Morriston55
Well-Known Member
3-5 gallons of water for one plant? Cmon now
Lmao. Thats no bs.swear. and never shows signs of over or under.3-5 gallons of water for one plant? Cmon now
This awensered your questionLet the plant tell you when to water. To much water causes problems just as to little water does too. Pick up your pots,if they feel light give them water. Also it's good to give about a liter of water,let that settle into the medium for 30min then water again till 20-30% run off. Pre watering a little helps the medium absorb water better so you waste less and spend less.
Keep those thumbs green and your minds open
Breeder
I'm new to growing. I want to use 4 five gallon smart pots for my grow. My question is with the fabric smart pot how do you keep the bottoms of the pot from molding and causing other problems when the water runs out the sides and bottom? Thanks for any advice.I use 5gl smart pots. Gl half water over a few hours till water seeps out of bottom
once my plants are in full Veg and flower, One gallon every 3 days is the same in my grow. I also water a half gallon and let it set for a few minutes to absorb in then use the other half. I get a little run off If I dump the whole gallon in ..(which I have done) I'll get a lot more run off and I believe it creates channel ways through the dirt which is not good.I use five gallon buckets with 5 drain holes and water with 1 full gallon every 2-3 days
i do one gallon per five gallon pot I do organic any runoff I get I wait 30 minutes and usually soaks it right back up and then in two days time I do it all over again during flower. Veg is more like every four to five with my soilIf you're growing Organic in a "super soil" type, then by water to runoff you're removing good nutes. If you are growing in soil, feeding salt nutes, then water to runoff is recommended to remove the salt buildup. I grow super soil, and use compost teas mostly, and just try to water as required. Usually I think it's around 1 to 1.5 gal, depending on stage and size.
Bump. Technically, it's impossible to "drown" or overwater cannabis. You can SUFFOCATE them, but that has nothing to do with how much water is running through the medium, and everything to do with how much O2 is in the water. Otherwise, hydroponics would be impossible, as it would "drown" the plants So long as your soil is properly aerated with perlite or the like, it is very difficult to suffocate the roots. You absolutely can suffocate a plant in compact soil with just a single, massive watering. Regardless of watering frequency. If the soil is too dense, it holds the water on the roots too long, is sucked dry of O2, & the roots begin to shut down. Frequency of watering can definitely speed up their suffocation in soil... but it's the depletion of O2 in the air/water around the roots that causes the symptoms/death of a plant that is overwatered.Water slowly until you get some decent runoff from the bottom of the pot. Over watering IS NOT caused by giving too much water when the plant needs it. Rather over watering is caused by watering to FREQUENTLY.
Be careful to flush regularly if you're not watering to at least 10-20% runoff. You don't WANT all those salts staying in the soil, because they build up fairly quickly & will cause massive nutrient lockouts that will stunt or kill your plant, if a certain threshold is passed. Pretty much every fertilizer company out there says to regularly leach your soil of salts - General Hydroponics advises a leaching every 3rd feeding, for example. That is in ADDITION to the 1-2 weeks of pure water salt leaching, leading up to harvest. If your plants seem to have a nagging deficiency (Mag & Nitro are common), that won't remedy in spite of properly adjusted feedings, it is almost certainly a salt buildup/ph problem.My method is this:
I prepare my soil and add jusssssssst enough water to get it to a "chocolate cake-like" crumble. Then I fill up the container with that lightly-moistened soil. I transplant the plants into that container. I don't water in at all.
I place that container on my postal scale and weigh it. I take note of that weight and then I allow the transplants to work some new roots into the crumbly, not-too-moist soil for a couple days before giving them any extra water.
When I finally do give them water, I try to give them just enough to get a bit of drainage out of the bottom -but not a large runoff. I want all the nutrients to stay inside the soil and not get flushed out...I basically just re-moisten the soil. I can weigh the amount of water I use and then add that weight to the starting "ideal" weight. As the soil dries, it loses water weight and when it gets back to the ideal starting weight.... then it's time to water again.
*note* However, during the last couple weeks of flowering, I like to run a little extra water through the containers to "flush" them out a bit of whatever excess salts they might have absorbed...and then allow the soil to dry out completely by harvest.
This method may/may not be feasible for commercial operations, but it has taken absolutely any guesswork out of knowing when to water or not for my personal-use grow. Overwatering is an all-too-common problem for many new growers -or even experienced growers who might be trying a new soil mix for the first time....This technique can really be a (plant) lifesaver!
FYI...You can get a digital postal scale with a 400 lb capacity on Amazon for about $35
Also, it is not recommended to allow too much water out the bottom, as this will act like a "Flush", removing very important nutrients from your Grow Pot. Just water until dripping, then stop.
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