the water I irrigate flows immediately from the bottom

simpleleaf

simpleleaf

Well-Known Member
420foreverQQ said:
plastic, biobiz light mix, how is the bottom watering done?
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Farmerfischer answered:

farmerfischer said:
Put your pot on a shallow tray or container to water from the bottom.
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I do something similar to Rurumo's method:

Rurumo said:
Take your time rehydrating it, water it to runoff several times over a 15 min period. Once a pot gets very dry, it doesn't matter if you're using peat based or coco, it's very hard to get it rehydrated again. You can pour water through it and the pot stays almost just as light as before. Taking your time to rehydrate it, plus the yucca or soap, will help fix this. You'll know it's rehydrated by the weight of the pot. Try not to ever let them get bone dry, or you'll have to fuss with rehydrating them constantly.
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I typically let my plants potting mix get quite dry before watering again, it's an anti-fungal tactic. I practice both top and bottom watering, as well as giving them a measured amount of water, with the intent of 20% runoff as discard to reduce salt build up. I don't use either skewers or surfactants.

All water is applied from the top, it drains to the tray and it's allowed to sit there for at least an hour. The biggest pots are watered 3 times to reach the desired total watering volume, the maximum amount of water for each single watering is dictated by how much runoff is held in the bottom tray (don't want nutes spilling onto the floor). The first few waterings drain quickly to the tray, where they sit and are slowly sucked back up into the sponge of the potting mix. The last one generally doesn't, I figure that means the plants are now fully watered, the potting mix has absorbed the maximum amount of water.

The remaining runoff is drained from the trays.
 
Somatek

Somatek

Well-Known Member
If you're having problems with the water not soaking into your peat based soil that means you're letting it dry out too much between waterings which makes it hydrophobic and repels water until soaked. Once you get your soil saturated make sure you don't let it dry out nearly as much between watering's and you won't have problems with it running off instead of soaking in.
 
Herb & Suds

Herb & Suds

Well-Known Member
Somatek said:
If you're having problems with the water not soaking into your peat based soil that means you're letting it dry out too much between waterings which makes it hydrophobic and repels water until soaked. Once you get your soil saturated make sure you don't let it dry out nearly as much between watering's and you won't have problems with it running off instead of soaking in.
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I think people get hung up on overwatering when plants are small then carry poor watering practices into the mature plants
 
Somatek

Somatek

Well-Known Member
Over and under watering are the kinds of cultural practices that hold most beginners back as they usually don't understand how hydration affects other things like nutrient absorption. It seems to have been compounded as more people learn from the net without ever reading a grow book that drives home the basics. Like the trend I've noticed of people not watering until there's run off, basic poor cultural practices that create conditions like this which people often suggest fixing by adding more product instead of looking at what people are doing and whether it's creating problems. I understand how people growing in living/fortified soil mixes don't want to wash nutes out with excess run off but when I see people using bottled nutes doing the same thing it illustrates the problems with trying to learn a complex hobby filled with nuance from the web where that complexity/nuance is simplified to make it comprehend able even if it's no longer accurate.
 
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