How many liters or gallons of mixed water/food per liter or gallon of pot?

[Greenlizard]

So I already feel like this is a dumb question but I can't seem to find the answer and have searched the forums here a few times for this topic.
I'm already on my way and in my opinion my grow is going great and my plants are healthy. The simple answer to my question would be "Just keep doing what your doing"... but I really would like to have a benchmark to look at.

I am in 7 gallon pots now and when I water I just PH to 6.3 or very close to it and slowly add water until it starts running out of the bottom of the pot. This seems to take about three 4L jugs (so 3 gallons) as of now. I'm sure as the plants grow they will need even more, or at least that is the pattern I have been experiencing so far.

When I feed I have not been mixing up the same amount. I have only been mixing up about 3L per plant of nutes/ferts. Also as said with the watering I increase this slightly as the plants grow.

My question is unless my plants start showing signs of stress or deficiencies should I change this system? Should I be mixing a full 4L jug or maybe even two when I feed each plant? I don't want to hold them back and not feed enough but even more I don't want to overfeed and harm them.

Also I do not use a schedule for watering or feeding. I just read the plants and the soil. When it's getting dry I water, and every second time I feed.

I'm using Nutri-Plus. nutri+ PRODUCTS

Thanks for any insight or opinions. Cheers!

 

[Emilya Green]

Have you seen this?

 

[Greenlizard]

Thank you, but yes I have a hard copy of that at home. It came inside my starter kit. It tells me the ratio of additives per liter of water.
My question or concern is how many liters of mixed additives should I be applying per liter / gallon of pot.

At the bottom of that page it says:
"Plants in pots: Water to drip. Always water the plants with fertilizer."

This disclaimer goes against most things I have read. I am under the assumption that I should "not" always water with fertilizer, and that I should only do it every second watering or at the most no more than two feedings back to back. Perhaps I was wrongfully influenced from other random information?

Maybe I should be applying more fertilized water when feeding as it says? I haven't fed until I got runoff but should I start?

 

[Emilya Green]

ah, understood. The general rule is to water once with nutes and then water the next time with just pH adjusted water. Some of the nutes are left over from the first time and coming in with just water the next gives you a second shot at those nutes, while also toning them down a bit by being diluted on that second pass. Actually with this system, your plants are getting nutrients in some concentration, every time you water.
Watering is a science unto itself, and to properly water a container you have to totally saturate the soil that is there. You can expect a container of soil to be able to hold about 3/4 of its size in water, suspended in that soil.
So when you water with your nute solution, your goal is to treat that container of soil like a sponge, trying to fill it up with as much water or water/nutes as it will hold, before it starts to run off out of the bottom. Always slowly water to runoff, trying to get as much in there as you can.
Then, sit on your hands for a few days until your plants use up all of that water and the container feels light again. Rinse and repeat... filling it up each time with the proper concentration of nutes or just plain water... always pH adjusted to be in the proper range for your medium. Please read my paper on proper watering... that should clear a lot of this up for you.

 

[Greenlizard]

Thank you Emilya. Makes sense. When the plants were in smaller pots I was doing exactly what you described. Now that they moved up into their "big girl pots" I wasn't sure if I should still be feeding to the point of runoff or not. So basically I did a light feeding last night since I didn't feed until runoff. Probably only half of what the pots could have held. I probably shouldn't try and make up for that tonight and just leave them to absorb what's already in the pots and do more saturated feedings moving forward. Or should I feed again tonight to make up for what is lacking from last night?