I need a more precise guideline for watering than "feel the weight, duderino".

Howard Stern · Jan 5, 2012

bombastic1337 said:
Growing is a science involving many parameters. I don't know why you can have answers for temperature, relative humidity, airflow and not have it for soil humidity, even when there are soil humidity meters. As I said in my thread, you old growers need to change your paradigm and start giving some better answers to newbies. Otherwise, it's like when science started and people thought that the earth was flat and went on withouth much thinking. There's a perfectly normal and good explanation about soil humidity. If you don't know it, that's fine, you do fine with your method. But don't tell me I shouldn't try to get better and precise, like it's a bad thing. Cause it is not. Advancements in science are achieved by people who questioned the stablished paradigmas and who are very thorough in their fields. I don't intend to be the person leading any advancement, I am just trying my plants not to have droopy leaves. And if on my way I can help thousands of other newbies in my own situation with some method they can grasp to and never be wrong, that is fine by me. That's what numbers and thought do for you. They help you not to make mistakes.

Just do yourself a favor and stop posting and start reading! You are really making yourself look like an ass. I know you are new to this and once you get how to use the "old" way of when to water you are going to want to delete this thread but you wont be able to! LOL Seriously you just have to get the hang of it and once you do it is easy!

Now I will tell you what I do. I water my little ones once they are dry, once they get into 5 gallon buckets I feed them every day with 32oz's water/ferts. And yes I feed them every day! I also use FFOF soil, some soil holds water more than others that is why the "old" way works so well!

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

Beansly said:
Exactly what we need...another newb with an attitude...
That's not gonna make you any friends pal.
And sorry, but if you can't tell when to water bt lifting a pot then you haven't been growing long enough to have an attitude.

My attitude is not due to my experience. It's due to the fact that I came asking for an exact method, which might exist and people who can't give me the answer are giving me a hard time. I don't troll in forums, if I don't like a thread or I find it stupid, I just ignore it. I only reply when I can help and the world would be a much better place if people would help other people nicely. Because my original thread was nice and I didn't deserve all this rambling...

axionjaxson · Jan 5, 2012

FINALLY!!! A topic i can confidently reply too. hmm hmmmmm ... Well you see , when the media inside the pot is dry it will feel much lighter in weight , not in color , but lighter in weight , let us imagine that your freshly watered pot is a fat girl , now pick her up and hold her in your arms for a moment and remember how her heavy body feels , now imagine that shes going on a diet and you dont hug her for 48 hours this time cause shes all nasty and sweaty from workin out like rocky , but after all the fat sweat has evaperated up off her you give her a good hug , and what is this , shes a couple pounds lighter than before(weight not color) in fact shes so light mabye you jus go ahead and give that bitch some more water.

stonerman · Jan 5, 2012

lol plants have been living and feeding off water for millions of years. Not very hard to dampen up the soil every so often? It seems like your giving us a bunch of complicated excuses, watering is not complicated. Ive been able to water houseplants since I was 2 years old,they all grew and grew well. And cannabis is easy as piss to grow. Ever notice the nickname being weed. It truly does grow like a weed.

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

Grumpy' said:
All plants have an ideal temp and humidity level that they prefer to grow at, but it doesn't come down to exact numbers.

Isn't this a contradiction? If they have optimal levels... those are the exact numbers! I just need the exact number for soil humidity, that's all...

kingofqueen · Jan 5, 2012

Lol , this is something you have to get a feel for . It comes with experiance . You don't instantly know when is the right time to water . Like anything else it comes with time .

cannabineer · Jan 5, 2012

bombastic1337 said:
Does this device tell you when it's the right time to water or just shows up a value? Because without some reference value that we noobs can follow it's like having a thermometer and not knowing at what temperature fever starts to kick in.

There are two ways to arrive at a reference value.
1) (and a good place to start) Read the instructions that come with the instrument. It should include a guideline in re best soil moisture reading range.

2) (and it will come down to this) Grow something. Observe when you kill plants by overwatering and underwatering. record the instrument values. Assign the recorded values as your upper and lower extrema. Iterate. Refine.

You cannot expect to have a reliable presupplied value because every grow is different ... strains, environment, grower expectations etc.

Finally, the "weight of pots" method is easily made informative by having two reference pots of the correct size using the same soil as the working pots. keep one wet and one dry. Your hands will develop a quite useful intuitive feel for what's watered right. There is no universal substitute for experience. ( ... in my experience.) cn

tip top toker · Jan 5, 2012

Again, we all use and do not vary from the method of judging the weight for a specific reason. It works every time. As suggested by others, maybe give up on the idea of growing pot.

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

Howard Stern said:
if you don't like the advice given here by experianced growers!"

I just started the thread 10 minutes ago, man. I am still hoping that someone who has thought about this stuff and worked on a more precise method will answer. The information I have been getting on the other answers were already on my original thread, so why bother to tell me methods that I already know? That's what bothers me, specially when it is said in a rude manner...

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

silusbotwin said:
OP, you're beginning to act like a pompous child. People trying to help you, and you return the favor by verbally attacking them.

Are you sure they are helping me? Cause so far, I have been told the same methods I ALREADY knew and explained on the original thread. So I don't know how that helped me... Instead, I am wasting time here trying to teach manners to some people.

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

tip top toker said:
Again, we all use and do not vary from the method of judging the weight for a specific reason. It works every time. As suggested by others, maybe give up on the idea of growing pot.

Nah, I'd rather give up on you

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

cowboylogic said:
Guess you better consider this also then if you want to be scientific. Different strains and even different phenos within a strain can demand very different soil moisture levels. And these levels can even change during stage of growth. That coud be why there is no such thing as a concrete way too water...

Thanks. This is something I can understand. Thanks a lot. +rep

Howard Stern · Jan 5, 2012

bombastic1337 said:
I just started the thread 10 minutes ago, man. I am still hoping that someone who has thought about this stuff and worked on a more precise method will answer. The information I have been getting on the other answers were already on my original thread, so why bother to tell me methods that I already know? That's what bothers me, specially when it is said in a rude manner...

Ok bro your right we are wrong! Sorry for telling you shit you already know! Have you looked into those glass balls at Wal Mart that auto waters your plants as needed? Or just google auto watering plants. That should give you some good places to start. Nobody on here likes them but you don't want to do it our way so set the weed world on fire and figure out a new way to water your ladies. You seem to be smart, I am sure you will be able to reinvent the wheel. If you are so worried about it drop some money on a hydro sys and it will take care of all your watering for ya!

Ledhed · Jan 5, 2012

God damn, it's watering a plant, it isn't fucking rocket science!

stonerman · Jan 5, 2012

I hope you don't have any dogs lol. They would die of thirst because you would still be waiting for the "right scientific answer" on how much water to give them.

lime73 · Jan 5, 2012

water exactly one day before they start to droop. simple

you just have to know how long they take to droop, and water them a day sooner.

cowell · Jan 5, 2012

bombastic1337 said:
Does this device tell you when it's the right time to water or just shows up a value? Because without some reference value that we noobs can follow it's like having a thermometer and not knowing at what temperature fever starts to kick in.

I only have had a moisture stick once, and yes on the guage it went from dry - wet, and there was a spot marked that was considered "balanced"... once it slipped into the red you were good to water at that point. How much to water depends on your medium, and how far on the guage you were "dry". It was a very fast learniing curve on it..it maybe took me 3-4 waterings to determine how much water to add based on the "dry" reading to bring it up to the balanced (I went a little above that - just personal preference and then would let it get almost dried out).

It is true though.. once you have a good idea on what the pots feel like wet and dry, you really can determine fairly close how much to water.
Although you think there needs to be a more set in stone benchmark - there really isn't need for it.
Once you get into doing 100 plants - you don't have time to measure the moisture level in each pot. No one does that. That's also why alot of more experienced growers will suggest starting with a few plants and getting your feet wet. You learn alot - and if you are any kind of smart - when to water is the easiest thing to figure out for a new grower.
The problems you are reading about - if you want to post a few links as examples that would be great. I'll go out on a limb and guess that 95% of the noobie water problems stem from overwatering. In reality, if you let your pots go dry, you get better root developement as roots branch out looking for water... so less is better.

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

cowell said:
I only have had a moisture stick once, and yes on the guage it went from dry - wet, and there was a spot marked that was considered "balanced"... once it slipped into the red you were good to water at that point. How much to water depends on your medium, and how far on the guage you were "dry". It was a very fast learniing curve on it..it maybe took me 3-4 waterings to determine how much water to add based on the "dry" reading to bring it up to the balanced (I went a little above that - just personal preference and then would let it get almost dried out).

It is true though.. once you have a good idea on what the pots feel like wet and dry, you really can determine fairly close how much to water.
Although you think there needs to be a more set in stone benchmark - there really isn't need for it.
Once you get into doing 100 plants - you don't have time to measure the moisture level in each pot. No one does that. That's also why alot of more experienced growers will suggest starting with a few plants and getting your feet wet. You learn alot - and if you are any kind of smart - when to water is the easiest thing to figure out for a new grower.
The problems you are reading about - if you want to post a few links as examples that would be great. I'll go out on a limb and guess that 95% of the noobie water problems stem from overwatering. In reality, if you let your pots go dry, you get better root developement as roots branch out looking for water... so less is better.

Thanks a lot. Very helpful and detailed. +rep

I will try to get a hold of it soon.

nick17gar · Jan 5, 2012

to be honest, i stick my finger in it. all the time. i aim for the edge, where dirt meets pot. and i dig a little, about 1-2 inches deep.

how much to water? i use about 2 liters of water+nutes mix for about 20 clones, then about 2 more liters for 5 bigger plants (2-3footers)

and i usually check every 3 days. but end up watering every 4th or 5th day.

yea i agree with cowell, less is more, starve them a bit

bombastic1337 · Jan 5, 2012

nick17gar said:
I aim for the edge, where dirt meets pot. and i dig a little, about 1-2 inches deep.

How deep are your pots? So I can compare that to my pots

nick17gar said:
how much to water? i use about 2 liters of water+nutes mix for about 20 clones, then about 2 more liters for 5 bigger plants (2-3footers)

I thought you needed to water until it comes out from the bottom holes. Isn't this valid for every stage?

nick17gar said:
yea i agree with cowell, less is more, starve them a bit

Yes, I think so too.

Thanks for the help. I'd give you rep, but I already did not too long ago

I need a more precise guideline for watering than "feel the weight, duderino".

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