laddyd
Well-Known Member
I am also using SIP planters and have had to re-evaluate how many plants I can get in my 3x3. Damn things get big in those planters.
Deficiency?
- Thread starter Jsnbaxter
- Start date
If I water before the soil seems to get flies. Fox farm happy frog
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Yea those are fungus gnats, and it's a consequence of growing in living soil. Actually, if you want to grow truly organic, they'll be a variety of beneficial insects you'll want, some of them are predatory, and they'll be strictly for keeping detrimental insects under control. Composting worms also, like red wigglers, is another benefit that you'll want. Theres kind of a lot to it, if you want the soil food web to work. You'll want to keep populations of microbes and fungi thriving as well. That's where moisture is key. So is a large soil volume. It's less demanding on the soil biology. All these things, are a good start to getting a healthy soil food web going.
You want the soil to stay moist so all the microbial activity can take place. Mulch the top with straw or rice hulls. Helps keep moisture in, and protect microbes at the soil surface. Cover crops work good too, and aids in other ways.
You should watch the build a soil 10x10 series on youtube. Very informative, and he explains it all in a moderately basic way, making it pretty easy to understand.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
I can tell you it's probably not overfed. I feed 2-3 tbls per gallon of soil with Dr. Earth and have never seen signs of overfeeding. A 5 gallon fabric pot should need 1/2 to 3/4 gallons of water a day in flower. If you're going to run dry amendments in a small size fabric pot you absolutely have to water daily. Otherwise like Hollatchaboy said as the soil dries out the microbes die back and nutrients get concentrated and you see tip burn that can look like overfeeding. Here's a pic of a plant in my tent right now that's in a 5 gallon fabric pot. It gets fed 10 tbls of Dr Earth every 2 weeks and has zero nute burn.
You need to give the plant a heavy, slow and deep watering. Using a surfactant like aloe or yucca would be good as the soil is probably hydrophobic from getting too dry. I'd recommend using some Recharge or another Microbe product to help get your microbes back to a healthy level so they can break down the organic nutrients you're feeding them better. Organic soil in fabric pots can be done but you have to stay on top of watering. You really don't want to ever see them drooping from being dried out. That's what causes tip burn. You can also wrap the outside of the pot with plastic wrap to seal in the moisture on the sides better.
The only strain I've seen that didn't want at least 2 tbls per gallon of soil is my Pre 98 Bubba Kush clone. It's N sensitive and does better at 1 tbls per gallon of soil. Hope some of this helps. Here's another plant in the tent right now at 2 tbls per gallon.
You need to give the plant a heavy, slow and deep watering. Using a surfactant like aloe or yucca would be good as the soil is probably hydrophobic from getting too dry. I'd recommend using some Recharge or another Microbe product to help get your microbes back to a healthy level so they can break down the organic nutrients you're feeding them better. Organic soil in fabric pots can be done but you have to stay on top of watering. You really don't want to ever see them drooping from being dried out. That's what causes tip burn. You can also wrap the outside of the pot with plastic wrap to seal in the moisture on the sides better.
The only strain I've seen that didn't want at least 2 tbls per gallon of soil is my Pre 98 Bubba Kush clone. It's N sensitive and does better at 1 tbls per gallon of soil. Hope some of this helps. Here's another plant in the tent right now at 2 tbls per gallon.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Plants are lookin awesome!
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Looks good. Are you reusing your soil?
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
No, I'd like to get to the point where I'm using more of a living soil but with Roots Organic so cheap it's honestly just way easier to use that straight out of the bag and just amend with dry amendments and Epsom salt. I've been playing around this grow with using Jack's original 321 formula for deficiency issues like a hybrid organic/salt nute thing and they look way better than just the dry amendments.
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Mine's over 4 years old now. My grows have gradually gotten worse over time,
. It doesn't help that all the pots have different amounts of everything. I really should get it tested, but I'd have to put it all in some giant tub and mix it all together or take samples from each one. Plus I'm stubborn, lol.I'm taking this summer off though. This is actually the first time in 4 years that I don't have plants growing. It's kinda nice. I still water the soil once a week though.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
I had an involuntary 6 week vacation back in November and December which was the first time I had taken a day out of the grow in 4 or 5 years. I couldn't get out of my chair so my wife took care of them. It's our 25th wedding anniversary this year and I'll probably take her somewhere for a couple days, but after that it's back to the green grindstone. I just have too many great strains I want to grow before I can't do it anymore physically.
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Congrats man that's awesome. My wife and I just had our 25th in October.
I water until runoff and my soil stays wet for 5-7 days. How is your soil drying so fast? Im using happy frog and if I watered like that it would get root rot. I watered my last grow every 3 days and it eventually gave me fungus gnats and plants looked like shit in the end. Keep in mind the plant next to it is watered the same way and it looks healthy.
i also did the water a little each day in the past and the plants had an overwatered droopy look to the leaves. Then they got lockout.
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FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
I use Roots Organic original soil because it has a ton of perlite for drainage. If I was using Happy Frog for adult plants I'd add at least 25% perlite to the mix, if not more. The key to healthy plants in my opinion is a healthy root mass. The better balanced you keep the moisture with fewer big swings, the healthier the Microbe population will be. My 2.5 gallon plant just drank 60 ounces in a day with zero runoff at watering. Having big bushy plants with a lot of biomass in the right temp and humidity range will have them drinking. Your temps should be in the low 80's and humidity should be determined by the VPD chart until late flower when you should try to drop it down to prevent bud rot or PM. Here's a VPD chart link. You'll need to get a temp and humidity sensor in the tent to really take advantage of it.
VPD Chart
Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) chart & calculator for horticulture in controlled environment. Cannabis, tomatoes, leafy greens, cucumber.
Do a little reading on VPD and you'll understand how it can be a big part of your grow. Hope that helps some.
I did this with the perlite and got all kinds of deficiencies. Also the soil would stay wet and never dry. The perlite holds water so this would cause me issues and my leaves would get a wavy water logged look to them. Not sure how you got this to work but maybe you live in a low humidity area?I use Roots Organic original soil because it has a ton of perlite for drainage. If I was using Happy Frog for adult plants I'd add at least 25% perlite to the mix, if not more. The key to healthy plants in my opinion is a healthy root mass. The better balanced you keep the moisture with fewer big swings, the healthier the Microbe population will be. My 2.5 gallon plant just drank 60 ounces in a day with zero runoff at watering. Having big bushy plants with a lot of biomass in the right temp and humidity range will have them drinking. Your temps should be in the low 80's and humidity should be determined by the VPD chart until late flower when you should try to drop it down to prevent bud rot or PM. Here's a VPD chart link. You'll need to get a temp and humidity sensor in the tent to really take advantage of it.
VPD Chart
Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) chart & calculator for horticulture in controlled environment. Cannabis, tomatoes, leafy greens, cucumber.vpdchart.com
Do a little reading on VPD and you'll understand how it can be a big part of your grow. Hope that helps some.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
With a big plant, big container, the soil will dry quick. Small plant, big container, soil will take longer to dry.
I pot up after roots grow. I go from 1 gallon to 3 to 5
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
Perlite is an aeration material. It creates voids in the soil layer for air pockets. It also doesn't hold much water as compared to soil. I'm not sure how much you added but if it was staying wet for a long time I'm guessing it's a combination of the Happy Frog soil, the environment and unhappy plants. If you're going to stick with Fox Farms soil I'd recommend using the Ocean Forrest blend once you transplant it up from the Happy Frog. Ocean Forrest is a hotter soil with lots of food available in it and can be a little much for seedlings. It also drains better as it has more perlite in the bag. Starting in the Happy Frog helps give them time to develop enough to handle the hotter mix. If your environment isn't in a good VPD range the plant won't drink as much as it will when the temp and humidity is on point.
Thank you. What I think I’ll do is buy roots and try it since I’ve already failed with happy frog and perlite. My main issue with the perlite is the deficiencies I got. Can I see a picture of your roots from a plant you harvested? I’m curious to compare them to mine.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
I don't have any root ball pics but here what they looked like during flower last cycle.
I had let the runoff sit in the drain pan for awhile and they came out of the pots. Here's a transplant after going from a one gallon pot to a 5 gallon airpot.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Here's some pics of a plants rootball, before transplant, in happy frog.
