Initial Watering - How wet?

Hey, so I have about a 750 ml cup filled about 1 inch from the top with new soil (lambert's all purpose potting mix, has perlite, humic acids, and some other stuff).

How much (properly ph-ed) water should I add to this soil the first time I water it? Do I want water to drip out of the bottom holes? Do I want a whole bunch of water to drain out?

Anyways. Thanks for any response. I was planning on watering the soil, then immediately after adding my germinated seed for sprouting.

For seedlings I just give it enough water so that its wet about 1-2 inches down into the soil. You want the roots to search for water so they can support a more healthy and larger plant in the future.

Twistyman said:

If you're planting a germed seed I moisten soil... put in cup and plant seed about 3/8" deep... then I water around inner rim of cup..... the seed should break soil in a day or so... add a bit qently making sure you don't float the sprout or disrupt its position... the I water once every 3-4 days after that...luck...

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Thanks for the info (both of you guys who responded)!

To initially "moisten" the soil, what do you do? Last time (obviously I screwed up my last sprout ), I kept spraying the soil with a spray bottle as I put the soil into the cup. No water ever left the bottom of the cup (more than enough holes there too).

In the waterings you described there, at any point should I see water dripping out the bottom of the cup? That's kind of my indicator of how much water has been used I guess.

Watering around the rim of the cup? I guess the water will eventually dissipate throughout the cup?


I'm just trying to figure out where I went wrong last time. I had a 3-Day old sprout fall over and die (with the baby leaves first yellowing), and I'm trying to see if maybe I over / under watered.



Thanks for everything. Comments are welcome!

Twistyman said:

get a pail.. throw in soil..some water..mix......
When you water 3-4 days you want even watering... more so when nutes are added or you get dry spots and hot nute spots in soil... (no nutes till 1 month).. water till runs out bottom.. make sure holes are big and not blocked.... you want the water to go in and drain out rapidly... plant feeds and searches for more...

*when I say 3-4 YOU know the soil you used... that 3-4 can vary... in this case less is more..... you can add water.. you can't remove it...(only by transplant).

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Excellent, that's good info.

mix, eh? wouldn't that kinda turn my soil into a muddy state? I was kinda thinking just putting my soil into the cup, adding enough water all around the top until some water starts to drip through the bottom, then putting in the germed seed (3/8th inch down).