i just go by the look of the dirt looks dry water looks damp wait another day
Help first time grower
- Thread starter Playboy20272
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I have a ph tester that test the soil wetness and honestly i could forget to water them for 4 days then go check with the tester only to read it’s wet 2 inches under surface . I hear people say wait for it to dry out but if i did that i would water lightly once a week lol
it sounds like underwater,id at least give it a cup. did you wet the soil throughly before planting?
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Hello those multi ph testers combos are not accurate when testing moisture so you are prob not watering properly if you are relying on it
This is taken from another thread by Man o green
What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and the roots and microbes will die there. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. Slowly wet ALL of the soil until run-off begins. There is an art to watering.
Go by the weight of the pot. Visual inspections can be misleading as the top may be dry but saturated further down.
I like to get a feel when they are saturated and bone dry. Bone dry 5 gallon pots even with a fully flowered plant are light as air. Saturated they are a good 10lbs. Water when they are less than half their saturated weight, preferably about 35% of their saturated weight
Also ph is important but in peat soils its a little more forgiving, as long as your input is above 6.1 and below 6.7 you should be ok. Peat naturally buffers and absorbs nutrients. Also happy frog should be ph 6.1-6.3. Runoff is likely to be more acidic than input buy thats ok. I dont even measure runoff.
