Watering Watering Watering

[fuglyman]

I've been reading a lot of problems with over watering, you are loving it to death. I use the lift method with my soil grows. When the pot gets light I give her a drink. From what I've read and experienced making the plant reach for water builds a good root system.
If anybody has anything to add or correct feel free to do so. I have never done hydro so feel free to chime in with your knowledge. Happy Growing.

 

[Major PITA]

Completely agree.

Rather than add on, I'll post THIS LINK to my thoughts on the subject.

One general statement: If you are starting out in soil and water more than ONCE in TWO WEEKS, something is wrong.

 

[Gitane]

If I wait two weeks between watering - the pot is still pretty heavy after 10 days - they'll be getting a lot less nutrient feedings.
They've gone into flower so I'm concerned flower development will be lacking if I reduce the feeding schedule to every two weeks. Once they dry out sufficiently should I just use less water when feeding them to maintain the a more frequent feeding schedule? I'm using 7 gallon pots with a quasi homemade soil mix. After they dry out, would it be better to use about 1/2 gal per plant for the feedings, or will this only provide nutrients to the top half of the pots?

 

[Major PITA]

The only difference for plants in bloom is, the root ball is already where it is going to stay (no more up-potting and no more major growth). I don't let the plants dry out completely like I do when in the earlier stages of growth. Still, I water COMPLETELY and then wait until they need it again. In early veg that is something like two weeks. In late veg and early bloom it may be every 4 days. If it is less than 4 days, I used too small of a pot for what I'm trying to grow. At the end of the day, you know your soil better than anyone else and have the best first-hand information as to when they need more water. As long as the very bottom of the pot isn't wet, you should be OK.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I have never been able to really get a feel for the pot lifting method, I always think it feels lighter than it really is. I almost just need a dry pot of dirt to sit there as a weight reference. Also that's tedious because fresh out of the bag it's usually not that dry. THEN sometimes after watering to run off they feel lighter than they should even though I know they're full of water.

I think it's one of those things you just have to get a feel for but the hardest part is not having faith they will make it through the next dark cycle without water and then going and adding more prematurely.

I also think time frames mean nothing because of the huge variablility in soil drainage, humidity, temperature, and pot size. Some dry periods that seem incredibly short to some seem incredibly long for others.

Recently growing with seeds I have been adjusting because usually with full grown plants or clones I would just dry them out until they showed a little wilt and they would bounce back and that gave me the perfect reference for when they were totally dry and I got a feel for watering right before that. Recently starting with seedlings I can't do it like that without risking stunting the root system. They won't just bounce back.

Anyway those are my frustrations with watering.

 

[electro gypsy]

Water can in one hand. The other gives the pot a little tilt. Yes or no and we are outta here

 

[Major PITA]

I also think time frames mean nothing because of the huge variablility in soil drainage, humidity, temperature, and pot size. Some dry periods that seem incredibly short to some seem incredibly long for others.

I completely agree with all you said. It is frustrating and there are a lot of variables.

I hate giving timelines for watering. I throw out things like 2 weeks or a month (which are true for me) only to get new growers to stop and think about what they are doing. I hear about them not overwatering, "because I only give them a few ounces every day."

As much as I complain about over-watering, I finally under watered a group of plants because of using the lift method. They are all fine and no harm was done but it still ticked me off and surprised me.

I switched potting mixes from my usual with perlite to one using pumice. Pumice works great and is light, but not as light as perlite. I am so used to feeling a 1 gallon and 7 gallon pot, I knew they had to have a fair amount of moisture left in them. NOT! In a 7 gallon pot, the new mix is about 10 pounds heavier. The new mix also leaves out a wetting agent. I had to re-learn not only what wet and dry feels like but also use a different watering technique to feed them effectively.

Ultimately, let the plants tell you when they need what. Don't lock into a schedule until you have plenty of experience and there are no new variables in your grow.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I often wonder how well those soil hygrometers work, the cheap little ten dollar ones. I always wondered if they would be useful in at least being able to tell how far down the soil has dried but I hear they can be in accurate and run into pockets. Still though, if you stuck it half way down the pot, if it told you the moisture at the tip it could be a good way of charting it.

I have been really interested in self-watering systems. I like the wick and reservoir designs because all one needs to do to check if they need water is check the reservoir and add more of it's low, and since the plant only wicks up as much as it needs there's no worry of drowning. Or that's the theory at least.

 

[Major PITA]

There are some growers I follow here that use a SWICK to auto water. It is extremely simple, cheap, and works for them. I still think dry cycles are important to get those roots to reach out and grow larger. A SWICK would be great if you are going to be gone for an extended period. As long as it works, I'm up for anything.

 

[TheFertilizer]

With swick systems does the soil wick up moisture through the drain holes or do the actual roots just drive down there? Kind of reminds me of hempy buckets, from what I understand about hempy buckets is the roots eventually find their way down to the reservoir.

The type of wicking system I meant, there's a screen or some kind of partition between the reservoir and the medium, and then a fabric wick that goes from inside the medium to down inside of the reservoir. I see some good ideas of how to make them on YouTube, usually by searching for "passive hydro wick system". The one I think looks easy is just a plastic storage tote with window screen put inside, the screen separates the medium from the bottom forming the reservoir and allows top watering, and then the wick (or wicks) just go down through holes cut in the screen. I guess it's important to keep air space between the bottom of the medium and the top of the reservoir so that the wick can take in oxygen too--or something like that, I just remember specific instructions to have a dead air space there.

 

[Major PITA]

The SWICKs do both from what I've read. The pot does wick up water, but the roots continue to grow into the perlite as well. I've never done it - just read a few journals. Dr. Ziggy and SweetSue could tell you a lot more about them.

 

[TheFertilizer]

This is basically what I meant...

Just a quick model...

So the idea is you can water from the top until runoff like usual and it will drain back into the reservoir, and when the roots start drawing water out of the soil, that makes the soil draw water out of the wick. Never actually tried it myself but the systems I saw doing it this way for tomatoes looked pretty good. I would put this little model to the test but it's not really very practical I think, kind of a small reservoir. I also don't know if the wicking would keep the soil too moist, but anyway it could save a lot of the guess work if a person merely needed to check the reservoir.

 

[Major PITA]

What is a bit ironic is, wicks are used both to add water, and also used to remove the perched water table in order to increase the effective size of the pot.

 

[No1Stunna]

With swick systems does the soil wick up moisture through the drain holes or do the actual roots just drive down there? Kind of reminds me of hempy buckets, from what I understand about hempy buckets is the roots eventually find their way down to the reservoir.

The type of wicking system I meant, there's a screen or some kind of partition between the reservoir and the medium, and then a fabric wick that goes from inside the medium to down inside of the reservoir. I see some good ideas of how to make them on YouTube, usually by searching for "passive hydro wick system". The one I think looks easy is just a plastic storage tote with window screen put inside, the screen separates the medium from the bottom forming the reservoir and allows top watering, and then the wick (or wicks) just go down through holes cut in the screen. I guess it's important to keep air space between the bottom of the medium and the top of the reservoir so that the wick can take in oxygen too--or something like that, I just remember specific instructions to have a dead air space there.

Wouldnt that be considered dwc?

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[Major PITA]

Wouldnt that be considered dwc?

Sent from my GT-P5210 using 420 Magazine Mobile App

DWC typically has no soil or other grow medium - just water, nutrients and oxygen. The 'D' stands for "Deep".
A SWICK uses a pot with soil or some type of soil-less medium. The SWICK is shallow - just enough perlite to let the pot suck up the needed water. Nutrients are usually fed from the top to keep the perlite cleaner.