New Grower Needing Advice/Input

[Nixs]

Okay, I'll try the knuckle test instead of the weight test. Also, when I water I've been stopping at the first drip(s) that come out of the pot. I definitely haven't been getting anywhere near 10-15% runoff!

I highly recommend reading this thread, good Info's

Plant Moisture Stress - Symptoms and Solutions

PLANT MOISTURE STRESS - symptoms and solutions (revised Jan. 12, 2009) Quite often I hear groans from folks having leaf problems -> “Help, my leaves are cupping and the leaf edges are turning brown!”, or, “My plant's leaf tips are curling down and turning black ....what's...

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[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

City test 10? Holy crap. That's alkaline as hell.

Yeah I was gonna try a few waterings with unadjusted tap water into FFOF but now I'm hesitant.

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

I highly recommend reading this thread, good Info's

Plant Moisture Stress - Symptoms and Solutions

PLANT MOISTURE STRESS - symptoms and solutions (revised Jan. 12, 2009) Quite often I hear groans from folks having leaf problems -> “Help, my leaves are cupping and the leaf edges are turning brown!”, or, “My plant's leaf tips are curling down and turning black ....what's...

rollitup.org

Thanks for the link, that was a good read! I think I'm definitely overwatering, I'm taking @Wattzzup advice and reducing the frequency while also increasing the volume so I get more runoff.

Last night I was gonna water because the pots felt light and I had been watering every 2 days but I did the knuckle test as suggested and it still felt a little damp within 1" of the top of soil and this morning before work they looked fine, no drooping or anything, so it looks like I was definitely overwatering.

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

City test 10? Holy crap. That's alkaline as hell.

Also the city is always touting how we have some of the best water in the nation. And that may be true...for humans...but its certainly not what my plants crave

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

Looking good, try to keep that humidity up though. Take some towels and hang them so you have the most surface area possible, don't let them sit on the ground bacteria and mold and what not will begin to brew if it doesn't dry out quick enough.

I'll look into this method, its not one I've come across yet. One thing's for sure...my puny humidifier is definitely not keeping up very well. I have to set the fans to zero speed to keep humidity at a level close to 50%. I then have to manually bump the fan every couple hours for a little air flow which is a PITA and I work 10 hour days so that's not an option at all during the workweek.

 

[BenGman]

Hey man, you shouldn't ever ph your water with the soil you are using, your just going to have problems like i can see, as it's been said the soil buffers the PH, Also adding some dolomite to the soil will help with this, you'll start seeing your plants happier and growing a faster rate also adding stuff like some epsom salt etc mid veg before flower will help with development also

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

Hey man, you shouldn't ever ph your water with the soil you are using, your just going to have problems like i can see, as it's been said the soil buffers the PH, Also adding some dolomite to the soil will help with this, you'll start seeing your plants happier and growing a faster rate also adding stuff like some epsom salt etc mid veg before flower will help with development also

Okay, thanks for the input. I'm gonna get over my insecurities and feed them straight tap water that's been left out overnight. Like you guys said, the FFOF has pH buffering capabilities anyways so I'm good to go.

I'll try the dolomite additive when I pot-up to the 1G fabric. I'm wondering...if I plan on flowering in 3G pots maybe I should just skip the 1G and go straight to 3G when I re-pot? Also with the epsom salts, I've seen people adding it to their water...is that the method you're talking about or are you suggesting amending the epsom salts directly into the soil?

 

[Nixs]

Is the dolomite necessary if watering with a 10 pH water? Doesn't raise the pH more?

 

[Killaki]

Alright I found my city's 2020 water quality report online and it appears my meter is reading high. The water report shows shows a pH of 10 with TDS range of 200-463 ppm. I've got the cheap yellow meter from amazon and I haven't used the calibration liquids yet. Got lazy and assumed it was good to go, I'll have to do that this weekend and hopefully get it reading right.

I don't know where you are but that's what the water is like in my state! All over my area, first hand experience and I checked haha. If that's the way your water is you'll find most people here will not have much experience with that. It can be a challenge, and I always have to tweak my water. I know people here say just use it straight from the tap and that's probably true for them but in my experience for MY water if I use it straight from the tap my plants get sad.
Good luck!!

 

[Killaki]

Is the dolomite necessary if watering with a 10 pH water? Doesn't raise the pH more?

I also am mindful of what I mix in my medium as well because my water is so alkaline. It actually makes more of a difference than you would think.

 

[Dank Bongula]

Yeah I was gonna try a few waterings with unadjusted tap water into FFOF but now I'm hesitant.

pH your water. I grow in ffof or ffhf with dry amendments (fuck fox farms trio) and I always pH my water. City water comes out of my tap at 8.5+ and has all sorts of shit in it so I pH it and use it in combination with bottled water and transplanting to avoid calcium buildup in my soil.

 

[Tangerine_]

Also the city is always touting how we have some of the best water in the nation. And that may be true...for humans...but its certainly not what my plants crave

 

[Nixs]

pH your water. I grow in ffof or ffhf with dry amendments (fuck fox farms trio) and I always pH my water. City water comes out of my tap at 8.5+ and has all sorts of shit in it so I pH it and use it in combination with bottled water and transplanting to avoid calcium buildup in my soil.

Have you tried humic acid to treat the salt build up?

 

[Nixs]

"The next benefit of humic is it helps stimulate the roots. It does this by acting like probiotics for the soil. And by binding to minerals, it prevents the soil from containing too much salt."

Benefits of Adding Humic Acid to Soil for Plants

Love to get your hands dirty in the soil? If you’re not familiar with humic acid, get to know it. It’s like a natural steroid for plant growth.

allnaturalideas.com

 

[BenGman]

You add dolomite too help BUFFER the ph in the soil and that's what it does, simple. Raising ph? No. Add it to your soil

 

[Nixs]

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

pH your water. I grow in ffof or ffhf with dry amendments (fuck fox farms trio) and I always pH my water. City water comes out of my tap at 8.5+ and has all sorts of shit in it so I pH it and use it in combination with bottled water and transplanting to avoid calcium buildup in my soil.

When you use your dry amendments, do you mix with the FFOF prior to re-potting or do you use top dressing and/or organic teas after the soil runs out of nutes? I doubt I'll have enough time before flower to get a handle on organic feeding so I'm gonna stick with bottled nutes for this run. I do wanna go organic eventually but pretty much all my research has focused on bottled nutes up to this point.

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

pH your water. I grow in ffof or ffhf with dry amendments (fuck fox farms trio) and I always pH my water. City water comes out of my tap at 8.5+ and has all sorts of shit in it so I pH it and use it in combination with bottled water and transplanting to avoid calcium buildup in my soil.

Yeah I'm getting some conflicting information which is not too surprising. If I've learned one thing, its that there's a thousand different ways to grow this plant and they may all work just fine. But there's always a best way and I'm on a hunt to get as close as possible to that way for my grow and I appreciate all the helpful tips.

For the next 2 weeks, I'll use pH'd water for 2 of the plants and unadjusted water for the other 2. I know its an imperfect experiment since they're not clones, but hopefully I'll see enough difference to help me decide a course forward for the long term.

 

[PeaceLove&HotSauce]

I don't know where you are but that's what the water is like in my state! All over my area, first hand experience and I checked haha. If that's the way your water is you'll find most people here will not have much experience with that. It can be a challenge, and I always have to tweak my water. I know people here say just use it straight from the tap and that's probably true for them but in my experience for MY water if I use it straight from the tap my plants get sad.
Good luck!!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed that my water is so crappy. Honestly, the water quality/pH of my tap water wasn't even on my mind as a possible issue. I figured everyone's water was highly alkaline but I'm finding out that's not true. That's okay though...WE SHALL OVERCOME

 

[Dank Bongula]

Yeah I'm getting some conflicting information which is not too surprising. If I've learned one thing, its that there's a thousand different ways to grow this plant and they may all work just fine. But there's always a best way and I'm on a hunt to get as close as possible to that way for my grow and I appreciate all the helpful tips.

There are multiple ways to do just about everything with this plant and that even goes as far as the consumption aspect, not just growing....there is no one best way....but you're right that you'll figure out what is best for you...environments, budgets, and attention to detail are different for everyone so we all do it our own way. You'll get there.

When you use your dry amendments, do you mix with the FFOF prior to re-potting or do you use top dressing and/or organic teas after the soil runs out of nutes? I doubt I'll have enough time before flower to get a handle on organic feeding so I'm gonna stick with bottled nutes for this run. I do wanna go organic eventually but pretty much all my research has focused on bottled nutes up to this point.

If I am not transplanting, I do not mix in amendments with the OF, I mix them into the top soil with about a cup of OF to cover when time to topdress. I do not make teas. When transplanting I will toss in a tablespoon of biolive 5-4-2 and mykos to give it a mycorrhizal boost. Some people don't even bother with amendments and just top dress more OF

Don't sell yourself short, you have more than enough time to read up on this method and discard the trio lineup. Growing in soil with dry amendments is about as easy as one could ask for. It is a slower growing method, but that has its advantages too.

Check out this thread by @Budzbuddha
He was nice enough to explain and provide pics and graphics for a more visual understanding.

FFOF ( Fox Farms Ocean Forest ) made Simple - Autoflower

This thread was created to help those who seem to overthink the ease of use of this highly ammended bag soil. I see many growers both new and experienced seem to post “ issues “ when trying to run this medium. I am merely showing a simple no frills method of container / bag grows for autos...

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