Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
that expression of the lower couple sets of leaves drooping a bit, as this is the for sure “water-by” date
marker! I don't let my containers get this dry, but here and there I do it to all of them. I have just trained
myself to look for the droop, so I am never too late with water.
REV'S TIP
The first half of the flowering cycle is commonly where many people will
overwater their container plants. Living soil mixes can hold a lot of water if they are operating like
they are supposed to. Anytime I transplant, I like to water thoroughly but then I let the plant go until I
see just a little drought stress, before watering again. Drought stress starts to show in the lowest
largest leaves first, and they will sag for a whole day before the rest of the plant will go limp. Over-
watering can easily cause air to be scarce, so microlife populations diminish, and nitrogen locks out
or turns to gas if the problem goes anaerobic. Learn to watch for those bottom leaves drooping, be-
cause this is when to water container cannabis, and small skills like this make giant differences.
Overwatering does bad things and it encourages anaerobic microlife to come on to the scene. It also
tendstoremoveadecentamountofnitrogenfromyourcontainers;asthemicrolifestarttodrowntheygrab
air from the plant roots and from the nitrogen. This converts the nitrogen into a gas, and it very literally
floats away.
Salt related Issues
Too much of the “bad” salts can really make your TLO learning experience a living hell. Salt problems
usually kill plants, but not quickly, rather slowly and ugly. We will go through all the directions I know
of that this can come at you from, but always be switched on to this, because sea salt and sodium are both
OMRI rated, but are not really good for container plants in any real amounts. All salt-related issues look
fairly similar andaffect the tips andedges ofthe leaves. The first andmost common place this comes from
is your water source, and if you have any real amounts of dissolved minerals (salts) in your water—like in
city tap, or well/spring water—this can build up in the root zone of your container plants. This will have
at least two bad results that I know of: first the salts will tend to dehydrate the root zone for water when
the container dries out a bit, and second, those built-up salts will change the pH locally in the root zone,
effectively locking out absorption of micronutrients. Of course the best way to avoid this issue is to use
pure water, like reverse osmosis filtered, rain, or distilled water. The other way is a counter-measure: you
must flush the hell out of your containers about every other week to leach those built-up salts out of the
containers.
