always grew organics in soil, some coco mixes, would ignore all info hydro related my entire life as if it were chinese, convinced myself i hated hydro grown bud. did tlo which is like the definition of trial and error just so i didnt have to learn hydro.
i will now be using octopots and jacks inside or outside and doubling yield is just a byproduct of that.
the simplicity of being able to organize all your grow gear in a single cabinet (not in your garage/shed), mix nutes in seconds to exact levels (weighing them), ease of cleaning, true solubility, low cost, etc makes it hard to go back to literally shoveling shit and smelling like it.
100 percent this is a big part of the problem.
I only water a maximum of 20% of the soil volume, and usually more like 10%, watering soil to runoff is massively overwatering; you should be watering way less, way more frequently.
In flower I’m watering either every day, or every other day in 5 gallon pots.
For me, in 5 gal fabric pots in soil in full on flower i water every other day maybe 1.25 gallons. Just until i start to see a few drops from the bottom. The only time i water to runoff in soil is if god forbid somethings off that i have to flush to correct or a flush at the end. In my experience with soil, ive done better up potting a couple times with good soil with about 40% perlite and using less added bottled nutes. I also use dynomyco.The final container with a flowering /bloom blend. I top once and spread out scrog style to get more bud sites exposed
I only have one buddy that grows and i asked him for tips on the start up and he said water til run off… good thing im on OG. On another thread I seen someone say about they would overwater and it would cause the root mass to stay in the upper half of the pot
if the root mass is fully developed you want to be watering til just before creating runoff then wait for it to dry back a certain % if you are soaking the root system by hand. but why create opportunities for human error watering by hand? why even water the plant at all, if the plant drinks only what it needs you cant over or under water it.
bro everytime i go out there all but one of the potting soil bud plants got gnats around it, nothing buzzing around the ones in tupur and ss#4 mix in the octopots. no bugs, no accidently hitting the lower leaves with ferts, no bird shit and brewing compost teas for days on end or pretending to be a scientist mixing pure elements in veganics. its literally idiot proof.
Understand hydrophobia, perched water table, wet/dry cycles.
Hydrophobia - when the soil gets dry and you water it, the soil doesnt hold the water - it just runs off and theres no absorbtion. Ever water dry soil and scratch the top layer and see its not even wet a millimeter down? Because the dry soil has an electric charge that repels water. Gotta water dry soil a few times before it holds water.
Which brings up the next point - water twice, at least.
Oh, and absorbing vs adsorbing
Perched water table is when the upper soil wicks water upward from the lower soil through capillary action caused by water polarity and surface tension of water.
Wet / dry cycles allow the amendments in the soil to weather and become bioavailable. Plus, weed plants hate wet feet and like a couple drying outs. But then ya need to double or triple water the next time.
Pick up your pots, get a feel for wet weight and dry weight. Water again when pot is light/dry. Surface appearance is unreliable, it may look dry before more water is actually needed.
Lots of good info, suggestions, hacks and tips here. I’ve had runs with good yields, and some not so good. Some I know why. When I shared ALL the grow details, my lower yields were mostly due to my timing. Timing of when I flipped after topping. Timing in relation to when I flipped to 12s. Timing in relation to repotting. Not letting them recover properly before I did something else.
The combination of timing of various processes can be critical. I really have no idea really. I’m just stoned, getting stone-der? I’ll quit chattering now.
Definitely going to cut back on the watering. I was taking advice from a coco guy so thats where the water til run off thing came about. I was actually told to water runoff is about 25% of input and have been doing so for my last two harvests. Horrible yeilds on both. Im just looking to have enough smoke to make it to the next smoke
Exactly, I just crush up a handful of aloe spears and mix into a 5ga bucket of water. And then water my plants w it. I usually do this at least one or twice per flower run plus used as needed for addressing hydrophobic soil.
The textural difference of the water w the added saponins is obvious.
If the soil surface is too dry, before watering, i *lightly mist the soil surface w a hand sprayer. *Lightly so as to not get wet any leaves.
I found the moistened surface allows for better absorption of water.
Sounds like the thought behind watering was off.Run off is cool for coco but not Earth. SIPs FTW