Newbies (Me) and overwatering---even if your careful

Ok, I did a lot of reading before my first grow and learned the hard way what overwatering is. I used a plastic pot and Fox Farm Ocean Forest which became compacted from wet soil. Although I tried hard not to over water I did, and badly.

My tip is this.... It takes a few grows to learn how to water. You will find a lot of experts saying things like, " water when you stick a finger in and its dry to the knuckle. You'll also hear them tell you to feel the pot for weight. Another tip given is to water till 20% run off ( this would have killed my plant with compacted soil and plastic pots) All are good advice, but NOT for a newbie ! It takes some time to really know the weight and depending on your pot, soil type etc... the finger trick and run-off tip may or may not work.

My advice is to get a postal scale that can weigh up to 20 or 50 pounds or so. Weigh your soil in the pot when dry to know exactly what dry weight is. You can then monitor the exact amounts of water your plant is drinking, and you will know for sure when its time to water. Works like a charm !

Last thing---I went over 7 weeks veg overwatering Northern Lights. It wasn't until I ran a test and let her dry out that I discovered I was watering with 2 pounds of water still in the soil. Not good !

Watering by weight is extremely simple and requires little experience. You take the new container filled with the new medium. Totally filled. Pick it up. Do it several times. Then remove the medium to the point your transplant will fit. Transplant and water it in properly. 25% of container volume. 5 gallon bag = 1-1/4 gallon of liquid. Then pick it up repeatedly.

Now pick it up everyday. It doesn't take a sideshow freak to very quickly feel the difference daily. Before it gets as light as it was when you performed the first step you water again. Again using a proper volume.

Using less does nothing but encourage shallow roots.

Also a good rain head on a watering can makes a big difference. I like dramm cans

You definitely want to slowly water or feed. Very slowly. Dump it in and it takes the quickest route out. Add a drop or two of dishwashing soap to feed or to water if you are in a peat based medium. This acts to break the surface tension of water so the peat absorbs the fluid. If you have seen water bead up on the top of your medium this is how you fix that.

Yohimbe2 said:

Ok, I did a lot of reading before my first grow and learned the hard way what overwatering is. I used a plastic pot and Fox Farm Ocean Forest which became compacted from wet soil. Although I tried hard not to over water I did, and badly.

My tip is this.... It takes a few grows to learn how to water. You will find a lot of experts saying things like, " water when you stick a finger in and its dry to the knuckle. You'll also hear them tell you to feel the pot for weight. Another tip given is to water till 20% run off ( this would have killed my plant with compacted soil and plastic pots) All are good advice, but NOT for a newbie ! It takes some time to really know the weight and depending on your pot, soil type etc... the finger trick and run-off tip may or may not work.

My advice is to get a postal scale that can weigh up to 20 or 50 pounds or so. Weigh your soil in the pot when dry to know exactly what dry weight is. You can then monitor the exact amounts of water your plant is drinking, and you will know for sure when its time to water. Works like a charm !

Last thing---I went over 7 weeks veg overwatering Northern Lights. It wasn't until I ran a test and let her dry out that I discovered I was watering with 2 pounds of water still in the soil. Not good !

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You’ll be getting rid of the scale soon enough once you get the feel.
Plus a scale wouldn’t work with any type of scrog either.
But you’re right, it takes a couple of grows to figure it out.

Get the fuck outta here with your watering scale

So, I weighed my plant daily after watering and found that it was drinking 12 ounces of water daily (consistently) through the week. It was nice to know exactly when the next watering would be without any guessing! My dry weight was 5 pounds, watered weight around 7-8 pounds. Simple math let me know how many days I could go. Also useful if your taking a trip-- you can calculate days until dry soil.

The problem is that you wont really know if there is too much water in the soil until you gain some experience. This can be a hard lesson to learn watching your plant struggle for 4 months. A postal scale isn't expensive and you'll know exactly how much water your plant is drinking through all phases of growth. Anyway, I'm a newbie starting grow number two using the postal scale at watering time. I know for a fact, (no guessing or second thoughts) exactly how much water my plant gets and uses. Newbie-itis overwatering disease cured for me.

Last thing, overwatering is on the top of the list of No-No's for new growers (and seasoned growers as well). It is one of the worse things you can do to your plant. Why start out as a new grower guessing with something so critically important !

Problems associated with overwatering... (not all, just a few)

1. Root Rot, not good. Guess what the number one cause is?
2. Pest's love wet soil. There is nothing like a good swarm of Fungus Gnats like a plague in your home.
3. Plants need air and drowning from overwatering happens. I know, learned the hard way.
4. Roots dying and potential for disease.
5. Fusarium loves wet soil. Another not good thing.
6. Lockout due to water log. Yep, if roots are drowning they aren't getting nutrients to your plant.
7. Compacted soil. Fox Farm does not like to be overwatered and will turn into a brick if you overwater. (I'm using a lot more perlite my second grow, Fox Farm Ocean without perlite and too much water will strangle your plant.)

the list goes on and on..

My advice as the king of newbies who fucked up every turn of the bend on my first grow is.. One: Don't overwater... Two: Get your PH right.

Yohimbe2 said:

So, I weighed my plant daily after watering and found that it was drinking 12 ounces of water daily (consistently) through the week. It was nice to know exactly when the next watering would be without any guessing! My dry weight was 5 pounds, watered weight around 7-8 pounds. Simple math let me know how many days I could go. Also useful if your taking a trip-- you can calculate days until dry soil.

The problem is that you wont really know if there is too much water in the soil until you gain some experience. This can be a hard lesson to learn watching your plant struggle for 4 months. A postal scale isn't expensive and you'll know exactly how much water your plant is drinking through all phases of growth. Anyway, I'm a newbie starting grow number two using the postal scale at watering time. I know for a fact, (no guessing or second thoughts) exactly how much water my plant gets and uses. Newbie-itis overwatering disease cured!

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You'll get over that soon enough. This is a first for me.

Why is it so damn hard to water a plant in a pot?

It defies logic.

xtsho said:

Why is it so damn hard to water a plant in a pot?

It defies logic.

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Logically arguing your point, if you follow the directions given by many "experienced growers", you can fuck up easily. The "stick your finger in to the knuckle if its dry water" advice is not going to work at all for many. It really depends on the pot and soil.

Get a scale, weigh your plant, you will know exactly where you are with water without playing the guessing game.

Does that make sense Spock? Using a scale seems pretty logical to me.

Watering frequency largely depends on light / air flow / humidity for me, more than pot size.

Fabric pots help a lot, but I've always had more luck with giving more frequent (even everyday) rather than letting it dry out.

I use blumats as well with great success.

iPerculate said:

Watering frequency largely depends on light / air flow / humidity for me, more than pot size.

Fabric pots help a lot, but I've always had more luck with giving more frequent (even everyday) rather than letting it dry out.

I use blumats as well with great success.

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Thanks for the tip, I'm giving up on plastic pots for my next grow and will be using cloth. The Fox Farm Ocean Forest in a plastic pot held water way too long for me and I'm hoping cloth will get a bit more air to the roots (as well as increasing the amount of water evaporating.) If I watered FFOF to 20% drainage in my plastic pot, it would stay very wet for over a week... Forget flushing, I tried and it almost killed my plant.

Hopefully weighing a cloth pot with a postal scale wont be too much of a hassle, we'll see. I may miss the rigidity of the plastic pot and the ability to LST to the sides, but I'll figure it out. I'll be using a mix of FFOF and Happy Frog with a lot of perlite this go around, hopefully this in combination with a cloth pot will help.

Yohimbe2 said:

Thanks for the tip, I'm giving up on plastic pots for my next grow and will be using cloth. The Fox Farm Ocean Forest in a plastic pot held water way too long for me and I'm hoping cloth will get a bit more air to the roots (as well as increasing the amount of water evaporating.) If I watered FFOF to 20% drainage in my plastic pot, it would stay very wet for over a week... Forget flushing, I tried and it almost killed my plant.

Hopefully weighing a cloth pot with a postal scale wont be too much of a hassle, we'll see. I may miss the rigidity of the plastic pot and the ability to LST to the sides, but I'll figure it out. I'll be using a mix of FFOF and Happy Frog with a lot of perlite this go around, hopefully this in combination with a cloth pot will help.

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You can use binder clips to connect to or a hole punch to make holes along the edge to connect your wire to LST in a fabric pot. Lack of rigidity should not be an issue but you can inspect the seam(s) for yourself. The soil will still become compact, it just happens. Your scale is stupid.

Yohimbe2 said:

Thanks for the tip, I'm giving up on plastic pots for my next grow and will be using cloth. The Fox Farm Ocean Forest in a plastic pot held water way too long for me and I'm hoping cloth will get a bit more air to the roots (as well as increasing the amount of water evaporating.) If I watered FFOF to 20% drainage in my plastic pot, it would stay very wet for over a week... Forget flushing, I tried and it almost killed my plant.

Hopefully weighing a cloth pot with a postal scale wont be too much of a hassle, we'll see. I may miss the rigidity of the plastic pot and the ability to LST to the sides, but I'll figure it out. I'll be using a mix of FFOF and Happy Frog with a lot of perlite this go around, hopefully this in combination with a cloth pot will help.

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You do you … but I wouldn’t be instructing others to follow along.
It’s impractical and overkill.
You don’t need to be that precise in soil.
The felt pots will do you good.

Yohimbe2 said:

Logically arguing your point, if you follow the directions given by many "experienced growers", you can fuck up easily. The "stick your finger in to the knuckle if its dry water" advice is not going to work at all for many. It really depends on the pot and soil.

Get a scale, weigh your plant, you will know exactly where you are with water without playing the guessing game.

Does that make sense Spock? Using a scale seems pretty logical to me.



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I think Spock would deem it so simple as not to require a convoluted process. It would be similar to such a mundane and automatic task such as breathing air.

Just grow in coco and you'd have to go crazy to over water.

Dank Bongula said:

You can use binder clips to connect to or a hole punch to make holes along the edge to connect your wire to LST in a fabric pot. Lack of rigidity should not be an issue but you can inspect the seam(s) for yourself. The soil will still become compact, it just happens. Your scale is stupid.

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Perfect ! thanks for the tip, binder clips it is.

drsaltzman said:

You do you … but I wouldn’t be instructing others to follow along.
It’s impractical and overkill.
You don’t need to be that precise in soil.
The felt pots will do you good.

Click to expand...

Its all good, I get it and understand a postal scale may be over kill. In a few grows I may not need it, but for 20 bucks it will make sure you get your watering straight without any doubts. 4 months on a grow is a long time to spend "learning". I'm just saying a scale can be a good thing for a "newbie".

Side note. I'm doing a microgrow for personal use only 1.5x1.5 x 5 feet. I grew one Northern Lights Fem with less than 100 watts of light and got an ounce of dry bud off it. I'm pretty sure I could have doubled my harvest weight if it hadn't been for all the watering problems I was unaware of. It wasn't until I got the scale (mid flower) that I knew too much water was in the soil... My plant was an Auto (Auto defoliation that is....I lost every fan leave grown.) Overwatering is not a good thing and I really believe my plant limped along diseased with root rot or something else to the finish line. Its a good thing I chose NL. It can really take a beating.View attachment 5060918View attachment 5060918View attachment 5060918View attachment 5060918

Very overfed

I think a soil moisture meter would work better than trying to weigh it.

The plant itself is growing mass, after defoliating the weight will be less?