I like that phrase, "channels develop that jet the water down to the bottom". That is exactly how I see it happening. Yes, it takes slow watering, with just a little bit each time, to get the soil back to a proper condition.
The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant
- Thread starter Emilya Green
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Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Some of our members are experimenting with stressors, and how they add to the ability of this plant to super-produce. By that, I mean that it is possible to do things that make the plant do things it would not normally do, like increase trichome production, one of the plant's natural defense mechanisms against attack.
Some of this experimentation has to do with drought and whether there are positive things that happens when a plant goes into drought stress. I have seen value in several methods to cause stress in our plants, but not giving water... it was a bridge too far for me. Without good reason, I feared for my microbes and letting my soil dry out was not something that I had been willing to entertain, because after all, I am all about watering.
Someone said exactly the right thing in exactly the right way, and it clicked. I knew what I was doing wrong. There is always room for improvement, right?
The methods outlined in this watering guide talk about the desirability of getting the plant to uptake as much water and as many nutes as it will take, and nothing has changed in that regard. I will continue to push water as hard as the plants can take it, during bloom.
But, it is also important to realize that our roots still need oxygen... and periodically it is important to dry those puppies out so they can get a good dose of it. I am going to water/water/pause, water/water/pause for my next couple of grows to see what happens. In veg we water/pause/water/pause to build the roots, and this next time I will push water... just not full time, never dry out, water water water. Sometimes, I get a little crazy. Let's see if we can refine this method a little bit more.
If anyone gets a chance to try this, let me know. It is going to be a couple of months before I can get a grow going again.
Some of this experimentation has to do with drought and whether there are positive things that happens when a plant goes into drought stress. I have seen value in several methods to cause stress in our plants, but not giving water... it was a bridge too far for me. Without good reason, I feared for my microbes and letting my soil dry out was not something that I had been willing to entertain, because after all, I am all about watering.
Someone said exactly the right thing in exactly the right way, and it clicked. I knew what I was doing wrong. There is always room for improvement, right?
The methods outlined in this watering guide talk about the desirability of getting the plant to uptake as much water and as many nutes as it will take, and nothing has changed in that regard. I will continue to push water as hard as the plants can take it, during bloom.
But, it is also important to realize that our roots still need oxygen... and periodically it is important to dry those puppies out so they can get a good dose of it. I am going to water/water/pause, water/water/pause for my next couple of grows to see what happens. In veg we water/pause/water/pause to build the roots, and this next time I will push water... just not full time, never dry out, water water water. Sometimes, I get a little crazy. Let's see if we can refine this method a little bit more.
If anyone gets a chance to try this, let me know. It is going to be a couple of months before I can get a grow going again.
RedZedHead
Well-Known Member
This is such a good thread. I've been watering wrong for years. Definitely coming back to reread.
- Thread starter
- #564
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Hi @RedZedHead! Welcome to the forum!
Glad you found us! I hope you get a lot out of this thread. As you have probably noticed, I started this work years ago and some of the ideas have evolved over time. Such is the nature of online forums, we all learn together! Welcome to the group discussion!
mumps
Well-Known Member
excuse me, with "a quart" you mean a quart of a gallon?
if i got that right it goes like:
first i water the entire surface slowly with a quarter
wait for some minutes
second i keep on watering the entire surface with a quarter
wait for some more minutes
third i water slowly only on the edges til i see the runoff
waiting
and last i water on the edges of the rootball with a last quarter
if i got that right it goes like:
first i water the entire surface slowly with a quarter
wait for some minutes
second i keep on watering the entire surface with a quarter
wait for some more minutes
third i water slowly only on the edges til i see the runoff
waiting
and last i water on the edges of the rootball with a last quarter
Kinghummingbird
Well-Known Member
Excellent read and oh so true about the differences between growing a weed and growing a veggie garden. I'm learning that difference the hard way now. Ha! But I have faith as I swear I at least have a nitrogen deficient green thumb. Anyway, I have a quick question about up-potting auto-flowers. I recall reading somewhere that it is best to put auto's in their final pot right from the start due to rapidity of growth. Has this been your experience? Here's my baby auto's showing some good growth after 2 weeks.
And the garden that convinced me I might do alright!
P.S. - Does the watering technique remain the same whether using liquid nutes vs dry nutes?
And the garden that convinced me I might do alright!
P.S. - Does the watering technique remain the same whether using liquid nutes vs dry nutes?
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Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
It is not hard to find it written about and youtube'd that you should start Autos in their final container. You hear this advice so much because this action is totally contrary to well known best gardening practices, and although we have known for centuries that the best way to build up a good rootball is to constrict the root space and then successively uppot when the roots have managed to fill that space, Auto's due to good marketing have somehow been deemed special.
First let me state that when you do a proper uppot of these fast growing plants, you do not want to stress them, because even a day or two of stunting is a big deal in their overall development. The good news is that it is so easy to slip the smaller rootball down into a hole made specifically for it, that the plant suffers zero stress from the move. The idea that uppotting has to cause stress is a myth, again due to good marketing.
So yes, autos are growing so fast that it is a bit of a pain to do this correctly, and it seems almost silly to transplant and then a week and a half later, transplant again... but if done correctly you can develop a superior rootball in your fast growing plant (the roots are growing at a breakneck speed too) and although it seems like a lot of work in that first month, it is worth it. I have seen people grow some huge autos... some of these gardeners just know how to correctly water a large pot right off the bat, and the others successively uppot.
The marketing of Autos however wants the public to buy and prefer Autos. They claim they are easier to grow, since of course they advocate for the no transplant method. They of course are faster, so the claims of high yields can be made, even though Autos generally produce much less than a well grown Photoperiod plant. It constantly amazes me that people prefer to grow smaller and slightly less potent versions of the same varieties that I can grow with Photoperiod plants... but the marketing works. People are fundamentally lazy and greedy. Tell them something is faster and easier and the lemmings will flock toward it.
So, sorry... did not mean to call you a lemming... you are simply a victim of good marketing. There is nothing wrong with Autos really, and there are actually a few that I want to grow out someday. But be aware that there is a lot of hype and bad information out there about Autos and how to grow them. Luckily these plants are extremely resilient and will tolerate almost any growing method, adapting as they go to the environment you place them in.
Watch your water uptake and the timing of the wet/dry cycles and as soon as your auto can drain that container in 48 hours... not 24 as I would with a Photo plant, uppot it.... and by this time you could go up to a 3 or a 5 gallon if you wanted to, but if you really want to take it to the next level, move up to a 1 gallon from the solo cups and run it in there for a couple of weeks. About the 4-5 week point she will go into flower, so right before that, like the beginning of week 4, get in your final container. This will give her plenty of time to build up roots in that larger container until around week 6 when stretch ends and you are in full bloom. This strategy will assure that you will have the strongest roots possible as you start building those buds.
Regarding dry nutes....
I am not sure why someone would want to do this in a closed container other than in a purely organic grow, but there are so many ways to grow this plant that I have learned not to be surprised when someone comes up with something new. Anyway, I don't see any reason the watering method would change. This watering method is all about establishing a wet/dry cycle whilst in veg and then forcing water during a good part of bloom. The watering from the edges and alternating from watering the old rootball cores vs the newer soil on the outside edges is a method of migrating micro soil in and out of the center root mass so as to circulate the soil within the container and provide the maximum nutrition to the roots, all through the dense rootball. These core concepts are valid with any method that I can think of using soil to grow these plants, no matter how you are providing the nutrition.
Hope this helps! Good luck in your garden!
Km021
Well-Known Member
Very useful watering methodsThe Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant
Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot
How to Water
Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion applies to at least 3 gallon containers and bigger. Please realize that this special plant of ours does not grow like anything else you have ever tried to grow, and no matter how good you are at growing peas, beans and tomatoes, you will have to change your methods to grow a weed.
The first rule of watering is to always water slowly, using no more than a quart at a time, pausing often to let the soil suck air in behind the water as it pools on the top. For me, that involves a routine of watering each of my plants with 1 quart, then taking a nice relaxing drink of whatever beverage I have brought with me to the tent. Then I take a deep breath, making sure to exhale deeply onto this plant, letting her know that I love her. After this, I take a nice big hit off of the pipe that also followed me into the tent, and then after a nice pause and maybe another drink, I go back to plant #1 and repeat the cycle. For 2 rounds, I water the entire surface of the soil, watching it pool up and get sucked down.
After this initial wetting of the top, my watering method changes a bit. Now, I want to do whatever I can to make the outside edges of the container, the wettest areas. Still only using a quart at a time, I now carefully water only there, all around the plant, only on the edges. While doing this, I slow down a bit so that the water doesn't pool as much in the center, always concentrating on the edges. The center will end up getting some too, and that's fine, but the wettest areas of the pot will be on the outside edges and you will be driving nutrient rich soil into the dense original root ball. Continue this, again going slow, maybe with a deep breath in the middle of it, and then continue all around, taking drinks, deep breaths and hits in between each round. Continue until you see the first signs of runoff, and then stop.
Look carefully at the surface of your container now. You will clearly see where the root ball is from your last transplant, because it will now be sticking up just a little bit above the original outer rim. Very fine soil has been driven through the original root ball with the flow of water and soil from the outer edges. This micro fine soil is very rich with nutrients because of its mobility. When you water from the outside edges, you force this micro fine sludge into the dense root ball, where it can do the most good. Once you establish this flow pattern in the container, you can be assured of totally replacing the micro soil in the center of the root ball with new soil, every time you water. Watering in the normal way does not create his circular flow, and root growth cannot be nearly as aggressive.
Lastly, take one last quart of water, and water very very slowly, just in the raised area where the original root ball is. As you do so, watch what happens at the outer edge of the original root ball.
You will see the very finest soil, almost a mud, migrating out of the old root ball, and into the middle! This completes the process of soil exchange in the container. In this manner, all the roots get to take advantage of the nutrients in the soil, and the roots follow the migration of the nutrient rich soil, toward the outer edges, creating lateral growth. I strive to actively drive the soil out of the middle, making room for the roots to grow more dense and bigger there, and as they do, the lateral growth also has to increase. Using this method, I have seen a steady increase in the amount of water needed to get to run off throughout the grow and by the end, plants watered in this way use approximately 30% more water than is seen using standard watering techniques. Watering in the manner I have described allows for a constant circular flow of soil throughout the container and will create an extremely dense root ball.
Now it is time for a truism. It is best to water the roots, not the plant. A healthy and robust root system means a happy and productive plant. Neglect the roots and your plants can die, and certainly will be less than they could have been.
When do we water?
By far, one of the most common plant problems that I see with new gardeners is a lack of understanding as to when to water. New people get it set in their mind that watering every day or every other day is best, or that somehow, mysteriously, they know in their own human minds exactly how much water the plants need. These well-meaning new gardeners will determine that they will give exactly one quart or some other random amount, each time, no more... and no less, and really believe that they are doing a good thing for their plants, making these decisions for them.
Just as bad as these over-thinkers are the tomato gardeners, the "stick your finger in the ground" crowd, who proclaim: it's time to water when it is dry below the second knuckle. What they fail to realize is that when the top 2 inches is dry, the lower half of the container could still be saturated with water. Both of these common mistakes in watering methods are quick ways to drown your plants. These methods are not correct for growing weeds, and using them can actually kill your plants.
Marijuana is a weed, and the main thing that this scientific term refers to, is a class of plant that thrives in adversity. In order to grow it well, you need to understand that this incredibly robust plant works differently than other, less hardy plants. It is an extremely aggressive grower if you allow it to be, and to grow prize winning pot, you need to use its abilities to send out new roots to your advantage.
Watering incorrectly is the most common mistake that new weed farmers make. This plant needs a clear wet/dry cycle in order to thrive. If you keep it moist, you will kill it. The roots will aggressively chase your water, whatever you give them. If you just give a small amount every couple of days, that water will drop right to the bottom of the container. Your roots will follow, and will cluster on the bottom, instead of growing laterally throughout the container, and since they continually sit in the nutrient rich water, the plant sees little need to grow additional roots. How you water makes a huge difference in the formation of the root ball, and how this development happens is up to you.
There are many ways to tell when it is time to water, and if you wait long enough the girls will actually tell you that they are thirsty. They do two things when they see that they need water, they throw out a smell, and they begin to wilt, starting at the bottom, moving up. You can also use the lift method to tell when the container is dry, and almost always you will "feel" a dry container, before the above mentioned wilt and fragrance pump happens. Rusty Trichome taught me an important lesson; every time I think that I need to do something to my plants, I wait a bit... and I try to move at the speed that my plants are moving. "Patience, above all else." --Rusty
If you have a moisture meter you can also use it to find where the wet/dry (water table) line is in your container, and you can watch that wet/dry line move down over time. I used to graph my water table level by day, so that I could project ahead when the wet dry line would reach the last inch of container. Your wet/dry line will never go lower than that last inch or so, because once you get down in there, you are in all the big tap roots and mass at the bottom, and it tends to stay wet there longer because of capillary effect. Again, if you wait for the first sign of wilt and that perfume pump that happens at "water me" point, it will usually be just a bit longer than your measurements would indicate. Once the water table line is anywhere in that bottom inch is ok to water. You have dried out 95% of the water by that time and the roots have been chasing it as the wet/dry line progresses both downward and outward. The suction caused by the diaphragm that is the water table, will have pulled oxygen down deep into the container, and filled any voids. The roots will be happy.
Why do we up-pot?
The art of successive up-potting is important in growing a healthy root system. People like to be lazy. I am constantly seeing new gardeners take a little sprig of a weed and put it in a big 3 or 5 gallon container, thinking that they have done a good thing, and are now done with it... it's on to harvest time! The problem is, this doesn't work, because it gives you zero control over developing the roots, and without crazy watering techniques, almost no chance of a solid root ball forming. It is imperative to successively up pot your plants through stages so that the root system can roughly take on the same size and shape as the plant in order to get the maximum productivity. The roots grow aggressively in these weeds, and if you confine them to a container the size of the plant, they will fill that space in a short time with a dense root system. Putting a plant in an oversized container can and often does, result in all the roots going to the bottom, drowning the plant, root rot and overall poor health because of a lack of a root ball, and certainly less than optimum harvests. It is important to force these weeds into producing a root ball at various stages, to give the plant the ability later on to take in the massive amounts of nutrients needed to produce lots of quality buds.
The plants in the smaller containers can also more directly show you when they are thriving or more importantly when they are not. A strong healthy plant will eventually outgrow its container and an observant gardener is carefully watching the length of time between wet/dry cycles, and directly relating shorter cycles with more robust roots. A smaller container also gives the gardener the ability to see when the moment arrives that the amount of soil the plant is in is no longer large enough for the plant's abilities to be happy in it, because it will be obvious when the plant can drain the water that soil is able to hold, in less than 24 hours. Your soil and your container at that point have ceased at that point to be a good enough buffer, and it is time to double the space the roots have to work with. Let your plant show you when that time is, and try not to make decisions for her.
Why is pH important?
Some people claim that pH is not important, and if you are a pure organic gardener, never applying chlorinated water or salt based synthetic nutrients at your plants, pH indeed is not important. For the 99.9% rest of the world, a very important lesson for the new gardener to learn is the importance of pH. There is a scientific reason why a proper pH allows the plants to use synthetic nutrients, and why being outside of the proper range can cause deficiencies. If you want to grow pot using chemicals, you need to invest in a method to test the pH of any water going into the plant, whether it is plain water or water mixed with nutrients, and whether it is applied to the roots or sprayed on the leaves. If you neglect the pH, you can easily create deficiencies in your plants, and if left unchecked, you can even kill them. If you spend a lot of money on nutrients, it makes sense that you would want to also create the proper environment so that the plant can use these nutrients, but with a pH way out of the 6.3-6.8 range in soil, a lot of those expensive nutrients will just sit there, not doing the plant any good. If you are in a soilless mix, pH in the range of 5.5-6.1 is necessary. It is only within these ranges that all the nutrients are mobile, are able to be broken free of their salt bonds and be in the form that can go into the plants. Most soils and systems are designed so that you can apply liquids at a lower pH and then the soil or the soilless mix causes a drift, so that the pH can visit each spot in the usable pH range for that medium, and all of the 17 needed nutrients will be picked up, each in its turn.
I hope that this study on containers, watering and pH helps someone who reads it. This paper was a result of having to explain these same concepts over and over and over again to new growers at they hit the forums, until finally I put all these thoughts together into this paper. Some of the thoughts previously given have also been refined for this publication, as questions were asked and answered the last time I posted it, and I have learned better ways of explaining my thoughts. Here, I give you, approximately draft 10 of this paper.
Be well everyone and blessings from my garden to yours,
Sense Emilya
- Thread starter
- #570
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Thank you @Km021 ! I also would like to take this opportunity to properly welcome you to the Forum!
Surely we don't have too awfully many members from Turkey, and I greatly look forward to seeing the types of pot that you are going to be able to grow from that part of the world. Good luck in your garden and keep safe from COVID-19!
BigDannel
Well-Known Member
Four years after the original post and here I am, thanks for the excellent information @Emilya 
A couple questions for you, if you don't mind -
Any changes to these methods if using fabric pots?
Do you do the same thing when you feed your plants? Do you water and feed separately, or are these separate actions? I find that if I separate watering and feeding, I'm unable to stick to the feeding schedule because I fear I'd be over-saturating the soil. I learned the hard way in the past about the harm of over-watering and over-feeding, so I guess now I'm a bit gun-shy and tend to under-feed because I'm afraid of over-watering!
Thanks again for all the great info!
A couple questions for you, if you don't mind -
Any changes to these methods if using fabric pots?
Do you do the same thing when you feed your plants? Do you water and feed separately, or are these separate actions? I find that if I separate watering and feeding, I'm unable to stick to the feeding schedule because I fear I'd be over-saturating the soil. I learned the hard way in the past about the harm of over-watering and over-feeding, so I guess now I'm a bit gun-shy and tend to under-feed because I'm afraid of over-watering!
Thanks again for all the great info!
- Thread starter
- #572
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Hi @BigDannel and welcome to the forum!
I am always happy to answer questions, but I also want to note that further down in the thread there is a discussion about cloth (smart) grow bags. I like the fabric pots a lot and prefer to use them all through the grow, and I even have some 1 gallon smart pots with Velcro zippers on the sides for easy uppotting.
The method does not change really for the fabric pots other than they need to be watered a little bit more slowly than a hard sided pot, or some of the water will get away from you. It is still most important to make the outer edges of your container the wettest places, and when the roots head out toward the edges in cloth pots it just makes the effect even better and even more roots are formed. The alternating between watering the old rootball and the newer regions still applies too, and this action will still migrate micro soil in and through the center mass of the rootball.
Feeding depends on the method you are using. Some feeding methods require nutrients mixed in with every watering and most commercial nutes suggest giving water one time and the nutes the next, alternating all through the grow. If you are growing organically you may never have to feed your plants, and you give them only water all through the grow. I am not sure what you mean by separating watering and feeding or being unable to stick to a feeding schedule. Please explain further why this is difficult.
I guess what I want to stress to you after reading of your fear of over saturating is that this is impossible. It is not possible to overwater a plant in one water session, I don't care if you dump 27 gallons on it. What can't be held by the soil simply falls through and runs out of the bottom as runoff, and in the end the plants get the same amount of water each time, the amount the soil is able to hold. You can't over saturate, you can only saturate, and that is a good thing. What people do to overwater these weeds is to water again before the plant has had a chance to use all of the water sitting in the saturated soil, allowing a reservoir to form in the bottom third of the container that never quite dries out. Without letting the lower roots dry out between waterings, the roots will go into stress... it is very common for new growers of weeds to overwater by watering too often.
I am always happy to answer questions, but I also want to note that further down in the thread there is a discussion about cloth (smart) grow bags. I like the fabric pots a lot and prefer to use them all through the grow, and I even have some 1 gallon smart pots with Velcro zippers on the sides for easy uppotting.
The method does not change really for the fabric pots other than they need to be watered a little bit more slowly than a hard sided pot, or some of the water will get away from you. It is still most important to make the outer edges of your container the wettest places, and when the roots head out toward the edges in cloth pots it just makes the effect even better and even more roots are formed. The alternating between watering the old rootball and the newer regions still applies too, and this action will still migrate micro soil in and through the center mass of the rootball.
Feeding depends on the method you are using. Some feeding methods require nutrients mixed in with every watering and most commercial nutes suggest giving water one time and the nutes the next, alternating all through the grow. If you are growing organically you may never have to feed your plants, and you give them only water all through the grow. I am not sure what you mean by separating watering and feeding or being unable to stick to a feeding schedule. Please explain further why this is difficult.
I guess what I want to stress to you after reading of your fear of over saturating is that this is impossible. It is not possible to overwater a plant in one water session, I don't care if you dump 27 gallons on it. What can't be held by the soil simply falls through and runs out of the bottom as runoff, and in the end the plants get the same amount of water each time, the amount the soil is able to hold. You can't over saturate, you can only saturate, and that is a good thing. What people do to overwater these weeds is to water again before the plant has had a chance to use all of the water sitting in the saturated soil, allowing a reservoir to form in the bottom third of the container that never quite dries out. Without letting the lower roots dry out between waterings, the roots will go into stress... it is very common for new growers of weeds to overwater by watering too often.
Ganja Bob
420 Member
Emily thank you for sharing this. Watering issues have given me some troubles. Your paper is very straightforward and well put. I'm almost to the end of my first indoor soil grow in 5 gal plastic pots and some of this I learned the hard way. Now it all makes Sense Emilya.The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant
Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot
How to Water
Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion applies to at least 3 gallon containers and bigger. Please realize that this special plant of ours does not grow like anything else you have ever tried to grow, and no matter how good you are at growing peas, beans and tomatoes, you will have to change your methods to grow a weed.
The first rule of watering is to always water slowly, using no more than a quart at a time, pausing often to let the soil suck air in behind the water as it pools on the top. For me, that involves a routine of watering each of my plants with 1 quart, then taking a nice relaxing drink of whatever beverage I have brought with me to the tent. Then I take a deep breath, making sure to exhale deeply onto this plant, letting her know that I love her. After this, I take a nice big hit off of the pipe that also followed me into the tent, and then after a nice pause and maybe another drink, I go back to plant #1 and repeat the cycle. For 2 rounds, I water the entire surface of the soil, watching it pool up and get sucked down.
After this initial wetting of the top, my watering method changes a bit. Now, I want to do whatever I can to make the outside edges of the container, the wettest areas. Still only using a quart at a time, I now carefully water only there, all around the plant, only on the edges. While doing this, I slow down a bit so that the water doesn't pool as much in the center, always concentrating on the edges. The center will end up getting some too, and that's fine, but the wettest areas of the pot will be on the outside edges and you will be driving nutrient rich soil into the dense original root ball. Continue this, again going slow, maybe with a deep breath in the middle of it, and then continue all around, taking drinks, deep breaths and hits in between each round. Continue until you see the first signs of runoff, and then stop.
Look carefully at the surface of your container now. You will clearly see where the root ball is from your last transplant, because it will now be sticking up just a little bit above the original outer rim. Very fine soil has been driven through the original root ball with the flow of water and soil from the outer edges. This micro fine soil is very rich with nutrients because of its mobility. When you water from the outside edges, you force this micro fine sludge into the dense root ball, where it can do the most good. Once you establish this flow pattern in the container, you can be assured of totally replacing the micro soil in the center of the root ball with new soil, every time you water. Watering in the normal way does not create his circular flow, and root growth cannot be nearly as aggressive.
Lastly, take one last quart of water, and water very very slowly, just in the raised area where the original root ball is. As you do so, watch what happens at the outer edge of the original root ball.
You will see the very finest soil, almost a mud, migrating out of the old root ball, and into the middle! This completes the process of soil exchange in the container. In this manner, all the roots get to take advantage of the nutrients in the soil, and the roots follow the migration of the nutrient rich soil, toward the outer edges, creating lateral growth. I strive to actively drive the soil out of the middle, making room for the roots to grow more dense and bigger there, and as they do, the lateral growth also has to increase. Using this method, I have seen a steady increase in the amount of water needed to get to run off throughout the grow and by the end, plants watered in this way use approximately 30% more water than is seen using standard watering techniques. Watering in the manner I have described allows for a constant circular flow of soil throughout the container and will create an extremely dense root ball.
Now it is time for a truism. It is best to water the roots, not the plant. A healthy and robust root system means a happy and productive plant. Neglect the roots and your plants can die, and certainly will be less than they could have been.
When do we water?
By far, one of the most common plant problems that I see with new gardeners is a lack of understanding as to when to water. New people get it set in their mind that watering every day or every other day is best, or that somehow, mysteriously, they know in their own human minds exactly how much water the plants need. These well-meaning new gardeners will determine that they will give exactly one quart or some other random amount, each time, no more... and no less, and really believe that they are doing a good thing for their plants, making these decisions for them.
Just as bad as these over-thinkers are the tomato gardeners, the "stick your finger in the ground" crowd, who proclaim: it's time to water when it is dry below the second knuckle. What they fail to realize is that when the top 2 inches is dry, the lower half of the container could still be saturated with water. Both of these common mistakes in watering methods are quick ways to drown your plants. These methods are not correct for growing weeds, and using them can actually kill your plants.
Marijuana is a weed, and the main thing that this scientific term refers to, is a class of plant that thrives in adversity. In order to grow it well, you need to understand that this incredibly robust plant works differently than other, less hardy plants. It is an extremely aggressive grower if you allow it to be, and to grow prize winning pot, you need to use its abilities to send out new roots to your advantage.
Watering incorrectly is the most common mistake that new weed farmers make. This plant needs a clear wet/dry cycle in order to thrive. If you keep it moist, you will kill it. The roots will aggressively chase your water, whatever you give them. If you just give a small amount every couple of days, that water will drop right to the bottom of the container. Your roots will follow, and will cluster on the bottom, instead of growing laterally throughout the container, and since they continually sit in the nutrient rich water, the plant sees little need to grow additional roots. How you water makes a huge difference in the formation of the root ball, and how this development happens is up to you.
There are many ways to tell when it is time to water, and if you wait long enough the girls will actually tell you that they are thirsty. They do two things when they see that they need water, they throw out a smell, and they begin to wilt, starting at the bottom, moving up. You can also use the lift method to tell when the container is dry, and almost always you will "feel" a dry container, before the above mentioned wilt and fragrance pump happens. Rusty Trichome taught me an important lesson; every time I think that I need to do something to my plants, I wait a bit... and I try to move at the speed that my plants are moving. "Patience, above all else." --Rusty
If you have a moisture meter you can also use it to find where the wet/dry (water table) line is in your container, and you can watch that wet/dry line move down over time. I used to graph my water table level by day, so that I could project ahead when the wet dry line would reach the last inch of container. Your wet/dry line will never go lower than that last inch or so, because once you get down in there, you are in all the big tap roots and mass at the bottom, and it tends to stay wet there longer because of capillary effect. Again, if you wait for the first sign of wilt and that perfume pump that happens at "water me" point, it will usually be just a bit longer than your measurements would indicate. Once the water table line is anywhere in that bottom inch is ok to water. You have dried out 95% of the water by that time and the roots have been chasing it as the wet/dry line progresses both downward and outward. The suction caused by the diaphragm that is the water table, will have pulled oxygen down deep into the container, and filled any voids. The roots will be happy.
Why do we up-pot?
The art of successive up-potting is important in growing a healthy root system. People like to be lazy. I am constantly seeing new gardeners take a little sprig of a weed and put it in a big 3 or 5 gallon container, thinking that they have done a good thing, and are now done with it... it's on to harvest time! The problem is, this doesn't work, because it gives you zero control over developing the roots, and without crazy watering techniques, almost no chance of a solid root ball forming. It is imperative to successively up pot your plants through stages so that the root system can roughly take on the same size and shape as the plant in order to get the maximum productivity. The roots grow aggressively in these weeds, and if you confine them to a container the size of the plant, they will fill that space in a short time with a dense root system. Putting a plant in an oversized container can and often does, result in all the roots going to the bottom, drowning the plant, root rot and overall poor health because of a lack of a root ball, and certainly less than optimum harvests. It is important to force these weeds into producing a root ball at various stages, to give the plant the ability later on to take in the massive amounts of nutrients needed to produce lots of quality buds.
The plants in the smaller containers can also more directly show you when they are thriving or more importantly when they are not. A strong healthy plant will eventually outgrow its container and an observant gardener is carefully watching the length of time between wet/dry cycles, and directly relating shorter cycles with more robust roots. A smaller container also gives the gardener the ability to see when the moment arrives that the amount of soil the plant is in is no longer large enough for the plant's abilities to be happy in it, because it will be obvious when the plant can drain the water that soil is able to hold, in less than 24 hours. Your soil and your container at that point have ceased at that point to be a good enough buffer, and it is time to double the space the roots have to work with. Let your plant show you when that time is, and try not to make decisions for her.
Why is pH important?
Some people claim that pH is not important, and if you are a pure organic gardener, never applying chlorinated water or salt based synthetic nutrients at your plants, pH indeed is not important. For the 99.9% rest of the world, a very important lesson for the new gardener to learn is the importance of pH. There is a scientific reason why a proper pH allows the plants to use synthetic nutrients, and why being outside of the proper range can cause deficiencies. If you want to grow pot using chemicals, you need to invest in a method to test the pH of any water going into the plant, whether it is plain water or water mixed with nutrients, and whether it is applied to the roots or sprayed on the leaves. If you neglect the pH, you can easily create deficiencies in your plants, and if left unchecked, you can even kill them. If you spend a lot of money on nutrients, it makes sense that you would want to also create the proper environment so that the plant can use these nutrients, but with a pH way out of the 6.3-6.8 range in soil, a lot of those expensive nutrients will just sit there, not doing the plant any good. If you are in a soilless mix, pH in the range of 5.5-6.1 is necessary. It is only within these ranges that all the nutrients are mobile, are able to be broken free of their salt bonds and be in the form that can go into the plants. Most soils and systems are designed so that you can apply liquids at a lower pH and then the soil or the soilless mix causes a drift, so that the pH can visit each spot in the usable pH range for that medium, and all of the 17 needed nutrients will be picked up, each in its turn.
I hope that this study on containers, watering and pH helps someone who reads it. This paper was a result of having to explain these same concepts over and over and over again to new growers at they hit the forums, until finally I put all these thoughts together into this paper. Some of the thoughts previously given have also been refined for this publication, as questions were asked and answered the last time I posted it, and I have learned better ways of explaining my thoughts. Here, I give you, approximately draft 10 of this paper.
Be well everyone and blessings from my garden to yours,
Sense Emilya
- Thread starter
- #574
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Nice to meet you @Ganja Bob and welcome to the forum!
I am glad that my work has helped you to understand your watering issues and I hope that this will greatly enhance your next grow! Good luck on your harvest!
I am glad that my work has helped you to understand your watering issues and I hope that this will greatly enhance your next grow! Good luck on your harvest!
BigDannel
Well-Known Member
Later tonight will be my first time trying this, I've never been as excited to water my plants before 
Ganja Bob
420 Member
Thanks, I have high hopes for the two critical purple, the other two strains suffered more from my mistakes. So much to learn! I believe your knowledge will definitely enhance my growing. I also appreciate the added information on fabric pots as this is where my next grow is heading. For now I'm running autos and subscribing to the theory they should be started in the same pot they'll finish in. Thanks for the warm welcome and happy gardeningNice to meet you @Ganja Bob and welcome to the forum!
I am glad that my work has helped you to understand your watering issues and I hope that this will greatly enhance your next grow! Good luck on your harvest!
- Thread starter
- #577
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
150,000+ views now, and still climbing. Thank you everyone! It humbles me to know that I have been able to reach so many people.
Km021
Well-Known Member
SureThank you @Km021 ! I also would like to take this opportunity to properly welcome you to the Forum!
Surely we don't have too awfully many members from Turkey, and I greatly look forward to seeing the types of pot that you are going to be able to grow from that part of the world. Good luck in your garden and keep safe from COVID-19!
Wirewrappinfacepainter
420 Member
Thank you for taking so much time and effort to create such a helpful page for those with the equipment to grow/ legality to grow, which doesn’t include me; I’ve often wanted to grow one kind of for the heck of it but if you’re gonna do it, you need to be somewhere you know the products from soil amendments to grow lights. I have a vegetable garden lol.The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant
Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot
How to Water
Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion applies to at least 3 gallon containers and bigger. Please realize that this special plant of ours does not grow like anything else you have ever tried to grow, and no matter how good you are at growing peas, beans and tomatoes, you will have to change your methods to grow a weed.
The first rule of watering is to always water slowly, using no more than a quart at a time, pausing often to let the soil suck air in behind the water as it pools on the top. For me, that involves a routine of watering each of my plants with 1 quart, then taking a nice relaxing drink of whatever beverage I have brought with me to the tent. Then I take a deep breath, making sure to exhale deeply onto this plant, letting her know that I love her. After this, I take a nice big hit off of the pipe that also followed me into the tent, and then after a nice pause and maybe another drink, I go back to plant #1 and repeat the cycle. For 2 rounds, I water the entire surface of the soil, watching it pool up and get sucked down.
After this initial wetting of the top, my watering method changes a bit. Now, I want to do whatever I can to make the outside edges of the container, the wettest areas. Still only using a quart at a time, I now carefully water only there, all around the plant, only on the edges. While doing this, I slow down a bit so that the water doesn't pool as much in the center, always concentrating on the edges. The center will end up getting some too, and that's fine, but the wettest areas of the pot will be on the outside edges and you will be driving nutrient rich soil into the dense original root ball. Continue this, again going slow, maybe with a deep breath in the middle of it, and then continue all around, taking drinks, deep breaths and hits in between each round. Continue until you see the first signs of runoff, and then stop.
Look carefully at the surface of your container now. You will clearly see where the root ball is from your last transplant, because it will now be sticking up just a little bit above the original outer rim. Very fine soil has been driven through the original root ball with the flow of water and soil from the outer edges. This micro fine soil is very rich with nutrients because of its mobility. When you water from the outside edges, you force this micro fine sludge into the dense root ball, where it can do the most good. Once you establish this flow pattern in the container, you can be assured of totally replacing the micro soil in the center of the root ball with new soil, every time you water. Watering in the normal way does not create his circular flow, and root growth cannot be nearly as aggressive.
Lastly, take one last quart of water, and water very very slowly, just in the raised area where the original root ball is. As you do so, watch what happens at the outer edge of the original root ball.
You will see the very finest soil, almost a mud, migrating out of the old root ball, and into the middle! This completes the process of soil exchange in the container. In this manner, all the roots get to take advantage of the nutrients in the soil, and the roots follow the migration of the nutrient rich soil, toward the outer edges, creating lateral growth. I strive to actively drive the soil out of the middle, making room for the roots to grow more dense and bigger there, and as they do, the lateral growth also has to increase. Using this method, I have seen a steady increase in the amount of water needed to get to run off throughout the grow and by the end, plants watered in this way use approximately 30% more water than is seen using standard watering techniques. Watering in the manner I have described allows for a constant circular flow of soil throughout the container and will create an extremely dense root ball.
Now it is time for a truism. It is best to water the roots, not the plant. A healthy and robust root system means a happy and productive plant. Neglect the roots and your plants can die, and certainly will be less than they could have been.
When do we water?
By far, one of the most common plant problems that I see with new gardeners is a lack of understanding as to when to water. New people get it set in their mind that watering every day or every other day is best, or that somehow, mysteriously, they know in their own human minds exactly how much water the plants need. These well-meaning new gardeners will determine that they will give exactly one quart or some other random amount, each time, no more... and no less, and really believe that they are doing a good thing for their plants, making these decisions for them.
Just as bad as these over-thinkers are the tomato gardeners, the "stick your finger in the ground" crowd, who proclaim: it's time to water when it is dry below the second knuckle. What they fail to realize is that when the top 2 inches is dry, the lower half of the container could still be saturated with water. Both of these common mistakes in watering methods are quick ways to drown your plants. These methods are not correct for growing weeds, and using them can actually kill your plants.
Marijuana is a weed, and the main thing that this scientific term refers to, is a class of plant that thrives in adversity. In order to grow it well, you need to understand that this incredibly robust plant works differently than other, less hardy plants. It is an extremely aggressive grower if you allow it to be, and to grow prize winning pot, you need to use its abilities to send out new roots to your advantage.
Watering incorrectly is the most common mistake that new weed farmers make. This plant needs a clear wet/dry cycle in order to thrive. If you keep it moist, you will kill it. The roots will aggressively chase your water, whatever you give them. If you just give a small amount every couple of days, that water will drop right to the bottom of the container. Your roots will follow, and will cluster on the bottom, instead of growing laterally throughout the container, and since they continually sit in the nutrient rich water, the plant sees little need to grow additional roots. How you water makes a huge difference in the formation of the root ball, and how this development happens is up to you.
There are many ways to tell when it is time to water, and if you wait long enough the girls will actually tell you that they are thirsty. They do two things when they see that they need water, they throw out a smell, and they begin to wilt, starting at the bottom, moving up. You can also use the lift method to tell when the container is dry, and almost always you will "feel" a dry container, before the above mentioned wilt and fragrance pump happens. Rusty Trichome taught me an important lesson; every time I think that I need to do something to my plants, I wait a bit... and I try to move at the speed that my plants are moving. "Patience, above all else." --Rusty
If you have a moisture meter you can also use it to find where the wet/dry (water table) line is in your container, and you can watch that wet/dry line move down over time. I used to graph my water table level by day, so that I could project ahead when the wet dry line would reach the last inch of container. Your wet/dry line will never go lower than that last inch or so, because once you get down in there, you are in all the big tap roots and mass at the bottom, and it tends to stay wet there longer because of capillary effect. Again, if you wait for the first sign of wilt and that perfume pump that happens at "water me" point, it will usually be just a bit longer than your measurements would indicate. Once the water table line is anywhere in that bottom inch is ok to water. You have dried out 95% of the water by that time and the roots have been chasing it as the wet/dry line progresses both downward and outward. The suction caused by the diaphragm that is the water table, will have pulled oxygen down deep into the container, and filled any voids. The roots will be happy.
Why do we up-pot?
The art of successive up-potting is important in growing a healthy root system. People like to be lazy. I am constantly seeing new gardeners take a little sprig of a weed and put it in a big 3 or 5 gallon container, thinking that they have done a good thing, and are now done with it... it's on to harvest time! The problem is, this doesn't work, because it gives you zero control over developing the roots, and without crazy watering techniques, almost no chance of a solid root ball forming. It is imperative to successively up pot your plants through stages so that the root system can roughly take on the same size and shape as the plant in order to get the maximum productivity. The roots grow aggressively in these weeds, and if you confine them to a container the size of the plant, they will fill that space in a short time with a dense root system. Putting a plant in an oversized container can and often does, result in all the roots going to the bottom, drowning the plant, root rot and overall poor health because of a lack of a root ball, and certainly less than optimum harvests. It is important to force these weeds into producing a root ball at various stages, to give the plant the ability later on to take in the massive amounts of nutrients needed to produce lots of quality buds.
The plants in the smaller containers can also more directly show you when they are thriving or more importantly when they are not. A strong healthy plant will eventually outgrow its container and an observant gardener is carefully watching the length of time between wet/dry cycles, and directly relating shorter cycles with more robust roots. A smaller container also gives the gardener the ability to see when the moment arrives that the amount of soil the plant is in is no longer large enough for the plant's abilities to be happy in it, because it will be obvious when the plant can drain the water that soil is able to hold, in less than 24 hours. Your soil and your container at that point have ceased at that point to be a good enough buffer, and it is time to double the space the roots have to work with. Let your plant show you when that time is, and try not to make decisions for her.
Why is pH important?
Some people claim that pH is not important, and if you are a pure organic gardener, never applying chlorinated water or salt based synthetic nutrients at your plants, pH indeed is not important. For the 99.9% rest of the world, a very important lesson for the new gardener to learn is the importance of pH. There is a scientific reason why a proper pH allows the plants to use synthetic nutrients, and why being outside of the proper range can cause deficiencies. If you want to grow pot using chemicals, you need to invest in a method to test the pH of any water going into the plant, whether it is plain water or water mixed with nutrients, and whether it is applied to the roots or sprayed on the leaves. If you neglect the pH, you can easily create deficiencies in your plants, and if left unchecked, you can even kill them. If you spend a lot of money on nutrients, it makes sense that you would want to also create the proper environment so that the plant can use these nutrients, but with a pH way out of the 6.3-6.8 range in soil, a lot of those expensive nutrients will just sit there, not doing the plant any good. If you are in a soilless mix, pH in the range of 5.5-6.1 is necessary. It is only within these ranges that all the nutrients are mobile, are able to be broken free of their salt bonds and be in the form that can go into the plants. Most soils and systems are designed so that you can apply liquids at a lower pH and then the soil or the soilless mix causes a drift, so that the pH can visit each spot in the usable pH range for that medium, and all of the 17 needed nutrients will be picked up, each in its turn.
I hope that this study on containers, watering and pH helps someone who reads it. This paper was a result of having to explain these same concepts over and over and over again to new growers at they hit the forums, until finally I put all these thoughts together into this paper. Some of the thoughts previously given have also been refined for this publication, as questions were asked and answered the last time I posted it, and I have learned better ways of explaining my thoughts. Here, I give you, approximately draft 10 of this paper.
Be well everyone and blessings from my garden to yours,
Sense Emilya
meejay
Well-Known Member
Great post @Emilya. Thank you for all the info provided!
I am learning a lot reading this thread. Although I have just started reading it, I have a question here. I wonder what this up-potting plan applies to, from seed or clone?