Gypsy58
Well-Known Member
I am asking anyone who answers lol. This is the mixture I have in it now. dry koolbloom, koolbloom liquid, Celica, floramicro grow and Bloom and floralicious plus. Just wondering how much of this I don't need
The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant
- Thread starter Emilya Green
- Start date
That's what is great here. Other's opinions and experiences helps us all. Thanks for sharing. I will be approaching something similar to this method this season.
Cool I feel the same. And if I had read your entire signature I'd have seen you're already hip to the queen and wouldn't have put that in there. Lol.
parrajara
Well-Known Member
Hey Emilya, I've been trying to find more conclusive instructions on watering during flower, but I haven't been able to. I'm sorry if you have already covered this... but, how do you take advantage of the mature roots? I came to the realization that a major reason my plants are lacking growth right now is because I am still doing a wet/dry cycle. @013 kindly pointed out that I should not do that anymore, and I was able to find this post of yours but nothing more. Do you mind referencing me to a post where I can learn how to water my plant during flower? Or if you have any tips or guidance for me, I'd really appreciate it. You've been a lifesaver all throughout my grow. I have 4 weeks left, so I can still improve a lot if I get to it! Thanks for your time
- Thread starter
- #825
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
The Blooming Addendum to the watering article:Hey Emilya, I've been trying to find more conclusive instructions on watering during flower, but I haven't been able to. I'm sorry if you have already covered this... but, how do you take advantage of the mature roots? I came to the realization that a major reason my plants are lacking growth right now is because I am still doing a wet/dry cycle. @013 kindly pointed out that I should not do that anymore, and I was able to find this post of yours but nothing more. Do you mind referencing me to a post where I can learn how to water my plant during flower? Or if you have any tips or guidance for me, I'd really appreciate it. You've been a lifesaver all throughout my grow. I have 4 weeks left, so I can still improve a lot if I get to it! Thanks for your time
All of my growing career I have been still learning the best way to do this. Even after this original article came out, there was a time afterwards when I realized that I water in a completely different way during bloom, and this addendum was added to the article in response.
Even since then I have modified a few things even more. I still push water to my blooming plants, purposely cutting a full day off of their wet/dry cycle established in veg, but now with another very interesting twist. I DO let them actually dry all the way out, about every 4th watering, right down to the beginnings of droop. This action pulls oxygen down to the very lowest and most centralized roots in the rootball, giving them a "flush" of oxygen and a new vigor. This occasional drought happens in nature and the plants have a natural defense to it besides just growing more roots... they grow more trichomes too. I was told once that this killed my microbes and that I shouldn't do it, but I have found this advice to be in error... microbes are very hard to kill off, and I get stronger plants as a result of this regular stressing of the system. A coddled weed is a lazy weed, it turns out.
4 weeks is perfect... you have the last half of bloom to experiment with this. I don't think you have hurt a thing by extending the wet/dry cycle all the way into bloom... you have just created tougher plants. By pushing water they might have been a bit meatier than they now are, but that is debatable. Good luck with the end, but it sounds like you have this.
parrajara
Well-Known Member
thank you so much Emilya! My ladies are on a 4 days schedule, so I will be watering more often now based on the indicators on the addendum! It will probably be every other day or every 3 days. And, as you mentioned, every 4th watering or so I will let them dry out nicely again. I really appreciate your prompt response and helpThe Blooming Addendum to the watering article:
All of my growing career I have been still learning the best way to do this. Even after this original article came out, there was a time afterwards when I realized that I water in a completely different way during bloom, and this addendum was added to the article in response.
Even since then I have modified a few things even more. I still push water to my blooming plants, purposely cutting a full day off of their wet/dry cycle established in veg, but now with another very interesting twist. I DO let them actually dry all the way out, about every 4th watering, right down to the beginnings of droop. This action pulls oxygen down to the very lowest and most centralized roots in the rootball, giving them a "flush" of oxygen and a new vigor. This occasional drought happens in nature and the plants have a natural defense to it besides just growing more roots... they grow more trichomes too. I was told once that this killed my microbes and that I shouldn't do it, but I have found this advice to be in error... microbes are very hard to kill off, and I get stronger plants as a result of this regular stressing of the system. A coddled weed is a lazy weed, it turns out.
4 weeks is perfect... you have the last half of bloom to experiment with this. I don't think you have hurt a thing by extending the wet/dry cycle all the way into bloom... you have just created tougher plants. By pushing water they might have been a bit meatier than they now are, but that is debatable. Good luck with the end, but it sounds like you have this.
I will keep the forum updated!- Thread starter
- #827
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
This thread hit an awesome milestone today... we have hit 300,000 views! Thank you to everyone for your support and for not initially laughing me out of the room when I boldly declared that I had a better way to water this plant. To all of those whom I have helped with this series of articles and to all of those of you whom I have drawn in to check out 420 Magazine over the years via this article, thank you to every one of you too, for trusting in what I was presenting and giving it a good try. Together, you and I and the 300,000 others of us, have changed the growing world and made it a better place! All over the globe people are talking about the wet/dry cycle, and I tip my gardener's hat to each and every one of you who have learned the proper way to water a potted weed!
Woooo!!! Congrats. It is an awesome article and has helped so many of us. I even use some of the principles learned here to water my fruit trees and other various plants around the property. A well deserved milestone indeed! Thank you for all your wisdom and dedication to this forum. Blessings!
Thirvnrob
Well-Known Member
I have to lay claim to a few hundred of those views Emily. But seriously, you literally changed (corrected) my approach to growing. Congratulations on that milestone & thanks for being so generous with your time...This thread hit an awesome milestone today... we have hit 300,000 views! Thank you to everyone for your support and for not initially laughing me out of the room when I boldly declared that I had a better way to water this plant. To all of those whom I have helped with this series of articles and to all of those of you whom I have drawn in to check out 420 Magazine over the years via this article, thank you to every one of you too, for trusting in what I was presenting and giving it a good try. Together, you and I and the 300,000 others of us, have changed the growing world and made it a better place! All over the globe people are talking about the wet/dry cycle, and I tip my gardener's hat to each and every one of you who have learned the proper way to water a potted weed!
Congratulations. You're famous. Lol. My grow wouldn't be where it is without your help. Thank you for setting the example that you do here. You're going to have to start charging for your time.
Tommboy1973
Well-Known Member
Congrats! I know this post has been very helpful for me, thanks so much for sharing your wisdom!
OGeMann
Well-Known Member
Congrats!!!
Emilya for hitting 300,000 views that's awesome, I know it has changed the way I water 100%.
Now that I am using Living/super soil does this concept still play a role for this kind of soil, meaning how do I go about this way of watering. Do I need to try to keep the soil moist or do I do a dry then water?? I alway heard to keep living soil moist at all time is this true? What are you thoughts on this??
Emilya for hitting 300,000 views that's awesome, I know it has changed the way I water 100%.Now that I am using Living/super soil does this concept still play a role for this kind of soil, meaning how do I go about this way of watering. Do I need to try to keep the soil moist or do I do a dry then water?? I alway heard to keep living soil moist at all time is this true? What are you thoughts on this??
- Thread starter
- #833
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Hi OGeMann! I am glad you asked this question because lately I have noticed that there are lots of people confused about this matter. I have been playing with supersoil for quite a number of years and have learned a thing or two about the keeping of microbes, for that is essentially what we are doing when we grow organically... we are working to keep the microbes going. Everything we need nutritionally is already in the supersoil, so our job as gardeners is simply watering the plant efficiently and making sure that we keep the microbes alive.Congrats!!!
Now that I am using Living/super soil does this concept still play a role for this kind of soil, meaning how do I go about this way of watering. Do I need to try to keep the soil moist or do I do a dry then water?? I alway heard to keep living soil moist at all time is this true? What are you thoughts on this??
I have found that in practice it is very hard to kill off microbes. If they died simply because things dried out, there would be no need for chlorine in our water supply. Plumbers would simply make sure your pipes dried out when not being used to move water, and there would be no problem with a buildup of microbes... they would be easily killed by the lack of water. We would find that in deserts, volcanoes, during a drought and in our dry containers, microbes would be non existent.... but in reality, microbes can live in all of these places. When our containers go mostly dry (not so dry that our plants are dying) there is still quite of bit of water still left in there. Even at the point of wilting, there is still moisture deep down in that rootball and hiding in the organics and the millions of little holes in the perlite... and in those hiding places are the mighty microbes that keep everything running. Some of these critters can reproduce every 20 minutes, doubling their population shortly after watering. Microbes are a lot more hardy than we give them credit for. Even taking them down to the point of dry as dry can be... let's imagine that you left a plant in the desert sun for 3 weeks without watering and fried it to a crisp. Take that soil and give it some water and guess what happens... microbes appear! Somehow they survive by going into a stasis hibernation stage where seemingly dead according to all the rules we know, they come back to life with the application of a little water.
So I feel it is a myth that the soil needs to be kept moist in an organic (or any other type) grow. I still allow my plants to get pretty darn dry, right up to the point of wilting, especially in veg, but even in bloom I do this about every 4th watering. This seems to not be a problem, and I see no reason to vary my watering methods simply to protect a critter that does ok without my help. Especially when using regular compost teas, recharge or a product that brings along its own microbes with each watering like @GeoFlora Nutrients, I see no need to concern myself with a few microbes going immobile due to a lack of water, because I am constantly bringing in more of them... and even if I wasn't, the ones remaining in my mostly dry soil will come back with exponential growth as soon as I water again. Instead of concerning myself with a few microbes, I find it much more important to use the water to tease out better roots in veg by forcing a wet/dry cycle, and while I do push more water at the plant in bloom, I still see it as critical to periodically introduce drought to the plant by letting it dry out an extra day several times during bloom so as to build more trichomes... and I see absolutely no danger to the microbes in doing so.
A detailed and very informative response. Thanks for this. Living soil is on my horizon.
parrajara
Well-Known Member
Happy 420 Everybody!! Following Emilya's advice I was able to get this far. Otherwise these ladies would likely have perished months ago!!
- Thread starter
- #836
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Happy 420 to everyone at 420 Magazine!
OGeMann
Well-Known Member
That answers my question to the fullest extent and like I said if it wasn’t for your expertise on watering I would probably just under water my plants. You should be called the Water Queen happy 420
Grower2020
Well-Known Member
@Emilya would you have any before and after pics of plants you have overwatered and seen deficiencies but then the plants recovered and yielded . Thanks in advanceThe 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
- #839
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
I personally do not have any examples of overwatered plants, but I have seen this over and over again as I help out new growers who come in here looking for advice. When the lower roots begin to shut down because of overwatering, the symptoms showing on the leaves can look like all deficiencies, all at once, because that in effect is what it is... the nutrients can't get up into the plant through the damaged roots.
Once you repair the damage through proper watering all you really have lost in a photoperiod plant is time... and as long as you give her the time she needs to rebuild, there is no reason that the once abused plant couldn't produce as well as a plant who never suffered.
Grower2020
Well-Known Member
Exactly. This current grow is autoflowers though so I'm hoping they bounce back nicely. I had a similar thing happen to another auto imhad and the plant stalled it's growth but just picked back up right where it left off and although it didn't get to the height and size plant it could have gotten to if veg wasn't held back , the buds ended up being as big and fat as the plants that didn't suffer. Just took longer to finish it's cycle as flower was delayed . Pretty cool that these plants will be still amount to a harvest
Thanks Emilya you do a great job on here xo