The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

[Jon]

I have noticed this, about 20-30 min. before the lights go out they start to droop a little, I just assumed the opposite happens before the lights come on at 4 am(I don't see this lol). This makes sense, and I will adjust accordingly....thank you.



Thank you Jon. This grow seems to be doing better than any I have had so far. I do think the new bulb I am using is part of it, I recently replaced my bulbs with the hortilux blue, exspensive but boy does it have a nice spectrum for a MH, I noticed a deeper green after just 2-3 days of switching. Hopefully it will continue, in the past...the last month is where I seem to get off track and start seeing problems. I am actually following a feeding schedule this time.

I never said I was smart...lol

Yay! Yeah I would be extremely happy to have what you have going on. Hopefully I will in a few weeks. I'd love it if you'd check out my grow journal. It's Jon's Second Grow - First Grow Journal - Etc..... if you want to check it out. I am a light junkie. Just got a new high end LED I'm using for the new tent and photo grow. But I have read that a good MH is the best for veg - better than the best LED you could buy. Would you agree with that? Did you use LED exclusively ever as a comparison or are you comparing to an old MH or something else you used? I'm following you now. I wanna see what you get from those gorgeous girls of yours.

 

[irocu88]

I don't have any LED yet. in the future I will be building a dedicated grow room and get rid of the tent, but that is on hold for now. I am not sure about the MH better that todays LED's. LED spectrum has come a long way and you can customize your spectrum for veg and bloom. I will eventually spring for 1 HLG 650r and 2 350r's with added UVB, that I already have for the new room. I do believe LED is where its at, just the high buy in cost gets you. I will check out your journal. in the Grow lighting topic I have a post "Hortilux Blue" you can see the difference in the two MH bulbs with the spectrum of both....it is quite a difference. You can also track my grow if you want in the "New Grow" under this header, I should have put it in the grow journal section, but I don't think I added enough info for that.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hmmm....okay. Understood about the rootbound "non-issue" (lol). No problem. Carefully monitoring doesn't begin to describe my obsession, and I completely understand the 24-36 hour benchmark as you've explained it (I think). Regarding the topping: The "rules" as you describe them are pretty clear and easily understood. I notice you did not offer your personal opinion/preference of these three or which one you use. So my follow up questions, if you don't mind, are:

- Which of these three lends itself best to a photoperiod scrog grow? That is my intention with the five photo plants in my picture. I actually spoke with the Humboldt folks (these are all from their seeds) about which specific strains were similar enough in all regards to work well together in a scrog employing multiple strains in one tent, and these three was their suggestion. Just background info. I am also wheelchair bound, which must be factored in. I have help as necessary, but short plants and as low a scrog before flowering as possible is best case scenario for me. In consideration of these factors, my logic says the best thing to do is use Uncle Ben's method. You say short and high producing, and that is exactly the target. It also seems logical that the veg cycle would then take longer, which is also a preference. My first grow I switched to 12/12 on day 58 of veg. I'd like to keep the plants in veg for around 60 days if I can maintain a workable height and not overpopulate a scrog screen for that long. If these guys continue their pace of growth for the whole grow I'm not sure that will be possible, lol. I know I could "make" it happen with supercropping and such if necessary, but I'm not a huge fan of that technique on plant strains I don't know. Regardless, the point is that using Uncle Ben's method will allow for more veg time, yes? How could that NOT be the case?

- Is there a similar list of "rules" you can list for topping autos? Haven't decided yet about that. Read your stuff on it and spoken to many others. No matter what it appears reality is that this is one of what I call a 50/50 thing, meaning there's no obvious consensus on whether to top autos or not to top autos. In fact quite the opposite. And many argue this point with the same passion and logic as you do. That said, I'm not scairt! If it appears topping is a good idea once I see them at about 15 days (today is Day one, they just broke ground, you can see in my grow journal if you like, Jon's Second Grow - First Grow Journal - Autos/Photoperiod Soil Grow is the name, both tents, photo and auto, are in the journal, today is Day 11 of photo/Day 1 of auto), I'll top them. But I have zero experience with autos and if there's a similar list of rules that would be very helpful.

- Which of these methods do you personally prefer? And does it depend on your choice of grow style (nothing/let them go, scrog, sog, etc...) for a particular grow? As tempting as it is to top between 3 and 4, get a bunch of main colas, and take a chance on severely shocking the plant for a few days as you say it does, it is also the first time I have heard you refer to actually "shocking" the plants, a condition you often say is usually an overblown concern. That tells me it's serious to the plant, and I'm not sure I want to induce that stress when it's just as easy to use Uncle Ben's method. BUT...it also sounds like using the second method on your list, despite the stress, might work very well for a scrog grow. Is this the case?

- So given that I'm going to wait on that 24-36 hour benchmark before transplanting, and the fact that today is Day 11, it is obvious they will still be in the cups in 4 more days, up to and a little beyond Day 15. I was going to begin my feeding (nutes) on Day 15. Is there any reason I can't do this while they still live in the Dixie cups? If that's a dumb question, sorry. I can't think of any logical reason why it would matter, but I've learned to subjugate my ego and ask a question even if it makes me look a bit like a dolt. Lol. There's simply a lot of stuff about growing GOOD weed that to me is counterintuitive, so I ask.

Other than that, thank you VERY much, your assistance is invaluable. And GREATLY appreciated. If I lived near you I'd buy you an ice cream cone. Lol. And I love the cup in the moist dirt to keep the exact shape of the transplant thing. PERFECT.

Muchas Gracias!!

I need to get busy in the grow room, so I am going to keep this short, and again, good questions. As to my favorite method, it really depends on how hard I want to work at it and what my immediate goal for topping happens to be. Maybe it is most expedient on that run to get the plant moving and into bloom asap... then I tend to top high... and get 2 kolas. I may also top as I did on this next run in the bloom room, to simply even out the canopy. I have 2 plants that are a week or two ahead of the other two, and I just wanted to even them out a bit, so I pruned... wouldn't exactly call it a topping. Curiosity and love of science has gotten me to top at 3/4, but I hate uncertainty and I don't think it produces as a rule, a balanced looking plant. For many reasons, the 2/3 cut is my favorite. As an indoor gardener I appreciate a short well trained plant, and this cut allows this to happen with ease. Also, because the plant starts out short, I can use my collection of 12" garden stakes to use as training hoops to hold down the needed branches. If anything lately I have been making my plants a bit too short, thereby making it hard to get underneath them to water and fertilize. Also, in answer to your scrog question, I would think that 4 main kolas would be awesome under the screen, and the shortness of the 2/3 cut would also help a lot. Uncle Ben's would be my choice there, for sure.

That brings me to nutes. Contrary to what you hear all the time from the online gurus, there is no need to wait, even in a rich soil, to fertilize. Of course young seedlings can't take the same amount of nutes that a large plant can take, every nute feeding schedule includes 1 week old plants. If you want to use fertilizer, nute like a boss. Your goal is big plants and you bought those expensive fertilizers, so why not use them? Timidity when it comes to nutes never made much sense to me, but there are those who think of nutes as food, not fertilizer. Food is given at sustenance levels, fertilizer is given at a level above that, so as to grow bigger plants. Use your nutes as soon as you feel comfortable using them... don't listen to the naysayers who claim that the nute companies are just out to soak you, so they want you to overuse your nutes. Remember that fertilizing them will also make the roots grow faster, making them get to the benchmark even faster. Nute like you mean it.

As far as autos go, I maintain that they are simply cannabis plants just like any other... they just grow faster and have given up paying attention to the photoperiod. Other than that, a plant is a plant is a plant. I have no experience in trying it, but I would think that the topping rules would work exactly the same on those varieties of cannabis too... everything would just happen faster.

 

[irocu88]

Thank you Emilya.....and happy growing.

 

[Jon]

I don't have any LED yet. in the future I will be building a dedicated grow room and get rid of the tent, but that is on hold for now. I am not sure about the MH better that todays LED's. LED spectrum has come a long way and you can customize your spectrum for veg and bloom. I will eventually spring for 1 HLG 650r and 2 350r's with added UVB, that I already have for the new room. I do believe LED is where its at, just the high buy in cost gets you. I will check out your journal. in the Grow lighting topic I have a post "Hortilux Blue" you can see the difference in the two MH bulbs with the spectrum of both....it is quite a difference. You can also track my grow if you want in the "New Grow" under this header, I should have put it in the grow journal section, but I don't think I added enough info for that.

I'll check it out. And thanks.

 

[Jon]

I need to get busy in the grow room, so I am going to keep this short, and again, good questions. As to my favorite method, it really depends on how hard I want to work at it and what my immediate goal for topping happens to be. Maybe it is most expedient on that run to get the plant moving and into bloom asap... then I tend to top high... and get 2 kolas. I may also top as I did on this next run in the bloom room, to simply even out the canopy. I have 2 plants that are a week or two ahead of the other two, and I just wanted to even them out a bit, so I pruned... wouldn't exactly call it a topping. Curiosity and love of science has gotten me to top at 3/4, but I hate uncertainty and I don't think it produces as a rule, a balanced looking plant. For many reasons, the 2/3 cut is my favorite. As an indoor gardener I appreciate a short well trained plant, and this cut allows this to happen with ease. Also, because the plant starts out short, I can use my collection of 12" garden stakes to use as training hoops to hold down the needed branches. If anything lately I have been making my plants a bit too short, thereby making it hard to get underneath them to water and fertilize. Also, in answer to your scrog question, I would think that 4 main kolas would be awesome under the screen, and the shortness of the 2/3 cut would also help a lot. Uncle Ben's would be my choice there, for sure.

That brings me to nutes. Contrary to what you hear all the time from the online gurus, there is no need to wait, even in a rich soil, to fertilize. Of course young seedlings can't take the same amount of nutes that a large plant can take, every nute feeding schedule includes 1 week old plants. If you want to use fertilizer, nute like a boss. Your goal is big plants and you bought those expensive fertilizers, so why not use them? Timidity when it comes to nutes never made much sense to me, but there are those who think of nutes as food, not fertilizer. Food is given at sustenance levels, fertilizer is given at a level above that, so as to grow bigger plants. Use your nutes as soon as you feel comfortable using them... don't listen to the naysayers who claim that the nute companies are just out to soak you, so they want you to overuse your nutes. Remember that fertilizing them will also make the roots grow faster, making them get to the benchmark even faster. Nute like you mean it.

As far as autos go, I maintain that they are simply cannabis plants just like any other... they just grow faster and have given up paying attention to the photoperiod. Other than that, a plant is a plant is a plant. I have no experience in trying it, but I would think that the topping rules would work exactly the same on those varieties of cannabis too... everything would just happen faster.

Amazing. Thank you so much. Lmao on the nutes. Push push push. Your answer is right up my alley. As I'm just a few days away from Day 15 anyway, I'll start them then in earnest. I like the roundness of starting them on day one of week three, considering they'll be in veg at least another month. They'll get plenty of nutes. Sounds like I was on on the selection of techniques and Uncle Ben's is where it's at. I completely agree on the dislike of uncertainty and all that. Thanks again.

I appreciate the clarity of your communication. Sorry to take up so much time and thanks for it.

Cheers!

Jon

 

[Azimuth]

Topping is an art, and where you top defines the shape of the plant to come. Here are the rules:

• If you top between nodes 4 and 5 or anywhere higher on the plant, you will get 2 main kolas.
• If you top between nodes 3 and 4, the topping there confuses the plant and it acts like a FIM... sometimes you get 2 kolas, most of the time 3 kolas, sometimes 4 and occasionally 5 kolas will result from this odd topping. Resolving this mess takes the longest of any cut and severely shocks the plant for a couple of days.
• If you wait till the 5th node is just rising up, and then you chop it all the way down between nodes 2 and 3 (Uncle Ben's Method) you always end up with 4 main kolas. This chop is the start of mainlining and quad training and is very popular due to the short yet high producing plants it creates.

Same rules apply for cuttings with alternating nodes vs seedlings?

Would think with cuttings you'd have to go between 4th and 5th to get your four kolas.

 

[Emilya Green]

Same rules apply for cuttings with alternating nodes vs seedlings?

Would think with cuttings you'd have to go between 4th and 5th to get your four kolas.

nope, cuttings are working under different rules... remember that they are actually very old plants, well beyond the 5th node. Topping in this case is hard to distinguish from pruning.

 

[Azimuth]

Can plants grown for a while with poor watering technique be rehabilitated, or is there a point of no return?

I have plants that don't seem to be responding to the wet/dry cycle by growing new aggressive roots and shortening the dry out period.

They seem to be kind of stagnated in limbo land.

 

[Emilya Green]

Can plants grown for a while with poor watering technique be rehabilitated, or is there a point of no return?

I have plants that don't seem to be responding to the wet/dry cycle by growing new aggressive roots and shortening the dry out period.

They seem to be kind of stagnated in limbo land.

severely damaged roots can take a couple of weeks and at least 3 watering cycles to get going again. Yes, given time these plants would be able to recover. In that time however, you could start new plants and by watering correctly they would be bigger than these by that time. I would do both... just to get the experience of bringing a plant back after a problem.

 

[Matou]

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant
Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot


How to Water
Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion applies to at least 3 gallon containers and bigger. Please realize that this special plant of ours does not grow like anything else you have ever tried to grow, and no matter how good you are at growing peas, beans and tomatoes, you will have to change your methods to grow a weed.


The first rule of watering is to always water slowly, using no more than a quart at a time, pausing often to let the soil suck air in behind the water as it pools on the top. For me, that involves a routine of watering each of my plants with 1 quart, then taking a nice relaxing drink of whatever beverage I have brought with me to the tent. Then I take a deep breath, making sure to exhale deeply onto this plant, letting her know that I love her. After this, I take a nice big hit off of the pipe that also followed me into the tent, and then after a nice pause and maybe another drink, I go back to plant #1 and repeat the cycle. For 2 rounds, I water the entire surface of the soil, watching it pool up and get sucked down.


After this initial wetting of the top, my watering method changes a bit. Now, I want to do whatever I can to make the outside edges of the container, the wettest areas. Still only using a quart at a time, I now carefully water only there, all around the plant, only on the edges. While doing this, I slow down a bit so that the water doesn't pool as much in the center, always concentrating on the edges. The center will end up getting some too, and that's fine, but the wettest areas of the pot will be on the outside edges and you will be driving nutrient rich soil into the dense original root ball. Continue this, again going slow, maybe with a deep breath in the middle of it, and then continue all around, taking drinks, deep breaths and hits in between each round. Continue until you see the first signs of runoff, and then stop.


Look carefully at the surface of your container now. You will clearly see where the root ball is from your last transplant, because it will now be sticking up just a little bit above the original outer rim. Very fine soil has been driven through the original root ball with the flow of water and soil from the outer edges. This micro fine soil is very rich with nutrients because of its mobility. When you water from the outside edges, you force this micro fine sludge into the dense root ball, where it can do the most good. Once you establish this flow pattern in the container, you can be assured of totally replacing the micro soil in the center of the root ball with new soil, every time you water. Watering in the normal way does not create his circular flow, and root growth cannot be nearly as aggressive.

Lastly, take one last quart of water, and water very very slowly, just in the raised area where the original root ball is. As you do so, watch what happens at the outer edge of the original root ball.

You will see the very finest soil, almost a mud, migrating out of the old root ball, and into the middle! This completes the process of soil exchange in the container. In this manner, all the roots get to take advantage of the nutrients in the soil, and the roots follow the migration of the nutrient rich soil, toward the outer edges, creating lateral growth. I strive to actively drive the soil out of the middle, making room for the roots to grow more dense and bigger there, and as they do, the lateral growth also has to increase. Using this method, I have seen a steady increase in the amount of water needed to get to run off throughout the grow and by the end, plants watered in this way use approximately 30% more water than is seen using standard watering techniques. Watering in the manner I have described allows for a constant circular flow of soil throughout the container and will create an extremely dense root ball.

Now it is time for a truism. It is best to water the roots, not the plant. A healthy and robust root system means a happy and productive plant. Neglect the roots and your plants can die, and certainly will be less than they could have been.

When do we water?
By far, one of the most common plant problems that I see with new gardeners is a lack of understanding as to when to water. New people get it set in their mind that watering every day or every other day is best, or that somehow, mysteriously, they know in their own human minds exactly how much water the plants need. These well-meaning new gardeners will determine that they will give exactly one quart or some other random amount, each time, no more... and no less, and really believe that they are doing a good thing for their plants, making these decisions for them.
Just as bad as these over-thinkers are the tomato gardeners, the "stick your finger in the ground" crowd, who proclaim: it's time to water when it is dry below the second knuckle. What they fail to realize is that when the top 2 inches is dry, the lower half of the container could still be saturated with water. Both of these common mistakes in watering methods are quick ways to drown your plants. These methods are not correct for growing weeds, and using them can actually kill your plants.


Marijuana is a weed, and the main thing that this scientific term refers to, is a class of plant that thrives in adversity. In order to grow it well, you need to understand that this incredibly robust plant works differently than other, less hardy plants. It is an extremely aggressive grower if you allow it to be, and to grow prize winning pot, you need to use its abilities to send out new roots to your advantage.


Watering incorrectly is the most common mistake that new weed farmers make. This plant needs a clear wet/dry cycle in order to thrive. If you keep it moist, you will kill it. The roots will aggressively chase your water, whatever you give them. If you just give a small amount every couple of days, that water will drop right to the bottom of the container. Your roots will follow, and will cluster on the bottom, instead of growing laterally throughout the container, and since they continually sit in the nutrient rich water, the plant sees little need to grow additional roots. How you water makes a huge difference in the formation of the root ball, and how this development happens is up to you.


There are many ways to tell when it is time to water, and if you wait long enough the girls will actually tell you that they are thirsty. They do two things when they see that they need water, they throw out a smell, and they begin to wilt, starting at the bottom, moving up. You can also use the lift method to tell when the container is dry, and almost always you will "feel" a dry container, before the above mentioned wilt and fragrance pump happens. Rusty Trichome taught me an important lesson; every time I think that I need to do something to my plants, I wait a bit... and I try to move at the speed that my plants are moving. "Patience, above all else." --Rusty


If you have a moisture meter you can also use it to find where the wet/dry (water table) line is in your container, and you can watch that wet/dry line move down over time. I used to graph my water table level by day, so that I could project ahead when the wet dry line would reach the last inch of container. Your wet/dry line will never go lower than that last inch or so, because once you get down in there, you are in all the big tap roots and mass at the bottom, and it tends to stay wet there longer because of capillary effect. Again, if you wait for the first sign of wilt and that perfume pump that happens at "water me" point, it will usually be just a bit longer than your measurements would indicate. Once the water table line is anywhere in that bottom inch is ok to water. You have dried out 95% of the water by that time and the roots have been chasing it as the wet/dry line progresses both downward and outward. The suction caused by the diaphragm that is the water table, will have pulled oxygen down deep into the container, and filled any voids. The roots will be happy.


Why do we up-pot?
The art of successive up-potting is important in growing a healthy root system. People like to be lazy. I am constantly seeing new gardeners take a little sprig of a weed and put it in a big 3 or 5 gallon container, thinking that they have done a good thing, and are now done with it... it's on to harvest time! The problem is, this doesn't work, because it gives you zero control over developing the roots, and without crazy watering techniques, almost no chance of a solid root ball forming. It is imperative to successively up pot your plants through stages so that the root system can roughly take on the same size and shape as the plant in order to get the maximum productivity. The roots grow aggressively in these weeds, and if you confine them to a container the size of the plant, they will fill that space in a short time with a dense root system. Putting a plant in an oversized container can and often does, result in all the roots going to the bottom, drowning the plant, root rot and overall poor health because of a lack of a root ball, and certainly less than optimum harvests. It is important to force these weeds into producing a root ball at various stages, to give the plant the ability later on to take in the massive amounts of nutrients needed to produce lots of quality buds.
The plants in the smaller containers can also more directly show you when they are thriving or more importantly when they are not. A strong healthy plant will eventually outgrow its container and an observant gardener is carefully watching the length of time between wet/dry cycles, and directly relating shorter cycles with more robust roots. A smaller container also gives the gardener the ability to see when the moment arrives that the amount of soil the plant is in is no longer large enough for the plant's abilities to be happy in it, because it will be obvious when the plant can drain the water that soil is able to hold, in less than 24 hours. Your soil and your container at that point have ceased at that point to be a good enough buffer, and it is time to double the space the roots have to work with. Let your plant show you when that time is, and try not to make decisions for her.


Why is pH important?
Some people claim that pH is not important, and if you are a pure organic gardener, never applying chlorinated water or salt based synthetic nutrients at your plants, pH indeed is not important. For the 99.9% rest of the world, a very important lesson for the new gardener to learn is the importance of pH. There is a scientific reason why a proper pH allows the plants to use synthetic nutrients, and why being outside of the proper range can cause deficiencies. If you want to grow pot using chemicals, you need to invest in a method to test the pH of any water going into the plant, whether it is plain water or water mixed with nutrients, and whether it is applied to the roots or sprayed on the leaves. If you neglect the pH, you can easily create deficiencies in your plants, and if left unchecked, you can even kill them. If you spend a lot of money on nutrients, it makes sense that you would want to also create the proper environment so that the plant can use these nutrients, but with a pH way out of the 6.3-6.8 range in soil, a lot of those expensive nutrients will just sit there, not doing the plant any good. If you are in a soilless mix, pH in the range of 5.5-6.1 is necessary. It is only within these ranges that all the nutrients are mobile, are able to be broken free of their salt bonds and be in the form that can go into the plants. Most soils and systems are designed so that you can apply liquids at a lower pH and then the soil or the soilless mix causes a drift, so that the pH can visit each spot in the usable pH range for that medium, and all of the 17 needed nutrients will be picked up, each in its turn.


I hope that this study on containers, watering and pH helps someone who reads it. This paper was a result of having to explain these same concepts over and over and over again to new growers at they hit the forums, until finally I put all these thoughts together into this paper. Some of the thoughts previously given have also been refined for this publication, as questions were asked and answered the last time I posted it, and I have learned better ways of explaining my thoughts. Here, I give you, approximately draft 10 of this paper.


Be well everyone and blessings from my garden to yours,
Sense Emilya

Big thanks to you, i am a new grower and i just started my second grow, with your tips and knowledge i hope to achieve a great grow! Hope you are all doing well in adversity (covid lol) as your plants

 

[RogerLongfall]

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant
Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot


How to Water
Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion applies to at least 3 gallon containers and bigger. Please realize that this special plant of ours does not grow like anything else you have ever tried to grow, and no matter how good you are at growing peas, beans and tomatoes, you will have to change your methods to grow a weed.


The first rule of watering is to always water slowly, using no more than a quart at a time, pausing often to let the soil suck air in behind the water as it pools on the top. For me, that involves a routine of watering each of my plants with 1 quart, then taking a nice relaxing drink of whatever beverage I have brought with me to the tent. Then I take a deep breath, making sure to exhale deeply onto this plant, letting her know that I love her. After this, I take a nice big hit off of the pipe that also followed me into the tent, and then after a nice pause and maybe another drink, I go back to plant #1 and repeat the cycle. For 2 rounds, I water the entire surface of the soil, watching it pool up and get sucked down.


After this initial wetting of the top, my watering method changes a bit. Now, I want to do whatever I can to make the outside edges of the container, the wettest areas. Still only using a quart at a time, I now carefully water only there, all around the plant, only on the edges. While doing this, I slow down a bit so that the water doesn't pool as much in the center, always concentrating on the edges. The center will end up getting some too, and that's fine, but the wettest areas of the pot will be on the outside edges and you will be driving nutrient rich soil into the dense original root ball. Continue this, again going slow, maybe with a deep breath in the middle of it, and then continue all around, taking drinks, deep breaths and hits in between each round. Continue until you see the first signs of runoff, and then stop.


Look carefully at the surface of your container now. You will clearly see where the root ball is from your last transplant, because it will now be sticking up just a little bit above the original outer rim. Very fine soil has been driven through the original root ball with the flow of water and soil from the outer edges. This micro fine soil is very rich with nutrients because of its mobility. When you water from the outside edges, you force this micro fine sludge into the dense root ball, where it can do the most good. Once you establish this flow pattern in the container, you can be assured of totally replacing the micro soil in the center of the root ball with new soil, every time you water. Watering in the normal way does not create his circular flow, and root growth cannot be nearly as aggressive.

Lastly, take one last quart of water, and water very very slowly, just in the raised area where the original root ball is. As you do so, watch what happens at the outer edge of the original root ball.

You will see the very finest soil, almost a mud, migrating out of the old root ball, and into the middle! This completes the process of soil exchange in the container. In this manner, all the roots get to take advantage of the nutrients in the soil, and the roots follow the migration of the nutrient rich soil, toward the outer edges, creating lateral growth. I strive to actively drive the soil out of the middle, making room for the roots to grow more dense and bigger there, and as they do, the lateral growth also has to increase. Using this method, I have seen a steady increase in the amount of water needed to get to run off throughout the grow and by the end, plants watered in this way use approximately 30% more water than is seen using standard watering techniques. Watering in the manner I have described allows for a constant circular flow of soil throughout the container and will create an extremely dense root ball.

Now it is time for a truism. It is best to water the roots, not the plant. A healthy and robust root system means a happy and productive plant. Neglect the roots and your plants can die, and certainly will be less than they could have been.

When do we water?
By far, one of the most common plant problems that I see with new gardeners is a lack of understanding as to when to water. New people get it set in their mind that watering every day or every other day is best, or that somehow, mysteriously, they know in their own human minds exactly how much water the plants need. These well-meaning new gardeners will determine that they will give exactly one quart or some other random amount, each time, no more... and no less, and really believe that they are doing a good thing for their plants, making these decisions for them.
Just as bad as these over-thinkers are the tomato gardeners, the "stick your finger in the ground" crowd, who proclaim: it's time to water when it is dry below the second knuckle. What they fail to realize is that when the top 2 inches is dry, the lower half of the container could still be saturated with water. Both of these common mistakes in watering methods are quick ways to drown your plants. These methods are not correct for growing weeds, and using them can actually kill your plants.


Marijuana is a weed, and the main thing that this scientific term refers to, is a class of plant that thrives in adversity. In order to grow it well, you need to understand that this incredibly robust plant works differently than other, less hardy plants. It is an extremely aggressive grower if you allow it to be, and to grow prize winning pot, you need to use its abilities to send out new roots to your advantage.


Watering incorrectly is the most common mistake that new weed farmers make. This plant needs a clear wet/dry cycle in order to thrive. If you keep it moist, you will kill it. The roots will aggressively chase your water, whatever you give them. If you just give a small amount every couple of days, that water will drop right to the bottom of the container. Your roots will follow, and will cluster on the bottom, instead of growing laterally throughout the container, and since they continually sit in the nutrient rich water, the plant sees little need to grow additional roots. How you water makes a huge difference in the formation of the root ball, and how this development happens is up to you.


There are many ways to tell when it is time to water, and if you wait long enough the girls will actually tell you that they are thirsty. They do two things when they see that they need water, they throw out a smell, and they begin to wilt, starting at the bottom, moving up. You can also use the lift method to tell when the container is dry, and almost always you will "feel" a dry container, before the above mentioned wilt and fragrance pump happens. Rusty Trichome taught me an important lesson; every time I think that I need to do something to my plants, I wait a bit... and I try to move at the speed that my plants are moving. "Patience, above all else." --Rusty


If you have a moisture meter you can also use it to find where the wet/dry (water table) line is in your container, and you can watch that wet/dry line move down over time. I used to graph my water table level by day, so that I could project ahead when the wet dry line would reach the last inch of container. Your wet/dry line will never go lower than that last inch or so, because once you get down in there, you are in all the big tap roots and mass at the bottom, and it tends to stay wet there longer because of capillary effect. Again, if you wait for the first sign of wilt and that perfume pump that happens at "water me" point, it will usually be just a bit longer than your measurements would indicate. Once the water table line is anywhere in that bottom inch is ok to water. You have dried out 95% of the water by that time and the roots have been chasing it as the wet/dry line progresses both downward and outward. The suction caused by the diaphragm that is the water table, will have pulled oxygen down deep into the container, and filled any voids. The roots will be happy.


Why do we up-pot?
The art of successive up-potting is important in growing a healthy root system. People like to be lazy. I am constantly seeing new gardeners take a little sprig of a weed and put it in a big 3 or 5 gallon container, thinking that they have done a good thing, and are now done with it... it's on to harvest time! The problem is, this doesn't work, because it gives you zero control over developing the roots, and without crazy watering techniques, almost no chance of a solid root ball forming. It is imperative to successively up pot your plants through stages so that the root system can roughly take on the same size and shape as the plant in order to get the maximum productivity. The roots grow aggressively in these weeds, and if you confine them to a container the size of the plant, they will fill that space in a short time with a dense root system. Putting a plant in an oversized container can and often does, result in all the roots going to the bottom, drowning the plant, root rot and overall poor health because of a lack of a root ball, and certainly less than optimum harvests. It is important to force these weeds into producing a root ball at various stages, to give the plant the ability later on to take in the massive amounts of nutrients needed to produce lots of quality buds.
The plants in the smaller containers can also more directly show you when they are thriving or more importantly when they are not. A strong healthy plant will eventually outgrow its container and an observant gardener is carefully watching the length of time between wet/dry cycles, and directly relating shorter cycles with more robust roots. A smaller container also gives the gardener the ability to see when the moment arrives that the amount of soil the plant is in is no longer large enough for the plant's abilities to be happy in it, because it will be obvious when the plant can drain the water that soil is able to hold, in less than 24 hours. Your soil and your container at that point have ceased at that point to be a good enough buffer, and it is time to double the space the roots have to work with. Let your plant show you when that time is, and try not to make decisions for her.


Why is pH important?
Some people claim that pH is not important, and if you are a pure organic gardener, never applying chlorinated water or salt based synthetic nutrients at your plants, pH indeed is not important. For the 99.9% rest of the world, a very important lesson for the new gardener to learn is the importance of pH. There is a scientific reason why a proper pH allows the plants to use synthetic nutrients, and why being outside of the proper range can cause deficiencies. If you want to grow pot using chemicals, you need to invest in a method to test the pH of any water going into the plant, whether it is plain water or water mixed with nutrients, and whether it is applied to the roots or sprayed on the leaves. If you neglect the pH, you can easily create deficiencies in your plants, and if left unchecked, you can even kill them. If you spend a lot of money on nutrients, it makes sense that you would want to also create the proper environment so that the plant can use these nutrients, but with a pH way out of the 6.3-6.8 range in soil, a lot of those expensive nutrients will just sit there, not doing the plant any good. If you are in a soilless mix, pH in the range of 5.5-6.1 is necessary. It is only within these ranges that all the nutrients are mobile, are able to be broken free of their salt bonds and be in the form that can go into the plants. Most soils and systems are designed so that you can apply liquids at a lower pH and then the soil or the soilless mix causes a drift, so that the pH can visit each spot in the usable pH range for that medium, and all of the 17 needed nutrients will be picked up, each in its turn.


I hope that this study on containers, watering and pH helps someone who reads it. This paper was a result of having to explain these same concepts over and over and over again to new growers at they hit the forums, until finally I put all these thoughts together into this paper. Some of the thoughts previously given have also been refined for this publication, as questions were asked and answered the last time I posted it, and I have learned better ways of explaining my thoughts. Here, I give you, approximately draft 10 of this paper.


Be well everyone and blessings from my garden to yours,
Sense Emilya

Thank you Emilya, I heard about your post via youtube blogger. It helped me find 420 Mag. Thank you for the watering advice

 

[Emilya Green]

Thank you Emilya, I heard about your post via youtube blogger. It helped me find 420 Mag. Thank you for the watering advice

Welcome to the forum Roger! I am glad that the folks out on YouTube were able to lead you here! I hope the watering thread helps you grow amazing gardens!

 

[Emilya Green]

Can plants grown for a while with poor watering technique be rehabilitated, or is there a point of no return?

I have plants that don't seem to be responding to the wet/dry cycle by growing new aggressive roots and shortening the dry out period.

They seem to be kind of stagnated in limbo land.

Not sure how I missed this Azimuth... how are the plants doing today? Nothing happens immediately in the plant world, but now after a week you should be seeing some results.

 

[Azimuth]

Not sure how I missed this Azimuth... how are the plants doing today? Nothing happens immediately in the plant world, but now after a week you should be seeing some results.

Yeah, still not very good. I top dressed them a week or so ago with a combination of fresh worm castings, fresh rinsed sea weed, and two year old leaf mold. I know it can be a couple of weeks to show improvement so hoping for that.

Thinking maybe the plants are under fed, but really have no clue. I have been feeding them with the knf juices at 1:750 or so which is a bit stronger than the typical rates one sees recommended. But, the plants are in 32oz containers and literally take 15 days to use the water from the last watering so they don't get fed very often.

Wondering if I should try watering with maybe a quarter of what I typically give them every 3-4 days and see if that helps (I saw where you had recommended that approach to someone else and figure I don't have much to lose by trying something different).

They seem to take about 8oz when I fully water (in that 32oz container).

 

[Emilya Green]

Yeah, still not very good. I top dressed them a week or so ago with a combination of fresh worm castings, fresh rinsed sea weed, and two year old leaf mold. I know it can be a couple of weeks to show improvement so hoping for that.

Thinking maybe the plants are under fed, but really have no clue. I have been feeding them with the knf juices at 1:750 or so which is a bit stronger than the typical rates one sees recommended. But, the plants are in 32oz containers and literally take 15 days to use the water from the last watering so they don't get fed very often.

Wondering if I should try watering with maybe a quarter of what I typically give them every 3-4 days and see if that helps (I saw where you had recommended that approach to someone else and figure I don't have much to lose by trying something different).

They seem to take about 8oz when I fully water (in that 32oz container).

well, what I suspect is that your lower roots had totally shut down having been under water so long, and it is simply going to take some time for a new set of lower roots to form. While that is happening the plant does have a very hard time feeding since it can not even suck up the water in 15 days. I assure you though, having to work that hard to get that water out of there meant that there were lots of roots seeking out every little bit of water that could be found, and as a result, your roots ARE stronger than they were on that last round. Yes, it takes a long time to recover, but I bet the water gets drained in 10 days this time... and the time after that, 6 or 7 days. The roots will continue to get stronger, just be patient.

In the meantime, the plant does need nutrition and you need to keep its metabolism up, so yes, you do need to feed the upper set of spreader roots. Not even 1/4 what you know will saturate that container though... envision how much water it would take to soak the surface and about 3 inches deep. That is all the water you want to give, or it will simply drop down to the bottom and add to the bigger problem down there. I suggest slowly dribbling about a cup of water on there... and no more. Give it nutes with the water every other time and do this about every 3 days. This should help the plant drain the water down below a little faster.

Now let me address the part that I highlighted in your words above. Are you saying there that you already were giving water every 3 or 4 days? If you have been giving more than the cup that I talked about in the last paragraph, then you have been adding to the water table every time you did it, and it is no wonder that it has taken you 15 days to finally drain the container.

 

[Jon]

I need to get busy in the grow room, so I am going to keep this short, and again, good questions. As to my favorite method, it really depends on how hard I want to work at it and what my immediate goal for topping happens to be. Maybe it is most expedient on that run to get the plant moving and into bloom asap... then I tend to top high... and get 2 kolas. I may also top as I did on this next run in the bloom room, to simply even out the canopy. I have 2 plants that are a week or two ahead of the other two, and I just wanted to even them out a bit, so I pruned... wouldn't exactly call it a topping. Curiosity and love of science has gotten me to top at 3/4, but I hate uncertainty and I don't think it produces as a rule, a balanced looking plant. For many reasons, the 2/3 cut is my favorite. As an indoor gardener I appreciate a short well trained plant, and this cut allows this to happen with ease. Also, because the plant starts out short, I can use my collection of 12" garden stakes to use as training hoops to hold down the needed branches. If anything lately I have been making my plants a bit too short, thereby making it hard to get underneath them to water and fertilize. Also, in answer to your scrog question, I would think that 4 main kolas would be awesome under the screen, and the shortness of the 2/3 cut would also help a lot. Uncle Ben's would be my choice there, for sure.

That brings me to nutes. Contrary to what you hear all the time from the online gurus, there is no need to wait, even in a rich soil, to fertilize. Of course young seedlings can't take the same amount of nutes that a large plant can take, every nute feeding schedule includes 1 week old plants. If you want to use fertilizer, nute like a boss. Your goal is big plants and you bought those expensive fertilizers, so why not use them? Timidity when it comes to nutes never made much sense to me, but there are those who think of nutes as food, not fertilizer. Food is given at sustenance levels, fertilizer is given at a level above that, so as to grow bigger plants. Use your nutes as soon as you feel comfortable using them... don't listen to the naysayers who claim that the nute companies are just out to soak you, so they want you to overuse your nutes. Remember that fertilizing them will also make the roots grow faster, making them get to the benchmark even faster. Nute like you mean it.

As far as autos go, I maintain that they are simply cannabis plants just like any other... they just grow faster and have given up paying attention to the photoperiod. Other than that, a plant is a plant is a plant. I have no experience in trying it, but I would think that the topping rules would work exactly the same on those varieties of cannabis too... everything would just happen faster.

Hi Emilya -

I have made it to topping. All five plants were either five or six nodes out and all got topped today the same way, ie Uncle Ben's. I was astounded to see all the growth underneath the nodes I cut off. It's crazy. I attached a picture. The damage you see on the leaves of the nodes I left is from overnuting the first addition of chemical (non-OMRI) nutes, ie, part two of the Fox Farms trio. It turned the stem on those leaves red and caused discoloration and curling within 36 hours, starting sooner. Definitely a localized issue as you can see none of the new growth has any of this. Very odd that it really only affected the very first two levels of leaves, and not even all of them. I know those leaves are not long for this world anyway so I kept them for now. I figure they are still viable solar collectors until the plant bushes out, recovers from the topping a bit, and they get covered up. I pushed pushed pushed a *bit* too hard. Note to self: Grow Big needs to start at LESS than 75% of recommended dosage. Just never been very good at starting small and working up. By nature I'm more of a start huge and back off if necessary person. Lol. Silly, but I find that there's an awful lot of "us" in our growing. Sometimes I find I need to overcome myself, if that makes sense.

Anyway, thanks for the help thus far. Your watering system is working beautifully from what I can tell. It's fun to take forever to water your plants, cuz doing it your way it takes a while to water five plants. Going slow. One at a time. Waiting in between parts of the watering. It literally takes me about 35 minutes to water one plant between taking it out of the tent then back. That'll get a little faster in their final homes when I'm not taking each plant out of the tent each time I water it, but for now it's fun and it's helping me to develop even more patience, which truly is the most important aspect I have yet identified in growing if I had to boil it down to one core concept that is absolutely necessary. It better, cuz shortly, with 9 autos soon to be in three gallon pots, I'll be watering 14 plants. Lol. I also kind of dig the little sort of "ring" that you get on top of the soil when you water this way, between the edge and the middle. Don't know why just dig it. Reference point I suppose.

The watch is on now to see when these pots drain in 24 hours. Next stop, five gallon fabric condos.

Gracias!

 

[Thirvnrob]

Hi Emilya -

I have made it to topping. All five plants were either five or six nodes out and all got topped today the same way, ie Uncle Ben's. I was astounded to see all the growth underneath the nodes I cut off. It's crazy. I attached a picture. The damage you see on the leaves of the nodes I left is from overnuting the first addition of chemical (non-OMRI) nutes, ie, part two of the Fox Farms trio. It turned the stem on those leaves red and caused discoloration and curling within 36 hours, starting sooner. Definitely a localized issue as you can see none of the new growth has any of this. Very odd that it really only affected the very first two levels of leaves, and not even all of them. I know those leaves are not long for this world anyway so I kept them for now. I figure they are still viable solar collectors until the plant bushes out, recovers from the topping a bit, and they get covered up. I pushed pushed pushed a *bit* too hard. Note to self: Grow Big needs to start at LESS than 75% of recommended dosage. Just never been very good at starting small and working up. By nature I'm more of a start huge and back off if necessary person. Lol. Silly, but I find that there's an awful lot of "us" in our growing. Sometimes I find I need to overcome myself, if that makes sense.

Anyway, thanks for the help thus far. Your watering system is working beautifully from what I can tell. It's fun to take forever to water your plants, cuz doing it your way it takes a while to water five plants. Going slow. One at a time. Waiting in between parts of the watering. It literally takes me about 35 minutes to water one plant between taking it out of the tent then back. That'll get a little faster in their final homes when I'm not taking each plant out of the tent each time I water it, but for now it's fun and it's helping me to develop even more patience, which truly is the most important aspect I have yet identified in growing if I had to boil it down to one core concept that is absolutely necessary. It better, cuz shortly, with 9 autos soon to be in three gallon pots, I'll be watering 14 plants. Lol. I also kind of dig the little sort of "ring" that you get on top of the soil when you water this way, between the edge and the middle. Don't know why just dig it. Reference point I suppose.

The watch is on now to see when these pots drain in 24 hours. Next stop, five gallon fabric condos.

Gracias!

I try & follow Emily’s watering plan to the letter, which leaves me quite stoned...

 

[Gypsy58]

When I water my girl from the outside to the inside of the ring do it with just water or water with nutes?

 

[Jon]

When I water my girl from the outside to the inside of the ring do it with just water or water with nutes?

I do it with whatever water is up in the rotation. I tend to go nute water - nute water - clean water in a cycle all the way through the grow, whichever stage of nutes I'm at. If I can't do it that way I am over nute-ing them, and by doing clean water every third watering you make sure you are consistently displacing any salts that may build up in the roots and such. At least that would be my answer, not sure if you were asking me, Emilya, or anyone, lol. But that works well for me for what it's worth.