I’m growing five autoflower plants in coco with a 20 -30% perlite mix. This is my first grow.
I was planning on using a Advanced Nutrients feeding plan, but I recently learned about Grow Dots and I find the simpler approach hugely appealing. My seeds popped about 10 days ago, and they have been in my pots for just over a week. Of my five plants, two have sprouted and have two pairs of leaves, two have sprouted but have been slowed by “helmet heads” (I think both are just about free of the shells now) and one other hasn’t sprouted at all. The first to sprout has about a 2-day lead over the other one that is showing a pair of leaves, and is about 50 percent larger.
So, my question: Is it too late for me to top dress my plants with Grow Dots? I was going to wait until I saw three sets of leaves from each plant before starting with the Advanced Nutrients mix, and I suspect the first plant is probably going to be there in a few days, maybe sooner. But I’d really like to bail on the AN approach and go with the simpler Grow Dots (and Recharge) plan.
If I top dress with Grow Dots, should I do anything else in the meantime (cal-mag supplement, initial Advanced Nutrients feed) until GD time-releases and kicks in. Or am I too late to the GD party?
As noted, I’m a complete rookie, so open to any and all advice or suggestions.
If you put them in a medium that has nutrients they will be fine for a minute. If the media is inert then you will need minimal nutes on something that small. So I’ve been pondering this grow dot topic. Here’s what I cam up with. I reckon that when mixing grow dots into your soil, not all of that nutrition is going to leach from the top. Some of it is lower and is either being washed out when you water to run off, or probably not even that wet if you are light feeding a seedling and not watering to run off. Either way the roots are allowed to go find the nutes (dots) as they grow. I would be careful about top dressing with too many dots on all levels of growth. But especially be careful to not overfeed a seedling. Can’t fool with mine until they get here. Be sure to let us know what you decide and how it worked. We are all testers at this point.
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, my medium is coco and perlite, so pretty inert.
If my understanding on the Grow Dots is correct, it’s a one-time application that covers all stages of the grow, unlike other top dressings that require periodic replenishment. Again, that is a big part of the appeal of Grow Dots — it’s not that I’m lazy, but rather I want to minimize the window of failure and it seems like GDs are a better bet versus the Advanced Nutrients medleys. I think this is particularly true since my four plants that have sprouted are all at slightly different growth stages, which seems like it would complicate the dosages and when to shift from the vegetating nutes regimen to the one for the flowering stage.
Still not sure on the way forward but going to need to decide probably by the end of the week.
Item: For my one seed that hasn’t sprouted through the coco, as a last ditch effort I added just the tiniest pinch of Recharge to a half bottle of spring water and poured that into the center of the pot. Probably not going to matter, but at this stage it’s an experiment with no real downside.
Well I believe this was fashioned for varieties that have an average length grow period. So yes if you pop a twelve week variety it will run out of food. If I’m not mistaken it was designed to feed an auto perfectly. That said if you are running a photo period using grow dots you will need to flip those plants at about 3-4 weeks when most of the nitrogen has dissolved from the dot and it starts releasing P and K. I can’t wait to get mine so I can do some of my own “xpurments mohn”. I would definitely keep on the recharge, silica and any needed calcium or magnesium. I’m not sure what levels of cal-mag are in dots if any. I’m guessing that the outdoor usage would need to be timed with an up potting. I reckon if the dots last say 3 1/2 – 4 months, then the transplant with added grow dots would need to be in mid June – early July. This is based on the assumption that we have roughly 3-4 weeks of full nitrogen release. That should put the ramp up of phosphorous and potassium somewhere around pre-flower. As with anything it is better to input less and have to add something later. So start light on this run and if they come up short add some inputs to help them. Next run you will have a better idea of the ratio of grow dots needed for whatever size container you used. Damn I want to mess with these dots! My current grow schedule will not allow immediate use of them tho. I think these will be great for pheno hunting. Equal doses across the board tells you who is nute sensitive and who is nute hungry and no mixes for large plant counts.
No.
Grow dots was not formulated for Auto flowers.
Scotty had it formulated to be used with “CLONES” indoor. Indoor clones need about 4-5 weeks before flower. Hence, the 4-5 weeks of veg in grow dots.
Just by happenstance, Autos ( wich Scotty does not run) ALSO have a 4-5 week veg and Scotty was pleasantly surprised that grow dots works great with autos.
It was not made for grow dots, but turns out it works great for autos!!
Grow Dots are formulated for cannabis. It can be used for autos and photoperiod plants. Clones do not “need” a month of veg. Clones can be grown to fit any space and can be flowered at any time.
Good Question :]
Of course clones don’t need a 4 week veg. But When developed, grow dots were developed for the indoor grower that wants/needs a simpler grow.
It was developed for clones using a 4 veg time.
You can veg a clone for as long as you want, but THIS system was developed using clones with a 4 week veg.
It was NOT formulated for autos, but turns out autos work fantastic with it.
Hope that’s clear enough
I do think maybe it would be pure justice if DGC would address this a bit in one of their grower shows as I find lots of question flowing on the int I just can’t fathom there are enough feeders and supplements for a successful veg grow. Hope I’m wrong cause I am staring at a big bag of dots. rat tat tat!
OK, so I bit the bullet and decided to go ahead and top dress my four fledgling plants with Grow Dots. My biggest sprout looks like it’s just starting to shoot out its third set of leaves, so hopefully the GDs will begin to release some of their magic to that plant in the next week or so.
I haven’t applied any other nutrients to any of the plants. No cal, no mag, no nothing…just Grow Dots…
FWIW, the way I went about this, I did my evening spritzing of the four sprouts and then did an additional modest sprinkle with a water can around the perimeter of each so that the edges were decently soaked.
I did around 6-7 teaspoons of GDs on each plant (5 gal pots). That was enough to get good coverage all across the surface of each pot.
And I gotta say — I like the colors!
I won’t be doing any further watering (spritzing) until morning (roughly 12 hours from now), and assume that as the GDs get exposed to regular moisture they will begin the time-release process. To be honest, that’s a guess, but in view of the lack of good directions and explanation on how these GDs work, it’s all I got!
I’ll try to do some updates on how things progress from here.
One more question to add to the pile…in view of my situation, any suggestions on when I should introduce Recharge into the watering routine, and how often I should be doing that?
Thanks in advance for any feedback or ideas…
@Fareast, for future reference, I have been doing some testing and altho you can top dress with dots, they work even better if applied to your soil from the beginning . I know we are all excited to see what the dots can do and far as applications there is low,med,high applications 45-60-90 grams , sounds like you went to the high side around 90, keep us posted on this,
i’m using 45 grams in 5 gal pots and only watering about 12 oz a day results are great,
good luck
Thanks.
As I mentioned in my initial note, I didn’t have the option of doing the Dots as a mix with the coco before potting, so top dressing was the only option. I heard Scotty say that top-dressing can work but haven’t been able to find more details, recommendations…
I was actually aiming to be halfway between the suggested Light (1 tsp per gallon) and Medium (2 tsp/gallon). I’m new to all this, but it seemed logical to me that breakdown and uptake from top dressing would be less than if it was fully incorporated into all the coco. So, that’s why I went for the Light-Medium midpoint.
I think 7 tsp is around 30 grams, not 90.
Appreciate you sharing on your GD use. Best of luck to you.