Crop steering and watering frequency confusion.

goofy81

Well-Known Member
So I've been doing the method advised by DJM and a few other seasoned pros using coco. Which is
During veg, water and allow the medium to dry a bit (Not bone dry as to harm the roots)
Then during bloom to smash it with multiple small feeds which has worked a treat.
I've managed 650ish grams/m2 in the past and am happy with the results.

However, with the introduction of crop steering slowly making its way to the cannabis industry, this method seems to be opposed.
Here are 2 examples of crop steering explained.

Crop steering proposes us to actually increase the frequency during veg for root gain (I'm assuming after the 3rd week of veg here).
Not only that, for generative (flower), it is suggested we use a lower frequency with lower water content during flower for better generative growth ( more bud, less leaves).
Anyone have any experience they can chime in on these two contradicting methods?
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Once your media is full of roots, you can pretty much feed as often as you want-5 daily feeds being pretty common with automation. I couldn't find the study just now, but I recently found one that looked at yield gain with increased fertigation and going from 2 feeds per day to 5 feeds per day increased yield by 20%. Not huge, but also not nothing-in a home grow for personal use, I'd say it's not worth it for all the extra nutrient solution waste, but the economics would favor it in a commercial grow. You can let your coco dry out a bit between feeds in early veg, which actually promotes root growth. EC rises as the media dries out, which is fine early on because you aren't running high enough EC for it to burn the plants if it gets a bit too dry, but in flower you need to be careful especially if you run high EC because it can skyrocket if the media dries out and can burn your plants. Drought stress does increase THC, here is a recent study on the topic https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/54/5/article-p964.xml#:~:text=This study suggested that controlled,irrespective of decreased Pn.

If you want to try something different, go for it! I hate getting stuck in a rut and am always trying new things with my plants.
 
Top