New Grower New growers.... pick up your pots!!!

[A-Train]

Hello I am atrain aka doc. I am a relatively new grower myself. This is a tip for all brand new first or second timers. Over or under water can both be very problematic for your plants. Both can stunt or even kill your plants all together. In my practices I use a wet to dry cycle. I try to get my pots as dry as possible (with out wilting) to as wet as possible (once plant is established and without runoff) as many times as possible before harvest. And this can be a difficult thing to dial in. Even so some others choose different methods and still acheive equal results. So my tip is to pick up your pots. Feel the weight of your pot daily even hourly. Pic them up a few times to judge the weight. Then watch them and water when needed in your chosen method of growing. LEARN THE WEIGHT OF YOUR POTS WHEN YOUR PLANTS NEED WATER. When it becomes muscle memory your watering/ feed schedule will be much simpler. You will stop wondering if or when to water your plants as all strains and plants differ, and you will learn to water your plant at optimal times and optimal ammounts...... I have a major buzz going right now hope this makes sense and hope it helps someone as this lesson has helped me tremendously in my journey

 

[Broadsword]

Good tip, I followed it on my first auto grow

 

[A-Train]

It Def helps water correctly once you get the feel for it on any strain

 

[TimTaylor]

Once I got a feel for it and my plants got a little thirstier it made things a lot easier.
I didn't like having to keep prodding a finger into the soil to check moisture.

 

[A-Train]

Your exactly right Tim. I crammed my fingers in the very other hr as well as a moisture meter. Now I walk through and pick them up and can pretty much tell how long it will be before they need it

 

[TimTaylor]

What I will do for my next grow is feel the dry weight of the pot with my medium before I use it. Best way to get a reference point.
I'm just sorry I hadn't thought about it or read about it before this grow. An accurate 8 meter would be great but it's my first proper grow so I wanna learn the basics from grassroots as it were.

 

[Chester]

Good advice ... I'm using 4 gal pots for my current grow and so far they make water management easier ... almost time to start the wet dry cycle ...

 

[A-Train]

As you have seen from my grows I'm a huge fan of 5gals.... I couldn't imaging running 1 or 2 gal that would be a lot of work towards the end.

 

[SourDeezDC]

smart pots/fabric pots are great in this respect as they make it a lot easier to judge when it's time to water

 

[greenjeans]

I believe this to be true for DWC as well. My plants seemed to like it later in their life when I let them drink the res almost dry before I refilled. Of course this is difficult, and doesn't really work out early on when they aren't drinking as aggressively, but later on in my last grow, 2 plants in a little 3.5 gallon dwc could drink it almost dry in 2 days.