Water Use in California

[OlderStoner]

Anyone catch the latest "propaganda" on the Net that according to some study done by a government agency it has now been determined that pot growers in California are using too much water. They state that pot plants need as much as 6 gallons or water everyday. Sheesh! I can imagine that someone growing the gigantic pot trees you see in some articles may need that much water. But in my experience water is the last thing you need an abundance of to grow weed. No doubt that California is in a deep drought, but come on! I watched my neighbor use more water to wash his car yesterday that I use in an entire indoor grow of six plants. Seems some people will say anything to promote their way of thinking.

 

[JJ Bones]

Even if it were using tons of water, at least the benefits of it are present. Can't say the same for all the front yards with grass and golf courses...

 

[FrankFoster]

A few years back, I had a buddy that needed a spot to put his girl in his back yard. The neighbor always watered the shit of of his plants on the fenceline so he placed it in the wet spot on his side. He never watered it, didn't do anything except he had to top it in Juy of that year because it was like 8 feet tall.

It just sucked up the neighbors extra water....

Well a few months after harvest, I was at a cocktail party and I was talking to that neighbor of my buddy, and he was saying that this one area used to be the wettest part of his yard but then that summer it was draining really good now. I asked him if he had considered that my buddy had planted what became a 6 foot wide 8 foot tall pot plant against the fence? He hadn't considered it. My buddy had though..... We call that area the goldilocks zone. Sun shines all day and the neighbors zealous auto watering system keep the ground wet 24/7.

 

[OlderStoner]

I am an engineer and deal with weights and measures a lot. I can't tell you that I've scientifically researched how much water a plant that size would uptake in a day but consider this. Water weighs about 8.33 lbs per gallon. To suck up 6 gallons each day the plant would be increasing its weight by almost 50 lbs, each day. Now granted that the plant would also respire most of that water and give it back up to the atmosphere, but I would be doubtful that a 6-8 ft cannabis plant would actually take up that much water.

Now also consider that if this were true, then most of the water the plant absorbs would be returning to the atmosphere. Plants don't send water down to their roots, they send it up to the leaves. And unless the plant was gaining an enormous amount of weight, that means the water is going somewhere, which would be back to the atmosphere where it will form clouds and eventually fall back to earth as rain. Some of it of course will always be retained in the plant but this theory of a plant using 6 gallons of water per day....excuse the pun.... just doesn't hold water.

 

[Srilania]

I might buy that if it was 6 gallons a WEEK, or for a 6 gallon a gay plant, I expect to harvest by the ton, not the pound.