To spray or not to spray? (leaves)

I am indeed stoned lol, thought you meant it from seed bore no fruit then this guy assaulted it then bam its got some galas growing on it lol

jaubry777 said:

this is something i totally agree with! I remember hearing a story about an apple tree that wouldnt fruit, year after year passed until finally a passer-by heard of the problem at hand. He grabbed a baseball and smacked the hell outta the trunk, cursing at the tree, stressed it into fruiting and it has every year sense. The tree thought it was on its last limb and fruited. make the plants do as much work as they possibly can, and figure out every method to do it without spending money!

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Believe it or not there is truth to this. Orchard growers, and pecan growers, in years past, would mechanically flog their fruit trees with this rubber hose device that would beat the shit out of the trunks. It would stimulate another year or two of production on declining trees. When trees are stressed toward the end they respond by putting all their energy into reproduction (fruit) in order to ensure the existence of the species.

Not sure if they still do this but it was a common practice as late as the 70's.

Fact

Cool! I meant to say baseball BAT, but I'm sure ya'll geniuses have put that together. haha, good times, good medicine! (got some chocolate kushhhh)

bmeat said:

he said he doesnt agree with common knowledge. if that was me, id get attacked from all sides lol

i dont agree with foliar feeding, or even spraying plants (unless you need humidity in the room)

to each his own.

btw there has to be sugar in the soil, glucose is the main fuel for all life, and its stored different in each type of living thing.

animals and fungi have glycogen reserves, plants actually store their excess sugar/energy in their roots. the process of life that the plant goes through probably gives sugar to the soil, feeds the microbes, and in turn they feed the plant back.

its an amazing cycle.

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Side note. Human beings naturally convert cholesterol into vitamin D. thats right, we make our own vitamins! but when the lighting isnt right, this process is slowed (or sometimes enhanced) and serious health problems can occur. Its the reason Milk is now fortified with Vitamin D. Lowering your cholesterol can be as easy as getting more sun and enhancing the bodies natural ability to convert it.

perhaps this can be related to plants. who knows exactly why plants do what, bottom line is we are still very clueless when it comes to the fine print. on shadier days do plants work harder to make up for the lack of light? is it beneficial? Do vitamin D supplements benefit a human being who can naturally produce his own vitamin D? hell yeah, especially if he's african american. and that's just fact, not racism.

to wrap it up. the lights we all grow with are great, but they aren't the sun. who's to say that adding everything you possibly can in any way shape and form possible wont result in higher yield. gotta try it and see for yourself. it also depends on where you are.

Made some compost tea earlier today and fed for the first time ever. Ive got 2 reveg's goin right now. Didn't use any soap for a surfuctant but I did work the water a bit by hand on one of them. my mixture was 1liter dr.earth POTting soil in 1 gallon of water, with 1 1/2 tsp unsulphured molasses. Plants started screaming and then burst into flames.... actually i think they're liking it. my humidity floats between 40-50% so I don't need the moisture in that sense, but it seems to have rejuvenated some of the older leaves. More details to come as they unfold.

I've always wondered this myself. I usually only mist my leaves after I water. Maybe do an experiment and mist half your plants regularly, and do not mist the other half at all?

ok y'all I will step up to plate on this one. have a couple from seed in addition to my two reveg. I will spray one like every other day. spray one every week. spray one weekly all through flowering (carefully to avoid bud sites). One of them I will just leave sprayed once. After yesterdays spraying there are some spots here and there from where the compost tea dried. it can be rubbed off, as it dries is falls away with ample air movement. I do not enjoy looking at stained leaves, but i got stones baby. major stones.

I consult and have been in the commercial medical industry for years! Realistically your plants absorb spray nutes from the bottoms of their leaves theirfor the best time to spray is within the first 10 minutes of your lights turning on! I recommend Foliar feeding your plants as much as you can especially in Veg! You must be careful of mold though and should only spray in the beginning portion of their light cycle! Thus giving the plants the whole day to burn off the excess moisture rather than letting it sit on the leaves through the night! Plus to prevent mold make sure that you are actively pruning and moving your plants so that their are no areas of dead air space!

Good point Amysd yet Its not when your lights are on its temperature. The stomata (pore) on the bottom of the plant leaves close at temps above 72 so the plant wont dry out, when temp goes back down they open back up. So ideally if you feed your plants do it lower than 72 and make sure you rinse (water only) to not clog your stoma.

Amysd said:

I consult and have been in the commercial medical industry for years! Realistically your plants absorb spray nutes from the bottoms of their leaves theirfor the best time to spray is within the first 10 minutes of your lights turning on! I recommend Foliar feeding your plants as much as you can especially in Veg! You must be careful of mold though and should only spray in the beginning portion of their light cycle! Thus giving the plants the whole day to burn off the excess moisture rather than letting it sit on the leaves through the night! Plus to prevent mold make sure that you are actively pruning and moving your plants so that their are no areas of dead air space!

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thanks for the real info, underside of the leaf is good to know! i sprayed for the first time yesterday, just before turning the lights ON. should i wait until just after the lights are on? do my babies need to wake up first before they can drink?

Meast007 said:

Good point Amysd yet Its not when your lights are on its temperature. The stomata (pore) on the bottom of the plant leaves close at temps above 72 so the plant wont dry out, when temp goes back down they open back up. So ideally if you feed your plants do it lower than 72 and make sure you rinse (water only) to not clog your stoma.

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good stuff, my temps get to about 64 at "night". i could raise or lower that also. how long should i wait after feeding before i give them a clean water rinse?

Do it lightly, wait about 5-10 mins then rinse. The point about the temp is you could do it right before lights come on (10 min out) and the food would be absorbed for that light cycle .

thank you, Meast.

No problem

I saw on the first page or two someone saying something about spraying soap(wetting agent) on their green. I havent read the whole 10 pages of this. So I'm not sure if it has been brought up. My books have all said if you do spray, not do do it during flowering. Only in the veg cycle. So your not spraying chemicals on your bud. Thats how I've always done it.

The soap in the water is a surfactant only. A few drops - DROPS - in a gallon water acts as a wetting agent. Necessary for foliar feeding only. Do not mist or spray during flower, especially mid-way through and on. The soap affords no nutrition, it just allows the leaf surface to accept the feeding.

I like that hotrod harley guy but I'd never spray my plants with soap. I do spray them right outta the res and fresh water (to top up the res after a light shift), and since I grow in an F&D rock bed I can spray them anytime I feel like it. When everything is done my weed tastes like candy kush and I run seven strains all of which are not kush. Rhino, orange bud, mexican red hair, skunk, blueberry, northern lights and a jamacan strain that I don't grow much of because the stalks are to big and the bud is to spindly but it still comes out sweet.

He's right though man. It will not hurt your plants at all, and will not affect the taste at all. As long as you don't spray during flowering. It's very common practice in all gardening. Not just marijuana. Which, I still consider myself somewhat a novice at. I do have a lot of experience with about all other plants. Most of the books on growing talk about it somewhere. Like he said, it's only about 2 drops per gallon. I personally haven't ever done it. I've just used the Technachlora B-1 green. If your having excellent turnouts, I wouldn't change what your doing. I'm not trying to talk you into doing it. lol Just trying to be informative.

Misting is excellent for when the seedlings are very young and still trying to shed their shells, however when the plant has produced its cotyledon leaves it is able to begin photosynthesis and misting is no longer effective. You want the plant to obtain most of its water via the root system, misting your plants has been said to lead to poor root growth. I grow my plants in soil and when I water them I use a shot glass and make sure not to pour directly on the leaves or the base of the stem, but pour evenly around the edge of my peat cup allowing it to drain more evenly and give the outer (younger) roots water.

hotrodharley said:

The soap in the water is a surfactant only. A few drops - DROPS - in a gallon water acts as a wetting agent. Necessary for foliar feeding only. Do not mist or spray during flower, especially mid-way through and on. The soap affords no nutrition, it just allows the leaf surface to accept the feeding.

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Agree 100%. I put 2 drops in a quart spray bottle. By breaking the surface tension the water "gets wetter" and sticks to the leaves rather than balling up and rolling off.