The Proper Way To Water A Seedling In A Large Final Container

[Emilya Green]

Hi. Im able to collect and store my rain water BUT the roof is covered in moss and other growth. Rain gutters around the roof are filled with leaves, small plats and moss. Im able to collect the water from the guttering at the bottom as well as collect water by putting containers in my back garden under the open sky. Here comes 2 questions:
Which water to collect and do i need to adjust the Ph?

Help is very much appreciated

Hi Ed and welcome to the forum!
I doubt that the moss and debris in the gutters is going to affect the quality of the water much and I would encourage you to collect and use as much water from nature that you can, so I would use all of it.

The ONLY reason we adjust pH is so that our expensive synthetic nutrients can be in the proper pH range that they need to break free of their salt bonds in the shipping bottle and become mobile and available to the plants. The plants don't themselves care about the pH of the rain water, nor does the soil. If you don't plan on using nutes out of a bottle, you might not ever need to worry about the pH.

 

[EdguyPower]

Hi Ed and welcome to the forum!
I doubt that the moss and debris in the gutters is going to affect the quality of the water much and I would encourage you to collect and use as much water from nature that you can, so I would use all of it.

The ONLY reason we adjust pH is so that our expensive synthetic nutrients can be in the proper pH range that they need to break free of their salt bonds in the shipping bottle and become mobile and available to the plants. The plants don't themselves care about the pH of the rain water, nor does the soil. If you don't plan on using nutes out of a bottle, you might not ever need to worry about the pH

Hi Ed and welcome to the forum!
I doubt that the moss and debris in the gutters is going to affect the quality of the water much and I would encourage you to collect and use as much water from nature that you can, so I would use all of it.

The ONLY reason we adjust pH is so that our expensive synthetic nutrients can be in the proper pH range that they need to break free of their salt bonds in the shipping bottle and become mobile and available to the plants. The plants don't themselves care about the pH of the rain water, nor does the soil. If you don't plan on using nutes out of a bottle, you might not ever need to worry about the pH.

Awesome And thank you for taking your time to reply

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Emilya..
Could you let me know, in the above guide.. 'where' is the plant in this germination stage?

Eg.. full darkness or under a dim light or under full LED etc..

Could you provide any info on the light/temp needed as the babies pop?

Thank you so much!!

Sorry, I must have forgotten to respond to this after I liked it. What works for me is to first dunk the seeds in water for 24 hours. After this I plant them 1 inch deep in a solo cup of soil. I put these cups on a computer to stay warm and I don't provide extra light until they get into the soil. I do put the solo cups in 18/6 or 24/0 low level light, and I keep them warm, until they pop, and then once they are above the surface I slowly start bringing the light intensity up, as they can handle it, starting off with about 7k LUX.

 

[COLATL]

Hi Emilya, I had a question... ¿During pre-bloom and bloom, do we water the entire surface of the pot, changing the "Watering mostly on the sides" method?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Emilya, I had a question... ¿During pre-bloom and bloom, do we water the entire surface of the pot, changing the "Watering mostly on the sides" method?

Hi @COLATL and welcome to the forum! When the container goes dry all the way to the bottom, it is time to water the entire pot to saturation.... but I don't think this is what you are asking.

The watering the sides technique is done to draw the roots to that area and increase the density of the rootball. I do this between major waterings especially the week after transplanting, and then on every watering in veg and clear through the stretch period in bloom, I try to end up my watering with the last bit going to the edges. My goal on every watering it to end up with the sides being the wettest places in the container.

All that changes after stretch is over, around the 3rd week of bloom. The roots are mostly done growing now, and now it is time to use the roots you took so much time to develop. At that point is no longer important to keep the sides the wettest areas... the name of the game in bloom is to see how much water and nutes you can get that plant to take and by that time I am just dumping it on them as fast as I can get the soil to absorb it.

 

[COLATL]

Hi @COLATL and welcome to the forum! When the container goes dry all the way to the bottom, it is time to water the entire pot to saturation.... but I don't think this is what you are asking.

The watering the sides technique is done to draw the roots to that area and increase the density of the rootball. I do this between major waterings especially the week after transplanting, and then on every watering in veg and clear through the stretch period in bloom, I try to end up my watering with the last bit going to the edges. My goal on every watering it to end up with the sides being the wettest places in the container.

All that changes after stretch is over, around the 3rd week of bloom. The roots are mostly done growing now, and now it is time to use the roots you took so much time to develop. At that point is no longer important to keep the sides the wettest areas... the name of the game in bloom is to see how much water and nutes you can get that plant to take and by that time I am just dumping it on them as fast as I can get the soil to absorb it.

Emilya, thanks for the quick response, my doubts were cleared.

 

[COLATL]

Emilya, thanks for the quick response, my doubts were cleared.

This is how is looking now in pre-bloom

 

[COLATL]

Hi, Emilya

In coming back for advice once again, I have a new born seeds and wanted to know if I should saturate the medium at this point ( I'll attach some pics) or just spray bottle them.

PS: I live in a really sunny and hot area, humidity at 90%..

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi, Emilya

In coming back for advice once again, I have a new born seeds and wanted to know if I should saturate the medium at this point ( I'll attach some pics) or just spray bottle them.

PS: I live in a really sunny and hot area, humidity at 90%..

I always recommend the spray bottle a couple of times a day until the plants have established themselves. Watering the soil to saturation now is going to present a huge challenge to that plant and by the time it can use all of that water it would have become old and stagnant. Don't water to runoff until 3x the plant's diameter exceeds the diameter of the container... it won't take long... but it isn't now.

 

[COLATL]

I always recommend the spray bottle a couple of times a day until the plants have established themselves. Watering the soil to saturation now is going to present a huge challenge to that plant and by the time it can use all of that water it would have become old and stagnant. Don't water to runoff until 3x the plant's diameter exceeds the diameter of the container... it won't take long... but it isn't now.

Thanks a lot, again, Emilya!¡

 

[DonBisso1]

In the beginning, you may even want to start your seed directly in the final container, simply by putting it one inch deep, pointy end down. It is surprising to some how often this works, even though mother nature does it all the time. If you go this route, lightly mist the area around the seed several times a day with 5-10 good squirts, attempting to only wet down as far as that seed. Continue this until the seedling hits the surface.

Keep using the spray bottle twice a day, now attempting to give enough water to soak in to roughly 3x the plant's height, and in a circle out to 3x the plant's diameter, by at least doubling the amount of squirts you gave to the seedling. Do not soak the entire container right away.... your new seedling cant handle that much water and if the seedling starts to wander or swim in the wet soil, you are giving too much.

Water like this, with these relatively small amounts a couple of times a day, always attempting to get a good part of that water out away from the trunk of the plant, by trying to make the outside edges of that circle 3x the diameter of the plant, the wettest places in the container.... you are attempting to entice the top roots to grow out in that direction.

After the plant has gotten a couple of leaves and gotten taller, it will no longer swim around in the soil if given a lot of water, and it is time to get a bit more aggressive than the spray bottle can do... it is time to move to the watering can and a couple of cups of water at first, slowly soaking the entire top surface of the container. We aren't trying to saturate the container yet, but we do want enough water to soak into the entire surface at least 3x the height of the plant, and we want some of that water to head straight down the middle, where the roots are trying to reach the bottom. This is when it is handy to have been an outside vegetable gardener, so that you know how to test the top of the soil to see if it is moist. When you can no longer feel moisture a day or two later, water like this again.

When the plant's 3x diameter reaches the outside edges of the container, water the entire container slowly, to saturation (runoff) for the first time. It will take a week or more for the plant to use all of that water on this first round, but you don't want the plant to sit idle all of that time either, or it will stagnate. It is time to change the watering pattern again.

Every 3 days or so do a partial watering of the top of the surface, again with only enough water to soak in to the first 3 or 4 inches of soil. Two specialized sets of roots are now forming, the top spreader roots designed to choke off other plants and quickly gather up rain, and the bottom tap and feeder roots. You are attempting to water only the top spreader roots, while the bottom tap/feeder roots continue to work on the water sitting in the bottom of the container for as long as it takes to clear that first full watering.

You may have to do this secondary top watering 2 or 3 times while you wait for the container to dry out all the way to the bottom. Force the plant to grow the necessary roots to do this job by being patient, and the plant will eventually use all of that water. Once the lift method, a dip stick or a moisture meter tells you that is is finally dry down to the last inch of container, it is time to water completely again and repeat the process, while every 3 days watering the top, until the bottom finally syncs up with the top.

Every time you go through one of these cycles, the roots will get stronger and the time between complete waterings will diminish. Eventually the top and the bottom will sync up and you will not have to do the secondary watering any more, you will just be watering the whole container every 3 days or so, as the wet/dry cycle stabilizes at around 3 days.

It is important to cycle the plant like this all through veg so as to force the plants to develop a solid root ball... the roots do not grow to fill that container unless you challenge them. Once you get into bloom, it is time to change your watering strategy.

From then on your goal is not building roots, it is time to really start using the roots that you have carefully built. Your goal at the end of stretch should be to start pumping as much water/nutes into the plant as it can take. I typically will force a plant that is perfectly happy with a 3 day wet/dry cycle into an every other day watering all during bloom... and with the roots you have forced the plant to grow in Veg, they will be able to take just about as much water as they did in 3 days, if you have done this correctly.

Good Luck and Good Grows!
Emilya

do you nutes during veg

 

[Emilya Green]

do you nutes during veg

Yes I do, Don. Welcome to the forum and thank you for your question!

We have a choice as gardeners... we can take the safe route and not try to force our plants to grow faster by using fertilizers, and we can easily let some of the strong soils available today take care of things for us during the first 4 weeks or so by not using any nutes.

Or, you can use nutrients during this time, thereby forcing your plants to be bigger than they would have been, without the nutes. There is a little more risk when you are gardening to this level, because by pushing the plants you can also face some challenges in making sure to not give them too much, giving it at the correct pH, and giving it at the correct frequency, but the rewards for gardening like you mean it, are real.

Every nutrient line out there will give recommendations on how to use their product for seedlings all the way up to monster plants in bloom. There are no rules about this, and you can garden however aggressively you wish, or as passively as you wish. Your end result will be a direct reflection in how much work and effort you put into this. Some people will recommend using half strength, quarter strength or even not using nutes at all for the first several weeks. Try not to listen to these online gurus of minimalism and just getting by. The choice has always been totally up to you. I always recommend following the instructions that your nutrient manufacturer provide, per the week of the grow that you are in. Please note that zero nutrient companies provide a separate feeding chart for auto plants, nor do any of them recommend using their product at half strength. They stand or fall on their feeding chart, and if what they recommended was not good for your plants and caused them harm, they would go out of business very quickly as word got around. With all other factors at normal ranges, you can trust those feeding charts... certainly over the advice of someone online who never worked for the nutrient company in question, and who really has no idea what they are talking about.

 

[DonBisso1]

ty am using fox farm nutes and have thier feeding chart will go by that

 

[HeartWW]

I always recommend the spray bottle a couple of times a day until the plants have established themselves. Watering the soil to saturation now is going to present a huge challenge to that plant and by the time it can use all of that water it would have become old and stagnant. Don't water to runoff until 3x the plant's diameter exceeds the diameter of the container... it won't take long... but it isn't now.

Hi. This will likely sound insane but when I grow auto's in pots I like to get them in the final pot asap after they are born. In the past I had over watered and caused a little root damage due to the stagnant water. What the folks around here do is plant 3 soy beans or similar on the out side edge of the pots. They sprout in 36 hours and the roots go straight down. The idea is to help the young plant use up the excess water until it gets about 8-10" tall then pull the beans. Try not to laugh as I have been doing this for years. Some use clover as well which fixes extra nitrogen to the soil for a strong vege. Ok shoot. lol..

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi. This will likely sound insane but when I grow auto's in pots I like to get them in the final pot asap after they are born. In the past I had over watered and caused a little root damage due to the stagnant water. What the folks around here do is plant 3 soy beans or similar on the out side edge of the pots. They sprout in 36 hours and the roots go straight down. The idea is to help the young plant use up the excess water until it gets about 8-10" tall then pull the beans. Try not to laugh as I have been doing this for years. Some use clover as well which fixes extra nitrogen to the soil for a strong vege. Ok shoot. lol..

Hi Heart! Well, that is certainly innovative! I understand the compulsion to start autos in their final pot, and while successive uppotting might help a little, the little things are growing so rapidly as compared to their photoperiod cousins that it really isn't necessary... with proper watering techniques a root ball can still be formed.

You mention "excess water" and the need to use it up. I know that given the right circumstances there should be no stagnant water, and it doesn't require helper plants or any other trick to "use up" the water... you just have to put the water that you do give into the proper places and show the roots where to grow. It is also not necessary to saturate the container each time you water.

With your bean trick, the water is used up more rapidly and you get to water to saturation more often with less overal interaction with the plants, whereas with my system one waters more often and with smaller amounts, but put into the most effective places to force the plant to create new roots. Your method does not create lateral root growth, mine does.

The question is, does any of this amount to a hill of beans? Again, with the rapidity of these Auto plants, your method works and my method works... and without a side by side no one can say which is better. Whatever is working for you is the method you should use. You spend energy planting beans, I spend energy watering the edges and misting. We both produce product. The world is as it should be. Peace and love my friend... envision world legalization day, and it will happen.

 

[barb6781]

In the beginning, you may even want to start your seed directly in the final container, simply by putting it one inch deep, pointy end down. It is surprising to some how often this works, even though mother nature does it all the time. If you go this route, lightly mist the area around the seed several times a day with 5-10 good squirts, attempting to only wet down as far as that seed. Continue this until the seedling hits the surface.

Keep using the spray bottle twice a day, now attempting to give enough water to soak in to roughly 3x the plant's height, and in a circle out to 3x the plant's diameter, by at least doubling the amount of squirts you gave to the seedling. Do not soak the entire container right away.... your new seedling cant handle that much water and if the seedling starts to wander or swim in the wet soil, you are giving too much.

Water like this, with these relatively small amounts a couple of times a day, always attempting to get a good part of that water out away from the trunk of the plant, by trying to make the outside edges of that circle 3x the diameter of the plant, the wettest places in the container.... you are attempting to entice the top roots to grow out in that direction.

After the plant has gotten a couple of leaves and gotten taller, it will no longer swim around in the soil if given a lot of water, and it is time to get a bit more aggressive than the spray bottle can do... it is time to move to the watering can and a couple of cups of water at first, slowly soaking the entire top surface of the container. We aren't trying to saturate the container yet, but we do want enough water to soak into the entire surface at least 3x the height of the plant, and we want some of that water to head straight down the middle, where the roots are trying to reach the bottom. This is when it is handy to have been an outside vegetable gardener, so that you know how to test the top of the soil to see if it is moist. When you can no longer feel moisture a day or two later, water like this again.

When the plant's 3x diameter reaches the outside edges of the container, water the entire container slowly, to saturation (runoff) for the first time. It will take a week or more for the plant to use all of that water on this first round, but you don't want the plant to sit idle all of that time either, or it will stagnate. It is time to change the watering pattern again.

Every 3 days or so do a partial watering of the top of the surface, again with only enough water to soak in to the first 3 or 4 inches of soil. Two specialized sets of roots are now forming, the top spreader roots designed to choke off other plants and quickly gather up rain, and the bottom tap and feeder roots. You are attempting to water only the top spreader roots, while the bottom tap/feeder roots continue to work on the water sitting in the bottom of the container for as long as it takes to clear that first full watering.

You may have to do this secondary top watering 2 or 3 times while you wait for the container to dry out all the way to the bottom. Force the plant to grow the necessary roots to do this job by being patient, and the plant will eventually use all of that water. Once the lift method, a dip stick or a moisture meter tells you that is is finally dry down to the last inch of container, it is time to water completely again and repeat the process, while every 3 days watering the top, until the bottom finally syncs up with the top.

Every time you go through one of these cycles, the roots will get stronger and the time between complete waterings will diminish. Eventually the top and the bottom will sync up and you will not have to do the secondary watering any more, you will just be watering the whole container every 3 days or so, as the wet/dry cycle stabilizes at around 3 days.

It is important to cycle the plant like this all through veg so as to force the plants to develop a solid root ball... the roots do not grow to fill that container unless you challenge them. Once you get into bloom, it is time to change your watering strategy.

From then on your goal is not building roots, it is time to really start using the roots that you have carefully built. Your goal at the end of stretch should be to start pumping as much water/nutes into the plant as it can take. I typically will force a plant that is perfectly happy with a 3 day wet/dry cycle into an every other day watering all during bloom... and with the roots you have forced the plant to grow in Veg, they will be able to take just about as much water as they did in 3 days, if you have done this correctly.

Good Luck and Good Grows!
Emilya

That was a wonderfully written explanation. Thank you.

 

[Emilya Green]

That was a wonderfully written explanation. Thank you.

Thank you Barb! I am glad that it might have helped you!

 

[GSCuz]

Hi Emilya

I recently (Feb) started my first grow. I knew very little....Using this thread/your info in getting the seed started, I ended up producing 5 oz. (after dry and trim) of very high quality bud in a 5 gal from one plant. I wanted to thank you for all the information!

I checked the root system after and it had really hit all corners of the pot including the bottom.

The tap root had traveled nice and straight/down.

Just starting my second grow and will use the same techniques again.

Anyone reading this .... IT WORKS!

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Emilya

I recently (Feb) started my first grow. I knew very little....Using this thread/your info in getting the seed started, I ended up producing 5 oz. (after dry and trim) of very high quality bud in a 5 gal from one plant. I wanted to thank you for all the information!

I checked the root system after and it had really hit all corners of the pot including the bottom.

The tap root had traveled nice and straight/down.

Just starting my second grow and will use the same techniques again.

Anyone reading this .... IT WORKS!

Thank you for the awesome testimonial @GSCuz! I am over the moon that this worked so well for you and you got a pro-worthy harvest on your very first attempt! Good luck on your next grow, but it sounds like you got this!

 

[DonBisso1]

In the beginning, you may even want to start your seed directly in the final container, simply by putting it one inch deep, pointy end down. It is surprising to some how often this works, even though mother nature does it all the time. If you go this route, lightly mist the area around the seed several times a day with 5-10 good squirts, attempting to only wet down as far as that seed. Continue this until the seedling hits the surface.

Keep using the spray bottle twice a day, now attempting to give enough water to soak in to roughly 3x the plant's height, and in a circle out to 3x the plant's diameter, by at least doubling the amount of squirts you gave to the seedling. Do not soak the entire container right away.... your new seedling cant handle that much water and if the seedling starts to wander or swim in the wet soil, you are giving too much.

Water like this, with these relatively small amounts a couple of times a day, always attempting to get a good part of that water out away from the trunk of the plant, by trying to make the outside edges of that circle 3x the diameter of the plant, the wettest places in the container.... you are attempting to entice the top roots to grow out in that direction.

After the plant has gotten a couple of leaves and gotten taller, it will no longer swim around in the soil if given a lot of water, and it is time to get a bit more aggressive than the spray bottle can do... it is time to move to the watering can and a couple of cups of water at first, slowly soaking the entire top surface of the container. We aren't trying to saturate the container yet, but we do want enough water to soak into the entire surface at least 3x the height of the plant, and we want some of that water to head straight down the middle, where the roots are trying to reach the bottom. This is when it is handy to have been an outside vegetable gardener, so that you know how to test the top of the soil to see if it is moist. When you can no longer feel moisture a day or two later, water like this again.

When the plant's 3x diameter reaches the outside edges of the container, water the entire container slowly, to saturation (runoff) for the first time. It will take a week or more for the plant to use all of that water on this first round, but you don't want the plant to sit idle all of that time either, or it will stagnate. It is time to change the watering pattern again.

Every 3 days or so do a partial watering of the top of the surface, again with only enough water to soak in to the first 3 or 4 inches of soil. Two specialized sets of roots are now forming, the top spreader roots designed to choke off other plants and quickly gather up rain, and the bottom tap and feeder roots. You are attempting to water only the top spreader roots, while the bottom tap/feeder roots continue to work on the water sitting in the bottom of the container for as long as it takes to clear that first full watering.

You may have to do this secondary top watering 2 or 3 times while you wait for the container to dry out all the way to the bottom. Force the plant to grow the necessary roots to do this job by being patient, and the plant will eventually use all of that water. Once the lift method, a dip stick or a moisture meter tells you that is is finally dry down to the last inch of container, it is time to water completely again and repeat the process, while every 3 days watering the top, until the bottom finally syncs up with the top.

Every time you go through one of these cycles, the roots will get stronger and the time between complete waterings will diminish. Eventually the top and the bottom will sync up and you will not have to do the secondary watering any more, you will just be watering the whole container every 3 days or so, as the wet/dry cycle stabilizes at around 3 days.

It is important to cycle the plant like this all through veg so as to force the plants to develop a solid root ball... the roots do not grow to fill that container unless you challenge them. Once you get into bloom, it is time to change your watering strategy.

From then on your goal is not building roots, it is time to really start using the roots that you have carefully built. Your goal at the end of stretch should be to start pumping as much water/nutes into the plant as it can take. I typically will force a plant that is perfectly happy with a 3 day wet/dry cycle into an every other day watering all during bloom... and with the roots you have forced the plant to grow in Veg, they will be able to take just about as much water as they did in 3 days, if you have done this correctly.

Good Luck and Good Grows!
Emilya

when i nute i only pour an area about 3 inches around plant then fill in trench with dirt is that good then watering whole pot every 2 days with a gal of water is that good only feeding once a week