Indoor Flushing and Watering

[ElGuapo]

My first grow is nearing harvest, not without it's issues, many thanks for the tips and info I received here. I have 4 Auto Blueberry Fems in 2 gallon pots, using Roots Organics. As they were growing, I had noticed that when I watered them, the soil seemed to absorb less water with time, most of it ran off. During a conversation at the local Indoor Garden supply shop, I was advised to pack the soil down smooth so that the water didn't just find a crack and follow in on down. This helped a little. The grow has about 2 weeks to go, its at around 9 weeks now, so I figured it was time for a flush. Using a little more than 2 gallons of bubbled and balanced water per pot, I poured in enough water to form a puddle almost an inch deep and kept doing this every few minutes. After the flush, I noticed that the soil was able to hold quite a bit more water. I think the large volume of water had turned the whole pot into a ball of mud, eliminating the "drainage canals" that had formed. I plan to flush the next grow every couple of weeks to eliminate these in the next grow.

 

[Muddy]

As a matures and the pot fills up with roots it takes longer for the water to drain through. Also, when they dry out the root ball tends to shrink some, pulling the soil away from the pot. Then when you water it will drain to the sides and run down that gap between the root ball and the pot. I like to go around the top of the pot before I water and push dirt up against the inside of the pot to fill in that space. That seems to help keep the water from draining out so fast.