# Am I watering wrong?



## Surfer Joe (Jul 21, 2022)

I have been disappointed with the size of my plants recently and was wondering if I am watering them wrong?
I worry that I am taking the idea of letting them get very dry and then watering to runoff too far.
The advice is to check the dryness of the pot soil by using your finger up to the third knuckle and if it feels dry, then water.
But when it's that dry at the top of the soil, the pot still feels heavy and must have much more moisture down below, so I wait until the pot is feeling light and the soil is quite dry on top before watering.
I don't want the lower roots to lack oxygen by always being in too moist soil.
But I worry that I have been damaging the roots throughout the pot by letting the soil dry out too much between watering and also stunting growth because of limited water supply.
The roots don't look vigorous or white when I check them after harvesting a pot.
I am controlling the temperature of the soil and air ok, and the nutes have worked well before.
Just how dry are people letting their soil pots go before watering? 
Any advice is appreciated.


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## boo (Jul 21, 2022)

if you can lift the container with just your fingertips it's time to feed...pot does far better when you let the rootball dry out but not to the point of wilting...the fan leaves will guide your watering if you keep an eye on them...


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## MechaniMan (Jul 21, 2022)

Surfer Joe said:


> I have been disappointed with the size of my plants recently and was wondering if I am watering them wrong?
> I worry that I am taking the idea of letting them get very dry and then watering to runoff too far.
> The advice is to check the dryness of the pot soil by using your finger up to the third knuckle and if it feels dry, then water.
> But when it's that dry at the top of the soil, the pot still feels heavy and must have much more moisture down below, so I wait until the pot is feeling light and the soil is quite dry on top before watering.
> ...


I used to let my leaves Wilt before watering I think it was a mistake. The reason I think of the mistake because on my second grow here I'm a lot more generous with the water I don't soak the pots but I also don't let them completely dry out I just use common sense. I try to keep the soil damp, just damp without completely saturating it in my second gross seems to be going spectacular with that watering cycle.


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## PERCHSLURP802 (Jul 22, 2022)

Surfer Joe said:


> I have been disappointed with the size of my plants recently and was wondering if I am watering them wrong?
> I worry that I am taking the idea of letting them get very dry and then watering to runoff too far.
> The advice is to check the dryness of the pot soil by using your finger up to the third knuckle and if it feels dry, then water.
> But when it's that dry at the top of the soil, the pot still feels heavy and must have much more moisture down below, so I wait until the pot is feeling light and the soil is quite dry on top before watering.
> ...


Im experimenting with 4-5 deep planters almost like what they would grow microgreens in size wise. Keeping say 28-30 quarts of medium to a burlap type container then sitting that into a "mircogreen" size container and watering by just filling up the sides and allowing the medium to suck it up over a 2 hour period. I did have my first attempt get mild powdery mildew due to my not keeping myself mindful of just how much water that anount of substrate can absorb before it becomes a prob in this typeof setup. I actually had alot of success on 2nd n 3rd attempts being mindful of waterings based of mediums needs..not my impulses lol


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## pute (Jul 22, 2022)

Like Boo said, I can tell when it is time by lifting the pot. If the pot is light then water/nute it...if heavy wait two weeks and add cal/mag...ha ha. Just kidding.


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## PERCHSLURP802 (Jul 22, 2022)

PERCHSLURP802 said:


> Im experimenting with 4-5 deep planters almost like what they would grow microgreens in size wise. Keeping say 28-30 quarts of medium to a burlap type container then sitting that into a "mircogreen" size container and watering by just filling up the sides and allowing the medium to suck it up over a 2 hour period. I did have my first attempt get mild powdery mildew due to my not keeping myself mindful of just how much water that anount of substrate can absorb before it becomes a prob in this typeof setup. I actually had alot of success on 2nd n 3rd attempts being mindful of waterings based of mediums needs..not my impulses lol











I figured its easier then trying to describe it with my rambling vernacular


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## Surfer Joe (Jul 22, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> I used to let my leaves Wilt before watering I think it was a mistake. The reason I think of the mistake because on my second grow here I'm a lot more generous with the water I don't soak the pots but I also don't let them completely dry out I just use common sense. I try to keep the soil damp, just damp without completely saturating it in my second gross seems to be going spectacular with that watering cycle.View attachment 303600


Thanks. That's the problem. The roots need oxygen but don't get it if the soil is always wet, but how moist should it be?
I know that I water my house plants more often that I do the pot plants, and they don't seem to suffer from the moist soil, but they must also need oxygen for their roots, so I suspect that I am taking the wet/dry cycle for watering pot too far and hurting the plant's development and potential.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 22, 2022)

Surfer Joe said:


> Thanks. That's the problem. The roots need oxygen but don't get it if the soil is always wet, but how moist should it be?
> I know that I water my house plants more often that I do the pot plants, and they don't seem to suffer from the moist soil, but they must also need oxygen for their roots, so I suspect that I am taking the wet/dry cycle for watering pot too far and hurting the plant's development and potential.


Are you planting in bags or pots inside or outside? Picture?


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

I'll put it this way. Right now I have 10 plants going in 7 gallon fabric pots that are 15-18in tall. The fabric Pots have about 5 gallons worth of dirt in them. I will split 2 gallons of water between all these plants about every 7 to 10 days. When they were half the size they are now I would use a little more than a gallon between all of them about once a week.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> View attachment 303763
> I'll put it this way. Right now I have 10 plants going in 7 gallon fabric pots that are 15-18in tall. The fabric Pots have about 5 gallons worth of dirt in them. I will split 2 gallons of water between all these plants about every 7 to 10 days. When they were half the size they are now I would use a little more than a gallon between all of them about once a week.


I think you need more water. I have 5 plants in 5 gal bags with FF soil LED lights ave 78 deg 38% humidity and I use 2 gals every two days .


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

JoseyWales said:


> I think you need more water. I have 5 plants in 5 gal bags with FF soil LED lights ave 78 deg 38% humidity and I use 2 gals every two days .


Wow really, they seem to be ok. I will try giving them some more water. I just put up another thread about a male plant that I found that come out of nowhere so maybe it was caused by stress or the fact that I lost power for a couple hours the other day, but I suppose maybe underwatering could cause stress. I don't really know what caused to push out a pollen sac and open it, it just happened out of nowhere and the plant turned out to be a hermaphrodite. I will up the watering frequency if you think it will help


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## RosterMan (Jul 23, 2022)

If it is Hot where you are you should be watering more than that
Mine are drying out after 2 days


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## sharonp (Jul 23, 2022)

This time of the year you might need to water every day or two depending on the pot size. My 3 gallon pots outside need water everyday.


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

I'm growing outside in Fabric pots. I water every day.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> Wow really, they seem to be ok. I will try giving them some more water. I just put up another thread about a male plant that I found that come out of nowhere so maybe it was caused by stress or the fact that I lost power for a couple hours the other day, but I suppose maybe underwatering could cause stress. I don't really know what caused to push out a pollen sac and open it, it just happened out of nowhere and the plant turned out to be a hermaphrodite. I will up the watering frequency if you think it will help


You could water a bag till you see run off. I don't think you could ever over water a bag. I just guessing but I think a 1/2 gallon every other day should do it. Do you have a tent they stay in with ventilation?


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

sharonp said:


> This time of the year you might need to water every day or two depending on the pot size. My 3 gallon pots outside need water everyday.


I mostly grow out side and water every day, this year I'm useing 25 gallons a day. It's been real hot last couple of weeks and found my plants drooping in the afternoon so I give them more water. love the my bags, I don't think you could ever over water with bags.


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## N.E.wguy (Jul 23, 2022)

Oh boy. This is a good one. I grow in fabric pots with compost and water by weight. But I use 3 and 5 gal pots ultimately drying time in part has to do with root ball size and plant uptake as much as pot with air flow so on average I'd say my 3gal take 1/2 a gal almost daily and the 5gal are like a gallon every 2 days. (Varies by stage of plant these are full flower)

But when you transplant up you are creating a large void between container wall and root ball of medium so as the roots grow the water % In the void becomes more and drying occurs faster so u will need more water per container the more the plant grows. 

Over watering is bad for alot of reasons adding excess unused water increasing rh of room ultimately plants will not be able to expell water properly thru the leaves leading to nute issues mold Invitations and sick plants are a magnet for spider plants so  

Definitely important to understand watering and ask as many questions as y need to. Best way is to get a  bathroon scale weight the plant at transplant with container and medium  before watering to know the "dry pot weight" or atleast have an idea, then after a while u will just know by lifting a pot or by more of a "scheduale" when the plants need to be watered. Waiting till you see it in the leaves is like waiting to fix a problem that should not be a problem to be fixing


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

I live in Texas. With fabric pots I have to water every day.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

JoseyWales said:


> You could water a bag till you see run off. I don't think you could ever over water a bag. I just guessing but I think a 1/2 gallon every other day should do it. Do you have a tent they stay in with ventilation?


Not now because my tent is full with flowering plants. They will be moved in there as soon as those are finished up. Right now I have them in my cool bin but I do have a fan blowing across them. It is about 80° to 85° where they're at. I actually just went down and dumped a half a gallon of water on each plant.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> I'm growing outside in Fabric pots. I water every day.


I love bags.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> I live in Texas. With fabric pots I have to water every day.


That's what I'm catching here out of people's comments, that fabric Pots need to be watered a lot more. I also have a dehumidifier running in the basement so it stays around 45% RH. In total there are four fans running in the basement. Two fans blowing on my flowering plants, one large box fan expelling heat from the tent and one fan blowing across the plants that are in pre-flower.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

This is turning out to be pretty good thread in my opinion


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> Not now because my tent is full with flowering plants. They will be moved in there as soon as those are finished up. Right now I have them in my cool bin but I do have a fan blowing across them. It is about 80° to 85° where they're at. I actually just went down and dumped a half a gallon of water on each plant.


OK so they are in you're basement outside of a tent with no ventilation. The humidity must be very high, mold and mildew is an invitation to every bug, spider, ant. Environment is very important.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

JoseyWales said:


> OK so they are in you're basement outside of a tent with no ventilation. The humidity must be very high, mold and mildew is an invitation to every bug, spider, ant. Environment is very important.


The humidity in my basement is 45%, I keep a dehumidifier running 24/7


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## N.E.wguy (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> That's what I'm catching here out of people's comments, that fabric Pots need to be watered a lot more. I also have a dehumidifier running in the basement so it stays around 45% RH. In total there are four fans running in the basement. Two fans blowing on my flowering plants, one large box fan expelling heat from the tent and one fan blowing across the plants that are in pre-flower.


Fabric defiantly needs a good watering because the root Zone is drying from 360 degrees as well as vertically where as plastic your only disipating moisture vertically. This is also a potential negative if you "under water from Center out" because if the exterior medium is not getting wet your creating a dry dead zone around the roots. This is why I "try not to let the plant tell with the leaves it needs water".

Also I fill bottoms of bags with rocks to create separation of the root zone from the pot allowing for air under the plant as well. (Large perlite rocks"growstone"or lava rock would work any thing porous for airflow.
The fabric can not breath if its flat on floor and filled with wet dirt the bottom of the pot will always be "wet in theory" with no air exchange. This also helps out door if u Intend to move plants for sun position helps to stop roots from growing thru bottom of the fabric and being damaged when they are moved potentially ripping roots stunting growth.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

N.E.wguy said:


> Fabric defiantly needs a good watering because the root Zone is drying from 360 degrees as well as vertically where as plastic your only disipating moisture vertically. This is also a potential negative if you "under water from Center out" because if the exterior medium is not getting wet your creating a dry dead zone around the roots. This is why I "try not to let the plant tell with the leaves it needs water.
> 
> Also I fill bottoms of bags with rocks to create separation of the root zo e from the pot allowing for air under the plant as well. The fabric can not breath if its flat on floor and filled with wet dirt the bottom of the pot will always be "wet in theory with no air exchange. This also helps out door if u Intend to move plants for sun position helps to stop roots from growing thru bottom of the fabric and being damaged when they are moved potentially ripping roots stunting growth.


That's good to know about not setting them on the ground because I actually have these ones sitting on a plastic pallet which kind of has a lattice work structure so they do get air from underneath. Thanks for that info because I had no idea.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

N.E.wguy said:


> Fabric defiantly needs a good watering because the root Zone is drying from 360 degrees as well as vertically where as plastic your only disipating moisture vertically. This is also a potential negative if you "under water from Center out" because if the exterior medium is not getting wet your creating a dry dead zone around the roots. This is why I "try not to let the plant tell with the leaves it needs water".
> 
> Also I fill bottoms of bags with rocks to create separation of the root zone from the pot allowing for air under the plant as well. (Large perlite rocks"growstone"or lava rock would work any thing porous for airflow.
> The fabric can not breath if its flat on floor and filled with wet dirt the bottom of the pot will always be "wet in theory" with no air exchange. This also helps out door if u Intend to move plants for sun position helps to stop roots from growing thru bottom of the fabric and being damaged when they are moved potentially ripping roots stunting growth.


Spot on.


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

JoseyWales said:


> I love bags.


Me too brother. I will never go back to regular pots


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

I put Perlite on the bottom and the top.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 23, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> Me too brother. I will never go back to regular pots


Take a look at these guy's Shop - Grassroots


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

Pretty cool.


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## N.E.wguy (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> That's good to know about not setting them on the ground because I actually have these ones sitting on a plastic pallet which kind of has a lattice work structure so they do get air from underneath. Thanks for that info because I had no idea.


Ya the roots will grow thru the pot Into the soil. Even in a tent I've had roots come thru pot bottoms. Rocks are heavy but I screen soil and collect the smaller quarter sized ones and use those the bottom of the pot should be as important as the top





WeedHopper said:


> Me too brother. I will never go back to regular pots


Unless your running hydro plastic is as unnatural as you can get for a potting material once u try to understand the science behind growth what you dont see is the most important part of obtaining what you want to see    it's nice to be able to help explain things sometimes


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

Do y'all think it would be beneficial to spray the outsides of the fabric pots to keep them damp when you water? What I have been doing is I've been using an old aluminum Arrow with no fletchings or knock on it so it's roughly the size of a pencil and has a pointy end and I stick it down in the soil in several spots to help water penetrate where I want it to go.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 23, 2022)

N.E.wguy said:


> Ya the roots will grow thru the pot Into the soil. Even in a tent I've had roots come thru pot bottoms. Rocks are heavy but I screen soil and collect the smaller quarter sized ones and use those the bottom of the pot should be as important as the top
> Unless your running hydro plastic is as unnatural as you can get for a potting material once u try to understand the science behind growth what you dont see is the most important part of obtaining what you want to see    it's nice to be able to help explain things sometimes


I didn't put anything in the bottom of the fabric Pots but I will keep that in mind. When I did my first grow in the plastic buckets though I screened out old coal ashes and lined the bottom of the buckets with chunks so the dirt didn't just sit on the bottom of the bucket and I also drilled several holes around the bottom.


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## N.E.wguy (Jul 23, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> I put Perlite on the bottom and the top.


I used to use perlite then I only used the growstone brand large perlite which was more like fake lava rock. But now I feel the actual rocks rather then engineered materials works like nature. If it's not broke do t fix it. I like the rock because it allows I feel for a better draining where u can take a cup of perlite water a rooted clone and flower it out in perlite basically so I think perlite even tho porous and we expect it would work as rock but I know rocks defiantly work like rocks   always more then one way to accomplish things tho


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

Yep. As my Dad would say,,more then one way to skin a cat. 
Never skinned a cat though.


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## SubmarineGirl (Jul 23, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> Yep. As my Dad would say,,more then one way to skin a cat.
> Never skinned a cat though.


My dad said the same thing. I wonder if they skinned cats back then together.


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

Damn cat Skinner's.


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## Surfer Joe (Jul 23, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> This is turning out to be pretty good thread in my opinion


Lol...indeed. It seems everyone has their own opinions on how to water.


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## WeedHopper (Jul 23, 2022)

That's what makes the world go around.


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## SubmarineGirl (Jul 23, 2022)

My plants tell me now when to water them. I’ve found that all my plants take different amounts of water I have three in my veg tent that want a giant drink everyday. Never seen any plants drink that much except for their mother planted outside. I use to have a water schedule but now I only schedule nutes. my flower tent also has a couple heavy drinkers. The other two just drink every 4 days or so so I think each plant should be treated individually. Good luck with your grow and let us all know how things are going


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## MechaniMan (Jul 24, 2022)

I wanted to touch back on this thread and let people know that it seemed that no I was not giving my other plants enough water. I dumped a half a gallon on them yesterday and picked up some of the baskets today and they were light so they are using up water pretty rapidly. I don't think it hurt them because they seem fine and are growing well but I think it would benefit from more water for sure. Once they go into the flowering tent I will regularly water to run off.  At this point I'm going to start giving them a little bit of nitrogen fish fertilizer also.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 24, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> I wanted to touch back on this thread and let people know that it seemed that no I was not giving my other plants enough water. I dumped a half a gallon on them yesterday and picked up some of the baskets today and they were light so they are using up water pretty rapidly. I don't think it hurt them because they seem fine and are growing well but I think it would benefit from more water for sure. Once they go into the flowering tent I will regularly water to run off.  At this point I'm going to start giving them a little bit of nitrogen fish fertilizer also.


Once you see flowers try FF Bembe, 5ml per gal once a week.


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## RosterMan (Jul 24, 2022)

My Plant tells me when to feed them


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## MechaniMan (Jul 24, 2022)

JoseyWales said:


> Once you see flowers try FF Bembe, 5ml per gal once a week.


I use tiger bloom on the last Grow because that's what was available locally. That Bemba stuff sounds pretty interesting from what I read on their website. I added microbes to the soil so that would probably be really beneficial to me.


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## MechaniMan (Jul 24, 2022)

SubmarineGirl said:


> My plants tell me now when to water them. I’ve found that all my plants take different amounts of water I have three in my veg tent that want a giant drink everyday. Never seen any plants drink that much except for their mother planted outside. I use to have a water schedule but now I only schedule nutes. my flower tent also has a couple heavy drinkers. The other two just drink every 4 days or so so I think each plant should be treated individually. Good luck with your grow and let us all know how things are going


Mine do that too, not every plant seems to need the same amount of water and I've often wondered if it had something to do with the leaf surface area.


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## ness (Jul 25, 2022)

Hello Surfer Joe, happy growing.  Watering was a trip for me now I go by the weight.  The outside girls take a gal of water a day.  If it's rainy or cloud overcast maybe, I'll go two day watering.  All and all have fun growing.


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## JoseyWales (Jul 25, 2022)

MechaniMan said:


> I use tiger bloom on the last Grow because that's what was available locally. That Bemba stuff sounds pretty interesting from what I read on their website. I added microbes to the soil so that would probably be really beneficial to me.


OK with you're watering and feeding cycle try organic unsulphered molassis.








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