Never worry about watering again

Xs121

Well-Known Member
Xs...does this really allow enough drying to encourage root growth and to draw O2 into rootzone? Seems to me a few extra days (beyond your description) and past field capacity would be better.
JD
I've been doing this and using 2 gallon pot and I get no less than 3 oz a plant. Considering other things of course, root health and size is major contributor to yield. That said, in my research (if I remember it correctly), a study found that root growth is at maximum a day after field capacity.

When you get to Field Capacity, moisture adhere to the particles (forget the terminology for it) and not in the pores between particles. The pores on the other hand are now filled with air. So yes, your medium is now O2 rich.

Basically, Field Capacity is the border between dry and moist. Also this is the point where the roots would actively search for water. So a day after, you have areas starting to dry.
 

Joe.Grow

Well-Known Member
I add 30% perlite to a fox farm soil in 3 gal pots. Only add water when the pot is super light. For seedlings I use a turkey baister and pump them 2-3 times a day with how much a bulb fills it up. After they get going only water at 4cups per pot maybe 3x a week till they get more aggressive and don’t worry about runoff. After a while 8 cup watering once a day into flowering when they get light. Remember wet to dry cycles is a must.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
SuperRoots Air Pot ..... you can NEVER overwater these ....

Water will hydrate medium easily
Air pruning
Aeration

Water drips out .... poof ... plant watered.

7720D153-9064-469E-A910-82ACF9EE3D8D.jpeg
 

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
I going to guess you started the seeds in the 5g pots? This is your problem.
I start with 16-20oz pots , then #1 then #2 then #3 then 10gallons .
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
I going to guess you started the seeds in the 5g pots? This is your problem.
I start with 16-20oz pots , then #1 then #2 then #3 then 10gallons .
Story time...

I started in red solo cups. I read that if the roots come out from the bottom of the cups, then it’s time to transplant to something bigger. Everything I was reading was saying that it should take about 2 weeks to reach out through the bottom of the cup.
My original thought was to go from red solo to 3 Gal to 5 Gal. Unfortunately me being new to growing and being a noob and panicked, at day 6, I saw roots were already coming out of the cup! I freaked out because I did not have enough soil on hand because I did not expect roots to come out of the bottom so soon. It had to be 2 days before my local grow store opened up before I could buy more soil.
At the time I was using fox far light warrior for the little plants. Once I saw the roots coming out of the bottom, I panicked and transplanted from red solo cup to 3 Gal, but only to find out that I did not have enough soil for the 3 Gal. It only filled up about half way. So I transplanted into the half filled 3 Gal smart pots. Once the store opened I went to get soil. Being my first grow and reading on forums, I heard people liked to use fox farm ocean forest and happy frog, so I said Fuck it and bought both and mixed them together with the light warrior.
Once I started filling up the 5 Gal smart pots then went to transplant the half filled 3 Gal, I noticed how the root system seemed not very strong and seemed week, so right then I already knew I jumped the gun and messed up by transplanting too early. So I basically transplanted twice within 2 days (learned my lesson).
I knew I had probably stunted the growth on them pretty badly. After that I pretty much backed away from trying to baby them too much. A few weeks go by and everything seems to be doing good except for the size. Still pretty sure for their age. So time goes by and we get to week 6-7 and the plants are about 9-12 inches. Normally I would water the plants with run off about every 3-4 days. During this week time frame, I increased the wattage on my mh from 600 to 1000w. Not even considering that the plant is getting bigger and needs more water and the light might be drying them out faster,
So day 3-4 come around and I see the plants dropping pretty bad, so i sit back and watch and try not to freak out like I did with the transplant misstake I did. So I let it go 1 full day and 1 full night of being slumped.
And still seeing them slumped, I was like maybe I should just water them, so I did. But I didn’t do a full watering because I was still trying to hold back from underwatering them or babying then too much. After a few hours of watering, they perked up a little bit, so that’s when I realized that they were probably under watered. So after a couple days passed, I did a regular water and they seemed to be over watered, which is kinda why I created this post because I HATE seeing my plants not healthy. I put about a couple weeks planning and figuring out which equipment I wanted to go with etc. I went with soils because I heard it was more forgiving with new growers. And now I’m here.
The last 7 days I’ve been trying to get these plants back to good health to where they are nice and perky again and not looking tired or over watered.
 

JohnDee

Well-Known Member
I going to guess you started the seeds in the 5g pots?
The problem with that is that the small plant isn't using enough water and soil stays wet for too long.

I read about a technique that basically says water the large pot as if it were a small pot...only all the water goes right around the plant. Sort of visualizing how much you would water at each stage until the plant gets big enough for a full watering. Read it...never done it. As if things aren't complicated enough for ya...
JD
 

JohnDee

Well-Known Member
Also, what is RDWC
TF...that would be recirculating deep water culture...basically DWC with a separate res and pumps to keep all units well fed and oxygenated.

On your transplant woes...you're kind of a typical newbie. It takes awhile to just relax into it. First sign of roots emerging out the bottom is not a good way to determine transplant times. Roots do that...explore their environment and the ones that end up out the bottom are naturally air pruned by the plant. There are guys doing an entire grow in solo cups just for fun. Being rootbound isn't such a bad thing. Most houseplants are probably rootbound. I've seen guys grow huge rootbound plants in coco 2 gal pots. Of course they need feeding several times a day.
JD
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
there's nothing wrong with either method.
i do question the wisdom of going to a more complex system when you haven't mastered the intricacies of the simplest method available.
learning how to water properly isn't that hard, you just have to pay attention to your plants. this isn't intended to be snarky, but if you can't figure out how to water in soil or coco, maybe gardening isn't for you......
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
there's nothing wrong with either method.
i do question the wisdom of going to a more complex system when you haven't mastered the intricacies of the simplest method available.
learning how to water properly isn't that hard, you just have to pay attention to your plants. this isn't intended to be snarky, but if you can't figure out how to water in soil or coco, maybe gardening isn't for you......
I understand, but I’m super hard headed, so I’m not gonna stop trying. I’m going to get this down!
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
I will run this into the ground before I give up. I want to be able to produce good high quality buds and a lot of them
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
I understand, but I’m super hard headed, so I’m not gonna stop trying. I’m going to get this down!
i think someone already suggested this, but fill a pot with your medium, and keep it dry. set it to the side, and feel how heavy it is each time you water. if your plants aren't very close to the same weight, wait another day, then check them again. you don't want them to start wilting, but you want them to be less than a day away from it before you water again. water till you get a small amount of run off each time, then you know the whole pot is wet, and the run off helps wash out some of the depleted salts from the last feeding.
get rid of the run off, don't let the pots sit in it and reabsorb it. a small shop vac works great for that, don't have to move your plants then, but however you do it, do it
 
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