Best Watering Method ?

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Earwig1978

Member
What are peoples opinions on the best way to water our girls ?

I have always left mine for 3-4 days at a time and then drenched them in around 2-2.5 Litres of water. They are in 25 Litre pots.

The soil is always bone dry which I was lead to believe created oxygen for the roots when I finally water them. It's also easier to mix up 10 litres of feed in one go than smaller amounts on a daily basis. A few times though the leaves have been really droopy when I come to water them and they look so sorry for themsevles, but a few hours after watering all the leaves are pointing skywards once again...

So...

Am I doing any damage to my girls with this method ? Are there any other methods I should choose to look at ? Watering small amounts daily ?
 
rollinbud

rollinbud

Active Member
The best method os to not stress the plants out! If you wait till the wilt you are stressing them. For this reason I water a little every day, never to point of runoff and sometimes 2x a day with a light misting when its warm.
 
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cactusbudz

Active Member
i water my plants when needed. dont wait till they wilt for this shocks them everytime and will give you more males or will hermaphrodite a plant. the easiest way i found to water is by lifting the pots and checking the weight. there is a significant n weight for 1 with moisture and the 1 without. after doing this a few times you will get the hang of it. if your soil is really dried and cracked and not absorbing water, try a few drops of dawn dish soap for this will work as a wetting agent and will not harm your plants. hope this helps
 
CaptainCarnival

CaptainCarnival

Active Member
i personally water mine once i can stick my finger in the soil a bit and pull it back up dry then i water it until i have water start to run out its a little under a half gallon each time
 
Elliesdaddy

Elliesdaddy

Active Member
Don't listen to some of this advise you're plants should been watered enough for them to be fed for about 2.5-3 days then they should have about 12hour's of dry soil so oxygen can get to the roots otherwise the roots will go mouldy and be less effective.
 
SimonD

SimonD

Well-Known Member
I lift the pot; if it feel light, I water - ~1liter per gallon of soil. 2 gal pot, ~2 liters of water. This isn't rocket science.

Simon
 
jim87

jim87

Member
personally i found that a soil moisture meter i bought from my local hardware store does the job PERFECTLY! and the price was great just £12 a very cheap simple way of putting your mind at rest. When it starts to go into the RED/DRY i top them up. :lol:

peace man
 
spex420

spex420

Well-Known Member
water em feel the weight wait a couple days if it feels like all that weight is gone water...

personally i like to let my plants dry a little, i water until its comming out the bottom and all sides are thoroughly saturated

thats how it is outside it doesnt rain a little everyday it rains for a hour or so every couple days
 
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Earwig1978

Member
So I am doing the right thing it seems by letting them dry out, but just not to the point of wilting....

It doesn't happen all the time, just once or twice so far I think......
 
alphawolf.hack

alphawolf.hack

New Member
this is one of those things where every grower is going to tell you different there is no best it just depends on you style and the nutes you use. just research some do some experiments and find out what woks best for.

i hate how everyone is opinionated on how to do things acting as if every word they type is fact. they are not "facts" they are "opinions". i have been guilty of this but i always research and some times i get proved wrong like here recenctley i told a guy to get a bigger cfm rated fan than filter but some one else to him not and gave info from the can fan site that shows a smaller cfm rated fan to a bigger filter uses more filter.( as i had already been doing this i thought i was saving filter but i wasnt)
 
SupraSPL

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
The easiest way is to use an organic super soil method so you don't have to worry about mixing ferts. That way you can water each plant as needed.

Roots won't grow in the upper bone dry soil and neither will microorganisms. It is true that roots need air exchange but that happens every time you water. Also, bone dry soils have a hard time rewetting and you end up with water draining right out.

Long story short I don't let them dry out as much as i used too. I think that idea was born from the use of soilless mixtures and chemical ferts where roots were subject to rotting. Roots in damp but well aerated organic soils don't rot they thrive. Good luck!
 
roidrage152

roidrage152

Active Member
In my opinion the best way to water is drench, and let get 85% dry before rewatering and allow 10% or so water to run through. When I do this its about every 4 days, but this can vary greatly depending on environment, ive been able to go over a week before.

However, this is a pain in the ass having to clean up that 10% run through. I know people who have plenty of success just doing a partial water every 2-3 days or so. I also do this when I'm lazy. My concern with this method is the salt buildup from the Ferts never get run through. I think the plant can survive this in general, but It's probably not optimal. One of those things that can probably hurt your yield and you would never know better.

According to the directions on my General Hydroponics nutes, they reccomend 15% run through with each watering if that helps you decide at all. It also says use plain water at least once a week just as an extra tidbit.

To avoid the instant run through of bone dry dirt, water a small amount first, wait a few minutes then water the rest.
 
silverpanic99

silverpanic99

Well-Known Member
roidrage152 said:
In my opinion the best way to water is drench, and let get 85% dry before rewatering and allow 10% or so water to run through. When I do this its about every 4 days, but this can vary greatly depending on environment, ive been able to go over a week before.

However, this is a pain in the ass having to clean up that 10% run through. I know people who have plenty of success just doing a partial water every 2-3 days or so. I also do this when I'm lazy. My concern with this method is the salt buildup from the Ferts never get run through. I think the plant can survive this in general, but It's probably not optimal. One of those things that can probably hurt your yield and you would never know better.

According to the directions on my General Hydroponics nutes, they reccomend 15% run through with each watering if that helps you decide at all. It also says use plain water at least once a week just as an extra tidbit.

To avoid the instant run through of bone dry dirt, water a small amount first, wait a few minutes then water the rest.
Click to expand...
The last sentence hit it on the head. I agree 100% on that methodology. It is more time consuming but it is the right way to get the water in the soil.
 
mipro84

mipro84

Active Member
It all depends of temperature and rh in your grow box, what size of pots are using .... I have 2.5 gallon pots, 27-28 celsius and 30-40%RH and i must water them every 4th day, with 1/2 gallon of water, becouse i want some water go true the drain holes at the bottom. I dont want to soak just a half of soil.
 
reverof

reverof

Active Member
Really by letting your soil get bone dry you are stressing out the plant, you want a perfect mix of Oxygen & water.... Thus allowing the top 1 inch to dry in a plant is plenty before watering again. Then when you water/feed your plant you want to see some run off. I am not abig believer in having a certain percentage of run off, but in soil if I water and start seeing some drain out the bottom, I stop and move on to the next plant.
 
roidrage152

roidrage152

Active Member
reverof said:
Really by letting your soil get bone dry you are stressing out the plant, you want a perfect mix of Oxygen & water.... Thus allowing the top 1 inch to dry in a plant is plenty before watering again. Then when you water/feed your plant you want to see some run off. I am not abig believer in having a certain percentage of run off, but in soil if I water and start seeing some drain out the bottom, I stop and move on to the next plant.
Click to expand...

The one problem with watering until you see run off, is if you are like me and do 15 gallon or larger pots, it could take 5 minutes or more before that water starts showing up from the bottom. I use pro-mix HP, or pro-mix BX offset with about 20-30% perlite. Its about 3.5-4.5 gallons for me to get run through in a 15 gallon pot.

You definitely don't want to wait until the plant is wilty, just definitely want to let the soil dry up a good amount before wetting again. I am pretty sure this method makes for more expansive roots, as they travel through the dry soil further trying to find water. I don't really know, my pots never seem big enough and I always have alot of roots no matter how I water.
 
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