overwatering

I was told it was from overwatering which would make sense since this is my first soil grow (last grow was my first grow but in hydro, awesome turnout) but I want to know if this is accurate. Terrible pictures because my hands are unsteady 24/7 but the temp is 78 degrees, 55% humidity, in a growntent with LED lights. I’m in week 2 of flower growing in fox farm ocean forest soil ... leaf tips are brown on the leaves at the bottom of the plant. I have 3 plants and have done 1/3 of a gallon every 6-7 days. being new to this, it’s difficult for me to do the weight test haha any recommendations on 5 gallon bucket watering schedules?

Full plant pics would help but you are starving the girls. With drainage hole in your buckets, you should be closer to 2 gallons of water at watering time. I've moved on to coco cause my soil would run out of nutes & I never fertilized correctly (used ffof). You'll need some nutes before the end!
You can fill a bucket with soil to have a comparison for your planted buckets. Or you could watch your plant start to wilt (stressful), then water till a lil runoff and repeat. Wet/dry cycle is a must in soil!

Mike Ingraham said:

View attachment 4062212 I was told it was from overwatering which would make sense since this is my first soil grow (last grow was my first grow but in hydro, awesome turnout) but I want to know if this is accurate. Terrible pictures because my hands are unsteady 24/7 but the temp is 78 degrees, 55% humidity, in a growntent with LED lights. I’m in week 2 of flower growing in fox farm ocean forest soil ... leaf tips are brown on the leaves at the bottom of the plant. I have 3 plants and have done 1/3 of a gallon every 6-7 days. being new to this, it’s difficult for me to do the weight test haha any recommendations on 5 gallon bucket watering schedules? View attachment 4062214

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If you can't lift the pots maybe a cheap moisture meter might help.

upnsmoke13 said:

Full plant pics would help but you are starving the girls. With drainage hole in your buckets, you should be closer to 2 gallons of water at watering time. I've moved on to coco cause my soil would run out of nutes & I never fertilized correctly (used ffof). You'll need some nutes before the end!
You can fill a bucket with soil to have a comparison for your planted buckets. Or you could watch your plant start to wilt (stressful), then water till a lil runoff and repeat. Wet/dry cycle is a must in soil!

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I have holes in the bottom of my bucket and have runoff after about 1/3 of a gallon of water is why I’m concerned because I’m reading people doing like 1/2 a gallon every other day or more ... possible nute burn? I’ve done 1/2 strength nutes every other water so far up until this last water where I did just about full strength flower nutes. I did straight up water yesterday to flush the nutes ... here is a full scale picture. I purchased as clones, transplanted from solo cups to 5 gal buckets on 11/27 and just switched to flower maybe 2-2.5 weeks ago. Back 2 plants are topped, hybrids and front plant is a topped indica (I’ll never top and indica again, didn’t realize how short and bushy they grow)

Not sure why you have runoff, after 1/3 gal? If you have a full 5 gallons, your watering too fast. Have you tried going back, maybe 15 minutes later, to see if they'll hold more water? You could raise your short plant to even out your canopy, also. What light you burning?

Take some pics of the plants with the purple light off
But they look ok
1/3 gal ain't much for 5 gal of soil.

Moflow said:

Take some pics of the plants with the purple light off
But they look ok
1/3 gal ain't much for 5 gal of soil.

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I don’t have any real natural light coming in to get a picture with the lights off unfortunately :/ it’s kind of in a walk in closet of sorts ... cheap tent so I’m trying to keep any possible light leaks out by keeping it in a dark/enclosed closet ... the yellowing tips are more so on the bottom leaves. The bottom most leaves are about to fall off on 2 of the 3 plants ... the rest of the plant looks really good and healthy other than the yellow tips on some leaves.

How long have the plants been in these buckets? If the soil is still fresh, you may have to go lighter (or no) nutes. Tbh they may look dark, a lot of n. Yellow tips could be nute burn. You can take pics, either before or after the light schedule - just don't linger too long - with no effect.

upnsmoke13 said:

How long have the plants been in these buckets? If the soil is still fresh, you may have to go lighter (or no) nutes. Tbh they may look dark, a lot of n. Yellow tips could be nute burn. You can take pics, either before or after the light schedule - just don't linger too long - with no effect.

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These plants have been in those pots for about a month, I just added some nutrients so maybe I’ll skip out on that next time to maybe narrow it down to nute burn. This soil is supposed to be good in nute up until flower but maybe I did give them nute burn

You using fox farms nutes? Have you tried watering more, yet? Are you ph'ing your water? You really need to check out what the plants look like in regular light, can be from the light in the room, to be sure she's nice and happy. I'm surprised every time I see mine in regular light!

no, I’m using general hydroponics nutes but the soil is fox farm ocean forest and the PH is balanced ... im trying to avoid overwatering them because once a week when I did water them, I had runoff after 1/3 of a gallon so I’m giving the soil time to dry out some

Let them really dry out and then water til a bit of water comes out the bottom of the pots.
You should soak them, let them dry out and soak them etc.
@upnsmoke13 gave a good tip re filling a pot with soil and testing for weight v your pots with plants.
I use Biobizz light mix and I don't need to much extra nutes. Its got an ec of 1.2
Lift the plants out when your leds come on and get a pic or two then
Your temps are ok-ish for your burple led but could be higher.
I'm an expert at growing in the cold lol

That's the thing about ffof, I didn't get down, at some point it's going to run low on nutes so you have to feed but when should you start? It's "hot" enough for a good 3-5 weeks then you start feeding. In my mind, shouldn't you start feeding very light nutes then increase as time goes on? I always had defs or over nutes, just never got my timing or nute strength down. I do remember seeing the difference when I figured out the importance of a good wet/dry cycle. Dirt holds a lot more water than I used to give it credit for.

Merry Christmas, btw!

upnsmoke13 said:

That's the thing about ffof, I didn't get down, at some point it's going to run low on nutes so you have to feed but when should you start? It's "hot" enough for a good 3-5 weeks then you start feeding. In my mind, shouldn't you start feeding very light nutes then increase as time goes on? I always had defs or over nutes, just never got my timing or nute strength down. I do remember seeing the difference when I figured out the importance of a good wet/dry cycle. Dirt holds a lot more water than I used to give it credit for.

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This guy at work told me that with my relatively low heat and humidity, that they will retain a lot of water. I’m going to skip out on nutes until they start looking deficient in nutes and then do half strength in hopes that their is enough nutrients in the soil. I only did 1/4 strength nutes at the time I switched to flower, then watered with just ph balanced water after that and my next water was 1/2 strength nutes so I’m assuming the soil had adequate amount of nutes and I gave them too much nutes with the 1/4 and 1/2 strength feed. thank you so much for your help and Merry Christmas!!

Are you using flower nutes now that you flipped them I agree with upnsmoke13 you should water till run off go back ck and repeat until very little comes out and stop there this is how I watered my autos and never over watered. I also bought a meter and when it was between 1/2 and 1/4 reading would water/feed again. Now this is with FF trio nutes for soil. MERRY CHRISTMAS

Dabber68 said:

Are you using flower nutes now that you flipped them I agree with upnsmoke13 you should water till run off go back ck and repeat until very little comes out and stop there this is how I watered my autos and never over watered. I also bought a meter and when it was between 1/2 and 1/4 reading would water/feed again. Now this is with FF trio nutes for soil. MERRY CHRISTMAS

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I use the flora series so it has the micro, grow and bloom nutrients that you mix at various stages of life so I have switched to the proportions required for “bloom” along with Kool Bloom (nitrogen nutrient) for flower. I’m hesitant on adding water just due to my extreme fear of over watering them but maybe I will give that a shot. maybe a meter is worth it for me if the lifting the bucket method doesn’t work ... I’m going to try filling an empty bucket just to get a feel for it. I personally feel the buckets feel “heavy” even after 1/3 gallon of water but when I make it home after the holidays, I’ll try the empty bucket idea. Thank you guys!! Extremely appreciated !! I always rant and rave about these forums/the stoner (or grower) community and how helpful and friendly they are. Merry Christmas everyone!!

First I have to say your plants look really healthy. But can I ask why you don't invest in regular pots? Also, I hope your scrogging those girls since you only have three under a light

Thank you so much! I’m investing in better pots the next time around, I did DWC in these buckets last time so I was just re-using what I already had. This is only my second grown so I have a lot to learn and a long way to go! I like being able to have the ability to walk and move in my tent so I opted out of a scrog

Mike Ingraham said:

Thank you so much! I’m investing in better pots the next time around, I did DWC in these buckets last time so I was just re-using what I already had. This is only my second grown so I have a lot to learn and a long way to go! I like being able to have the ability to walk and move in my tent so I opted out of a scrog

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Let me suggest buying a wand to water so you dont have to reach the back, and scrog. Must scrog. More yeild and plants encourage it. You're giving every single branch more light! do 4 plants per light 5-7 gal veg for 4 weeks and let em rip. Canope my friend. You want to see all nugs and only enough space to water