Can you damage your plants roots when checking soil for moisture with your finger?

[popolino77]

can you accidentally kill your plant or damage it's roots when you stick your finger in the soil to check for moisture ? i stuck my finger 1/4 inch deep in the soil like 10 mm from my plants stem to check for moisture to see if my plant needed watering. did i hurt my plant ? my plant is 12 days old above soil. how far under the soil are my plants roots ? just a estimate guess

 

[Papageno]

Technically you can...depends on what kind of poisons and infectious bacteria and viruses and bugs you have on you hands. It is recommended to wash up first.

Likely you have done no damage.

Depending on the type of Pot and grow method sticking your finger in there is likely an insufficient means to measure it. I do it but that isn't the only thing I do. Specifically how have you confirmed the water in the bottom of the pot has dried out so you are not going to damage the tap root by over watering it?

What size of pot are you using?
what kind of pot is it?
what is your soil blend...or did you just open up a bag and use it?

Pics might help but are probably unnecessary... we just all like to see them.

Many people like to do the lift test which works great for a while or unless you are in a SCROG. So The lift test is to have a second pot there with the same soil blend and when the growing pot feels about the same weight as the empty one you have dried out. Now once the plant gets reasonably sized that may be a bit awkward but hopefully by then you have dialed in a nice 3 or 4 day watering schedule.

 

[Papageno]

I want to add one thing.

Drying out the soil is very important for a faster healthier stronger growing plant. When you let it dry out you are introduce what is called "Positive Stress". This will cause the plant to start looking for water and the root system will grow faster. Faster roots faster plant. Drying out the pot will have no down side and the leaves will tell you worst case if it is way under watered and starts to really dry out and even then it bounces back in an hour and has no short term or long term damage.

Over watering can cause your plants to die. It can cause permanent long term disability that you wont be able to get rid of and the grow will be slow and reduced yield and quality. The roots will grow slower as there is less need for them to try to grow. So then the plant above ground is bigger than it should be for those roots and it is easy to have problems. You may end up spending a ton of money trying to bring back a plant only to get garbage out of it.

Over watering is the #1 problem with new growers. You never want to water it again until it dries out. For me that can take days because I have a lot of perlite in my blend.

Water heavy and infrequently.