TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
So I have heard people say not to leave your plant sitting in the run-off that collects in the tray, but I am kind of wondering if anyone has actual experience what happens with this, like what's the bad side? I have done it, and it seems like the fear is over-watering, but when I come back in a few hours later the water is usually gone.
But is it bad for the plant to be up-taking all that water that came in through the runout? I figure the soil is acting like a big wick sticking into the runoff, so it's just sucking it back up into the bottom of the pot as water evaporates off the top of the soil. So whatever came out, that isn't heavily enough to settle on the bottom, goes back in.
Ever since my last crop catastrophe (See Cannabis Clue journal) I have been wondering what I did wrong, and while I"m not trying to say I'm infallible there wasn't a lot of "Aha!" answers. This is the one practice that I can say that people adamantly recommend not doing, and that I flagrantly blew off. Now of course I can't be sure that's what lead to the problem, after all I had a really successful harvest just prior to that, but for all I know some kind of mold pathogen could have settled on the stagnant water and got sucked back up into the root zone or something like that.
Anyway, just theorizing, and since it's the one "bad practice" I could find that I've been blowing off, I think I'm going to stop doing it. Can't say for sure one way or the other if it lead to my last crop problems though.
But is it bad for the plant to be up-taking all that water that came in through the runout? I figure the soil is acting like a big wick sticking into the runoff, so it's just sucking it back up into the bottom of the pot as water evaporates off the top of the soil. So whatever came out, that isn't heavily enough to settle on the bottom, goes back in.
Ever since my last crop catastrophe (See Cannabis Clue journal) I have been wondering what I did wrong, and while I"m not trying to say I'm infallible there wasn't a lot of "Aha!" answers. This is the one practice that I can say that people adamantly recommend not doing, and that I flagrantly blew off. Now of course I can't be sure that's what lead to the problem, after all I had a really successful harvest just prior to that, but for all I know some kind of mold pathogen could have settled on the stagnant water and got sucked back up into the root zone or something like that.
Anyway, just theorizing, and since it's the one "bad practice" I could find that I've been blowing off, I think I'm going to stop doing it. Can't say for sure one way or the other if it lead to my last crop problems though.
