Down to Earth Organic Fert + Autoflowers?

I'm currently using Down to Earth products and wanted to ask several questions

Is DtE slow release?

Is there a schedule for using Down to Earth products on Autoflowers?

Currently one of my ladies looks like she's having lack of Nitrogen and i was told some organic ferts are slow release and require a specific amount of time to become available. I'm currently using FOFF with some perlite.

Also another question! Hydroton at the bottom of fabrics pots to encourage drainage or is that a misconception?

Search Dr. Earth for cannabis and you'll get a feeding schedule for a 5 gallon container then just do the math for whatever size container you're using.
If your going to be doing organics and trying to encourage life to thrive in your soil you don't want to use fabric pots and do a wet/dry cycle, letting it get really dry and then watering it. You're better off with a plastic pot that's going to consistently hold the moisture in on the sides based on what I've been reading and seeing in my own grow. I used fabric pots since that's what I'm used to and I was getting burned tips from the plants concentrating nutes in the tips from uneven watering from the fabric pots and my watering habits from using salt based nutrients. The nutrients are definitely slow release, it takes some time for them to be broken down and available for the plant but you can foliar feed it some stuff if you have a bad deficiency in veg. Check out the organics section for some more help from guys that really know their stuff. I'm doing my first Dr. Earth auto run now so I'm kinda in the same place as you except I'm in Roots organic soil instead of fox farms which I used for years but gave up on last year after a couple of bad batches.

If you are already in fabric pots you can wrap plastic wrap around the sides to stop the moisture loss around the sides of the pot. That's what I ended up doing two days ago. Saran wrap and a couple pieces of duct tape isn't a great look but the girls seem to like it. You can see the tip burn on some of the leaves that I was talking about in the picture. Since I've changed my watering habits to keeping them constantly moist the burnt tips have stopped and growth and overall plant health have been great. I feed every two weeks but I've just been using the DTE 4-4-4 and not the real program. I'm going to switch to bloom next feeding or a mix of bloom and grow probably because they just started flower, 28 days, and they need the Nitrogen for the stretch. Hope it works out well for you.

absolute, you can always wrap fabric pots in to some foil to simulate a plastic pot.
doing the same, does really help a lot to keep the sides moist.

Foil would have been a better idea now that I think about it. Saran wrap was a bitch to work with. I just saw the idea the other day on someone's thread and I was dealing with the exact same problem so it was a great but ugly fix.
I always wanted fast draining media to pump high ppm salt nutes through before but now that I'm doing dry amendments and Recharge I have to change my way of thinking 180 degrees. Thanks for a better way to skin a cat, might help with root temps if that's an issue for some guys too.

when i wrote it i thought youre doing the exact same thing .
i simply used the role of celophan foil from the kitchen without thinking too much of it further.
its a quite perfect fit and took just a few seconds to wrap it around.
youre aboslute right with the dry edges, in cocos its not so much of a problem in soil they dry too fast.

Michi Sama said:

I'm currently using Down to Earth products and wanted to ask several questions

Is DtE slow release?

Is there a schedule for using Down to Earth products on Autoflowers?

Currently one of my ladies looks like she's having lack of Nitrogen and i was told some organic ferts are slow release and require a specific amount of time to become available. I'm currently using FOFF with some perlite.

Also another question! Hydroton at the bottom of fabrics pots to encourage drainage or is that a misconception?

Click to expand...

Yes

You should be able to follow any sensible top dressing method, search around the forums.

Most NPK dry amendments are slow release but the quickest available of the three is nitrogen.

cobshopgrow said:

when i wrote it i thought youre doing the exact same thing .
i simply used the role of celophan foil from the kitchen without thinking too much of it further.
its a quite perfect fit and took just a few seconds to wrap it around.
youre aboslute right with the dry edges, in cocos its not so much of a problem in soil they dry too fast.

Click to expand...

Ok. I am, I think we're just having a language thing. Where I'm from, Saran wrap is plastic wrap, foil is aluminum foil. I thought you were using metal foil which seems like an easier material possibly since plastic wrap is hell for me to work with. It sticks to itself and nothing else and drove me nuts.

yes, language thing, havent used aluminium foil but had no problem using the plastic foil haha.
yes it stick to itself, but thats a plus i thought.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Search Dr. Earth for cannabis and you'll get a feeding schedule for a 5 gallon container then just do the math for whatever size container you're using.
If your going to be doing organics and trying to encourage life to thrive in your soil you don't want to use fabric pots and do a wet/dry cycle, letting it get really dry and then watering it. You're better off with a plastic pot that's going to consistently hold the moisture in on the sides based on what I've been reading and seeing in my own grow. I used fabric pots since that's what I'm used to and I was getting burned tips from the plants concentrating nutes in the tips from uneven watering from the fabric pots and my watering habits from using salt based nutrients. The nutrients are definitely slow release, it takes some time for them to be broken down and available for the plant but you can foliar feed it some stuff if you have a bad deficiency in veg. Check out the organics section for some more help from guys that really know their stuff. I'm doing my first Dr. Earth auto run now so I'm kinda in the same place as you except I'm in Roots organic soil instead of fox farms which I used for years but gave up on last year after a couple of bad batches.

Click to expand...

I got a huge roll of that plastic foil that sticks pretty well. I was recommended fabric pots and noticed the drying was a problem. Would I have known that plastic pots for FOFF Soil i would've bought me a set. I'm kinda blah cause I just purchased 5 gallon Fabric Pots brand new too. So if I use plastic pots or Plastic Wrap method - how often am I watering per say?

You're going to want to water every day with organics probably at least in small pots. I've found that by getting them good and saturated and picking them up you develop a feeling for what it feels like fully wet if you will. I then shoot for 5-10% of the containers volume as a guide so if you have 5 gallons you have roughly 640 ounces but that's if you filled it to the top of the pot volume wise and I'm guessing you left about and inch or two of room for space like everyone else so I just use 600 as a rough number. Take 5-10% of your 600 ounce container and you get 30-60 ounces a day of water which is roughly a quarter to half gallon a day. You would vary it depending on how the pot felt and never flood the media to dripping if you can help it because then you're washing away your nutrition from the soil and roots. It's something you will develop a feeling for but having some plastic on the top or a mulch layer is also beneficial to help your root microbes grow and thrive. Try to read up on the root biome in the organics thread as you have time and you can understand why the moisture/air ratio is so important to the plant. It's all the little microbiology that's taking place in the root zone when you're doing organics that is so critical and small fabric pots make it harder to maintain unfortunately. I'm learning as I go and it will be bigger pots for me next time I think, 7 gallons and plastic for sure. Hope this helps you and hit those organic thread guys up, they're super helpful, just try using the search function before you ask your question. You can often answer it that way and it gives you a ton of responses to look at.