End of grow water uptake

[Gingerbeard]

I can't quite put my finger on when some of you ask how much water a plant is taking towards the end of a grow. Does a plant take more or less when it's about done?

[GrowNinja]

Ohhhh this is a great question. I don't have the answer nor the experience to theorize an answer. I just completed my 2nd week of flower, very interested in this post !

[dirtymike]

Some Indoor growers withhold water to stress the plant at the end of harvest. It diverts resources to reproduction (Buds) The weight of the pot tells me when its stopped uptake. Thats when I slow my watering and its always toward the end (2 Weeks) of harvest.

[Gingerbeard]

Damn. Lift to weigh was my way. Can't do that anymore.

[Gingerbeard]

Broscience?

[Cougar672]

I am a soil grower. From my own grows I have observed that shortly after flowering phase starts the soil dries faster and I have to water more often, about every 2-3 days. This continues until a couple weeks before harvest when the soil is moist longer and I can back off to watering every 3-4 days again.
I also helped a friend with a hydro grow, and during the mid part of flower we had to top off his reservoir every couple days instead of once a week.

[Gingerbeard]

The bigger the root ball, the faster the medium dries out. It sounds like you are withholding towards the end.
I didn't consider hydro. That's probably the best way to tell how much water a plant takes at any phase of growth.

[Gingerbeard]

What to do... what to do...
I'm calling broscience, to a degree. Some people swear by flushing at the end of flowering. Others, it seems, withhold water at the end of flowering. Can flushers disprove withholders? Can withholders disprove flushers? It's easy enough to find something to prove either, but where's the disproof?
Coco vs. soil? Auto vs. fem? I've been pounding my coco fems with water and nutrients this grow and have besties.

[Bowhunterwoody]

I'm in soil and I let the plant tell me. I water and feed as normal until the plant slows drinking on its own. Then water only till it's done.

[dirtymike]

I dont practice withholding water. I use the weight of the pot to determine if the plant needs watering or not. From my short time with indoor grows all seem to wane off water more towards the end. Instead of 1 gallon for a 3-5 gallon pot every 2-3 days it only hold 1/2 gallon. Same time less water used by the plant. All differ some but all seem to slow uptake at the end.

[Bluey]

All of my grows in pots, in coco or soil, take up far less water in the weeks leading up to harvest. As soon as that happens in coco I drop the nutes about 10% or so then about a week later I drop them again. I keep watering and feeding till harvest they just get a lot less. If I keep giving them the same amount of water it pours out as runoff.

[Gingerbeard]

Bowhunterwoody Bluey That's my tack. Keep the coco wet and runoff is a waste. The plant is going to take what it wants.
I still can't quite wrap my head around all the ways people stress their plants to produce better weed.

[dirtymike]

Would you say growing outside causes more or less stress on a plant? Gingerbeard

[Bluey]

I don't think it does produce better weed, just stressed plants. I think stressing them in the last week or so makes no difference. I think very low RH does make a positove difference all else being equal.

I also think stressing them during early and mid flower stage slows flower development but can bring on trichomes and their development earlier but that's just what I think I've observed in my grows.

[Gingerbeard]

Here's a thing about noticing things over grows Bluey. I have not grown the same strain twice. I have noticed some grows have bigger and more trichomes than others, but the only conscious constant difference is the weather. My winter grows are always better than my summer grows. It was last grow or the one before that I had my biggest and most trichomed flowers. Those were hot grows. 80° leaves and flowers for a few days at a stretch. This grow is pretty constant 67°-71° and the trichome heads are not much larger than the stalks. In my case, all things never being constant or equal, trichomes are genetic.

[golfnrl]

I use autopots. The system is considered hydro. The medium is 50/50 coco/perlite. I use a 12 gallon rez, measure nutrients in liters, and I've noticed that at the height of the stretch four plants will take up about 15-20 liters every 2-3 days or a little more often, they slow down after the stretch and stay steady the rest of the way. At the end they are taking up about 10 liters every 3-4 days. I don't flush the plants and keep the nutrient solution set at 1ML per L to the very end. I flushed a grow once, but only once. I stopped checking the root-ball after every grow because they all look the same, healthy. The only time they didn't is a grow I did using a Gas Light grow schedule. The roots didn't develop.

Would plant training enter into the equation? I top my plants and sometimes lollipop, mostly don't. Would a plant that had more foliage on it consume more than one that didn't? I'm thinking mainline. If I understand it the mainline forces the plant to focus only on the 8 or 16 buds created by the mainline. Would that make it take up more water, less, or does it matter? And would a hybrid that grows short and wide consume as much as a sativa dominant plant that grows tall?

[Gingerbeard]

I'm going to define a word for this conversation. Stress, in this case, is doing something to the plant for a positive result. N-tox is stress with a negative result. Lower temps in flowering can be a benefit because you can get cool colors. Cool colors make cool bud, but they are positive in that they produce more flavonoids. Bluey just by your word because I have no disproof that very low RH is positive.
dirtymike that's a good question. I think outside can be the most stressful with positive and negative results. My tent is very controlled. Ain't nothing don't happen I don't have a hand in except that RH thing of Bluey's. And only minimal control over temperature. If there's stress, it's because the plants don't like my shirt.

[Gingerbeard]

Defining another one.
Withholding. Withholding water to let the plant dry. Not withholding by giving less because the plant wants less.

[Bluey]

It's been shown under lab conditions that low RH produces a higher THC measure than a higher RH....many times, within certain parameters of course.

Before all this lab testing it was always said that was the case. That's what I learnt and experienced anyway.

Low temps in flower, 24 to 22⁰C allow for tighter buds as the airflow is not required to cool the buds to the optimal temp for the plant to reach ideal conditions to reproduce.

Keep in mind a plants primary purpose is to reproduce to ensure the continuance of the species. It will grow in such a manner to ensure this, we can help it with the ideal environment to do so producing the best buds

[Gingerbeard]

golfnrl Foliage evaporates, yeah? I have to think flowers evaporate as well. Does one evaporate more than the other?
I smell a horticultural math equation. The size of the plant vs. the size of the root ball vs. RH vs. stage of growth. Where's our horticultural math geek?

[dirtymike]

Everytime you change to different cultivar the environment requirements will change also.