at what point does a deficiency require early watering?

[dustydundee]

I run into this issue from time to time. I have generally tried to use the same formula for growing this year. I've been growing in happy frog, with extra perlite and some dolomite lime, I water only when dry, all the good things I've learned here.

Often times, I start out in a solo cup, then go to a 3 gallon for veg, and flower in a 7 or 10 gallon. Whenever I transplant into a larger pot, I typically water everything down with a dose of calmag ph'd down to the mid 6's. Usually whenever I transplant from a cup to a 3 gallon and then to a 7 or 10, after each transplant, it'll take a solid week for the new soil to dry and the plant starts drinking normally again. Often times after these replants, I'll get a calcium deficiency for some unexplained reason. And even after a transplant, if I'm in flower, I'm usually in a 10 gallon pot. With that size container, if I've just watered it, it can take 5 days or so before its normally ready for another drink. I've always been wondering, is it best to let the soil dry out, even if it means another week, and then water in some proper nutrients? Or is it best to water in some calmag or nutrients in earlier before the next normal watering cycle? In other words, do you water early if you want to feed it some nuts, or do you still hold the line and wait until its to the level of dry you'd expect?

[Gingerbeard]

Hey dustydundee Let me see how much of that I can touch on. It's a whooooole lot of variables.
A small plant in a large pot will take more time to dry out. When the roots develop, they drink more water and will dry your soil quicker. Try watering only around your transplant, at first. There's no need to water a 10 gallon pot with a three gallon plant in it. Over a few waterings, as the roots grow out, make sure you water wider than you think the roots might be.
How close to flowering are you transplanting? How hot is FFHF soil?
What nutes are you using? What's your pH?
What is your strain? If it's happened in the past, it might be your different strains needed different nutes?

Pictures?

[Tersky]

Im not a soil guy but if you are transplanting into fresh soil, do you need nutes? Unlike coco, soil has NPK with trace amounts of minerals and you are adding dolomite lime which has cal mag. Theoretically you should have what you need for a month or so depending on how you water or am i mistaken? Otherwise i would say pH issue preventing uptake of calcium.

Full disclosure i grow in coco exclusively and have only done coco and hydro before so i honestly dont know the answer. I know that with coco you have to buffer the coco first to get pH correct and charge coco with cal-mag. When transplanting my plants i water with a weak nute solution as well because coco has no NPK. I was under the impression soil has nutes so nutes are not required in fresh soil at first. Like i said not a soil grower so just spitballing. Hopefully others will have a better answer for you. I agree with Gingerbeard on how to water transplants as well.

EDIT: Oh also maybe think about repotting only once. It takes time for a plant to recover from transplanting and also spread it's roots out. Every time you repot you have to wait for the roots to fill out so it doesnt make sense to me to transplant before flower especially if it is only a 10 gallon final pot. I spend veg getting the plant just where i want it health wise (and size and shape wise) cause once you go into flower, the clock starts counting down and the less stress the plant has the better your bud will be. Just food for thought.

[homegrown]

What Gingerbeard said above for transplanting. As far as adding nutes/calmag in between regular water schedule..i dont recommend that. If your plants take give or take 5 days to dry out between watering, and you add more water,nutes, the roots are gonna be wet for 8+ days. That might bring more problems than good. Just let them dry out till they need a drink and give them what they need.

[Gingerbeard]

Tersky . In soil, I go from Solo to one gallon to five gallon. One beneficial thing about transplanting in soil is you get to use fresh soil that has fresh nutes. In the Solo, I can find the runts and save the space of sprouting in a larger pot. One gallon plants are my finalists for flowering. 5 gallons are tent bound. As I am using the smaller containers, I can move them from the balcony sun to tent with little effort.
I'm in my first coco grow and plan on the two transplants only because of the sun issue. However, come summer time when I lose my balcony sun, I'll probably go Solo to 5 gallon because I'll lose the fresh nutes bonus of soil.
All that, of course, if you are using a hot soil. There are brands that are cool and need nutrients from the soil. Kelloggs is one.

[Tersky]

Fair enough. That makes sense. I personally go from solo to 3 or 5 gallon but i do all my growing in tents so i dont have to move the plants that often and when i do it is from the tent to the bath tub for a water or feed. Its only like 10 ft so although a fully watered 5 gal is heavy, its not too bad for the distance i have to carry it.

[Gingerbeard]

We all have our situations.
If I really OCD to get my 5 gallons outside, my tent is on a homemade dolly that lets me roll my plants to my bedroom door so I only have to carry them 12 feet.

[Gingerbeard]

homegrown . About nute schedules and watering in soil. By the end of my last decent grow, I had been adding half again a dose of Tiger Bloom, Big Bloom, CalMag, and 2TBS molasses, and oxygenating the water for two waterings, then flush one. It was Pineapple Kush. It seemed overkill but worked much better than recommended.
I'm doing coco, now. Been doing some research on the importance of PPM in feeding. One recent post mentioned one plant needing 1300 and another needing twice that. I will have more than one strain growing and saving my milk money to get on board with all that science and getting better uptake in my roots. If it's too much to handle, I'm going back to the Pineapple Kush.

[homegrown]

Hey Gingerbeard, i'm using the GH trio and cal/mag some molasses towards the finish and i hardly ever give a ph water flush in between feedings(maybe every 5th water)..lol. GH says to do it every other water...im a rebel! Only problem that i normally have is sativa vs indica nute uptake and want...sativas can be picky. I like growing in coco..i think you'll get the hang of it real quick like..

[Gingerbeard]

I'm digging it so far. Even put Mystery Seed direct to coco. Same nutes as the sprouted others. It came up quicker than if I had rooted in towel, put to solo, and waited for the same growth, like.

[dustydundee]

thanks for the input all. In my case, I transplant twice because of my space requirements. I start in a cup and then move to a 3 gallon because thats all I can fit in my veg grow setup. Then after a few weeks, one of my flowering tents is typically ready for a harvest and then I move them out of my veg setup into my flowering tents and at that point, I'll typically transplant into its final container around flowering. They only typically stay in the 3 gallons for a few weeks before transplanting. This system seems to be working well for me and my space requirements, i'm trying to have this perpetual harvest thing going and well, i just dont have the space to veg them in their final containers.

Perhaps I'm not transplanting right? When I go from the 3 gallon to the 10 gallon, i'll mix up my happy frog, with some dolomite lime and some perlite, and get it ready in the new container and bury an empty 3 gallon container in the middle to get it nice and ready. Then I'll water it down, maybe with just a little calmag, ph'd to 6.5, and check that my runoff is in that range. Usually is, but I've had a few here and there that wanted some extra flushing to get in range. Then I transplant into that container and just give the old soil some light watering after it goes in and then she sits. I've been doing this for several generations now, and usually not a problem. Every once in a while, a plant shows deficiencys not longer after I transplant, and thats what I wonder. Is it best to flush it out, or just let it dry out, but it kind of sucks to just look at it every day and not do anything. I could always let the 10 gallon containers sit and dry for a few days before I transplant after I've checked the runoff, but again, I have space issues.

In this case, here's an example one that leads me to ask the question. This plant was just transplanted in the manner I described 5 days into a 10 gallon from a 3 gallon. 1 or 2 days after transplant, she's showing signs of calcium issues, and to someone's point above, it could be a PH issue that I need to flush, but in order to find out, I have to water her, so the question was whether to wait or not. I still have not watered her, she still needs a few more days to dry a little more, and honestly after the first signs a few days ago, I think she has started to look better on her own. I transplanted 4 plants 5 days ago the same way, and 1 other one has some mild symptoms like this and the other 2 are totally fine. I had to just flip them to flower right after transplant, simply because of the height, they were getting too tall, i'm growing in a 4x4x80 grow tent, and while I love growing in tents, i've not found them very forgiving in terms of grow height. You only have a small window to time it right or your plants are too tall.

I realize the best way to treat this issue is to flush it out with proper nutes when she's dry, its just always the question in my head if i'm better off waiting to do it, or to do it early...... The issue becomes important when I'm growing in these larger containers such as the 10 gallon, it can take so long to dry after transplant and the first few waterings after that, that it seems I'm locked out of doing much for the plant for like a week and just watching the issue continue, which sucks....

[PeterMatanzas]

Those plants are going to recover and kick ass. The rightmost one looks the worst but it isn't close to fatal. IMO flushing is drastic, sometimes absolutely necessary though. I'd wait until dry, then ca/mg. But I make mistakes on grows. 2 cents here

[dustydundee]

PeterMatanzas thanks man, I think they will too. I view this as a minor issue, just the age old question to me is do I wait till dry or not? hmmm. I came on this board about a year ago with overwatering problems. I've since seen the error of my ways and if anything, I'm guilty of underwatering now. But I'm still learning as I go. I'm waiting till these damn things dry out some more....

[PeterMatanzas]

This is just how I transplant, it's worked well enough. Interesting to read how others transplant. For a plant in veg state I place the fiber bag on more soil; cut away the bag; mist the root ball with plain tap water (pH 6.1 / 6.2).

Reach into a container of *mycorrhizal inoculant & grab some granules to rub on the root ball. Lower the root ball into a larger bag & fill with soil/coco. Only plain tap water 6.2 for a week before it gets any nutrients. I'll keep a close eye on it and maybe it will get nutrients earlier with coco coir. Tap water has some ppm here and so I'm working with root stimulant.

EDIT: I mean ppm of Ca/Mg in tap water, it's low but it's there. So I'm using the MI, that's all I want is root stimulant at that moment.

*Mykos brand