Should I be watering to runoff?

[GardenWeasel77]

Did they get worse after you top dressed? You could be burning them. Or having some lockout.

You don't need to make a tea. You're probably gonna mess them up more if you try that.

EWC are your friend. If you want to make a tea out of anything, that's what you want. That and some molasses. But you don't need to make a tea. Top dressing is great.

They're your plants though so do what you think is best.

No if anything they got a little better. Its only been 7 days though so probably still to early to tell right?

 

[PadawanWarrior]

No if anything they got a little better. Its only been 7 days though so probably still to early to tell right?

You need to decide what you want to do. Keep it organic and reuse the soil. Or use chemicals and buy new soil all the time.

If I was gonna use chemicals I'd use coco or something other than soil. You can reuse coco too.

You're gonna get different advice on here. It's up to you to choose what you want to do. I'm rooting for ya, so I'll answer any questions you have.

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

FFOF is good for three weeks.
After that you have to feed, and yes, water until runoff.
Dry fertilizer is not as efficient as liquid fertilizer if it's not mixed into the soil.
You're better off finding a liquid fert you can use. Or at the very least, make a tea with your dry stuff and use that to water.
Sitting dry ferts on the top of the soil is not the way to go in FFOF.

I stand 100% against what you’re saying. In fact growing with only dry fert in FFOF I have GREAT results. Liquid fertilizer is not only expensive, it’s not as good as the natural process.

I am a first time grower. I am growing in ffof. As of late my plants have become nutrient deficient. I have been topdressing with down to earth dry fertilizer.

My question is, should I be watering until runoff or is that just flushing all my fertilizer out?

Now to answer your question. No. Don’t water until runoff. You’re washing out your nutrients. Don’t listen to the guys telling you to water until runoff. If you’re using a salt based nutrient like liquid ferts, then yes you want to flush. If you’re wanting to use the natural process of soil growing you’ll need more than just dry ferts. Get yourself a simple compost and earth worm castings and mix a couple cups of each into your top soil. Growing this way, you’re relying on the microbiology in your soil to break down your organic matter and turn it into usable mineral nutrients for your plant. Also, if you’re not already, switch your water to RO water. It has no chemicals that can harm your microbes in your soil. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I grew almost 20 ounces on one plant my last run. Didn’t feed a single bottled nutrient and just watered with plain RO water.

 

[GardenWeasel77]

I stand 100% against what you’re saying. In fact growing with only dry fert in FFOF I have GREAT results. Liquid fertilizer is not only expensive, it’s not as good as the natural process.

Now to answer your question. No. Don’t water until runoff. You’re washing out your nutrients. Don’t listen to the guys telling you to water until runoff. If you’re using a salt based nutrient like liquid ferts, then yes you want to flush. If you’re wanting to use the natural process of soil growing you’ll need more than just dry ferts. Get yourself a simple compost and earth worm castings and mix a couple cups of each into your top soil. Growing this way, you’re relying on the microbiology in your soil to break down your organic matter and turn it into usable mineral nutrients for your plant. Also, if you’re not already, switch your water to RO water. It has no chemicals that can harm your microbes in your soil. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I grew almost 20 ounces on one plant my last run. Didn’t feed a single bottled nutrient and just watered with plain RO water.

Wow thats impressive. Unfortunately I dont have the money to buy a ro water filter right now. Is top dressing with ewc better than making a tea?

Also you mentioned topdressing with compost. I dont have any compost on hand. Can I just use my dry fert instead?

 

[PadawanWarrior]

I stand 100% against what you’re saying. In fact growing with only dry fert in FFOF I have GREAT results. Liquid fertilizer is not only expensive, it’s not as good as the natural process.

Now to answer your question. No. Don’t water until runoff. You’re washing out your nutrients. Don’t listen to the guys telling you to water until runoff. If you’re using a salt based nutrient like liquid ferts, then yes you want to flush. If you’re wanting to use the natural process of soil growing you’ll need more than just dry ferts. Get yourself a simple compost and earth worm castings and mix a couple cups of each into your top soil. Growing this way, you’re relying on the microbiology in your soil to break down your organic matter and turn it into usable mineral nutrients for your plant. Also, if you’re not already, switch your water to RO water. It has no chemicals that can harm your microbes in your soil. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I grew almost 20 ounces on one plant my last run. Didn’t feed a single bottled nutrient and just watered with plain RO water.

Thank you Kiwi!

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

Wow thats impressive. Unfortunately I dont have the money to buy a ro water filter right now. Is top dressing with ewc better than making a tea?

Also you mentioned topdressing with compost. I dont have any compost on hand. Can I just use my dry fert instead?

You don’t want to add too much dry fertilizer. It WILL cook your plant. RO water is very easy to get. I bought several gallons from my grocery store. If you have access to 5 gallon containers and a grocery store with a water filling station, you have access to RO water. You can use regular filtered water too. Or even regular tap water as long as it doesn’t have harsh chemicals like mine does.

Top dressing is more for a slow release. Compost tea is mainly for adding tons of microbes to the soil. If you want fast results, top dress with compost and worm castings, and bubble up a tea for 24 hours of castings, compost, some dry fert(not a lot is needed, maybe a spoon full) and a simple sugar like honey or molasses to start the feeding process. Microbes love simple sugars. When you feed the tea after your top dress you’ll start seeing changes to your plant within 1 day easily.

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

Thank you Kiwi!

Man these people on here know NOTHING lol. I did a lot of research on organics though, so I’m here to help some lol

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Man these people on here know NOTHING lol. I did a lot of research on organics though, so I’m here to help some lol

I know man. I say this all the time. But some people don't get it and so I just give up. Thanks for helping me type less. You get it.

I just went through this thread first, lol.

Top dressing

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of Brands I can use to top dress my plants from start to finish. Reason being I don’t have much space where my grow is and I’d like it to be simpler as to top dress the soil and then water each time instead of mixing liquids and then watering...

www.rollitup.org

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

I know man. I say this all the time. But some people don't get it and so I just give up. Thanks for helping me type less. You get it.

I just went through this thread first, lol.

Top dressing

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of Brands I can use to top dress my plants from start to finish. Reason being I don’t have much space where my grow is and I’d like it to be simpler as to top dress the soil and then water each time instead of mixing liquids and then watering...

www.rollitup.org

Any time lol. I think all new growers should research organics and learn about cationic exchange. The organic process is super simple and these people are wasting their time with bottled nutrients. You look at a forest that doesn’t get bottled nutrients or anything and it’s flourishing. It’s because the microbiology in the soil. It’s because as the leaves fall, the microbes break it down to usable nutrients. It’s because everything is working so closely together that everything is done with simple watering. Lol alright done ranting, I need some sleep

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Any time lol. I think all new growers should research organics and learn about cationic exchange. The organic process is super simple and these people are wasting their time with bottled nutrients. You look at a forest that doesn’t get bottled nutrients or anything and it’s flourishing. It’s because the microbiology in the soil. It’s because as the leaves fall, the microbes break it down to usable nutrients. It’s because everything is working so closely together that everything is done with simple watering. Lol alright done ranting, I need some sleep

Same here. I'm gonna eat and go to bed. Just waiting for my French Dip to heat up. I've got French Dips figured out good.

Good bread is #1. Safeway sandwich rolls work great, but any good French bread works awesome. And I love this Au Jus. It's awesome and super easy to make. A lot of restaurants use it.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Ok now it's ready.

 

[drsaltzman]

I stand 100% against what you’re saying. In fact growing with only dry fert in FFOF I have GREAT results. Liquid fertilizer is not only expensive, it’s not as good as the natural process.

Now to answer your question. No. Don’t water until runoff. You’re washing out your nutrients. Don’t listen to the guys telling you to water until runoff. If you’re using a salt based nutrient like liquid ferts, then yes you want to flush. If you’re wanting to use the natural process of soil growing you’ll need more than just dry ferts. Get yourself a simple compost and earth worm castings and mix a couple cups of each into your top soil. Growing this way, you’re relying on the microbiology in your soil to break down your organic matter and turn it into usable mineral nutrients for your plant. Also, if you’re not already, switch your water to RO water. It has no chemicals that can harm your microbes in your soil. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I grew almost 20 ounces on one plant my last run. Didn’t feed a single bottled nutrient and just watered with plain RO water.

Hey Kiwi,

1. The guy never mentioned organic. It’s a little too late for EWC and dry fertilizer and hippie dust. He’s not building a soil today. He’s trying to save his grow.
2. Try to pay attention to what he needs and not what you want to see. We all get it. Organic is great. Newsflash: We don’t all use it.
3. Know who you’re talking to before you call anyone out. You grow your way, I’ll grow mine. He’ll grow his.
4. Nice plants.

 

[drsaltzman]

Wow thats impressive. Unfortunately I dont have the money to buy a ro water filter right now. Is top dressing with ewc better than making a tea?

Also you mentioned topdressing with compost. I dont have any compost on hand. Can I just use my dry fert instead?

GW, not sure if you’re organic or not, but there are organic liquid nutes too. It’ll help your current grow and it’s good to have on hand.

When you get advice to use molasses, be careful. First, plants don’t take up sugars naturally. They produce them via photosynthesis. Putting sugar in your soil can have unintended effects, like death to your girls. There is no scientific evidence molasses does a damn thing. It’s an urban legend that has far more traction than it deserves. Then again, the election was stolen according to some who will believe what they want, so there’s that.

If you’re ok using the FF stuff, I’d buy it. Learn to grow with it. Decide later if you want to change up your technique and go full send on the organics and really build a nice soil. Nutes are just one part. Your lights are A#1.

Enjoy your grow. Good luck!

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

Hey Kiwi,

1. The guy never mentioned organic. It’s a little too late for EWC and dry fertilizer and hippie dust. He’s not building a soil today. He’s trying to save his grow.
2. Try to pay attention to what he needs and not what you want to see. We all get it. Organic is great. Newsflash: We don’t all use it.
3. Know who you’re talking to before you call anyone out. You grow your way, I’ll grow mine. He’ll grow his.
4. Nice plants.

How is it too late to switch to organic. Give a nice watering til runoff to wash out the salts. I told someone do that mid grow and his plants came out great. If you aren’t an experienced grower, bottled nutes can be difficult. Getting his soil right can definitely save them plants.

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

GW, not sure if you’re organic or not, but there are organic liquid nutes too. It’ll help your current grow and it’s good to have on hand.

When you get advice to use molasses, be careful. First, plants don’t take up sugars naturally. They produce them via photosynthesis. Putting sugar in your soil can have unintended effects, like death to your girls. There is no scientific evidence molasses does a damn thing. It’s an urban legend that has far more traction than it deserves. Then again, the election was stolen according to some who will believe what they want, so there’s that.

If you’re ok using the FF stuff, I’d buy it. Learn to grow with it. Decide later if you want to change up your technique and go full send on the organics and really build a nice soil. Nutes are just one part. Your lights are A#1.

Enjoy your grow. Good luck!

Molasses isn’t for the plants to take up nutrients. The molasses is for the microbiology. It’s a food source for them when making a tea. It also encourages microbe growth. Essentially when you add it to the soil it causes a feeding frenzy for the microbes. You’re clearly not educated in the natural process so I won’t argue. Salt based nutrients are SHIT. Nothing and l mean NOTHING compares to the natural process.

 

[Raspberrykiwi]

OP, if you want the best results and great tasting flower and no risk of over feeding or killing your plants, buy some cheap organic compost and worm castings. It’s not expensive at all and it requires little to no work at all. It is by far the best way to go. Especially since you can reuse your nutrient rich and microbe rich soil. I don’t care what these “organic bottle nute” growers say. If it’s a liquid that needs pH to be taken up by the root zone it’s SHIT. I switched to organics my last grow and absolutely crushed it with only water. It’s very cheap to grow organically. Any compost will work, any worm castings will work. If you want to use bottled nutes go ahead, they’re more expensive and require more equipment to get right. Even then, you have a chance of fucking up and stunting growth of your plant. The pic of the plant is about 4 weeks of veg. I can give you a link to do some reading on organics.

 

[getogrow]

FFOF is not organic.

How is it not organic ?

 

[madvillian420]

How is it not organic ?

Well id never go out of my way to say "FFOF is not organic", but its technically not ORMI listed/certified. the bag just says "natural and organic" which im pretty sure is marketing lingo for "theres SOME organic stuff in here"

 

[getogrow]

We all know omri is just a label.
Im just going by the ingredients which is basically peat moss. I'll go read the bag again , but im 99.2% sure its fully organic.

 

[Hollatchaboy]

Recharge is a very nice booster agree with that

And I hear you now, he can’t get the action fast enough from the top dress, so adding something like fish hydrolase or anything along those lines like your saying will give them the boost till the dry can even begin to work.

Doesn't a tea make nutrients readily available?