I’m using potting soil with perlite and peat moss my buckets have plenty of drain holes and the temps in my room sit about 78 to 82. I have a fan blowing on the buckets is this keeping my soil too cold and not letting it dry out. I water until I see run off it’s been over a week and the soil is still reading on the high end of moist. Could I put a heating pad in there between the 3 buckets too help it dry or just move the fans off the bucket and see if that works. I figured the fan blowing air on it would dry it out but it’s not
How can I get soil to dry faster
- Thread starter Will5211
- Start date
Hey Will,
Welcome to 420 Magazine!
I know some folks use those 2 prong moisture meters, but I don’t think they are very accurate. I bought one years ago but found it registered about 50% even when stuck in a cup of soaking wet soil with no drain holes in the cup.
Get each of the containers elevated off the floor so air flows well underneath. No the fan is not keeping the soil too cold and yes the fan should help it dry out. The plants will do better by letting the soil dry out thoroughly, in dry soil they build tiny root hairs to find water and the best prescription for that is good air flow and time. Don’t water a wet plant or a wet soil.
Got any pics of plant so we can see the size of plant & container?
Also of major importance- where are you growing? Basement, first floor, garage, attic etc? If the grow tent or space has a concrete slab under the floor then yes it could be too cold. Even if it’s a slab with carpet, tile or hardwood this can still impact your plants. A large area of concrete is called a heat sink due to the fact that it can pull temps down too low on the floor area. Concrete slabs in interior spaces (not in direct sunlight) will have an average year round temp of 55, it’s way too cold for plants.
Welcome to 420 Magazine!
I know some folks use those 2 prong moisture meters, but I don’t think they are very accurate. I bought one years ago but found it registered about 50% even when stuck in a cup of soaking wet soil with no drain holes in the cup.
Get each of the containers elevated off the floor so air flows well underneath. No the fan is not keeping the soil too cold and yes the fan should help it dry out. The plants will do better by letting the soil dry out thoroughly, in dry soil they build tiny root hairs to find water and the best prescription for that is good air flow and time. Don’t water a wet plant or a wet soil.
Got any pics of plant so we can see the size of plant & container?
Also of major importance- where are you growing? Basement, first floor, garage, attic etc? If the grow tent or space has a concrete slab under the floor then yes it could be too cold. Even if it’s a slab with carpet, tile or hardwood this can still impact your plants. A large area of concrete is called a heat sink due to the fact that it can pull temps down too low on the floor area. Concrete slabs in interior spaces (not in direct sunlight) will have an average year round temp of 55, it’s way too cold for plants.
When i want my soil to dry i turn on my dehumidifier and close up the grow tight by the next day they are much dryer hope this helps.I also put fan on the containers.Pretty simple really.
r0am1ng st0ner
Well-Known Member
How big is the plant and what size pot is it in? I also have put a moisture meter in fully saturated soil and it said needs water so I would only ever use them as target practise as they do stand up nice in the ground
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Take a container of soil the size that you are using and water it. Set it off to the side. Let's see how many weeks it takes for it to dry out by itself.
Our containers dry out because our plants are USING the water trapped in the soil. If you want the container to dry out faster, you need to develop your roots. If you patiently wait for your plant to drain ALL of the water, during its last struggle to find the very last drops, the plant grows a significant amount of roots. Each time you force the plant to go dry, it grows more roots, and each time you do this wet/dry cycle, the plant drains the pot in a little bit less time.
It's not about the container or the soil... its about you, and how often you water and whether you are training your plants to handle adversity or if you are treating them like little lazy princesses that don't have to work for a living.
I have written some popular articles on watering... I hope that you will read them.
Our containers dry out because our plants are USING the water trapped in the soil. If you want the container to dry out faster, you need to develop your roots. If you patiently wait for your plant to drain ALL of the water, during its last struggle to find the very last drops, the plant grows a significant amount of roots. Each time you force the plant to go dry, it grows more roots, and each time you do this wet/dry cycle, the plant drains the pot in a little bit less time.
It's not about the container or the soil... its about you, and how often you water and whether you are training your plants to handle adversity or if you are treating them like little lazy princesses that don't have to work for a living.
I have written some popular articles on watering... I hope that you will read them.
Kink
Active Member
skirk
Well-Known Member
Is this a bagged potting soil mix or your mix of perlite and straight peat moss?
Fans should be blowing air at the plants, not the containers they're sitting in, lol. That plus bumping up your grow space temperature slightly will facilitate transpiration in healthy plants.
- Thread starter
- #9
Bagged potting soil I believe it’s called harvest organic and I added a lot of perlite too it
try pot stands for better drainage 
cold rooms dont help you want 25 to 30 temps
cold rooms dont help you want 25 to 30 temps
use some fine perlite ,blitz it fine , layer top and bottom , you wont get fungus gnats it like glass
Fuzzy Duck
Well-Known Member
Loads of top quality advice here already.
By the sounds of it you got a small plant in a big pot & it is not that thirsty this is some thing you have to dial in your growing skills.
I normally start out in small pots those below are tiny 5 cm by 5 cm which I use for early stage of vegging a seedling in that I only water once a week or when slightly bigger perhaps 2 or 3 times.
Basically a little transplanting guide or what is called potting up aka to a larger pot those air pots are about 1 half gallons & at that stage I'm more likely watering once a week as they get bigger they get more thirsty.
By the sounds of it you got a small plant in a big pot & it is not that thirsty this is some thing you have to dial in your growing skills.
I normally start out in small pots those below are tiny 5 cm by 5 cm which I use for early stage of vegging a seedling in that I only water once a week or when slightly bigger perhaps 2 or 3 times.
Basically a little transplanting guide or what is called potting up aka to a larger pot those air pots are about 1 half gallons & at that stage I'm more likely watering once a week as they get bigger they get more thirsty.
I have fans on the soil and fans on the plants and clip fans on the lights and a extraction fan filtering the air.. I gotta a lot of fans. Keep the air moving. Keep an eye on the RH 40-60% RH is a good place to be. Then look at the VPD chart and your temps.
It will be hard to overwater cannabis after they are say 1 month old. After that they drink a lot of water. Once as Emilya mentioned their root system is established. Once the plants are flowering you can water everyday.
Nunyabiz
Well-Known Member
If all else fails you could try a more natural approach with large fabric pots and Living Organic Soil.
Get the soil tilth right, use at least 30% aeration with pumice, rice hulls and a little biochar.
Inoculate with mycorrhizae, which will help root growth, the larger the root mass the more nutrients and water the plant can use and store plus the mycorrhizae itself uses water and essentially at least doubles your root mass.
Toss in some worms to aerate the soil get oxygen to the roots, have a cover crop that uses water and gets more roots into the soil and more roots to colonize with mycorrhizae.
I usually water my SOIL not the plant and even if I don't have a cannabis plant in the pot I still water my soil at very least every 3 days and with cannabis plant in flower I water every single day in a 25 gallon fabric pot.
The more alive your soil is the more water it drinks.
It's all in the soil, I can plant a germinated seed into my 25 gallon fabric pot and it would actually be difficult to overwater it.
That's because it's alive, its own little ecosystem, not just a lump of dead soil in a non breathable pot.
So if these other methods aren't working for you then you might try Living Organic Soil, once you get your soil right then not only does it grow the best quality bud but it's also the easiest.
Get the soil tilth right, use at least 30% aeration with pumice, rice hulls and a little biochar.
Inoculate with mycorrhizae, which will help root growth, the larger the root mass the more nutrients and water the plant can use and store plus the mycorrhizae itself uses water and essentially at least doubles your root mass.
Toss in some worms to aerate the soil get oxygen to the roots, have a cover crop that uses water and gets more roots into the soil and more roots to colonize with mycorrhizae.
I usually water my SOIL not the plant and even if I don't have a cannabis plant in the pot I still water my soil at very least every 3 days and with cannabis plant in flower I water every single day in a 25 gallon fabric pot.
The more alive your soil is the more water it drinks.
It's all in the soil, I can plant a germinated seed into my 25 gallon fabric pot and it would actually be difficult to overwater it.
That's because it's alive, its own little ecosystem, not just a lump of dead soil in a non breathable pot.
So if these other methods aren't working for you then you might try Living Organic Soil, once you get your soil right then not only does it grow the best quality bud but it's also the easiest.
You're a popular guy
.Assuming certain variables have reasonable values, of course. Things that we hardly even consciously think of because they're so basic. To us, they might be analogous to, IDK, asking if the animal is dead before placing it on the plate - some basic things are assumed. But I can imagine conditions in which it'd be more than a possibility. Not everyone who is brand new to the growing of cannabis has previous gardening experience. Conceivably, they might never have had a single houseplant.
It might be due to my past experience with hydroponics, but in recent years, I have been looking at the concept a little differently. After all, after one has seen a healthy cannabis plant with basically its entire root system submerged in water, lol, one begins wondering if it's even possible to have "too much water." It seems to me that what we're describing when we discuss it is simply poor oxygen availability. If there is an adequate level of oxygen at the root zone - and the plant is able to access it - then we do not see the symptoms (because the issue isn't present). If that's not the case, then we do.
Nunyabiz
Well-Known Member
Bingo.You're a popular guy
Assuming certain variables have reasonable values, of course. Things that we hardly even consciously think of because they're so basic. To us, they might be analogous to, IDK, asking if the animal is dead before placing it on the plate - some basic things are assumed. But I can imagine conditions in which it'd be more than a possibility. Not everyone who is brand new to the growing of cannabis has previous gardening experience. Conceivably, they might never have had a single houseplant.
It might be due to my past experience with hydroponics, but in recent years, I have been looking at the concept a little differently. After all, after one has seen a healthy cannabis plant with basically its entire root system submerged in water, lol, one begins wondering if it's even possible to have "too much water." It seems to me that what we're describing when we discuss it is simply poor oxygen availability. If there is an adequate level of oxygen at the root zone - and the plant is able to access it - then we do not see the symptoms (because the issue isn't present). If that's not the case, then we do.
That's why if you have plenty of aeration, and other roots (cover crop), and worms then the soil has all the nooks and crannies and holes to hold oxygen then super oxygenate your daily water and the roots get lots of oxygen, also good for the microbes.
