Indoor growing question

Outdoor grower here, converting to indoor for the first time. Outside i would use straw to keep the top of my pots from drying out.. Pots were much larger outdoors .. I am using 5 gallon pots now and the first inch or two of soil seems to dry out fairly fast.. Do you guys put a "cover" on top of your soil indoors to prevent the first couple inches from drying? Do you do a shallow water and try not to give roots to much.? Just trying to cover all my bases before my girls get put in the tent.. Excited for my first controlled grow. Thanks again for the advice.. Much appreciated.. Pete

sorry I misread and thought you were currently experiencing the same problem indoors. No I don't cover them and I can normally go 3-4 days without watering

I don't cover and I water as needed.
When I water i water until i get a good bit of runoff.

I veg for a long time so the plants get big and tend to need frequent watering.

This run Im using 15gal bags hoping to feed and water less.

But yeah a large plant in a 5 gal is gonna drink water fast

Yeah no need to cover! Check the weight of the pot and maybe feed a little more water, should really be a 3 days gap at least

most of us dont cover. you need to mix your media and use a pot size that is best for your environment. if you want to prevent the soil from drying down too quickly, use less perlite and more ingredients that aid in water retention.

honestly most of us try to dry down every other day or every few days tops. you want to dry down so you have a chance to feed when using hydro nutes.

what media will you use?what pot size? what are your indoor temps and rh%? we can try to figure out how often your pots will dry down... you want to figure out how often you need to feed(or flush)

Thank you people for answering.. much appreciated.

The finger in the pot thing isn’t always accurate, feel the weight of the pot man! You’ll know when you need to feed again.

if it is dry 2" down it means it is a watering day

Let me touch on this subject since we have a few responses. I love the answers and I think everyone is correct and we are just teaching you not to over water. Personally, in veg, I will wait until the plant flags (leaves start to droop) from the media being dry. This ensures, without a doubt, that the media has dried down completely. The plants love a wet and dry cycle. It is my personal opinion that the plants actually suffer from overly wet saturated media with limited air/oxygen available to the roots. The pot will be so dry that when you lift it up it will practically jump out of your hands. You won't believe how dry and light it can actually feel before the plant wilts. Anyway good luck and don't let the plant stay waterlogged but also don't let it flag for very long make sure it gets a good slow soaking after a good dry down.