Aviars Closet grow - first timer

So ive been reading about watering and I dont know if i am underwatering. Ive been watering every 4-5 days. testing soil to be dry but im only putting in 6-8 oz of water around the stem of the plant. I have been worried about overwatering but after reading I feel like i should be watering more volume when I do water. how much water should i be giving my plants in these 5gal buckets?
yes i am a noob

Aviar said:

So ive been reading about watering and I dont know if i am underwatering. Ive been watering every 4-5 days. testing soil to be dry but im only putting in 6-8 oz of water around the stem of the plant. I have been worried about overwatering but after reading I feel like i should be watering more volume when I do water. how much water should i be giving my plants in these 5gal buckets?
yes i am a noob

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technically, you shouldn't start them in a container that size.

and the plants should tell you they need more water by needing to be watered more often. the same amount will only last for 3-4 days or 2-3 days instead of 4-5 days.

with mine in 5 gallon buckets and fully rooted out, they usually require a full gallon every 3-4 days early on. towards harvest, they might suck up 2 gallons every 2-3 days.

i transplant plants in N1 containers at the start of flower into 5 gallon buckets. they start in dixie cups though.

you'll figure your own system out as you grow more plants at a time.

you may have been inhibiting the roots by not watering them enough.

Once the roots begin to fill out the containers, the 600 may get your plants drinking more. do you have co2? access to a second light? both those will multiply yer yield, if u can deal w the heat..

at this point you shld begin to be near fully saturating the containers between dry(ish) cycles. What's in there for porosity, I'm too lazy to read back

be careful to not get too dry, like with new unsaturated medium... the dryer the medium is, the less moisture holding capacity it has. you'll know when it's near soaked, maybe not . Hopefully you don't get oxygen deprivation . all your buckets r the same, you can weigh them at diff stages to really figure this out.

Thanks for the quick and detailed replies. I added about 25% perlite to them. I think I need to start watering them a lot more when i do water. and yes this next time i will go from a small cup to a gallon and then probably to a 5gal. I havent soaked the medium even once. I just did one plant but now i have no more water that isnt straight from the tap I need to get temps down before adding lights but yesterday i ordered a 6" inline fan - with speed controller and a filter. so i just gotta make it another week and i should be running much cooler

can you exhaust the heat out of a window, or dryer vent. close furnace vent to room

i will be able to get to a vent when i get the fan and filter. I hopefully save some money on heating my house

I like this meter for checking EC (rather than ppm) :
http://www.tdsmeter.com/products/ap2.html

It is fairly cheap too.

so i was reading about plant problems and I got to wondering if i have a copper deficiency because of PH problems. I havent been able to test my water until yesterday and it was almost 8.
It hasnt been higher than 81 and has been 75-77 most of the day and i still have my leaves are growing but just turning upside down not taco curling. I will take some pics when i get home from work later. anybody ever dealt with this at all?

Heres a couple pics from different plants. It very well could just be heat stress but its not the tallest spots of the plants they are in the middle.

temp aren't bad. how far away from the 600 are they? say nice things to your plants

23 inches from the tallest of my plants

@WestDenverPioneer you know more about diagnoses than i do. get your ass in here and tell us what this curling is!

possible boron deficiency?

http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-symptoms

that's the only one that seemed to match.

Here is a better pic

The boron deficiency looks like it might be it. just not severe yet. I watered until i got a bit of runoff last night for the first time. I dont think i was watering correctly. hopefully that can help correct what my issue is.

Aviar said:

The boron deficiency looks like it might be it. just not severe yet. I watered until i got a bit of runoff last night for the first time. I dont think i was watering correctly. hopefully that can help correct what my issue is.

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watering until runoff is spot on.

hard to water correctly when you start in a container too large.

Calcium deficiency can show up as a curled leaf.

should i get some Cal-Mag or something?

Yes. A mild strength may be all you need. The existing leaves will not straighten out but new growth will be normal and a sign of success.

sweet thanks for the help its much appreciated. It started with one plant but now almost all have the twisting effect even on the bottom leaves. I will go pick up some cal mag tomorrow. should i water a little early to correct what is wrong or just wait till normal watering? what should i use for flower nutes? ive heard so many things. I planned on using Jacks blossom booster 10-30-20 but i would love some suggestions.