The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

[Jon]

The color at the end has more to do with cooler temps and the changes that plants go through as they end their season, but it should not have much at all to do with nutrition.

That being said, Geoflora recommends (good pro gardener advice) that you save the money and skip the last feeding, to let the plants go that last 2 weeks without additional Geoflora. This DOES cause a deficiency in certain macro nutrients, but not much of one because there is still a lot of unused (unprocessed by microbes) nutrient left in the soil, but enough that the plant can see it and starts calling on its reserves for the additional needs that we know a finishing bud needs. This causes the dramatic yellowing and even loss of leaves as those mobile elements are cannibalized, starting from the bottom and moving up. In that final 2 weeks, I have never seen this planned deficiency move any further up the plant than the bottom of the canopy before harvest. As long as it is being managed and not determined to be a problem, this deficiency is not so much a deficiency as an indicator.

Ok, thanks. This picture shows you what I was talking about. This was the yellowest one and the only one that was kind of all the way yellow. Some of the others are greenish but headed exactly this direction. So seeing this, am I okay? This said to me "indicator" instead of "deficiency." Am I correct?

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok, thanks. This picture shows you what I was talking about. This was the yellowest one and the only one that was kind of all the way yellow. Some of the others are greenish but headed exactly this direction. So seeing this, am I okay? This said to me "indicator" instead of "deficiency." Am I correct?

yes, the key to understanding what you are seeing here is that other than a couple of magnesium indicators and maybe a phosphorus one, this leaf is almost uniformly being sucked dry of all of its stored nutrients and entirely turning yellow as a result. Seeing this early in the grow to me says underfeeding and late it says cannibalizing. If this was happening in the upper third of the plant I would be very worried, but as long as it is down low and creeping upward at the end, I would not worry because I can see and understand why it is happening, and that there really isn't anything that I need to do about it.

 

[Jon]

yes, the key to understanding what you are seeing here is that other than a couple of magnesium indicators and maybe a phosphorus one, this leaf is almost uniformly being sucked dry of all of its stored nutrients and entirely turning yellow as a result. Seeing this early in the grow to me says underfeeding and late it says cannibalizing. If this was happening in the upper third of the plant I would be very worried, but as long as it is down low and creeping upward at the end, I would not worry because I can see and understand why it is happening, and that there really isn't anything that I need to do about it.

OK I thought that would help clarify for me especially if you saw it. Yes, this is the very bottom leaves, and she just got fed a couple days ago so no way is she underfed - I have fed every 13 days instead of 14 and upped the amount by about 10% since the beginning. Definitely not underfed. And I see what you see here despite that I didn't have the language to express it as you did. Thanks for that. What I saw was that it was only the big old fan leaves, only the lower ones, and the fade is very consistent like this with no other spotting really. And yes, we are in final fattening mode so yes we're definitely in late budding - her trichomes are almost all white as of this morning, or at least close to that. So I think I ticked all the boxes you mentioned to assure myself that I'm seeing what I thought I was.

As usual, thank you for the education.

 

[kikikopa]

Nice. So you get as many hours of sun as you possibly can before you stick them back under the Zeus? I do the same. I approximate it at 10/10 of the 20 hour auto day, 10 sun, 10 LED, cuz usually I move them back in around 4 pm when the sun is low and only hitting them from the side. They're off at 1 am till 5 am for their four hours of darkness. So really I have probably 9/11 in reality, cuz there's only about 9 hours a day of what I consider to be prime sunlight. And I am constantly moving my outdoor plants around the yard as the day progresses, chasing that direct sunlight. Three moves a day for 10 plants, 7 of which are in various stages of flower. Think that's not a pain in the arse? I'm in a wheelchair. Trust me it's a pain in the arse. Lol. But....I love the sunlight/LED combination. I have come to believe it has a lot to do with both the yield and quality of my autos. My autos might not be the biggest yielders sometimes (although the Chunkadelic gave me 7.2 ounces of finished buds!), but they're always very good quality. And I only grow, with the Chunkadelic exception, autos that are very high in THC, so honestly, if you didn't know it, you can't tell any difference between my finished photo weed and my finished auto weed. I really like what you have going on.

Did moving your light make a difference?

My living space is tight so I don't have much as far as indoor lighting goes. I rely mostly on the sun except for when the plants are young in solo cups and can stay within the confines of one low watt compact fluorescent bulb. I did have the seedlings too close to that one light to minimize the stretch and it burned the first fan leaves so moving it higher did correct that problem. Thanks for the offer to answer any questions. I'll touch base with you on your diary page a little later. 7.2 ozs. of finished bud. WoW! That alone would be enough to tide me over for a year. Kudos for the high yield of your Chunky.

 

[LKABudMan]

Thank you @Emilya for posting this. I am trying my first soil grow and this post helped a TON. Very appreciated.

 

[Emilya Green]

Thank you @Emilya for posting this. I am trying my first soil grow and this post helped a TON. Very appreciated.

Glad to help LKA, that is why I wrote it! Good luck with your grow!

 

[420giirl]

Hi @Emilya, I was going through your watering thread looking for an answer to my question. Although I read a lot of interesting information, I found myself in 2016 lol anyways, so I’ve been watering every other day and (w f w) giving nutes every other one of those waters. I’ve notice that my plants are looking like they want water the next day after giving plain water. I wondered if I should switch to a WW F WW F (water,water, feed) schedule. Where I would give them water 2 days in a row and then feed? It seems like they dry out a lot faster when it’s a water only day. Would this be too much water or too calculated?
I watered with nutes today, so I’ll make sure to check the pot tomorrow that way I can be sure before I change anything.
I keep the tent at 80f-85f during the day with lights out at 8pm, the temp goes down to 75f-73f.
I also run an exhaust and intake fan in the tent all day and night. Along with 2 fans one at top and one at the bottom of the tent.

Ps. I am 4 weeks flower, 31 days.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi @Emilya, I was going through your watering thread looking for an answer to my question. Although I read a lot of interesting information, I found myself in 2016 lol anyways, so I’ve been watering every other day and (w f w) giving nutes every other one of those waters. I’ve notice that my plants are looking like they want water the next day after giving plain water. I wondered if I should switch to a WW F WW F (water,water, feed) schedule. Where I would give them water 2 days in a row and then feed? It seems like they dry out a lot faster when it’s a water only day. Would this be too much water or too calculated?
I watered with nutes today, so I’ll make sure to check the pot tomorrow that way I can be sure before I change anything.
I keep the tent at 80f-85f during the day with lights out at 8pm, the temp goes down to 75f-73f.
I also run an exhaust and intake fan in the tent all day and night. Along with 2 fans one at top and one at the bottom of the tent.

Ps. I am 4 weeks flower, 31 days.

Why are you watering every other day?? How are you determining that they need water this often? How long have you been on this schedule?

 

[Old Guy Teaches]

Agree.... I stick My finger as far as I can in the soil. Im In very sunny SO CAL and HOT. My finger usually says 4 Days...90% of the time. I don't flood the plant until Months later. Maybe a Qt.

 

[420giirl]

Why are you watering every other day?? How are you determining that they need water this often? How long have you been on this

Ok, Let’s see here, I guess I use a few things. Like this gadget here, along with the knuckle test, which is kind of hard being that the roots are everywhere atp. I only use this method when I change the watering technique from veg to bloom. I’ll also use lift the pot method.
According to my calendar I started to notice they were drying out a lot quicker then usual on the 3rd week of bloom. I started to think it was the intake fan I had just added. (See post #255-269, in my current journal) I started to water every other day, which still wasn’t a consistent every other day bc I would check with the plants first, before doing any watering. There were a couple times they went to 2 days. However, I do see now that I could have waited another week or so before changing to watering when the top half has dried out. What made me want to stick to every other day or 2 days is that I did wait until the 3rd day and they were so droopy it scared me. I’ve been told it’s a no, no to let them droop in bloom. I didn’t want that to happen again. They seem to dry out faster when it’s water only. I always tend to try and ask before something goes wrong, that’s why I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to hurt them in the long run by watering this way. Again, I always check with my plants first. I’ll get the hang of it sooner or later, I’m sure of it. Thanks again for all you input and help with my watering concerns!!

This is showing the top half is dry on the second day after watering with nutrients. I’m not going to water today, I’m going to wait until tomorrow on the actual 3rd day, just to make sure I’m reading my plants right. Otherwise, I would have watered today, possibly even yesterday if that’s what they were wanting.

Leaves are starting to point down towards the bottom and pots are already light to lift.

the bottom is still a lil moist, just not by much.

Ps. I don’t want to under water or over water. I know the sign of under watering but not over watering?

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok, Let’s see here, I guess I use a few things. Like this gadget here, along with the knuckle test, which is kind of hard being that the roots are everywhere atp. I only use this method when I change the watering technique from veg to bloom. I’ll also use lift the pot method.
According to my calendar I started to notice they were drying out a lot quicker then usual on the 3rd week of bloom. I started to think it was the intake fan I had just added. (See post #255-269, in my current journal) I started to water every other day, which still wasn’t a consistent every other day bc I would check with the plants first, before doing any watering. There were a couple times they went to 2 days. However, I do see now that I could have waited another week or so before changing to watering when the top half has dried out. What made me want to stick to every other day or 2 days is that I did wait until the 3rd day and they were so droopy it scared me. I’ve been told it’s a no, no to let them droop in bloom. I didn’t want that to happen again. They seem to dry out faster when it’s water only. I always tend to try and ask before something goes wrong, that’s why I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to hurt them in the long run by watering this way. Again, I always check with my plants first. I’ll get the hang of it sooner or later, I’m sure of it. Thanks again for all you input and help with my watering concerns!!

This is showing the top half is dry on the second day after watering with nutrients. I’m not going to water today, I’m going to wait until tomorrow on the actual 3rd day, just to make sure I’m reading my plants right. Otherwise, I would have watered today, possibly even yesterday if that’s what they were wanting.

Leaves are starting to point down towards the bottom and pots are already light to lift.

the bottom is still a lil moist, just not by much.

Ps. I don’t want to under water or over water. I know the sign of under watering but not over watering?

It looks like you have it handled pretty well. The most important time to get obsessive about drying them out to the very bottom, when the lift the pot method works the best, is during veg. Once you hit bloom, the roots are pretty much grown and it is time to push water on the plants as much as you can, and it sounds like your half the pot method of telling when to water is pretty accurate. You might want to let them dry out one extra day about 1 in 4 waterings though, just to bring some extra oxygen down to the roots.

The signs of overwatering would be a constant droop and the inability to get lift except right after watering... your plants look beautiful and have lots of lift at the top, with a perfectly timed picture of the drooping below horizontal on the lower leaves as the plant starts to sense it is running out of water.

 

[kikikopa]

There is nothing at all wrong with topping your plant while still in the first container... I do it all the time. It is very important not to rush out of this first container. You will never again have an opportunity to have the roots packed into this small of a space with your ability to force a rootball into that constricted space. In every larger container upwards, this process is harder and harder, since it involves so much more space.

Chopping at the 5th, 6th and even 7th nodes will work and will double your yield with just that first cut. It is also common to top between nodes 2 and 3, after waiting for this 5th one to come up, and this results in a plant with 4 main colas. It is also common to top between node 3 and 4, and this acts much like a FIM cut, and it is up to the plant to decide whether to give you 2,3,4 or even 5 main colas. This cut takes the longest for the plant to resolve, and you never know what will result. Topping between 4 and 5 or anywhere upwards from there, always results in 2 main colas.

Yes, I immediately soak the new container upon uppotting so as to merge the two soil regions and to really get the roots going. At any point in the grow and in any sized container, if the plant is taking longer than 3-4 days to drain the water, I give a mini in between watering of just the top surface and mostly the outer edges, just to keep the plant's metabolism high, while waiting on its big bottom roots to drain that water.

It sounds like you are on the way to a wonderful result. The rootball is the key!

Hello again my friend Emilya. I hope this post finds you in good spirits on this beautiful day.

I just finished my first uppot for this grow and all went well. The ladies were going through their water in a day and you could tell they really wanted to stretch out those roots. They've responded extremely well in their new pots and I'm looking forward to doing this whole process once again and this time they will end up in 5 gal pots. I do have a few questions for you sense if you would be so kind.

I posted about topping in the solo cups but held off on that since I knew they were close to be transplanted but also because I accidentally flipped the switch so I had to reveg. From what I understand, the reveg process is simply keeping under light which they are now. One plant still seems to want to continue to flower as the pistils are still developing but the others looks like they've reverted to the veg stage.

So it is now day 36 and the uppoting is completed with new substrate and the reveging seems to have been successful except for that one. I went back and read what you wrote about topping at different node levels to get different results. My plants have now started on their 6th node. I've read that topping the plant slows down it's growth so I want to top these as soon as I can. I saw a video with a lady that topped her plant after 10 weeks of growth but I'm not really sure why she waited that long especially when you say you've topped yours in solos.

You posted "It is also common to top between nodes 2 and 3, after waiting for this 5th one to come up, and this results in a plant with 4 main colas." Is this still an option since they are now on node 6? This one sounds interesting to me but I'm a little concerned about taking off that much on these still relatively young plants. Would you know at what level of topping the plant recovers from the fastest? Lastly, what is your favorite level to top your plants at Emilya? Maybe I'm being a little too cautious and should just go ahead and give 'em the chop. I just want to make sure I don't screw things up and do something that permanently damages or kills the plants.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hello again my friend Emilya. I hope this post finds you in good spirits on this beautiful day.

I just finished my first uppot for this grow and all went well. The ladies were going through their water in a day and you could tell they really wanted to stretch out those roots. They've responded extremely well in their new pots and I'm looking forward to doing this whole process once again and this time they will end up in 5 gal pots. I do have a few questions for you sense if you would be so kind.

I posted about topping in the solo cups but held off on that since I knew they were close to be transplanted but also because I accidentally flipped the switch so I had to reveg. From what I understand, the reveg process is simply keeping under light which they are now. One plant still seems to want to continue to flower as the pistils are still developing but the others looks like they've reverted to the veg stage.

So it is now day 36 and the uppoting is completed with new substrate and the reveging seems to have been successful except for that one. I went back and read what you wrote about topping at different node levels to get different results. My plants have now started on their 6th node. I've read that topping the plant slows down it's growth so I want to top these as soon as I can. I saw a video with a lady that topped her plant after 10 weeks of growth but I'm not really sure why she waited that long especially when you say you've topped yours in solos.

You posted "It is also common to top between nodes 2 and 3, after waiting for this 5th one to come up, and this results in a plant with 4 main colas." Is this still an option since they are now on node 6? This one sounds interesting to me but I'm a little concerned about taking off that much on these still relatively young plants. Would you know at what level of topping the plant recovers from the fastest? Lastly, what is your favorite level to top your plants at Emilya? Maybe I'm being a little too cautious and should just go ahead and give 'em the chop. I just want to make sure I don't screw things up and do something that permanently damages or kills the plants.

It is pretty hard to kill a vegging plant by topping it... they just continue on if they can. I don't think it would be a problem to do the Uncle Ben chop between 2-3 even at the 6th node coming up... time is a wasting though.

Don't worry about seeing a few pistils while still in veg. This is how we tell the males from the females after all, and it is common to start seeing pistils around week 4-5 of veg... don't worry about it, this does not mean it is flowering.

The plants do not slow down when you top them. They might stop getting taller for a minute, but the growth under the cut will keep going, and even the next day you will see massive changes. The only topping that seems to take an extra day or two to resolve is the 3-4 cut, but even then, I don't think the plant has totally stalled out. And lastly, although it can be done, the first topping at week 10 would be almost pointless... no time to develop the lower growth.

 

[kikikopa]

It is pretty hard to kill a vegging plant by topping it... they just continue on if they can. I don't think it would be a problem to do the Uncle Ben chop between 2-3 even at the 6th node coming up... time is a wasting though.

Don't worry about seeing a few pistils while still in veg. This is how we tell the males from the females after all, and it is common to start seeing pistils around week 4-5 of veg... don't worry about it, this does not mean it is flowering.

The plants do not slow down when you top them. They might stop getting taller for a minute, but the growth under the cut will keep going, and even the next day you will see massive changes. The only topping that seems to take an extra day or two to resolve is the 3-4 cut, but even then, I don't think the plant has totally stalled out. And lastly, although it can be done, the first topping at week 10 would be almost pointless... no time to develop the lower growth.

Many thanks Emilya for your advice. Short of perusing your journals, what node level do you like to make your topping cuts and when?

I believe I caused the plants to flip by accidentally keeping them dark for too long. I didn't think it would matter for plants so young but it did. The one in the picture continues to show pistil growth five days after they first appeared. Should I still top that one now or continue to try to reveg it?

 

[Jon]

Many thanks Emilya for your advice. Short of perusing your journals, what node level do you like to make your topping cuts and when?

I believe I caused the plants to flip by accidentally keeping them dark for too long. I didn't think it would matter for plants so young but it did. The one in the picture continues to show pistil growth five days after they first appeared. Should I still top that one now or continue to try to reveg it?

LOL! Sorry K, that picture made me laugh. She's funny!. What an odd thing. At the end of the day you gotta laugh.

 

[Emilya Green]

Many thanks Emilya for your advice. Short of perusing your journals, what node level do you like to make your topping cuts and when?

I believe I caused the plants to flip by accidentally keeping them dark for too long. I didn't think it would matter for plants so young but it did. The one in the picture continues to show pistil growth five days after they first appeared. Should I still top that one now or continue to try to reveg it?

That depends on the shape of the plant that I am going for. I either top at 5-6 or I chop at 2-3, depending on how much work I wish to do in training, or if I just want to take it easy and let the plant grow mostly naturally.

This plant is definitely in flower and not reverting... I am assuming you have it in 18/6 lighting and it is still doing this. Could it be that you have an auto here?

 

[kikikopa]

LOL! Sorry K, that picture made me laugh. She's funny!. What an odd thing. At the end of the day you gotta laugh.

More like cry. My list of things NOT to do continues to grow.

 

[kikikopa]

That depends on the shape of the plant that I am going for. I either top at 5-6 or I chop at 2-3, depending on how much work I wish to do in training, or if I just want to take it easy and let the plant grow mostly naturally.

This plant is definitely in flower and not reverting... I am assuming you have it in 18/6 lighting and it is still doing this. Could it be that you have an auto here?

Thanks for sharing that Emilya.

Yes, it is a photo and I do have it on that light schedule. I'm not sure what to do with this little lady and how long to wait for her to reveg. I can't imagine much from letting her to continue to flower at this early stage of her life. I hope she is not a total loss.

 

[Jon]

More like cry. My list of things NOT to do continues to grow.

One day soon you'll look back on her fondly. What if you just let it flower and let it make it's one giant bud?

 

[kikikopa]

One day soon you'll look back on her fondly. What if you just let it flower and let it make it's one giant bud?

I'm not sure about that but I hope so. My fear is she will be added to the list of buds that never were.

One humongous bud you say? If it would be worth the effort, I would consider doing that but I've nursed sick ladies in the past only to regret it afterwards due to the very small harvest. Those efforts were a waste of time especially when I had the chance to cut my losses short and replant while I still had some growing season left.