Watering seedlings

[Sueet]

Assuming you look at your plants on a regular basis, it would really be more beneficial to err on the side of dryness ..... the plants will begin to droop as they become "too" dry, and that is the best time to water them, just when they have completely run out of water to pull from the soil.

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok, I think I got it now.i know how they feel wet, and I know how they feel really dry. I'm assuming being to dry is harder to recover from than too wet. So for now I'll go with slightly too wet at times

You picked the wrong one. It is better to go as dry as the Sahara Desert between waterings. It is better to go all the way to wilt rather than give water too often. A plant that is slightly wet all the time does not have to work to find water, so it will not grow roots nearly as desperately as a plant forced into a strong wet/dry cycle.

 

[Emilya Green]

Beware of those who might advise you privately via PM, against the popular advice you are receiving from the majority of others in the public forums. These folks usually go PM because they know that their advice will not stand up to public scrutiny.

 

[Roy Growin]

Beware of those who might advise you privately via PM, against the popular advice you are receiving from the majority of others in the public forums. These folks usually go PM because they know that their advice will not stand up to public scrutiny.

Hi @Emilya - hope your day is good
Do people really do that? Really?
If so, that's ridiculous

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi @Emilya - hope your day is good
Do people really do that? Really?
If so, that's ridiculous

I have only had a couple confirm it... but yes, it happens and I suspect that I know of a few who do it regularly.

 

[EZCalyx]

You picked the wrong one. It is better to go as dry as the Sahara Desert between waterings. It is better to go all the way to wilt rather than give water too often. A plant that is slightly wet all the time does not have to work to find water, so it will not grow roots nearly as desperately as a plant forced into a strong wet/dry cycle.

I can confirm this. When I was a wee budding cannabis cultivator I over watered and got root rot. When I dumped the plants, as they were suffering terribly, the soil literally smelled like rotting death. The roots were all black and slimy. Never again. I now have adopted as @Emilya suggests the droughting method. I will allow the soil to completely dry out and a few times during the grow its actually ok to allow your whole plant to wilt and droop. Too long however is not ok. I will lift the plants in their containers to feel how heavy they are. When there is no water left in the soil it is surprisingly noticeable how light weight it will be. After watering the plant will spring back like you wouldn't expect if you've never done it and become very perky. Droughting also helps during flowering as the stress helps the plant produce more trichomes and resin.

 

[Canachris]

Ok I watered the lil 1 , she was so light the wind knocked her over. The big 1 is still good ,she light but can go more now that I know how light she can get. I think the real sunlight drys them quicker than my tiny LED

 

[Sueet]

I would swap those two around so the little one isn't sitting in the shadow of the big one. (or maybe just spread the cups further apart)

 

[Canachris]

I would swap those two around so the little one isn't sitting in the shadow of the big one. (or maybe just spread the cups further apart)

haha, after I took the pic I noticed that and did swap em

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Make****A****Reminder****Sign

I'm not kidding it helps....and a dry erase board works wonder keeping track of how many days it's been....no need to get all super complicated but a tally system works.

 

[SmokingWings]

4 days ago I started noticing in the morning when I'd move them to a sunny window they felt kinda light. I would water until runoff but still every morning now they feel light. It has been exceptionally dry here and I have a fan on em all day...

Dry air as in the low humidity in your area of the country can dry out small containers real fast. Putting them in a window, especially an open window, where the breeze can blow across them every now and then helps dry them out. Add in something like the sunshine hitting them and it is a slam dunk.

I think the real sunlight drys them quicker than my tiny LED

Even on those days when there is a light cloud cover, there often is enough of the sun light getting through to burn human skin and dry out the soil in smaller containers. The larger the plant the faster it goes.

Those garden centers which have the tables and tables of vegetable, herb and flower plants that are being sold to the summer gardeners have to face the same sort of problem. They have to pay someone to walk around all day with a hose just watering each table, often whether it is needed or not. That way the summer employee does not have to be responsible for any dry or over-watered plants. Leave that to management who will come by once or twice to make the decision to stop watering.

They are using the small cell packs and single containers but being outside sure does dry out the containers very fast.

 

[Canachris]

Today she feels light but I can see she doesn't need to be watered. Em's spot on, once you learn to read your plant it gets easier

 

[Canachris]

So this morning I watered them all, they were all very light. The one in the big container prolly could have gone without but I'm trying to keep the soil in the container moist. For the next few days the weather will be more humid and more clouds so they won't drink anywhere near as much

 

[cbdhemp808]

I'm a big fan of starting in small 2 in. nursery pots, then up pot to 1 gal, then up pot to your final container size. More detailed info here. I'd say your biggest one is ready to be up potted to a 1 gal black plastic nursery pot. Consider adding some coco coir and worm castings to your soil mix.

happy growing!

 

[CaptainLucky]

check out my journal.

A great thing to do is, trim the bottom of the solo cup with scissors, so that the cup barley holds itself together. Put that solo into another solo with no holes, to hold any runoff. When the roots grow out the bottom, trim them off, and do that for 3 weeks. What happens is, the water root, or the thicker of the roots, will then branch off, and make new roots and start a stronger grow off more thinner roots or Nute roots i call them. This will create a much larger main root ball.

Wouldn’t that stress the seedlings cutting off roots?

 

[cbdhemp808]

Wouldn’t that stress the seedlings cutting off roots?

Indeed. Death to solo cups!

[EDIT: just poking some fun. I know a lot of people use them, but I just like a much smaller container for sprouts... 2" square nursery pot. the sprout is only in there for 5-7 days, then gets up potted to 1 gal. that's my method... works great every time.]

 

[SmokingWings]

Wouldn’t that stress the seedlings cutting off roots?

My feeling is that if the seedling is healthy it will not notice. When a root gets cut a healthy plant, whether a seedling or rapidly growing in a pre-flower stage, will start to replace the root within hours as long as the soil is good and the moisture level acceptable. The hair roots are thinner than a human hair but they are what is needed to pull in water and nutrients.

What the grower has to pay attention to is how often and how drastically those main roots get cut.

 

[CaptainLucky]

Thanks for the info but I’m still kind of new to this and after loving my last attempt to death this time I’m wearing 2 pairs of kids gloves. All 5 of my Tangie Matic auto’s just sprouted and are looking good in their plastic baggie mini greenhouses.

 

[SmokingWings]

Thanks for the info but I’m still kind of new to this and after loving my last attempt to death this time I’m wearing 2 pairs of kids gloves. All 5 of my Tangie Matic auto’s just sprouted and are looking good in their plastic baggie mini greenhouses.

Auto-flowers are a tad bit different. While some auto-flower growers have successfully transplanted more than once others have said that they encounter problems so they will only do one transplanting and that is into the final large size pot.

Every time the plant, auto-flower or photo-period, is transplanted we have to accept that some roots will break if for no other reason than the soil shifting, the plant swaying, the grower pulling on the stem to help slide it out---there are so many reasons the roots will break during the normal life of any plant.

 

[CaptainLucky]

Yeah from the research I’ve done it seems auto’s are very unforgiving that’s why I invested in 5 gallon grow bags. I’m also using FFHF soil +FFHF 4-9-3 to mix in when I transplant. Next year it’s gonna be photos only.Oh yeah I read Emilya’s watering post.