Am I Watering Too Much???

I am watering every two days as well as fertilizing. I am a week into flowering. I check the three gallon pots daily for moisture and it seems that is when the soil begins to lack water. I know you can buy an instrument to measure moisture but I would prefer to learn how to tell myself. Some have said to lift the pots but that does not seem like it would be very accurate as different plants weight different amounts.

Get one finger, place it in the soil (careful not to damage roots)...

Does it feel moist?

U jus gotta get a feel for it. Let them dry, maybe a day longer, before watering. Grab the bucket with one hand. You will feel how light it is. Almost, top heavy. Then judge based on that. Good luck, smoke well..

once you get used to the feel of the pot,you will be able to tell when to water by feel.Pick up the pots right after you water them to see how heavy they are and then pick em up again later in the day and see the difference,that will help you better judge when to water.

whether the pots are the same size or not you should be able to feel the difference between when its dry and when its wet...do it a few times you will get the feel for it...

...ya got to learn the lifting method as you mentioned. Just as Fdiddy00 says, they will almost feel top heavy when good and dry. You can even let your plants wilt a little, this is actully good for them because the roots will grow more in search of H2O. As you said, the moister meters are pretty much junk. You'd have to stab the plants in several different spots and damage roots in the process because different spots in the soil will have different moister levels. Just try to get the swing of the lift method....good luck.

Yup, lifting is the answer. And just look at your plants. If they wilt immediately after you water them you may be watering too frequently. If they wilt a little BEFORE you water then you know they are thirsty and ready for some action!

A 3-gallon container is pretty large, and probably shouldn't need watering every couple days. How big are your plants?

It's also not a good idea to fertilize with every watering...if you give a "water-only" feeding between your nutrient feedings it will help prevent a salt buildup, especially if using chemical fertilizers.

Also, how much water are you administering? A good rule of thumb is to give 1 quart water (or water+fertilizer) per 1 gallon soil...so your 3-gallon containers would require 3 quarts each...

Thanks all. First grow and plants look great about three feet tall and one week into flower. I am using Alaska Fertilizer Morbloom (0-10-10) mixed with regular Alaskan Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) at which is organic. I have been watering until heavy seepage is seen through the bottom (about 1 quart) They appear very healthy however. You also recommend I alternate straight watering and fertilizing. I wonder why they don't seem to need the 3 quarts you are suggesting as it would all seep out the bottom (Jerry Garcia)? They haven't wilted to this point ever during the grow. Again thanks all for your help it is appreciated. Please feel to post if you have any other suggestions.

Swisher Sweet said:

Thanks all. First grow and plants look great about three feet tall and one week into flower. I am using Alaska Fertilizer Morbloom (0-10-10) mixed with regular Alaskan Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) at which is organic. I have been watering until heavy seepage is seen through the bottom (about 1 quart) They appear very healthy however. You also recommend I alternate straight watering and fertilizing. I wonder why they don't seem to need the 3 quarts you are suggesting as it would all seep out the bottom (Jerry Garcia)? They haven't wilted to this point ever during the grow. Again thanks all for your help it is appreciated. Please feel to post if you have any other suggestions.

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Again, 1 quart per gallon is a good rule of thumb...not necessarily one that needs to be followed to a "T." The reason you give 1 quart per gallon is to ensure you saturate the entire soil mass. Water can easily bypass the soil by traveling down the sides of the pot and out of your drainage holes, which is why it is not necessarily a good idea to judge how watered they are by how much runoff you experience.

Which leads us back to lifting the pot. Give one plant 1 quart of water and another 3 quarts of water. After you're finished, lift each pot, and I assure you the 3 quart pot will be heavier. Why? Because the soil is saturated uniformly throughout the pot.

But a lot of this depends upon the speed at which you deliver your water. If you water very slowly down the base of the stem, it should take a while before you start to see any runoff, because the water is being absorbed by the soil. If you water quickly by dumping large quantities of water at once over the entire surface of the pot, you will get runoff within a couple seconds, as it streams down the sides of your pot and out the drainage holes, much of it missing the soil completely.

The fertilizers you are using should do just fine, though I only have experience with the 5-1-1 alaskan fish emulsion as a veg nute and occasional flower supplement. It is harder to burn a plant using organics, especially using fish ferts, so if you have been fertilizing with every watering it's probably not the end of the world. But again, it's easy for salts to slowly accumulate in the soil, which is why a straight (pH adjusted if necessary) water only feeding is recommended between fertilizer feedings.

It really does take a while to get a good feel for when to water. Over watering is probably the single most prevelant problem you will find with new growers (along with nute burn). Learning the proper feeding/watering frequencies and amounts is really an important skill to master. It will probably take you a cycle or two to really get a firm grip on properly feeding/watering. Like others said before soil moisture meters are pretty much worthless and do far more harm than good, and cannot provide a totally accurate reading of the entire container. There are a few factors that will help you determine when and how much to water.

First, you will want to look at your plant, and it will tell you what it wants, it's just your job to interperet it and act accordingly. The plant will begin to wilt and the leaves will point down. This is a sign she is thirsty. Theoretically you wanna water your plant JUST before it begins to wilt.

The container weight method is really the best way to guage moisture in your soil. That and using your eyes and fingers. It took me many years to be able to figure out when to water at the correct time. Now i can do a quick scan of each container and know immediately if they are ready or not. For many years i would sit on the floor in front of my pots stressed out of my mind wondering whether or not i should be watering. LOL. As time went on i really got the hang of it and my life became much easier. Here are a few tips in order:

1. Look at plant (does it look wilted or are the fan leaves beginning to point downwards?)
2. Look at soil (is the top layer wet and dark or light and dry?)
3. Lightly use your finger and dig away a little soil from the top layer (dark/wet or light/dry?)
4. PICK UP YOUR CONTAINERS (Is it light or heavy?)

As someone mentioned before, take 2 identical containers filled to the top with soil. Let them dry out. Now water one with the amount of water you water your plants. FEEL THE DIFFERENCE. Maybe keep a dry container around in a closet or in the corner of your room and use it as a reference when your checking your plants. Hopefully this helps?

Oh, one more thing, I would check out UncleBen's posts. He has a really nice thread on watering. I believe they stickied it in the Advanced Techniques section. His knowledge changed my life when i was a noob.

Jerry Garcia said:

Again, 1 quart per gallon is a good rule of thumb...not necessarily one that needs to be followed to a "T." The reason you give 1 quart per gallon is to ensure you saturate the entire soil mass.

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after i read this, 1q. per gal. has always been pretty accurate for my plants. i never thought about it like that, nice...

Thanks for all your knowledgeable input. This will certainly help in my experience and growing skills.

Swisher Sweet said:

Thanks for all your knowledgeable input. This will certainly help in my experience and growing skills.

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That's what this site is here for...everyone has to start somewhere