Simple question about watering soil

edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
My watering schedule is basically once every other day. If I don't water every other day, my plants will be dried out to the point of wilting on the third morning since last watering. Is it better to let them dry to the point of wilting, or should I continue to water as I have been? I guess it could be an issue with my soil medium not retaining moisture, or fans being on too long, or various other things, but I know it's important to let soil dry so you don't get any root rot. I'm growing in 5gal fabric pots.

Thanks!
 
bigunyun

bigunyun

Well-Known Member
Depends on the size of your plants. In mid flower your plants will probably need a half gallon a day. I water mine daily. No reason not to. But I don't get runoff...
 
edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
Brettman said:
wow that’s quick for five gallons, they must be huge. Are they outdoors?
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that's just the size of the pots i only have them filled about half way.
bigunyun said:
Depends on the size of your plants. In mid flower your plants will probably need a half gallon a day. I water mine daily. No reason not to. But I don't get runoff...
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thank you for your insight, friend. So far I haven't had any major issues so I guess I will continue, possibly even feed them more than I already do and see how it turns out.. I've yet to have an overwatering problem, only wilting due to drying out too much.
 
edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
go go kid said:
HAVE you tried putting the whole fabric pot into a large plastic trug and soaking the whole thing till it absorbs as much water as possible to make sure you don't have dry spots in your soil as that is vary fast. What size are the plant's
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they aren't very big, possibly due to watering issues (not giving them enough each time). they are about 9 days into flower. I should mention they veg'd for a considerable amount of time (approx 8 weeks..) to get to this size, and they are each under 20 inches tall... but no, I haven't tried that. I'm not sure what a trug is if I'm being honest lol. I think I see what you mean but could you elaborate a little further? thank you
 

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edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
go go kid said:
Yeah. There like giant gardening buckets or large animal. Ie horse watering buckets/feeders
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thank you for clarifying. I may try something like that.. usually i just feel the bag bottom and sides to see if the soil is crumbly feeling.. next grow I probably won't use the bags again.. not a huge fan of disturbing the rootball
 
P

PizzaMan5000

Well-Known Member
There's no set frequency, you just can't get totally dry spots in coco mixes.
I can't keep things alive in potting mix, it has to be potting SOIL.

Make sure when you water, you do it incrementally. Let it presoak for a few minutes if it's totally dry.

I have found that if I'm in undersized smart pots; I can get away with daily waterings, where the soil is still visibly damp right below the first 1/2".
I have more trouble with actually getting a soil mix that's actually like "loam".

I have had 100% success with happy frog or ocean forest, though it's inconvenient for me to buy locally. Every other soil it seems is 90% coco, or it's just some dark mud for a yard.
I prefer happy frog for fabric pots under 5 gal, and ocean forest or happy frog+perilite for over 5gal.
Happy frog is heavy, but it's so chunky that being moist doesn't mean it can't be watered two days straight.

I had 1oz plants in 2gal fabric pots and they took water almost daily weeks 4-8.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
edblings said:
My watering schedule is basically once every other day. If I don't water every other day, my plants will be dried out to the point of wilting on the third morning since last watering. Is it better to let them dry to the point of wilting, or should I continue to water as I have been? I guess it could be an issue with my soil medium not retaining moisture, or fans being on too long, or various other things, but I know it's important to let soil dry so you don't get any root rot. I'm growing in 5gal fabric pots.

Thanks!
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Is it living soil?
 
edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
PizzaMan5000 said:
There's no set frequency, you just can't get totally dry spots in coco mixes.
I can't keep things alive in potting mix, it has to be potting SOIL.

Make sure when you water, you do it incrementally. Let it presoak for a few minutes if it's totally dry.

I have found that if I'm in undersized smart pots; I can get away with daily waterings, where the soil is still visibly damp right below the first 1/2".
I have more trouble with actually getting a soil mix that's actually like "loam".

I have had 100% success with happy frog or ocean forest, though it's inconvenient for me to buy locally. Every other soil it seems is 90% coco, or it's just some dark mud for a yard.
I prefer happy frog for fabric pots under 5 gal, and ocean forest or happy frog+perilite for over 5gal.
Happy frog is heavy, but it's so chunky that being moist doesn't mean it can't be watered two days straight.

I had 1oz plants in 2gal fabric pots and they took water almost daily weeks 4-8.
Click to expand...
For this grow I used Fox Farms Ocean Forest with a good amount of perlite and a layer of regular potting soil the size of a solo cup in between the young plant and the FF when I transplanted them to the fabric pots.
 
edblings

edblings

Well-Known Member
I could water them now and make sure they are really watered, but that's not a good idea before lights out from what I've read, right?
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
If you're watering in nutes, water to 20% runoff. If your just straight watering the soil, water 5-10% water to soil volume. Thats my opinion. Others may differ.
 
O

oill

Well-Known Member
edblings said:
they aren't very big, possibly due to watering issues (not giving them enough each time). they are about 9 days into flower. I should mention they veg'd for a considerable amount of time (approx 8 weeks..) to get to this size, and they are each under 20 inches tall... but no, I haven't tried that. I'm not sure what a trug is if I'm being honest lol. I think I see what you mean but could you elaborate a little further? thank you
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The bag idea is a good one... your soil is so dry it's become water repellant. It needs proper soaking. What I have done in the past is wrap the fabric bots in bin liners and cut small holes in the bin liners so it takes some time to drain... you get saturation before it drains away.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
edblings said:
thanks everyone! i ended up watering the shit out of them last night before lights out and they look great today and have noticeably stretched overnight. i will update the thread with more pics in a few days

again thank you guys!
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Fabric pots dry out faster than plastic. I'd like to use them, and have a huge box of them, but it's really dry here so I'm in plastic.

And yucca extract works great in case your soil starts becoming hydrophobic. I've been using it every water lately. I water every other day. My soil life and plants would be happier with daily watering, but I don't feel like watering daily. They just have to deal with it.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
Fabric pots dry out faster than plastic. I'd like to use them, and have a huge box of them, but it's really dry here so I'm in plastic.

And yucca extract works great in case your soil starts becoming hydrophobic. I've been using it every water lately. I water every other day. My soil life and plants would be happier with daily watering, but I don't feel like watering daily. They just have to deal with it.
Click to expand...
Get an earthbox bro!
 
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