How much water do YOU give soil in 5 gallon pots?

3-5 gallons of water for one plant? Cmon now

Morriston55 said:

3-5 gallons of water for one plant? Cmon now

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Lmao. Thats no bs.swear. and never shows signs of over or under.

I am in Promix (peat) with a preponderance of perlite and in 5 gl poly bag and 1 gallon puts them on the edge of runoff I usually give about 1 more quart and pour off what isn't sucked back up in a 1/2 hour or so.

Breeder said:

Let 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

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This awensered your question

Depends on the mix and the size as well as the amount of light. My 850 w in 15 sq ft in promix at 27 days of bloom drink 1.5 gal a day. 5 gal bucket. I water every morning. In a few weeks it will drop a lot as they slow. ymmv

I use five gallon buckets with 5 drain holes and water with 1 full gallon every 2-3 days

blueinaredstate said:

I use 5gl smart pots. Gl half water over a few hours till water seeps out of bottom

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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'm kind of new at this. I dabbled back In the day with growing and had some luck. I'm still working on a routine. I like coming on here and reading all this valuable input. Its helped me a lot so far. This is my first plant in about 10 years. White widow and it already smells amazing. Still in veg stage. I think so far so good tho.

daloudpack said:

I use five gallon buckets with 5 drain holes and water with 1 full gallon every 2-3 days

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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.

If 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.

Timothypaul26 said:

If 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.

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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 soil

I'm in the second week of flower. And I'm using about 5 gallons of soil. I added a lot of perlite and a 2 liter bottle is great for my plant. And I'm still getting 20% run off. I think I'm going to let them dry out a bit until they get a bit older. I'm using a 600 cooltube in a 4x4

I grow soil with my mother bushes but don't have a set amount of water I give them,when the mothers are small they get way less water than when they are 3 ft tall & 4 ft wide,when I do water them the top 2-3 inches of soil is bone dry & I dump water in until I get a nice run off out of all drain holes to assure even watering .

Sh!tttt....im in 7 gal smart pots with organic "super" soil and its using a lighter soil mix. I'm watering about 2 liters every 2 days. By the time i water them u can start to tell theyre ready for it and its been working great for me. Almost on week 2 of flower

It all depends on your conditions, but picking it up to see if its super light is a no brainer way to check

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

Alexander Supertramp said:

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.

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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.

tstick said:

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

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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.
Respond to it by flooding it once with just water (no nutrients), ph'd to ~6.8. Yes, 6.8 is bit higher than you want for regular soil watering. But the problem here, is that the soil is too acidic. As you continue to feed without flushing, week after week, soil ph will slowly drop. If you're having a nute lockout, a higher ph'd water - like 6.8, will help to not just wash away salts that are causing the problem, but will also help neutralize any salts that remain behind. This helps to settle the soil's ph near the 6.5 mark, where Magnesium absorption is highest (in soil). To grow and be healthy as possible, the plants need the soil's ph to "range", if you will. Different nutrients have different "optimum absorption" ph's. This is why I recommend the higher ph flush, and regular soil feedings ph'd at 6.5. Soil ph almost always slowly falls. If you start up at 6.5 when you feed, this ensures that the cal mag is readily available to them. Always feeding at a ph of 6.0, can give you mag absorption issues, and make nutrient lockouts more likely if you're not flushing regularly.

I water until I get just a small bit of runoff. I use soil, and runoff is just washing away nutrients. You definitely want to fully saturate the soil, as more frequent intervals with less water will result in a dry bottom, and the roots don't go where it's dry. I think flushing is a bunch of pseudo science. I never have issues with lock out, I think because I watch the plants needs, and address them as required.

Dannoo93 said:

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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Not true u want run off or u can have salt/nute build up that can mess ur plant up


Dannoo93
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It just all depends if you’re growing organic or synthetic

Water until you get some runoff, just make sure you don't water too frequently, then it can lead to over watering. Hope that helps