New Grower Natures Living Soil first Grow.

[Big Sul]

Your girls are looking great. You know I’m a fan of the autopots, but the main reason I got them was to take watering (i.e. me) out of the equation. As long as the roots aren’t sitting in water/nute solution, you should be good to go either way.

You are the reason I'm exploring this option. I was reading your thread and you said you turned off the res and bottom fed. Got me thinking!!! Btw, expect me to reach out to you once this Grow is complete. I'm going in the autopot direction next Grow. I am curious why u turned off the res though.

 

[Big Sul]

You really have to know how much water your pot will take to be fully watered. That comes with time. The Starting point is knowing how much a fully watered pot weighs. I just halve it. I just do it mainly to save time and make the usage of time a little more effective. I water in halves anyway to wait and give it time for the water to work it's way down. I really don't think there is an advantage to the plant other than maybe it's easier to avoid overwatering. The other key point is to wait after the first watering. You can do other things while you wait. Now just pour the half into the tray and wait 15 min. You'll be able easily to see which girls were more thirsty in how quickly they take up the water and note that. After 15 min, just remove the water. They're fully watered. It may help not getting dry pockets in your media also.
You can just top water and get the same results. You just have to be more patient in waiting for the water to work it's way thru the media.
It's just my take on something I can make more consistent in doing. Lessening the variables in growing canna is great and especially getting watering down to as consistent as possible with it being so key to growing better quality canna with fewer problems.

Once again Wild Bill, you have shared your experiences with me and it will make a HUGE improvement. I have NEVER fully watered my plants(not by choice). The half & half is the way to go. I was AMAZED how much water they were able to absorb. Much more than I would have been comfortable with providing from top watering.

 

[WildBill]

Once again Wild Bill, you have shared your experiences with me and it will make a HUGE improvement. I have NEVER fully watered my plants(not by choice). The half & half is the way to go. I was AMAZED how much water they were able to absorb. Much more than I would have been comfortable with providing from top watering.

Just play with it and taking notes will help.

 

[terp182]

You are the reason I'm exploring this option. I was reading your thread and you said you turned off the res and bottom fed. Got me thinking!!! Btw, expect me to reach out to you once this Grow is complete. I'm going in the autopot direction next Grow. I am curious why u turned off the res though.

Sure! I’m no expert but happy to share my experience. With autopots, the reservoir is always bottom feeding, obviously, but the 1/4” autopot nute lines can clog easily with organic nutes, and since the Recharge is organic, I decided to just switch off the pots from the res, and manually watered the Recharge into the bottom pots. It was based on advice I got from the manufacturer when asking about growing in soil - they recommend bottom feeding compost tea in those situations, if you want to go organic.

I’ll also add that I did this only after trying to top water the Recharge in and flooding out the bottoms a bit.

 

[Big Sul]

Update: The babies are really starting to develop. GSC is turning into a beast and only day 22. GG didn't miss a beat after I split one of her branches. JH just keeps producing bud sites. I will just continue to spread them out and tuck leaves. Just finished feeding a Girl Flower Power w/molasses tea on GSC & GG. They are both in 3gal pot with a Natures Living SuperSoil. JH was a "bag seed" that I dropped for the hell of it while I was waiting for my seeds to arrive. It is straight HF and I suspect that 30 days in, she will need food soon. I decided to go with Mega Crop. Mixed up a weak first batch (300ppm) due to me not knowing what remains in HF. All 3 plants responded well.

Day 34:

Day 30:

Day 22:

 

[WildBill]

Keep it up!!!!

 

[Proph]

Update: The babies are really starting to develop. GSC is turning into a beast and only day 22. GG didn't miss a beat after I split one of her branches. JH just keeps producing bud sites. I will just continue to spread them out and tuck leaves. Just finished feeding a Girl Flower Power w/molasses tea on GSC & GG. They are both in 3gal pot with a Natures Living SuperSoil. JH was a "bag seed" that I dropped for the hell of it while I was waiting for my seeds to arrive. It is straight HF and I suspect that 30 days in, she will need food soon. I decided to go with Mega Crop. Mixed up a weak first batch (300ppm) due to me not knowing what remains in HF. All 3 plants responded well.
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Day 34:
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Day 30:
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Day 22:
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If you had used zero ppm water and check the ppms of the run off from the HF plant before feeding, that would have told you the level of nutrients still available in the HF soil.. If you have a ppm/ec meter you should never have to guess the nutrient levels. Ppm/ec meters are the only tool we have to confirm whether or not a plant is feeding.. The ppms should be decreasing as the plant feeds.. If it's getting higher or not changing, there's an issue somewhere. Just a little info to keep in mind for your next grow.

 

[Big Sul]

If you had used zero ppm water and check the ppms of the run off from the HF plant before feeding, that would have told you the level of nutrients still available in the HF soil.. If you have a ppm/ec meter you should never have to guess the nutrient levels. Ppm/ec meters are the only tool we have to confirm whether or not a plant is feeding.. The ppms should be decreasing as the plant feeds.. If it's getting higher or not changing, there's an issue somewhere. Just a little info to keep in mind for your next grow.

That is fantastic stuff. Thank you.

 

[Big Sul]

Is it advisable to spray plants w/rainwater?

 

[WildBill]

Is it advisable to spray plants w/rainwater?

It won't hurt anything at this stage, but if everything fine, there's no need to do so.
You can use sprayed rainwater on plants with aphids to kill them. Yes, you can kill aphids with JUST plain water. When aphids are feeding, they have a sucker that penetrates the plant. when you spray the underside of the plant, the aphids are knocked off with their sucker stuck in the plant. In a garden, that knocks back the population back far enough for you to correct the problem in what's going wrong with your plant. In a outdoor garden, a large percentage of bad insect infestations are due to a sick or less healthy plant.