Watering With The BLT Method

Damn I really love a toasted BLT sandwich, And a tall glass of iced tea on ice to go with it! :cheesygrinsmiley:

You may, or may not have come across this as you’ve been reading the fine journals here at:420:

Upon request I’ve decided to make a thread specifically for the BLT Method. Not only do I love BLT’s, but our beloved weed “The Marijuana” loves BLT’s as well.:smokin:

Let me explain.

There is an overwhelming weight on our shoulders when we first start growing marijuana. Are they on track, am I under watering, am I over watering, so on and so forth.

Let’s just relax a bit here, gather your feet from underneath you, smoke a joint if you have to. It will be ok! All the fine members from the 420 mag are here to help. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with this thread. Give you all a piece of mind with your watering.

Now, this watering technique works well for soil, super soil, and coco. Except coco is considered a hydro grow, not a soil grow. Coco won’t have a wet/dry cycle, because they can usually get fed everyday, but I will get more into the wet/dry cycle later.


Plants love a BLT (bacon lettuce tomato sandwich)



When you feed a plant a BLT but not feed the entire surface of soil, and not water till you see run off. Your plant is getting a lot of bacon, a lil lettuce and lil to no tomato. The soil looks dry, so you feed her with another BLT, giving her another large dose of bacon, a lil lettuce and lil to no tomato, As well as the left over scraps from the lettuce and tomato before. Giving them a mixed dose of BLT. With an improper feeding technique can lead to nutrient lockout or other deficiency problems.



Feeding properly now. You give the plant a nice BLT! Watering the entire surface of soil, let it all run down, filling up the surface of your soil again, and let it drain. Repeat until you see run off. Ensuring you that all of the roots are being fed the entire BLT given. Doing so also ensures your pulling oxygen down with the water, giving a great amount of oxygen to those roots as well, because oxygen is just as important to those roots as the nutrients are.


I also see a lot of people battling humidity problems as well, just un able to keep the RH levels where you want them to be. You can wet towels down and hang them in the grow area or, Using this feeding technique, will also raise your RH percentage, with larger amounts of water being pulled through the pots. Leave your pots elevated up off the ground and have a container underneath the pots to catch any run off after putting your plants back into the tent/box/room.

I always pull my plants out of the tent for feeding. I love interacting with the plants. Pinching, pulling, viewing, training, etc.etc...
So I feed them and let them drain as much as I can before putting them back into the tent. I never collect all of the run off, so having the containers underneath the pots collects the excess water and raises the humidity levels for you. Don’t just put your plants back into the area, I want you to pick up each pot, and make a mental note in your head on how heavy they are promptly to being fed. Use that to determine when to feed your plants again. Your plants will feel like a feather compared to shortly after being fed. You need to create your self a good wet/dry cycle for your plants. Following this technique you will have a plentiful future!

thanks for taking the time to read this, I wish you all the best of luck in the future, if you have any issues, or problems, or even just want to share your experience with using this method. Your more then welcome!:thanks:
:passitleft:
 
What about the first 1-3-7 days from sprout?For my second grow I studied journals of Emilya and was watering 10-20 mls at the start before I went wet-dry.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I may have left a few holes in the opening post.

There’s many people that start in the final pot. It’s important to start in smaller containers and maintain the BLT method through out.

A young seedlings are fragile, and very easy to “screw” up a grow with not properly taking care of your young seedlings. I always start my seeds in a peat puck, in a humidity dome. Very easy to take care of, and from there, I give enough amounts of water to soak the puck. I always remove the lid on the humidity dome half way, by twisting it once the cotyledons sprout. After a few days, I remove the dome completely, and all I want to do is keep the puck moist, but not wet. Depending on how busy a person is, I always seem to be on the go, so a couple times a day I check the pucks to make sure they haven’t dried out completely, if they have, add water and move forward :thumb:
 
Thanks for this!

Another note: I had a friend water my plants one weekend while I was out. I instructed him particularly on watering really slow and taking breaks and watch for run-off. He did just that, but when I got home, the plants were still dry.

What happened?

Fabric pots are well... fabric. And if you water the sides of your plant, it’s very possible that you’ll get some side run-off. This does not mean your plant has been watered. Pay close attention to the bottom of the pot and not necessarily the sides. :)
 
Thanks for this!

Another note: I had a friend water my plants one weekend while I was out. I instructed him particularly on watering really slow and taking breaks and watch for run-off. He did just that, but when I got home, the plants were still dry.

What happened?

Fabric pots are well... fabric. And if you water the sides of your plant, it’s very possible that you’ll get some side run-off. This does not mean your plant has been watered. Pay close attention to the bottom of the pot and not necessarily the sides. :)
Yes sir, good point. It’s important to work your way from the centre out. Also sometimes, soil can create a channel from the top of the plant towards the bottom, allowing water to enter it, work towards the bottom and go straight out the side and or bottom. If you notice what seems o be a channel, cover the hole back up with soil moving around the top soil with tour fingers and pouring larger amounts of water will help to saturate all of the soil.
I always grow in cloth bags as well. I push about 1 to 1.5 gallons of each pot. depending on how well of drainage your soil has.

how long were you gone for?

Edit: @skipeye i edited the reply.
 
Yes sir, good point. It’s important to water slowly, and work your way from the centre out.

how long were you gone for?

Just a few days. What happened was he watered the sides of the pot first, saw the run-off happening on the sides (water coming out from the sides of the fabric pot), and stopped, thinking the plant had enough water. He's learned since then. I've learned since then. It's better now. :)

I'm now on day 38 since germ, and haven't watered for almost a week now after a VERY good watering last Saturday. I can attest to being guilty of a first-time over-waterer, notoriously. But I'm a changed man.
 
Awesome thread @Backlipslide ill be using this for my watering technique once my girls are a bit larger. For now since mine are planted in their forever pots I’ll just try and water train the roots. Any recommendations since they are in the forever pots though??
 
Any recommendations
Yes for sure!

start in smaller pots, and work your way, into your final pot! :cheesygrinsmiley:


Awesome thread @Backlipslide ill be using this for my watering technique once my girls are a bit larger. For now since mine are planted in their forever pots I’ll just try and water train the roots. Any recommendations since they are in the forever pots though??
Haha yes! Please do!

just continue with a well balanced wet/dry cycle. Until your plants start creating a good root zone.

what size pots are your final pots?
 
@Backlipslide the PBF is in a 8-10 gallon and the GDP is in a clay pot that’s about 4 gallons I believe. I have intentions of keeping both the Paul’s blackberry fire and GDP as mother plants so I can pull clones. Not sure if that has any difference on anything but figured I’d share.
 
I’ll have to take a look at your journal again to see how big your plants are. Depending on the size of your plants you could easily dig it out and move to a small pot, then work your way into the 8-10 gal pots. When I get home from work today, I’ll take a picture of all the different sizes pots I go through in a grow. Nahh that doesn’t really matter. The point of working your way to your final pot with three or more pots before the final is to make sure you maintain a healthy/happy root zone, so when you do get in your final pot, it adapts to its environment easier and you will find less of a problem running into issues.
 
It took me a while to get my watering right...I THINK too much!! I self taught myself I guess. I watered each by itself in the sink and waited for runoff. Then I let them sit for 15 minutes before returning to the tents. Then I waited for a droop to show me when they were thirsty. Now, after plenty of cycles with my situation of cloning I just seem to naturally know when to water. My theory was (and I am NOT a professor), I would rather notice they are thirsty than to over water and rot them away with too much water. Good post...always nice to get help from friends!!!
 
I would rather notice they are thirsty than to over water and rot them away with too much water.
That has always been my motto.
Or, a doctor takes an oath to "primum non nocere " or 'do no harm'.

It's better to let them get thirsty than to drown them.
In fact, sometimes I do that on purpose.
Right after 'bud set' some strains like to stall out. If I notice that happening I don't feed or water till they get hungry/thirsty. Sometimes it goes three or four days of fasting.

But, when I feed/water after that - they really take off, big time.
 
Damn I really love a toasted BLT sandwich, And a tall glass of iced tea on ice to go with it! :cheesygrinsmiley:

You may, or may not have come across this as you’ve been reading the fine journals here at:420:

Upon request I’ve decided to make a thread specifically for the BLT Method. Not only do I love BLT’s, but our beloved weed “The Marijuana” loves BLT’s as well.:smokin:

Let me explain.

There is an overwhelming weight on our shoulders when we first start growing marijuana. Are they on track, am I under watering, am I over watering, so on and so forth.

Let’s just relax a bit here, gather your feet from underneath you, smoke a joint if you have to. It will be ok! All the fine members from the 420 mag are here to help. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with this thread. Give you all a piece of mind with your watering.

Now, this watering technique works well for soil, super soil, and coco. Except coco is considered a hydro grow, not a soil grow. Coco won’t have a wet/dry cycle, because they can usually get fed everyday, but I will get more into the wet/dry cycle later.


Plants love a BLT (bacon lettuce tomato sandwich)



When you feed a plant a BLT but not feed the entire surface of soil, and not water till you see run off. Your plant is getting a lot of bacon, a lil lettuce and lil to no tomato. The soil looks dry, so you feed her with another BLT, giving her another large dose of bacon, a lil lettuce and lil to no tomato, As well as the left over scraps from the lettuce and tomato before. Giving them a mixed dose of BLT. With an improper feeding technique can lead to nutrient lockout or other deficiency problems.



Feeding properly now. You give the plant a nice BLT! Watering the entire surface of soil, let it all run down, filling up the surface of your soil again, and let it drain. Repeat until you see run off. Ensuring you that all of the roots are being fed the entire BLT given. Doing so also ensures your pulling oxygen down with the water, giving a great amount of oxygen to those roots as well, because oxygen is just as important to those roots as the nutrients are.


I also see a lot of people battling humidity problems as well, just un able to keep the RH levels where you want them to be. You can wet towels down and hang them in the grow area or, Using this feeding technique, will also raise your RH percentage, with larger amounts of water being pulled through the pots. Leave your pots elevated up off the ground and have a container underneath the pots to catch any run off after putting your plants back into the tent/box/room.

I always pull my plants out of the tent for feeding. I love interacting with the plants. Pinching, pulling, viewing, training, etc.etc...
So I feed them and let them drain as much as I can before putting them back into the tent. I never collect all of the run off, so having the containers underneath the pots collects the excess water and raises the humidity levels for you. Don’t just put your plants back into the area, I want you to pick up each pot, and make a mental note in your head on how heavy they are promptly to being fed. Use that to determine when to feed your plants again. Your plants will feel like a feather compared to shortly after being fed. You need to create your self a good wet/dry cycle for your plants. Following this technique you will have a plentiful future!

thanks for taking the time to read this, I wish you all the best of luck in the future, if you have any issues, or problems, or even just want to share your experience with using this method. Your more then welcome!:thanks:
:passitleft:
Helpful and broke down so most can truly get it. Thank you.
 
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