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Recently around day 32 of veg I water the shit out of my plant. Due to poor drainage my baby got over saturated. I have not watered now for 5 days. Yes I am a bit of a newbie with some old experience that can sometimes get in the way more than help. The major problem I had from over watering was yellowing and twisting of new growth throughout the entire plant.
At first I though maybe she is hungry. I then searched through the forum and found some good advice. Don't make any drastic decisions. Well I did add a little food because, again another newbie mistake I did not pay attention to my feeding schedule and got a day or 2 behind. You wouldn't think that in just two days would make much difference however; This beastly Mother of Berry strain has been growing about 1" or more even a day. Should have known she was a hungry.
After doing more research I got some great advice from this forum which btw I love. They let me know that she was suffering from lack of calcium. The nutrients I gave here was organic Jobe plant food. (another newbie mistake). At least I am learning I guess. At first I thought this might be due to low soil PH. This is when the over watering occurred.
With a little more research and soil testing I found some more great information from this forum. My soil PH was in fact acidic about 6.0. I grabbed some dolimite lime and added it. I never knew about this stuff before. I also learned that when you first water the PH does in fact drop and it is normal and in fact essential for the plant to uptake certain nutrients. As the water gets absorbed by the plant and evaporates the PH goes back up slowly. Calcium mind you can not be used by the plant until the PH is around 6.2. Hence why she has not been getting enough calcium. See chart below.
To remedy this (I know long post almost done) I decided to kick start things a little hoping to prevent root rot and or bugs by adding air to the roots. I grabbed my extra air pump and some hose. Then I capped the end of the hose off and drilled holes in the hose in different places. Then of course I had to drill a hold in the side of my container. I tried to go down about 3/4 of the way so it would not be all the way on the bottom or too close to the top. I then put the tube in the hole after measuring and how far to go in so that it would sit under the root system.
I did some research on this and found some people believe they saw increased growth from added O2 to the root system. I guess if you have good light soil this might not help. With dense soil that likes to hold moister it might really help the plant. I did add a 8 qt bag of perlite to my mix before hand but, the soil still holds too much moister. Just have to watch how much I water.
So I ran the air into the roots about 30 minutes 2 to 3 times a day. Now that the soil is getting drier I have cut that way back. If you are going to try this remember that you still don't want to dry out the roots too much. So as the moister lever drops it is best to use the air less and less. Today since she looks a lot drier I may give her about 10 minutes with the air going. Keep in mind I always keep a close eye one her while doing this.
Due to the lack of calcium uptake foliar feeding her cal mag was my only choice. It has been keeping her growing for the last 5 days. Today she is looking much happier and I decided not to foliar feed. I did give her a little mist with just water. Tomorrow I may get brave and give her a little water since the top soil is really dry about an inch down. However when I stick my finger in it all the way to my knuckle I still feel some moister.
Tomorrow I promise to post some more recent pics. Until then here is what she looked like when the issue first started and I over watered. Day 29
Day 32
I also took 4 clipping 3 days ago just in case and placed them in a DWC system I threw together. It almost looks like little roots are starting to form as nubs. We shall see.
In conclusion: it seems that aerating the roots has helped speed up the drying out process and perhaps helped prevent root rot. I will continue to use air on the roots to see if it increases yield any. I know I have no control so this not a very scientific study. What I am looking for and hoping for is more than 1 gram per watt. I am also looking at overall plant health and any side effects that may occur. I did have a control plant at first however, it turned out to be a male so there went that idea.
Opinions and advice is welcome in this thread. I just ask that you keep it respectful and tasteful.
Peace
At first I though maybe she is hungry. I then searched through the forum and found some good advice. Don't make any drastic decisions. Well I did add a little food because, again another newbie mistake I did not pay attention to my feeding schedule and got a day or 2 behind. You wouldn't think that in just two days would make much difference however; This beastly Mother of Berry strain has been growing about 1" or more even a day. Should have known she was a hungry.
After doing more research I got some great advice from this forum which btw I love. They let me know that she was suffering from lack of calcium. The nutrients I gave here was organic Jobe plant food. (another newbie mistake). At least I am learning I guess. At first I thought this might be due to low soil PH. This is when the over watering occurred.
With a little more research and soil testing I found some more great information from this forum. My soil PH was in fact acidic about 6.0. I grabbed some dolimite lime and added it. I never knew about this stuff before. I also learned that when you first water the PH does in fact drop and it is normal and in fact essential for the plant to uptake certain nutrients. As the water gets absorbed by the plant and evaporates the PH goes back up slowly. Calcium mind you can not be used by the plant until the PH is around 6.2. Hence why she has not been getting enough calcium. See chart below.
To remedy this (I know long post almost done) I decided to kick start things a little hoping to prevent root rot and or bugs by adding air to the roots. I grabbed my extra air pump and some hose. Then I capped the end of the hose off and drilled holes in the hose in different places. Then of course I had to drill a hold in the side of my container. I tried to go down about 3/4 of the way so it would not be all the way on the bottom or too close to the top. I then put the tube in the hole after measuring and how far to go in so that it would sit under the root system.
I did some research on this and found some people believe they saw increased growth from added O2 to the root system. I guess if you have good light soil this might not help. With dense soil that likes to hold moister it might really help the plant. I did add a 8 qt bag of perlite to my mix before hand but, the soil still holds too much moister. Just have to watch how much I water.
So I ran the air into the roots about 30 minutes 2 to 3 times a day. Now that the soil is getting drier I have cut that way back. If you are going to try this remember that you still don't want to dry out the roots too much. So as the moister lever drops it is best to use the air less and less. Today since she looks a lot drier I may give her about 10 minutes with the air going. Keep in mind I always keep a close eye one her while doing this.
Due to the lack of calcium uptake foliar feeding her cal mag was my only choice. It has been keeping her growing for the last 5 days. Today she is looking much happier and I decided not to foliar feed. I did give her a little mist with just water. Tomorrow I may get brave and give her a little water since the top soil is really dry about an inch down. However when I stick my finger in it all the way to my knuckle I still feel some moister.
Tomorrow I promise to post some more recent pics. Until then here is what she looked like when the issue first started and I over watered. Day 29
Day 32
I also took 4 clipping 3 days ago just in case and placed them in a DWC system I threw together. It almost looks like little roots are starting to form as nubs. We shall see.
In conclusion: it seems that aerating the roots has helped speed up the drying out process and perhaps helped prevent root rot. I will continue to use air on the roots to see if it increases yield any. I know I have no control so this not a very scientific study. What I am looking for and hoping for is more than 1 gram per watt. I am also looking at overall plant health and any side effects that may occur. I did have a control plant at first however, it turned out to be a male so there went that idea.
Opinions and advice is welcome in this thread. I just ask that you keep it respectful and tasteful.
Peace
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