Is soil a PITA?

[Maer]

I am a new grower, about a week away from harvest on my first generation with a second set ready to bloom when these are harvested. I am finding I spend A LOT of time watering, tonight I watered 10 plants, 4 adults and 6 juveniles and it took me 2.5 hours. I mix up 5 gallons of nute mixture, pH it scratch up the soil on each plant, the first inch or two, then scoop a gallon out and water my plant. I place each plant on a plastic basin with a metal grate on top to catch the run through so I can test that. Wait for it to drip then back into the closet. Then I test the run through in each basin.

Am I doing something wrong? It seems that hydro would be a huge time saver, and I am thinking after this second generation finishes of building an NFT system something like Stevehuman's.

Any comments are welcome. Thanks.

 

[Captain Kronic]

Seems you are doing way too much work... I haven't done a grow like yours but... why don't you automate the watering/feed and then just do your doodling at your will. (scratching and such)?
If you mix the nutes all the same, the runoff from all combined should tell you all you need to know!

There are several good reads on this site about growing indoors using soil!

 

[Maer]

Well each plant varies with the ph of the runoff so mixing them together would give me an average number. I also find that each plant takes up a different amount of nutes, as evidenced by the varying ppm of the runoff. I scratch the soil to make sure it soaks in and doesnt just run down the side of my smartpots. I have them in a closet so i cant just let the water run through on to the ground, I have them on a wire shelf to keep them off the ground and some 6 mil plastic underneath.

 

[Captain Kronic]

It sounds like you have a hell of a lot of work into these plants... if I were you, I wouldn't change a thing right now as long as the plants are healthy... then maybe after harvest you might look for easier ways to get the same or even better results.

Well each plant varies with the ph of the runoff so mixing them together would give me an average number. I also find that each plant takes up a different amount of nutes, as evidenced by the varying ppm of the runoff. I scratch the soil to make sure it soaks in and doesnt just run down the side of my smartpots. I have them in a closet so i cant just let the water run through on to the ground, I have them on a wire shelf to keep them off the ground and some 6 mil plastic underneath.

 

[Vapedogg223]

Hey Maer,

One of the things I have learned on this site is that things can be as simple, or as complicated as you want them to be... I'm growing in soil with Osmocote Plus for nutes, and I water straight from the tap, although wether or not you can get away with that will depend on your tap water. Here's what my girls looked like 2 weeks into flowering.