Over or underwatered?

MtRainDog

Well-Known Member
I finish in 1 gallon pots, it can be tricky and I have to water every day or every other day in flower.

What works for me is using a well-amended, living soil, and for my current grow 1 part megacrop at lower strength regularly once the plants get mature enough. Some PK booster in flower too.

But the trick is not letting them get too dry, and not watering to run-off. I try to take advantage of the living soil as much as I can in a 1 gal pot, and living soil likes to maintain a certain moisture level. Any sufficiently aerated soil can work well with constant moisture. Just ask the SIP guys.

When you let living soil get too dry, the beneficial microbes die off or go dormant, and salts form during evaporation. Watering to run-off washes out lots of beneficial things in your soil. Doing both of those things regularly and your plants end up looking like yours did. And they looked underfed.

You still want to water until fully saturated, and it’s best to learn by feel/weight. A tiny bit of run off is fine.

And it’s Ok to let your pots get pretty light, especially in veg where we want those roots to spread out through the medium. But if the top of the soil turns rock hard dry, you’re waiting too long. In general you want to avoid pockets of dry or damp root balls. It’s a balance.
 

MtRainDog

Well-Known Member
Happy roots, happy plants. We tend to spend our time fixated on whats going on above the soil. But if you think about it, you’re really tending to everything below the soil. Topping & training all thats great, but it doesn’t mean a darn thing if things are going poorly down below.

Some clones a month from cut. Nice healthy roots. Looks like just a couple more waterings and they’ll need to be up-potted to avoid getting root bound. Nice even moisture consistency top to bottom.
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big_expectations!

Active Member
Happy roots, happy plants. We tend to spend our time fixated on whats going on above the soil. But if you think about it, you’re really tending to everything below the soil. Topping & training all thats great, but it doesn’t mean a darn thing if things are going poorly down below.

Some clones a month from cut. Nice healthy roots. Looks like just a couple more waterings and they’ll need to be up-potted to avoid getting root bound. Nice even moisture consistency top to bottom.
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@MtRainDog those are very nice looking plants, this is my first grow and have had errors since the beginning I started off in soil way to moist like not mud but not far from it plants have been hindered ever since growing quite slowly my biggest problem has been overwatering but I've learned my lesson and hopefully can salvage a decent yield from These girls and get the 2nd run started more efficiently with the knowledge I've gained so far..this is what they look like as of today 58 days from seed
 

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big_expectations!

Active Member
Update...
All but 1 plant have recovered nicely and now on day 9 of flower..bought a 1 gallon pump sprayer and it has really benefitted my watering practice! Not sure if the one girl is going to make it and if so not going to put out much I would think
 

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