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LED not drying medium

D

Deezy

New member
Hi all,
i live in a colder climate and im using LED, mainly for coat effectiveness and less of a hazard.
trouble is my medium (coco) is not drying untill about a week after watering.

im concious i need to nute and then flush with clean PH'd but also that the roots are sitting we for 5-7days before flushing out.

do you recommend watering more often regardless or wait 7 days to dry and risk other problems?

I guess another option is too skip the PH'd water day and just run nutes with runoff once a week?

airflow is good, with 2 6" and an extractor, but it still doesnt get dry very quick... the pots are 16l and the plants are 5weeks so maybe big dor them at the mo.

thanks all,
D
 
I would wait until your growing medium is pretty well all dry. If it takes 10 days, then wait. Once you have big girls they will get thirsty, just wait. Over-watering can drown and kill.
 
Cool i'll wait! They are auto at the mo though so I feel im against the clock!! Or will they just slow down and take longer...?
 
Hey Deezy, I'm using LED as well, first grow so take my advice with a grain of salt 🙂 During first four weeks I added heat to my tent to bring up temps. Light was not producing much heat and it was cold, cold where I live as well. I also only watered slightly around the plant with no runoff until the girls got much bigger and could handle a big watering. I'm using 5 gal fabric pots and a coco/ perlite mix so there's good airflow- I assume this helps the medium dry out. Do u have a pic of ur girls? Also are ur pots sitting in the runoff or are they raised a bit? Good drainage? Maybe they aren't drying out because they are sitting in some moisture? Just some thoughts! Good luck Deezy!!
 
Hey MommaBear!
yeh i rigged up some Rhizo drainage trays to an aquarium pump so pretty much all the run off gets sucked out into a bucket, works pretty sweet.

I have similar sized fabric pots getting hit with 2x 6" fans, a dehumidifier that kicks in above 60%, a small oil heater that kicks in at 16c and an extractor... i guess as the girls get bigger they will start drinking more as Canuck147 said.

I also had aome issues with Phosphorus (i believe) where the tent was dropping to 15degrees and the PH at 6. Maybe wouldnt have happened if it was abit warmer :(

Good luck with your first!
D
 
hey Deezy share some pictures of your runoff pump sounds interesting . I start when the girls are small but I give them all the same amount of water/nutes for 3 days when I have them in 1 gallon pots I give them about 1 quart when they go to 5 gallon pots I increase the water slowly until they get about a gallon each. my point is I only give them enough to go the 3 or 4 days this allows me to water twice a week so I can give nutes and fresh water in one week
 
OJH100,
i will try and take some snaps tonight, always a pain as i have to shrink the pictures and rip out the metadata as its on the iphone!
Its basic but effective.

That makes sense to water just the right amount but what do you do about the all important 20% run off? Is that just for when the girls are fully grown?

thanks for the reply,
D
 
Hey all. First grow and dealing with pocket change until i no longer have to go buy my green. Been using leds the whole grow, sitting at about 3 - 3.5 months atm. Pots sit in run off container and only water the pot that has dollar store soil in it until i see runoff. The other pot has some sort of soil mic with perlite in it. The soil only pot dries out ever 3 or 4 days where as the other stays moist all week. Not sopping but moist. I turn a box fan on them for wind. Have been having rather decent progress until about 2 weeks ago. Seems like a nitrogen issue.
 
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have you got any pics? I'm sure they will be able to diagnose once we see the pics? I believe pearlite retains moisture so that might be why its taking longer to dry. don't quote me on that as it also helps drainage.
 
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