Someone answer my question please(:

You should only water when the pot feels light.

 

I'm not sure when exactly more water is consumed, but most recommend watering and misting leaves right before or after lights out in order to reduce evaporation and possibly causing droplets of liquid on the leaves to burn them. I would think more water is used during lights on because they rest when lights are off. As far as watering don't set a schedule, plants like to slightly dry out. When the 1st couple inches of soil becomes dry, about knuckle deep, then its time to water. The leaves will start to droop slightly and you can pick up the container and feel that its light and needs water.

 

Your question is a bit irrelevant, the plant will be saturated when you water (anytime) and it will dry over a few days and nights until IT tells you it needs more, then saturate again

 

OK...multiple things here...

Plants grow better with SOME dark. Just like people and animals with sleep. During daylight, plants are collecting light energy, and STORING a lot of it. They're still powering the mechanics of growing, but not as efficiently.

A decent way to think of it is a battery operated system CHARGED by a wall outlet. While charging the batteries, it's possible to take power off them to run the DC motor they power. But nowhere near as effectively as charging the batteries all the way and letting them run. 

So your dark cycle, you can see a visible difference if you shift from 24/0 to 20/4. Like in two days you'll see significant difference.


That said...don't overwater. Water when dry, and only then. Or establish a safe pattern (like 2 cups a day), and WATCH it for signs of over or underwatering, and adjust as needed.

The plants will take up more water at night...but that doesn't mean the soil needs to be wetter then. Just means they "eat and drink more at night". As long as it's in the soil for them to get to, they're good, really.

 

 
When you water the soil it is going to be wet for several days so I'm not sure how this is relevant to you. However, to answer your question the plants won't take up water while the lights are off. As all flood and drain growers will know, you don't flood in the dark hours because they are dormant, they are literally solar powered and cannot function in the dark 

 

Odd that they "don't drink" when that's when I lost the most water when trying a hydro.

Yes, they're solar powered. Has nothing to do with it.

Did find a decent article here, explains that watering isn't done at peak day because you lose more to evap, the water is shallower (and therefor heats more, because it hasn't soaked in as far, and can damage roots...this isn't said in the article, but follows their explanation).
 
 
The most effective quote in this is:

 
 
THAT is why you don't water at night, not because they use or don't use it during that time.

http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-medical-marijuana-growing/530575-do-plants-useabsorb-water-during-lights-off.html

OLD thread on this very question.
 
But the "sciency" answer is that the plants DO "sleep"...they shut down their stoma, and can no longer turn nutrients, CO2, and water into sugars (in fact, they "exhale" CO2 during this period). They'll still take it in, but it won't be "worked". Mostly, during that period, the stored sugars are being "spent" growing.

 

 
Jesus man, very rare do you put a post up that is correct.
 
Plants do not sleep, they simply shut down. Sleep implies something completely different. Complex animals sleep, many simple animals don't, and plants don't. Plants simply cannot carry on functioning in the dark so they sit there dormant until they receive light again.
 
If plants needed sleep then how come mine do perfectly fine without any. I have grown countless autos on 24/0 from hatch to harvest. They never went one second without light.
 
As for the watering thing, it doesn't matter If you water soil in the evening morning or middle of the day because the soil won't need watering for several days afterwards. Flood and drain requires watering every 2-4 hours. But not at night, flood and drain growers only water in the light hours. If the plants drank at night then they wouldn't survive by the time the lights came on 

 

Did you happen to note the quotes, Gold? Quotes around sleep means it's not quite the right term, but IS a fair description.

No, they don't "shut down", which would indicate they stop doing ANYTHING...which is FAR from the truth. They stop turning CO2, water, and nutrients into sugars. Instead, they use the stored sugars built up under light to fuel growth. The same reason animals grow better with evening eating, but function better with morning feeding.
 
Plants have hormonal cycles, and circadian rhythms, just like any living thing. They may not actually sleep as in the sleep higher life forms get. But it's a good enough term for what they do, unless you want to spend your time explaining exactly how the plant functions, biochemically (mostly beyond me, at this point in education, anyhow), and what changes light cycle and dark cycle have in these processes.

My "sleep" and your "shut down" have about the same level of accuracy, though neither is quite correct...but you're insisting they do NOTHING at night, yes? BULLSHIT. That simple. Want proof? Give yours 24/0 for a week, measuring them at 9 AM and 9 PM. Change NOTHING else, but give them 18/6 or 20/4 for a week, make the same measurements.

I guaran-fucking-tee you you'll see your plants grew more, and grow more overnight than through the day. ALL plants do.
 
That is NOT "shutting down". Biological processes change, but they're present. Much like sleeping is for higher life forms, it's a change in what's going on, not a stoppage of everything the organism does.

You are correct in one bit...there are many organisms that don't sleep in any respect...constant uniform biological processes not limited or guided by time or light exposure. Bacteria of certain sorts and eukaryotas of most kinds come to mind, off the top of my head...but many sharks and fish also fall into this category...most definitely higher life forms than many things that do sleep by the proper technical definition.


They don't "need sleep", they simply do better with a light cycle. They do better with a temp cycle, too, within given ranges. And a moisture cycle, which encourages both root growth and thickening/working them.


And what would kill your plants on an overnight with flood and drain isn't the fact they drank (which they would), you're still drowning your roots...they'd get no "air time". You do flood and drain, you tell me...how important is it your water be well oxegenated? Roots use oxygen. They CAN drown, this is why plants that are over-watered suffer.
 
 
However, you're right about soil growth being a condition in which the time at which water is added is unimportant. What's important is that the soil drain enough, and the water be taken up by the plant to the point the soil's relatively dry, before watering again...otherwise what happens? Yup, you drown the roots. Then they start rotting. THEN, it's just like necrosis in an animal, just spreads and spreads until the plant's dead if not treated and corrected.
The article quoted was in regards to outdoor growing, when discussing times. The principles remain constant, though. At peak heat for the day, watering is less effective. Why? Simple, more of it turns into airborne humidity than if done when it's cooler. If we regularly watered with warm water, it'd be a worse problem (and the warm water itself could cause issues). But we don't, do we? We try to use water between 50 and 65 degrees when watering.
 
Why? To avoid "root shock"...which is exactly what they were talking about with midday watering hazards. But that's the ONLY real influence...and applies only to outdoor gardening, or someone using warm water on an indoor.

Why be careful watering before evening? As it said, if the leaves are dry, no issue. Leave leaves wet, you're inviting fungal infections.
 
Soil gardening is just that, gardening. The basic rules are universal. From there, we're doing no more than someone who grows prize roses does for their plants...learning specifically how to fine tune to get the best possible effects for the plants we raise. Use any method BUT soil, you have a new set of rules, in some respects. The plant still functions the same way, but you're not providing "natural" conditions, so have to go through all sorts of rigmarole to make certain they're getting what they need.
 
I freely admit to having ZERO talent in hydro growth. I can clone in hydro, but I lost the only plant I tried in hydro in a ridiculously short time, after having it grow GREAT for weeks beforehand. Roots separated from the stem, and I STILL have found nobody ever reporting this issue, much less identifying what caused it.
 
I am a long way from knowing everything...and I keep my mouth shut when I don't. Or expressly state that it's an opinion or my reasoning was such-and-thus. YOU, on the other hand, insist on claiming things completely based in opinion are God's honest truth, even when faced with cited sources from bloody experts saying you're flat out wrong.

So you tell me...if you were one of these guys you were advising (poorly)...which of us would you be listening to? The guy who sits and claims that cited scientific explanations are wrong, or the guy who makes the statement, and if questioned, explains and provides those citations?

 

Let's make this simple enough for you...do plants take in CO2 or O2 at night? O2. Why? They're burning the sugars to fuel growth. What is plant growth? It is when newly formed cells (formed during the day under the impetus of sunlight, nutes, and CO2) are filled with water to "plump them out". How could they be filled with water if the plant doesn't drink at night? They couldn't.

They will grow under constant daylight. Of course they will...they're still creating sugars and new cells. They're still taking in water, and filling those cells. But without dark, they never switch to BURNING the sugars for energy. They take all their energy direct from the sun, in those conditions. Without burning those sugars, they fail to create some "byproducts" the plant will use to grow yet faster. They also lose moisture under light.
 
That moisture is the water that WAS in the cells....what's more efficient, constantly pumping a bladder up while it leaks, or pumping it up when it's sealed? If the cell isn't losing moisture due to heat and light, it fills more easily and rapidly, becoming a "mature cell". The plant gets bigger, faster. It also now has more ability to store energy created under light....more stored energy is more growth the NEXT dark cycle.


Due to cold conditions, I had to take my plants off their 20/4 for a week...know what it did? My later clones slowed their growth compared to the early ones by a HUGE amount...slightly under 3/4 the amount of growth their sisters showed in the same period under 20/4. Weather cleared up, I went back to 20/4 middle of the week. Already 2 fresh inches of growth. I got that in a WEEK under 24/0, 3 days with 4 hours of dark a day. The later clones were already bigger, their growth didn't slow quite as much...but it slowed.

 

How does it smell up indies ass lads

 

Answered your question ya moron

 

Ok buddy best of luck with the grow

 

Your overthinking this one..like one of the previous blades posted, "Water when the pot feels light"...that really is the key. Plants love to dry out...they dont like to keep "wet feet"..allow the plant to get real dry (leaves a tad droopy, not much, maybe not at all) then saturate...period..no need to worry, wonder, ruminate, decide.etc....just let the thing get DRY and LIGHT, then make it wet and heavy again..may take three days may take 1 day, depends on the heat , humidity, size of plant and size of pot...a lot of factors..but ALL you need to worry about is IS IT DRY and LIGHT...if so, then water, making it WET and HEAVY. Job done...till next time..however long that may be...night or day. And dont go out and buy RO water....it REALLY makes ZERO difference no matter what 50 other people say...ditchwater will work just fine...better in fact.