Hello thanks for checking this out. So I got 2 seedlings about a 2 weeks old hurkle and 9lb hammer. Put them in solo cups with about 7 drain holes on the bottom. I used happy frog soil everything was fine until a few days ago when I watered I use a spray bottle with 6.5 pH water to water my seedlings so I spray till there's a little bit of run off. So still normal the next day I check and there's a white mold on the top of my soil I scraped it off as soon as possible but then I noticed while the top of my soil was wet underneath it was not. So my soil is water repellent? I was weirded out and transplanted early into 3 gal smart pots because my first and oldest plant (which is a male gotta get rid of him) spent his whole life in a 5 gallon smart pot. I'm aware of overpotting and the risks I run using too big a container but my question is what the hell is up with water repellent soil. Yes potting soil can be resistant but it held water on the top only. while right under was like it never got watered
The water repellent issue your talking about has to do with the Sphagnum Peat Moss in FFHF. Happy Frog is made up of predominately Sphagnum Peat Moss and Sphagnum is known for its stubbornness to accept water. This is mainly an issue people have with seedling pots because of how small the surface area is your watering and it glides off or just sits on the top of the medium as you describe. One thing to ensure this doesn't happen is to leave a small lip between the top of the soil and the top of the pot. This way the water has no where to glance off of. Secondly, make sure you are packing you seedling pots loosely. Lastly, sometimes if it is a really dry medium you may have to scrape off a little bit/work with the pot while watering to ensure that it doesn't just sit on the top layer and goes through the whole pot. I have had the same issues before when I used FF bagged soil. Hope that helps.