Watering help

[Blackburn19]

Hello 420 world
So I have a question regarding watering, my plants are 20 days old from seed, they have been in 1.5 gal pots for 9 days and we’re watering good with runoff 6 days ago. My question is does it normally take this long to dry up, they still have some weight to them and are still wet. The solid I am using is Pro Mix BX M. Just wondering if this is ok and to just wait for them to dry up some more

 

[Blackburn19]

Here is the stuff I’m talking about

 

[Lowrider72]

Just wait until it dries a bit, dont over water. They need to catch up.

 

[Blackburn19]

Ya I don’t want to over water at all, I just wasn’t sure if this was turning out to be a really long time between watering

 

[Lowrider72]

Its,ok, you just need,to wait, as roots grow it will catch up and is important not to keep watering now, get root rot etc..... I have waited over a week, if longer and no action try more,heat, like a,heat mat to encourage drinking.

 

[Blackburn19]

Ok I’ll try that, thanks!!

 

[Sctanley007]

What Lowrider said. Gotta be patient and wait for the dry cycle.

I have put a few oz in on occasion when the bottom is still heavy but the top of the pot is dry to keep the surface roots happy.

Be sure to read Emila’s Watering thread and follow it as closely as possible.

 

[Sask420grow]

Are you using fabric pots or plastic? If plastic, takes awhile to dry up. Fabric pots are great cause you can feed/water fresh water every other day in most cases. Plastic pots the water just sorta sits there getting “stale” lol. @Emilya does the water sitting in the soil longer help or hinder the microbial life?

 

[Emilya Green]

Are you using fabric pots or plastic? If plastic, takes awhile to dry up. Fabric pots are great cause you can feed/water fresh water every other day in most cases. Plastic pots the water just sorta sits there getting “stale” lol. @Emilya does the water sitting in the soil longer help or hinder the microbial life?

The soil staying wet at the bottom does two things... first, because oxygen is pulled deep into the soil by the action of the sinking diaphragm that is the surface of the water table, if the water table never drops down into the last inch of the container, oxygen never gets down there. Because of this, the lower feeder roots will shut down and actually encase themselves in a protective coating until the flood waters recede. At least periodically, it is necessary to get oxygen down to those roots by letting the container dry out all the way to the bottom.
Regarding the microbial life, they are tougher than you give them credit for. When it dries out, some of them will stay active in pockets of moisture that will still exist around the roots and within organics and filler material in the soil and those that are forced to dry out go into a hibernation mode and not as many of them actually die than you would expect. Give them a little water again and they spring back to activity and start rapidly reproducing. So to answer your question, water sitting stagnant will definitely allow microlife to continue to multiply, but at the risk of causing harm to the roots sitting in that water. Even in smart pots, it is very important, especially in veg, to honor a wet/dry cycle.

 

[Blackburn19]

The soil staying wet at the bottom does two things... first, because oxygen is pulled deep into the soil by the action of the sinking diaphragm that is the surface of the water table, if the water table never drops down into the last inch of the container, oxygen never gets down there. Because of this, the lower feeder roots will shut down and actually encase themselves in a protective coating until the flood waters recede. At least periodically, it is necessary to get oxygen down to those roots by letting the container dry out all the way to the bottom.
Regarding the microbial life, they are tougher than you give them credit for. When it dries out, some of them will stay active in pockets of moisture that will still exist around the roots and within organics and filler material in the soil and those that are forced to dry out go into a hibernation mode and not as many of them actually die than you would expect. Give them a little water again and they spring back to activity and start rapidly reproducing. So to answer your question, water sitting stagnant will definitely allow microlife to continue to multiply, but at the risk of causing harm to the roots sitting in that water. Even in smart pots, it is very important, especially in veg, to honor a wet/dry cycle.

Thank you!! That was very well put and much appreciated. I will let them dry out and when I transplant 1 more time I am going to find fabric pots to try them out. This website and the people on it have made my grow so far much easier!

 

[Nunyabiz]

Get fabric pots, and add at least 30% aeration like pumice and rice hulls to your soil.
You should never need to wait more than 3 days between watering and shouldn't even be able to over water unless you toss them into a swimming pool.