I just transplanted the girls into 7 gallon smart pots and they are ready to switch lights to 12/12. The plastic planters that I transplanted from had holes in the bottom. I have been watering until about a 1/3 of what I had watered the plants with had drained out the bottom. Now that I am using the smart pots they seem plenty well watered before I see any water exiting the pots. I increased the volumn of soil by about three and watered using about three times as much water. They still seem far from needeing water again and it has been 5 days instead of my normal every other day water cycle. Can anyone suggest how I should be watering using these smart pots?
Water as needed. Don't worry about counting how many days in between. Just water them when they look dry. It's hard to over water with a smart pot and you really want to make sure you get run off, no matter how much water that takes. You don't want to end up with salt build ups for not watering till you have run off.
Thanks for the replies. I was aiming for "run off" it just took bunches of water and I was concerned that they would not drain well and be overwatered. I also pour my tap water several days prior to use. I guess I will have to plan on prepping a bunch more water now.
Are you keeping the pots off the ground? I don't think this is very common practice, but I read that in order to make full use of smart pots, they need to be raised off the ground so air can flow around the bottom of the container. I found an old DVD carousel, took it apart, and was left with these u-shaped wire pieces about 3 feet long that fit three 3 gal smart pots on each. You certainly don't have to add spacers, it just maximizes use of the smart pot.
No not true...they are meant to be able to "root in". go have a look at the High Caliper website http://www.treebag.com/smart_pot.html
seems a few folks are confused what Cloth Pots are capable of . A. they do not need daily watering, unless grow is designed for it, like with a soil-less mix. if your plants do, and you didn't plan to run a hydroponic type grow, you should up pot B. Cloth Pots can be put into the earth with no negative results, none ..matter of fact, roots will grow right on through. if they have contact with soil ( or hydroton or just a damp floor) they will send roots through the cloth. @OP the first watering is always a lot what size pots did you transplant up from ? if they are small enough, that maybe why it is taking so long to need to re-water.
Thatl makes sense Wharf, but wouldn't that not apply to an indoor grow? I'm not saying that Smart Pots absolutely need spacers indoors, it's just what I read in an autoflower forum. One of the posters in that thread was explaining that since autos like to send down a long taproot at first (to the bottom of the container), that it's best to have spacers underneath Smart Pots do that the 'air pruning' will work. No airflow under the pots would make the air pruning ineffective at the bottom of the pot, at least that's what I read. Like I said, this is only what I read. I dunno if it helped my plants, but it did seem to help with drainage at least. Again - not stating this as fact - but it does make sense to me, especially when growing autos.
sup roostaphant ive been followin ur grow bro its goin good i just started a outdoor grow ill have pics up soon probably within the next few days come check it out an let me know what u think
If you just sit your smart pots on some gravel rock thats enough to give it airflow to the roots and keep them happy ÷) mine was a success!
I am using 5 gal smart pots and use a round cooling wire rack on the bottom which I have in a plastic saucer................seems to work ok
Sounds like your transplant was fairly recent? The more your roots fill in the new container the more water it will drink. 5-7 days is pretty reasonable for a 7 gallon that hasn't filled out. I would expect to be on something to close to a 4 day watering schedule in a couple weeks.
Hey guys, hope people are still coming back to this forum lol it's been almost a year. I'm using 10 gallon smartpots and It seems like I have to water every other day. Maybe the fact I'm running 2 fans blowing on the ground to dry up any excess water to prevent any mold or rottting. Would you guys recommend making sure all the soil gets wet or just around the base for it to soak in all the way to the bottom of the core? I'm scared of getting any kind of mold.
Smart pots hands down are the best. They make it almost impossible to over water. Just soak the fucker and wait till it needs to be watered again. The pots do no hold water so any excess water is going to drain right out. Now under watering is a different story. Smart pots can dry out faster but as long as you stay on top of watering there should be any issues.
Is that kinda the rule of thumb? Because I have 4 5 gallon containers so 20 gallons of water... and I have 10 10 gallon pots and 2 30 gallon pots. I haven't really been efficient on exact water amounts just watering until I think it's enough... but I go through 20 gallons of water after 2 watering sessions, so every 4 days because I water every other day.
Maybe that's why people are saying they only water once every 4-5 days with smart pots.. there soaking that bitch all the way, while I'm just giving it enough to get by... ughh time to go to Wal-Mart and buy something to put under my pots so i can see how much excess water im adding. Using natural fertilizer for veg but switching to liquid nutes for flower.. so I need to figure out the water to soil ratio so i don't waste any liquid nutes when it comes flower time
When using nutes i found it best to water the plants first then i would add my nutrients last. That way you know the nutrients are staying in the pot.