information needed with lift pot method for when to water

Hey I'm just wondering when using the lift pot method should the pot be light and soil still moist not wet or light and the top few inches dry. reason I'm asking I water then lift bucket straight after to get a feel of the weight then I check few days later and the pot is much lighter but when I check with my moisture meter it's saying soil is still reading moist ?

I always went by weight. Usually theres a big difference between fully watered and mostly dry. But I always hated picking them up and being light as a feather. This year I have one in a 2 gal pot and never transplanted, eventually it drank up water so fast I would make sure to water everyother day no matter what. heres a pic of it.

As you can see I couldn't lift because I had to tie it down, the wind kept knocking it over.

dip you're finger in afew inches & feel if it's damp....i let it well dry out to the point acouple of times all the leaves have wilted but it instantly recovers.

Yes there is a a lot of difference in weight when wet and when she nearly dry that's when I water it doesn't seem to be causing issues I was reading somewhere that cannabis likes the soil a little moist to dry not bone dry I'm watering every 3 to 4 days in 10 liter pots

I water every third day and plants stay happy. It all depends on the property of ur soil, but with mine that has lots of perlite and drained well so no excess or mudiness after watering, every third day regardless of pot size works.

So my advice is get the know your setup and then just stay on schedule. If you need to move a day in either direction because of being out of town or something, no big deal.

Ok mate ile just go with flow

giz2k14 said:

Hey I'm just wondering when using the lift pot method should the pot be light and soil still moist not wet or light and the top few inches dry. reason I'm asking I water then lift bucket straight after to get a feel of the weight then I check few days later and the pot is much lighter but when I check with my moisture meter it's saying soil is still reading moist ?

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Go by "light and the top few inches dry" (if you stuck your finger in). The reviews I've read on those moisture meters is that they can be faulty. Depends on your medium, room conditions, and how much the plant is drinking. My current soil I'm watering once every 7 - 8 days (5 weeks veg from clone).

giz2k14 said:

Hey I'm just wondering when using the lift pot method should the pot be light and soil still moist ...

Click to expand...

The best way to learn is to wait until the plant's leaves droop, then lift the container a few times to know what it feels like. The plant will bounce back in 20 minutes after watering. Now you know what *too dry* feels like and can gauge how far away you are from it.

Letting your plant dry that much is like overwatering (flushing). I'd try to avoid doing either. But, doing either once isn't a huge stress. You're sacrificing one stress (underwatering once) for another (overwatering) which could occur on a regular basis just because you don't know how dry they should be.

You'd be surprised how dry the soil can get before dropping. You can't know it without feeling it yourself. The potential benefit of letting the soil dry more is worth the one-time "too dry" condition.

I water a couple days after the dirt pulls away from the side of the pots...you know it needs water then