ok well im on day 3 1/2 of my grow and she is roughly 2-3 inches now. I planted her in a biodegradable jiffy pot with my miraclegrow soil that feeds it for 4 months. i just wanted to see exactly how much water i should be giving it. i read on another post that a tablespoon of water directly at the base of the plant everyday would suffice. in the book marijuana buds for less it says at day 5 it should be 1/2 a cup. not sure what to give her.
There's a lot of information about this out there. I know. I've read most of it over the past couple years. What I see a lot is people talking about the dangers of over-watering. What I've found to work best for me is to have nice loose soil that's always damp. You don't want standing water obviously, that's bad. But damp seems to make seedlings happy. What I actually do now is use a peat pellet planter box, throw the peat pellets away, and just use the little bathroom cups in the planter. Punch holes in the cups of course. This way I have really good drainage, because the excess water just runs out into the channels where I then either dump it out or if its just a little, it just evaporates, leaving me nice little cups of damp soil. Again- not wet, just damp. Incidentally, I used the peat pots and MG soil for my first ever grow too. It was something of a disaster. I had to transplant them into styro cups with just regular top soil. Some people use that setup and it works for them, or so I'm told anyways, but I had zero luck with it.
thanks for the input but all i really need to know is HOW MUCH water to give it. i gave it a tablespoon today at 10 am and it is now 2:30 and the soil around it still seems damp. but i need to know if i should give it more...
one of the best things i did was buy one of those 3 way moisture--light--ph testers. stick the probe in the soil. it will tell how moist ,,, up to about 10 inches deep. china freight had em for like5 or 6 bucks. the ph part aint great but the others are, good luck.
watering every other or every third day just until water starts to run out the bottom should be fine P.S do not put the jiffy pots in the soil they never fully degrade just transplant out of them once the roots start to show from the bottom i.e a tap root coming out of the hole just check to make sure the plant is well rooted
For seedlings you want your water damp, but not sopping wet. As soon as you start getting your true leaves though, start letting the soil dry out a bit between waterings. Stick your finger in the soil about an inch in and if it feels damp, wait another day. If it's pretty dry, water until you get run-off. Remember that it's hard to over water in one sitting if you have proper drainage, it's when you water to often that you get problems. Doing that will make the roots faster because they are looking for water.