Starseed.extracts
Member
Hey there rollers,
Hoping someone could help me out with an issue I'm having regarding poor drainage leading to over-watered plants and what I'm concerned could turn into root rot or something down the line.
My girls are in 20 gal pots.
Soiless; promix HP.
It's now day 9 of flower but I've been having drainage/ overwater issues since bringing them into thier tents.
I don't think the LED lights (hlg 550v2) are hot enough to help out in drying the pots at all.
Tents are about 59° during dark hours and 73° during light.
I have fans blowing on the pots from 3 different angles to help dry faster.
If I water until runoff, it takes at least a week to fully dry.
I have experimented with watering much less, which was working for a while. But there were signs of nutrient deficiencies which made me thing there was a PH issue, so I watered until I got runoff again to try to balance out,
but now it's going to take another week for the pot to dry out.
Also when I did get runoff it seemed to be all draining from one side. I'm thinking since the 20 gal pots are big there's probably a large section in the center/bottomed that is clumped and not draining.
SO:
I want to be able to water more frequently. And I would like to be able to maybe break up some of what's not draining in the center/ bottom of the pot. Could I do this with a long thin rod or skewer? Poke through at the bottom and let some air in and break up clumps that aren't draining?
Or would that break roots and damage/ harm the plants ?
Any suggestions would greatly help. This is my first go at growing.
Already from reading I know to improve my drainage for next time to add a layer of rocks to the bottom of the pots, downsize the pots, and add more pearlite to the promix. BUT, I don't know what I can do now, in early flower, to improve my situation. So I'm reaching out to you guys. Thanks for reading all this and sorry it's so long.
Hoping someone could help me out with an issue I'm having regarding poor drainage leading to over-watered plants and what I'm concerned could turn into root rot or something down the line.
My girls are in 20 gal pots.
Soiless; promix HP.
It's now day 9 of flower but I've been having drainage/ overwater issues since bringing them into thier tents.
I don't think the LED lights (hlg 550v2) are hot enough to help out in drying the pots at all.
Tents are about 59° during dark hours and 73° during light.
I have fans blowing on the pots from 3 different angles to help dry faster.
If I water until runoff, it takes at least a week to fully dry.
I have experimented with watering much less, which was working for a while. But there were signs of nutrient deficiencies which made me thing there was a PH issue, so I watered until I got runoff again to try to balance out,
but now it's going to take another week for the pot to dry out.
Also when I did get runoff it seemed to be all draining from one side. I'm thinking since the 20 gal pots are big there's probably a large section in the center/bottomed that is clumped and not draining.
SO:
I want to be able to water more frequently. And I would like to be able to maybe break up some of what's not draining in the center/ bottom of the pot. Could I do this with a long thin rod or skewer? Poke through at the bottom and let some air in and break up clumps that aren't draining?
Or would that break roots and damage/ harm the plants ?
Any suggestions would greatly help. This is my first go at growing.
Already from reading I know to improve my drainage for next time to add a layer of rocks to the bottom of the pots, downsize the pots, and add more pearlite to the promix. BUT, I don't know what I can do now, in early flower, to improve my situation. So I'm reaching out to you guys. Thanks for reading all this and sorry it's so long.