Feeding Question

bullwinkle60

bullwinkle60

Well-Known Member
I'm gong to be growing auto flowers shortly and need to know when to feed them veg nutes and when to feed them flower nutes. They're Afgan Ryder Kush and they say it vegs for two weeks then flowers for 55. Should I just feed them according to that schedule? Thanks for your help.
 
mony24

mony24

Member

Fast growing auto flowering cannabis plants can use a lot of water but over watering will slow down the growth and can lead to a number of diseases and fungus.

So first of all we need to understand why cannabis plants need water? Well basically water is the plants fluid of life and it takes up more than 80 % of the plants total weight. When you water the soil water dissolves solids and then that solution is absorbed by the roots and transferred upwards to the stem and eventually to leafs. This flow of water from the plants roots to leaf’s is called the transpiration stream because when the water gets to leafs more than 99 % of this water evaporates into the air. The remaining water is used by the plant in the photosynthesis process.
What water to use?
Before watering the plant we need to know what kind of water to use. Basically any tap water will do just fine and many growers all around the world use just tap water and grow beautiful plants. One more solution is to use rainwater because it is almost pure from salts and other chemicals and cannabis plant will love it. Before watering the plants with tap or any other water you should let it sit for couple of days in open top container. This process will allow the water temperature to reach the temperature of the surrounding air and the plants like to be watered with water that is not to cold or not to hot.
When the water sits in the open top container one more process occurs and that is the dissipation of Chlorine which can harm your plants if it is found in high concentration in your tap water.
The PH of the water should be around 6.5 to 7.0 but a little variance to each side won’t damage the auto-flower cannabis that much.

When to water?
This probably is the most asked question by new growers but the truth is that there isn’t one schedule or one amount of water that will fit any cannabis grow operation. There are too many variables to the equation – some of them are: size of the pot, soil composition, air temperature, air humidity, air circulation, plant size, plants age. You can see that there is just too many of these factors and you can’t introduce one formula for them.

Before germination
Before putting your seeds in the growing medium you need to saturate the soil from top to bottom. What you need to do is pour two or three times the amount what the pot can hold and let it run of the bottom. When all the excess amount of water is drained away you sill need couple of hours to let the soil dry a little and that means that the time before you can put your seeds in the pot after completely saturating the growing medium is somewhere from 3 to 5 hours.

Germination
In the germination faze of the plants life you should be very careful with watering because the seedling is very fragile and it will easily bend if you water the soil surface too hard. When the auto flowering plant is in this stage of growth it is better to keep the surface moist but not too wet and it is better to use a hand sprayer to moisture the growing medium. When you are watering this little plant don’t pour/spray water directly on the stem of the plant but around it because it can easily get stem rot. Basically you need to keep the surface of the soil wet and that is it for this stage of growth.

After germination
After the seedling has established itself and the first couple of true has showed you need to let the surface of the soil dry before the next watering. When you see that the surface of the soil (2 to 4 centimeters, 1 to 2 inches) deep is dry then you can water the plant again till there is little runoff water showing at the bottom of the pot.

Over-watering
Over-watering is almost impossible to do in just one watering, it occurs when you water your plant too often and don’t let the plant use all the water before watering again. It is better to let the plant experience a little dry period than over watering it. If you over water your plant the roots will not be able to get any oxygen and the plant will suffer, will start turning yellow. Over watering the plant also introduces the risk of fungus and root rot and those are some serious issues.

Under-watering
Under-watering isn’t as big of an issue because the plant can survive long periods of drought and the soil is kept well irrigated and full with nutrients when you underwater rather than over-water.
When your plant doesn’t receive enough water it will start to wilt because the plant cells that are kept rigid by the water pressure in the cells won’t be able to get enough water and start wilting.


Best Watering methods:
1) Watering when the soil surface is dry and pouring water till there is a little runoff water at the bottom of the pot.
2) Watering by the weight of the pot. This method is one of the easiest and most commonly used methods. After watering the pot feels heavy but when the plant has used all the moisture your pot becomes light and you can water it again.
You just need to lift the plant every day and judge the weight of the pot. At first it will be a little hard to know when to water but practice makes perfect and soon you will be able to tell when your plant needs water just by tipping the pot sideways.


 
W

wbojb

Member
autoflowers are more sensitive to nutes than photos are. If you are using soil, you do not have to provide any nutes until week 4 or 5 (I start at 4). The soil has enough nutes to get you by until that point. Start you week 4 nutes with a veg cycle at 1/4 strength. Week 5 at 1/2 veg strength. And start your flower nutes at week 6, again start at 1/4 strength and slowly increase. Keep a close eye on your leaf tips and for other signs of overfert. Regardless of what the seed companies tell you, most autos take between 70-90 days to finish properly. Happy growing!
 
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