Hey everyone, checking in with my Mephisto 24 Carat on Day 8. She’s under a Mars Hydro light ts600 Just prepped a big tub of water with the old-school soil trick to drop the chloramine, dialed the pH down to 6.53, and giving her a 500ml drink tomorrow morning. What do we think of her size for just over a week?"
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What’s this old school soil trick? I use a product called pond start,it’s a de-chlorine, de-chloramine product for turtles. .5ml per gal, hardly adds any ppm
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Haha cheers mate! It’s just a simple old-school trick to neutralize chloramine from tap water without boiling it. Since chloramine doesn’t evaporate out easily like normal chlorine, I just drop a spoonful of standard soil into my water tub and let it sit overnight. The organic matter/humic acid in the soil binds to the chloramine and breaks it down so it won’t kill off the good microbes in the pot. Then I just stir, check the pH pen, and water. Super easy
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Very cool, I have always heard that a little bit of organic matter would neutralize chloramines, but I never knew how much. So a tablespoon of soil is good huh?
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Yeah, it sounds crazy right? But UK tap water only has a tiny bit of chloramine in it usually just a few parts per million A tablespoon of decent soil is absolutely packed with humic and fulvic acids, which have millions of organic binding sites. To those tiny chloramine molecules, that bit of soil is like a massive sponge. It binds up and breaks down the chemical almost instantly so it can’t touch your roots but I do a good handful just to be extra safe Saved me buying a proper filter system
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Im in the states in California and our water is terrible. My tap reads 440ppm on average. Mostly calcium carbonates, but also magnesium, and chlorine and chloramines. I’ll have to figure out if that will work for me or if I should keep using pond start. It’s super cheap and I hardly use five drops at a time. But I will try it out in my water only grows where I only use tap water. Good start on your plant tho! If you have any questions reach out. A lot of awesome talented growers here!
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Oof, 440 ppm is heavy duty! Yeah, California water is a completely different beast compared to over here, you guys definitely have it rough on the plumbing and the plants lol. Pond start is brilliant though, totally get why you use it. Definitely let me know how the soil trick works on your tap-only runs if you try it! Thanks for the warm welcome mate, appreciate the good vibes on the sprout. Looking forward to learning from everyone here!
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Welcome @Firsttimegrower !
Your plant is looking great for being a week old.
What kind of soil are you using?
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I would water in a circle about halfway between the plant and the edge of the pot for the first wk or two, until it hits veg. And use about 2-3 cups max at a time It will encourage roots to grow outwards. The first few weeks are the most important with autos in my opinion.
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Chloramines are formed when municipal water is treated with chlorine AND ammonia to sanitize the water. Check your local water report and look for ammonia in the sanitizer portion. Chloramines do not dissipate in the air and they are not good for your grow environment. It is very easy to treat for it. Just use ascorbic acid.
Chloramines Removal
You are looking for ascorbic acid - vitamin C. The store brand is usually the cheapest without other stuff added in. 50mg per gallon will treat water with 3.8 PPM of chloramines. This is the common strength used to sanitize water.
The need to water is not determined by how many liters over a given time frame. That is like asking how long is a rope?
Remember you are keeping the microbe biome alive and happy with properly moist soil and they live in the entire pot!
What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and the roots and microbes will die there. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder.
Don’t let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. Slowly wet ALL of the soil until run-off begins. There is an art to watering. Make sure there is an air gap under your pot, you do not want runoff to be reabsorbed and if no air then anaerobic microbes can grow. This is a cause of root rot.
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This is not how roots grow! A cannabis tap root can grow 9 inches in 3 days. The lateral feeder roots are not far behind. They will not grow into dry soil and if you do not keep the entire pot moist microbes will die or go dormant. As stated above you run the risk of hydrophobic soil.
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NO, Pond Start removes heavy metals including Copper, Iron, Zinc, and the other trace minerals that the plants need for growth. Just use ascorbic acid for Chloramines.
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I was not suggesting to dry back that much, just that only watering in the center will dry the outer soil out. When I watering in a ring it soaks the soil evenly instead all the water in the center of the pot. I get what you’re saying. I was suggesting keeping the water spread out more, if that makes sense. When I have watered soil plants just in the middle the soil tends to dry out to the edge of the pot when you are watering so little in the beginning. But, yes I get what you’re saying.
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Thanks Dan! I’m using Westland Multi-Purpose with John Innes. She’s putting on a massive growth spurt today, those fan leaves are getting huge already!
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She looks pretty good for day 8! Most autos at this stage are still pretty small, especially if you’re not pushing heavy light or nutrients yet. As long as she’s got good color and is standing up straight, UR on trac
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would make sure and soak the medium right through to run off… then take the ph of the run off… to give you an idea of soil ph. i recomend 2ml ltr of biorizotonic during the veg period… and stop the rizotonic when flowering starts (Rise of Ethylene)… as root growth stops then… on potting up to the 15ltr pot, dust the pot silouette with white shark microryzal powder and onto the root as well… a recomend the agriton EM1…a powerful, all-natural microbial inoculant containing a synergistic blend of beneficial bacteria—like Lactobacillus—yeast, and photosynthetic bacteria. It is used to supercharge soil health, accelerate composting, and boost plant growth while reducing reliance on chemical pesticides. make this up with agriton sulphur and aluminium free molasses as directed… steep the solution. then feed the soil with it every third feed 30ml ltr… ensure soil temperature dose not drop below 23c… lights out period ok… IMPORTANT… get a thermostatic 1kw floor heater and recuirc the heat in the grow space… using a 4" inline cheap 180m2/hr inline bathroom extractor fan… to pump hot air at top of space, down to the bottom… where it will draw up the cold air and mix it… a thermocline even temperature… for me the best feed a man can get is chempak 4, in veg, and chempak 8 in flower… at a max of 0.9ec nute only ec… and keep feeding the EM1 molasses steeped mixture… last 2wks of bloom, use ph7 as phos is more avauilable at this ph… 13wks to full ripeness… when the leaves begin to draw back the nitrogen (Mobile element’s)… is when you know your going ripe… Autoberry (A Dutch Passion Master At Work)…
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Very detailed and dialed in protocol. I like how you’re focusing on soil biology with the EM1 + molasses and keeping soil temps stable. Stopping Rhizotonic once flowering starts makes sense, and using White Shark mycorrhizae at potting up is a good move. Have you noticed a big difference using Chempak 4 and 8 compared to other lines at that low EC? I’ve been running some The Seed Pharm autos in living soil and I’ve been doing something similar with microbial teas, but I usually keep them lighter on the synthetic base nutrients. How’s the Autoberry looking so far?
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