Am I underfeeding my auto?

S

Surfer Joe

Well-Known Member
[h=2]I have a big, bushy auto northern lights growing in a 5 gal bubble bucket and it is in the early middle stages of flowering (I think) It was sprouted on dec 1. It's quite a slow grower, and looks like it has quite some time to go.[/h]

I have been mixing up its nutes following the canna guide for aqua nutes for normal feeding, but at about 75% strength, using all of the products listed and also a bit of cal-mag.

When the buckets get changed, the nutes are about pH 5.6/1100ppm/EC1.9, and then it drops gradually over the next 4 days and stabilizes at about 550ppm/EC1.0. But with my water, the numbers are actually 260ppm/ec0.6 (My tap water is pH 7.4/EC 0.4/290ppm)

The pH ranges around 5.6-6.1 and I use water at about pH 5.7 to top up each day to just below the mesh pot.
I keep on just adding water to top up even after the nute readings bottom out for about 7-8 days before switching buckets with new nutes.

Am I feeding it enough?

I noticed that the plant was looking a little yellow, so should I switch the buckets and give it fresh nutes when it has sucked out the nutes?
Should I simply add fresh nutes to the old bucket periodically?

Should I aim to keep the nute levels constant by adding nutes and water each top up and then doing a bucket change every 8 to 10 days to deal with any buildup of unused nutes, etc.?

Here are a couple of pics. Thanks for any advice.​
 

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vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Most autos go just for 2-3 months...so effectively your plant is half way thru its life ...? and getting ready to bud, see flowers ...lol, time to flush and fed with you budding/flower nutes, or use anything low in (N), tho IMHO, I would advise going DWC using local water as it looks to be potentially troublesome, if your ph reads like that now ....whats it gonna be in mid summer, when the water engineers scramble to get water from any shitty lake and the cheaper the better ...still you choice
 
JohnDee

JohnDee

Well-Known Member
Hi,
I've never done a bubble bucket, but when managing my res for E&F, I'd always top up with full strength nutrients rather then let the ppms drift down. Especially in flower when you're encouraging the plant to pack on buds. I've heard of guys regularly going higher then you are in flower....as high as 1500ppm, but each plant and situation is different.

If you decide to increase: Make changes in small increments and always watch leaf tips for burn...and back off immediately if you see any.
Good luck,
JD
 
S

Surfer Joe

Well-Known Member
Here's an update on the grow.
The northern lights auto is around day 65 (sprouted dec 1).
I have had to trim the leaves several times to get some light to the bud sites and they keep growing back.
The root ball is big and very clean around the bottom and insides, although I'm a little concerned about some discoloration around the top.
I figure that it still has several weeks to go.
If anyone can see any warning signs, please advise.
Thanks.
 

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JohnDee

JohnDee

Well-Known Member
Joe,
Plant and roots look good...no, make that great. Still room to pack on more bud so be patient. Do you have a loupe to check trichs? That's the most secure method of determining harvest time. Carry on. Good work...
JD
 
S

Surfer Joe

Well-Known Member
Thank you.
I do have a 40X loupe and the trichs are still mostly clear.
The pistils are also mostly still white, so I figure it may have several more weeks to go.
I would love it if each of those stems sticking out the top developed into fat colas, but they are just side branches, so I don't know what to expect.
 
Pinworm

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
Healthy, vigorous, plants will enjoy up to 1300ish PPM. EC around 1.9-2.0 - A res dump every 7-10 days is want you'll want to do for bubbler buckets. Top off with ph'd water every day. 5.8 is the butter zone. I would go for 1w of air pump per gallon of res. It's a bit aggressive, but will hold your PH steady for longer. 5.3-6.3 is totally acceptable.

Letting the pH "scale" throughout the week is beneficial. Sometimes I'll pH to 5.3 and let it "scale through" up to 6.3 Plants will absorb different mobile elements at different ranges of pH. If you're res dumping every week, it won't become a huge issue. Nutrients play a smaller role than we would like them too when it comes to a plants health. Look at them like how we look at vitamins, or electrolites, they help the plant build tissue by helping it to transport things it is extracting from air and water.

Carbon, which comes from air, not nutes, is the main ingredient in plant life, on a gram per gram basis. Hydrogen is one of the other main four elements that make up the body mass of a plant, it is obtained by splitting the water molecule. As if photosynthesis was a form of nuclear fission. Oxygen is also a very high proportion of plant tissue, again from air, not nutes. Nitrogen is the final top four in mass contribution, it does indeed come from nutes. The only one of the top four.

Now for Magnesium, the metal that catches fire. When sunlight hits the magnesium molecule in the middle of the chlorophyll, it "sparks" the photosynthetic reaction. As if Magnesium was somehow harnessing sunlight, it causes the plant to accumulate carbon. when we later burn the plant, the sparks of sunlight energy that were used to assemble the carbon that built the plant tissue is released as fire.


btw, the hemoglobin molecule, which makes blood red, has the same chemical structure as chlorophyl, with one exception, in Hemoglobin, Iron replaces the Magnesium. the result is that the Iron molecule "oxydizes" and captures Oxygen from the lungs, which is then delivered to other cells by the blood stream.

In the case of a plant, oxygen is dissolved in water that bathes the roots.. the roots inhale the oxygen, as through the gills of a fish..

this has come to imply that the nutes really dont matter as much as we might like. for example, the plant will be happy within a range of nutes, and they will take what they need, as long as there is no single completely missing essential ingredient, such as N, or P or K or Mg..

not to ramble further. The plants needs for oxygen, carbon and water are more critical than the need for nutes additives.

resist the temptation to reinvent the nutrient program for cannabis. Instead, know people who control their plants environment well, get 2 pounds a light, even from a single nutrient with no additives.


If you're looking for a "one size fits all" style rdwc nutrient program, checkout my sig link - and checkout my mission statement (Lucas Formula). It all sort of depends on your res size and light source.

PM me if I rambled too much.


Chop: 94% Cloudy - - 5% Clear - -1% Amber = 100% gnarly tasting, and heady smoke.
 
GKID69

GKID69

Active Member
Pinworm said:
Healthy, vigorous, plants will enjoy up to 1300ish PPM. EC around 1.9-2.0 - A res dump every 7-10 days is want you'll want to do for bubbler buckets. Top off with ph'd water every day. 5.8 is the butter zone. I would go for 1w of air pump per gallon of res. It's a bit aggressive, but will hold your PH steady for longer. 5.3-6.3 is totally acceptable.

Letting the pH "scale" throughout the week is beneficial. Sometimes I'll pH to 5.3 and let it "scale through" up to 6.3 Plants will absorb different mobile elements at different ranges of pH. If you're res dumping every week, it won't become a huge issue. Nutrients play a smaller role than we would like them too when it comes to a plants health. Look at them like how we look at vitamins, or electrolites, they help the plant build tissue by helping it to transport things it is extracting from air and water.

Carbon, which comes from air, not nutes, is the main ingredient in plant life, on a gram per gram basis. Hydrogen is one of the other main four elements that make up the body mass of a plant, it is obtained by splitting the water molecule. As if photosynthesis was a form of nuclear fission. Oxygen is also a very high proportion of plant tissue, again from air, not nutes. Nitrogen is the final top four in mass contribution, it does indeed come from nutes. The only one of the top four.

Now for Magnesium, the metal that catches fire. When sunlight hits the magnesium molecule in the middle of the chlorophyll, it "sparks" the photosynthetic reaction. As if Magnesium was somehow harnessing sunlight, it causes the plant to accumulate carbon. when we later burn the plant, the sparks of sunlight energy that were used to assemble the carbon that built the plant tissue is released as fire.


btw, the hemoglobin molecule, which makes blood red, has the same chemical structure as chlorophyl, with one exception, in Hemoglobin, Iron replaces the Magnesium. the result is that the Iron molecule "oxydizes" and captures Oxygen from the lungs, which is then delivered to other cells by the blood stream.

In the case of a plant, oxygen is dissolved in water that bathes the roots.. the roots inhale the oxygen, as through the gills of a fish..

this has come to imply that the nutes really dont matter as much as we might like. for example, the plant will be happy within a range of nutes, and they will take what they need, as long as there is no single completely missing essential ingredient, such as N, or P or K or Mg..

not to ramble further. The plants needs for oxygen, carbon and water are more critical than the need for nutes additives.

resist the temptation to reinvent the nutrient program for cannabis. Instead, know people who control their plants environment well, get 2 pounds a light, even from a single nutrient with no additives.


If you're looking for a "one size fits all" style rdwc nutrient program, checkout my sig link - and checkout my mission statement (Lucas Formula). It all sort of depends on your res size and light source.

PM me if I rambled too much.


Chop: 94% Cloudy - - 5% Clear - -1% Amber = 100% gnarly tasting, and heady smoke.
Click to expand...
raw pic :dunce:
 
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