DTW Soil?

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Princed

Member
I've made an auto watering system for my soil grow. My main question that I'm having difficulty finding answers for is should I still stick to only watering once a day because it's soil? I've been watering until runoff in the mornings and my plants are often very dry by night.
 
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Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
I've made an auto watering system for my soil grow. My main question that I'm having difficulty finding answers for is should I still stick to only watering once a day because it's soil? I've been watering until runoff in the mornings and my plants are often very dry by night.
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‘Watering once a day ?

That‘s the problem
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
How many times a day should I water? Only recommendations I've seen in soil is once a day until 10% run off. Do I water twice a day 5%run off?
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You water ‘ when it is dry ‘ . You will have to learn better watering habits ….. if you don’t, you will overwater them - stifle the roots , slow growth and screwup nute uptake. You want the roots to “ search “ for moisture instead of drowning it.

Look up DRY BACK

https://peakroots.com/dry-back/
 
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ec121

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
How many times a day should I water? Only recommendations I've seen in soil is once a day until 10% run off. Do I water twice a day 5%run off?
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You probably have it sorted by now, but in soil with amendments (e.g., FFOF), you water when you pick up the pot and it is light. Have the same pot with dry soil in it and feel how little it weighs. Now pick up the pot that you just watered and see the large difference between fully saturated and fully dry.

Also, with amended soils, runoff pushes out the nutrition. It's not a big deal because you'll just have to re-amend or start using synthetics sooner, but it's something to keep in mind (unless you're already pushing synthetic bottled nutes into it, in which case you do want 10% runoff).
 
P

Princed

Member
I realize you water when dry. The question is more geared towards would I benefit from a higher frequency of watering intervals at lower amounts. Right now I water about 25 mins in the morning until run off. So could I do 12.5 mins in the morning and 12.5 minutes at night and my plants be happier? I'd assume they will still end up dry and having run off if I did this change. Or even break it up into watering 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 8 times a day in smaller intervals? Is it better to water more often at lower rates in soil? Or is it better to water very heavy and less frequent? I've currently been watering once each morning and adjusting the number of minutes until run off and plants are dry by the end of the day and are doing great.
 
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Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
I realize you water when dry. The question is more geared towards would I benefit from a higher frequency of watering intervals at lower amounts. Right now I water about 25 mins in the morning until run off. So could I do 12.5 mins in the morning and 12.5 minutes at night and my plants be happier? I'd assume they will still end up dry and having run off if I did this change. Or even break it up into watering 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 8 times a day in smaller intervals? Is it better to water more often at lower rates in soil? Or is it better to water very heavy and less frequent? I've currently been watering once each morning and adjusting the number of minutes until run off and plants are dry by the end of the day and are doing great.
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Why are you trying to treat soil like coco?
 
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ec121

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
I realize you water when dry. The question is more geared towards would I benefit from a higher frequency of watering intervals at lower amounts. Right now I water about 25 mins in the morning until run off. So could I do 12.5 mins in the morning and 12.5 minutes at night and my plants be happier? I'd assume they will still end up dry and having run off if I did this change. Or even break it up into watering 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 8 times a day in smaller intervals? Is it better to water more often at lower rates in soil? Or is it better to water very heavy and less frequent? I've currently been watering once each morning and adjusting the number of minutes until run off and plants are dry by the end of the day and are doing great.
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That's not how you water/fertigate soil. In soil, you water until the pot is saturated and then don't water for several days until the pot is like 70% dry and then repeat.

As mentioned, the protocol you're outlining is what you do in coco. This would mean running water with nutrients at every watering event at least once a day and 10% runoff.
 
farmerfischer

farmerfischer

Well-Known Member
Dont water to run off.. its not necissary.. you are just pushing out the "soils" nutes faster doing that..
If you were in coco then you would need to water afew times a day to run off..
soil shouldnt need to be waterd for atleast 3 or 4 days and doesnt need to have run off ..
 
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Princed

Member
Thank you all for the replies and opinions! It seems to be obvious that the unanimous decision is watering higher volume less frequent. I am burning c02 and under 1000 watt leds. Plants are definitely dry after 24 hours. If I go more then that they begin to wilt.
 
P

Princed

Member
Wattzzup said:
Can you please elaborate on what this means?
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I have a flora flex system with 2 .5 gph drippers on each 5 gallon pot. The amount of time it takes is varying depending on the week of flower and plant size but it's been about 25 minutes to get the soil fully saturated from completely dry each day.
 
Wattzzup

Wattzzup

Well-Known Member
Princed said:
I have a flora flex system with 2 .5 gph drippers on each 5 gallon pot. The amount of time it takes is varying depending on the week of flower and plant size but it's been about 25 minutes to get the soil fully saturated from completely dry each day.
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If you want to water that much just do coco and there won’t be issues. Let’s see these monsters that dry up 5 gals of soil in 12 hours
 
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