Watering question

cakemix

New Member
When people say "I water when the soil is dry up to my first knuckle" Does that mean everything deeper than the end of your finger is supposed to be still wet/moist? And also is the first knuckle the joint that is 2-3cm away from the base of your fingernail? I'm 3 days into flowering and the soil is dry up to the first knuckle and everything underneath still moist but I'm starting to realize I might have been underwatering because I usually wait for the majority of the pot to dry out and right now my plants are drooping a bit.

Thanks!
 
I wouldn't worry about the "knuckle method" bud. It's a lousy way to know when to water.

You want the pot whole pot to dry out. I just looked at your journal. From start to finish so far you have been over watering. Your leafs aren't the only sign to help with watering but half. Just as important is to look at the stems on some upper leafs. Leafs sagging with stems still pointing upward tells you you water too much. Sagging leafs with sagging stems mean the plant is thirsty.

Letting them dry up just until the stems start sagging more is a perfect time to water.

You overwater. That's why some of your leafs have that wrinkled look with the sag. Overwater will lead to root, pH and nutrient issues like you are starting to see.
 
I wouldn't worry about the "knuckle method" bud. It's a lousy way to know when to water.

You want the pot whole pot to dry out. I just looked at your journal. From start to finish so far you have been over watering. Your leafs aren't the only sign to help with watering but half. Just as important is to look at the stems on some upper leafs. Leafs sagging with stems still pointing upward tells you you water too much. Sagging leafs with sagging stems mean the plant is thirsty.

Letting them dry up just until the stems start sagging more is a perfect time to water.

You overwater. That's why some of your leafs have that wrinkled look with the sag. Overwater will lead to root, pH and nutrient issues like you are starting to see.

Thank you for the reply! I guess I must have shit drainage with promix HP because to let them dry out takes 6-7 days between waterings.
 
Use the lift the pot method to decide when to water. The only way to go in my opinion.

What is the "lift the pot" method?

Not sure why that link reads so strangely but it does work you just have to scroll down to the first post of the thread.
 
Use the lift the pot method to decide when to water. The only way to go in my opinion.

What is the "lift the pot" method?

Not sure why that link reads so strangely but it does work you just have to scroll down to the first post of the thread.

I spent an entire 2 cycles and the beginning of one flubbing around with that method and could never use it to success. It's just too hard to percieve the differences in weight, in my opinion.

I bought a $5 moisture meter and feel like it's a no-brainer investment and now I can read the leaves more like fanleaf was talking about.
 
Hmmm. Interesting. I guess I shouldn't have said its the only way to go then. For myself, I can tell in a millisecond how dry a pot is by lifting it. A lot of them - especially the big pots I don't even lift all the way, just jostle or tilt them a little. Going around through my plants with a moisture meter seems like it would be harder. But no argument here- as long as we find what works for us. I haven't had much luck with the stick-the finger-in technique.
 
Hmmm. Interesting. I guess I shouldn't have said its the only way to go then. For myself, I can tell in a millisecond how dry a pot is by lifting it. A lot of them - especially the big pots I don't even lift all the way, just jostle or tilt them a little. Going around through my plants with a moisture meter seems like it would be harder. But no argument here- as long as we find what works for us. I haven't had much luck with the stick-the finger-in technique.
To be clear in my previous answer. I use the leafs and stems in conjunction with the lift the pot method.

Sent from my android from outer space!
 
Pot lifting FTW!
If you need a "crutch", put Promix in a pot, compact it well then compare its weight to the plants' pots.
6 days w/o water isn't very long unless the plant is root bound or in full turbo veg mode. Even in a solo cup, plants can go two weeks w/o water. In bloom I don't let them dry out completely like I do in veg.
Under and over-watered plants look similar, but if you really get to know them, you can easily see the difference (assuming they are otherwise healthy).
Too wet = droopy, flabby leaves that have a curl to them and they don't pray to the light.
Too dry = beautiful leaves that hang on wilted stems.
 
It's not that I want to dissuade the pot lifting method, I just think that people are too dismissive of using the meters. Actually it's even worse than that, people pretty much have a condescending attitude when it comes to those. I haven't noticed that here as much as other places though, but in general I think it's a disservice done to new growers who might not be able to perceive the weight of things very well. I mean, keeping a pot of dry dirt as a reference is okay supposing you gave yourself plenty of time to let it dry out first, but I mean sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference in weight between a gallon of milk an a can of soup. Okay, not THAT bad, but that's what I mean, my sense of weight difference just isn't fine enough. I'm assuming I can't be the only one.

After two weeks with the meter, I can now read my plants to tell if they're thirsty. You can achieve the same by doing the pot lift method... IF you can successfully learn to do the potlift method. But if you're like me, and can't seem to tell the difference in weight between a bone dry pot and a half-dry pot, then you'll never even see thirsty to be able to learn.

So yeah, I'm just trying to encourage the use of the meters, there's enough people out there discouraging them. I hardly ever hear them recommended and I think that's a shame. As with any tool though you'll have to take care of it, you can't just never clean it and expect it to stay accurate, plus it's $5 so it probably won't stay that good forever but the point is that you use it like training wheels until you can be sure that you know what a thirsty plant looks like and what a dry pot actually feels like.

Not to mention they usually come with a light and pH meter as well. For $5 I feel like it's something everyone should get and use at least for a little while. I only use it as a "confirmation" if I think the pot looks dry. More often than not lately I have found myself to be very wrong, and this little $5 investment has saved me from a lot of over-watering. It's a bit like having the answer key in the back of a math textbook, you can do the work and then check you did it right.

Anyway enough blabbing. Stop shaming the meter! :p
 
Guys thank you so much for all of the awesome replies! I've always used the pot lifting method in conjunction with the finger method, but it's time to ditch the finger method and start learning to read the plants. I'd stick my finger in and it would be dry then I'd lift the pot and it would still be quite heavy so I wouldn't water for another day or two but still probably too soon. To be honest I've been considering moisture meters also but the one thing that scares me is sticking the probe into the roots and somehow damaging them. Is there a special method to doing it? From what I've read from you guys I've been over watering without a doubt and I'm really happy to finally have some good information to go off of.
 
Would this information be wrong for coco medium?


RM's First Grow - Unknown Seeds

As far as technique, it's the same, but you will be watering more often in coco. Every day is not uncommon, and I've read of people watering multiple times per day. I may be wrong here, having never grown in coco, but I recall reading that it's hard to over water in coco.
 
Glad to hear other people are benefiting from this thread also. At first I thought it was kind of a silly question to ask but now I'm glad I did. Ran out and bought a moisture meter today. How far down should the probe go in a 5 gallon pot? And am I supposed to wait until the needle shows red before I water?
 
Mine usually start to show signs of thirst between 2 and 3, and they can get to 1 without wilting but it won't be long after that. Ideally you want to stick it all the way to the bottom, but if it comes up a few inches short I would wait until it read under 3 and the plant showed signs.

Basically...

1. If the leaves are droopy
2. The pot feels lighter
3. The meter is in the red

It's time to water.

The probe will measure the moisture at different depths of the pot, so you can measure how moist the midway point is, you can even find dry-pockets. I wouldn't go crazy, it is invasive to the roots, but if you make sure not to point it towards the center you'll avoid hitting the tap root ( if there is one ) but otherwise the roots won't really mind too much. Least not from what I've seen in my brief usage of it so far, but I do try to use it as little as possible. I don't check with it every day for sure, and usually I won't until I think the pot feels light and the top soil is bone dry. It still surprises me how wet the bottom of the pot is when I measure at this point.

You don't want to get them get that thirsty during flower though, personally I will probably water between 3-5 depending on what the plants tell me.

Oh if yours came with a pH meter and you plan to use it, be sure the soil is saturated, it won't read correctly in damp or dry soil. It's gotta be wet.
 
Mine usually start to show signs of thirst between 2 and 3, and they can get to 1 without wilting but it won't be long after that. Ideally you want to stick it all the way to the bottom, but if it comes up a few inches short I would wait until it read under 3 and the plant showed signs.

Basically...

1. If the leaves are droopy
2. The pot feels lighter
3. The meter is in the red

It's time to water.

The probe will measure the moisture at different depths of the pot, so you can measure how moist the midway point is, you can even find dry-pockets. I wouldn't go crazy, it is invasive to the roots, but if you make sure not to point it towards the center you'll avoid hitting the tap root ( if there is one ) but otherwise the roots won't really mind too much. Least not from what I've seen in my brief usage of it so far, but I do try to use it as little as possible. I don't check with it every day for sure, and usually I won't until I think the pot feels light and the top soil is bone dry. It still surprises me how wet the bottom of the pot is when I measure at this point.

You don't want to get them get that thirsty during flower though, personally I will probably water between 3-5 depending on what the plants tell me.

Oh if yours came with a pH meter and you plan to use it, be sure the soil is saturated, it won't read correctly in damp or dry soil. It's gotta be wet.

Awesome, I read that the aeration provides more benefit than the probe sticking into the roots creates problems. I will probably check each pot on both sides of the plant when I think they might be ready for water after doing lift tests. I'll try probing halfway between the wall of the pot and the stem of the plant. I'll also try stopping in the middle to get a reading and then continuing to push to the bottom. Mine has increments from 1-10.

SsM16gi.jpg
 
Would this information be wrong for coco medium?


RM's First Grow - Unknown Seeds

Coco plants can be overwatered. It depends on the plant to pot size ratio. When they are young seedling you have to baby them same as soil and other soilless mediums. Once the plant is grown to match its container size and has a good root system it won't get overwatered and can do well with multiple waterings per day.
 
Awesome, I read that the aeration provides more benefit than the probe sticking into the roots creates problems. I will probably check each pot on both sides of the plant when I think they might be ready for water after doing lift tests. I'll try probing halfway between the wall of the pot and the stem of the plant. I'll also try stopping in the middle to get a reading and then continuing to push to the bottom. Mine has increments from 1-10.

SsM16gi.jpg

Oh okay mine is 1-2 too, but I got where the blue and green zone were mixed up.

Be sure to clean the probes off after each use.
 
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