plant through this early growth. Especially if you are watering with teas. Let’er rip friend!

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Recovery is a lot quicker and easier with a few hours of underwatering then the days or possibly weeks (depends on damage) it takes to fix overwatering.

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Amen.

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