How long do you wait to water your plants??? I know you are supposed to wait till the soil is almost completely dry again before watering cause it makes the roots grow searching for water. However im not sure how to tell when its completely dry without sticking my finger down into the bottom of the soil. I don't want to mangle my roots… Ive Heard you are supposed to wait till the leaves look slightly droopy … is this correct?
Slightly droopy isnt too bad, but ideally you want to water just before that. How much to water depends on many factors, other than the finger test, another way you can "learn" how to know, is by holding up a pot of just dry soil in your hands, feel its weight, remember it in your head. Then water it, and feel how heavy it is. Remember that. Do it a couple times if you need to, so its memorized, then wait until the pot feels light again to water. There are water testers out there, but I havnt found a reliable one. Maybe someone else has?
earlier today i read about some guy that had a really good method for how much to water but i still dont know how often to do it... his method of watering is submerge the plant in a bucket of water so the top of the soil is about a half in below the surface of the water. THen wait till theres no more bubbles coming up, take the plant out, and let it drain till it stops dripping. This seems like the most efficient way of doing it because it recycles all runoff and has no mess. It also ensures the soil gets fully soaked. ur idea about learnging the dry weight seems good. maybe it will just be instinctive and i will know when my plants are thirsty. im jsut nervouse about overwatering because i hear that it is very common and i wasnt sure if there is a surefire way to know when to do it without sticking ur finger in. anybody have any other methods of knowing when the perfect time to water is?
Thats an interesting method, I have not heard of that, something tells me it wouldnt be a good idea, but not sure what, something ill have to try in the future maybe. It will become instinctive eventually, for some quicker than others. Just curious what type of soil in how big of containers? Any added perlite? Im sure others will chime in with more.
fox farms ocean soil no added perlite. the containers are gallon milk jugs cut in half, i filled them up with water to see how much they hold. ABout 1.5 liters each. That method of watering seemed unusual to me but the guy that told me about it had been growing for like 20 years with incredible success. hes one of the most knowledgeable people ive encountered on these forums and i figure if he does it that way theres gota be a reason for it.. in theory it makes sense but its just not very common. my plan for filling my grow box is as follows for anyone intersted/people that have suggests or comments... im goign to veg 4 plants about a month or so. they will start in peat pots then be transplaned to the half milk jugs. They will be LST'd to an extreme and kept as short and bushy as possible. Then i will take 6 clones from each of them. The clones will be put into 16 oz water bottles. After two weeks or so once the clones root i will switch to 12/12 and hope for the best. With any luck, i should get at least 2 females that were vegged for a a month and 12 clones that are going to bascially be autoflowered. Since im growing from seed i dont know how many females i will end up with but i figure having a bunch of clones frow each plant will increase my yield. Im also doing this to compare yields for a vegged plant vs. autoflowered. and to compare yields for the pot sizes. Im aware that i should not get alot of bud off of plants growin in the 16 oz bottles but even if i only get an eigth of each clone thats 3/4 oz more per set of clones. Any comments or feedback is much appreciated. I figured this would best take advantage of my space. available.(which is 2.25 ft sqaure
i had no idea when to water when i started so i tryed to do it once every 3 days. u cant lose with that method. thats what i sugest just do it about once every 3 days or around 3 times a week.
i use 1000 watt lights x 3 fans x4 heaters. so every 3 days dont get it for me. it really depends on the set up u use. i just know when to add water to the set up i got but if your new to it i would try these rapitest water check sticks. they darken to let u know that the water is good,and lighten in color to tell u they need a drink. there cheap and you can get them @ www.wormsway.com there like 2.00 for 30 sticks