Watering Question

[BII]

Your pots being 'soaked' with water suggests you may have insufficient drainage and related poor oxygenation of roots. To avoid this, you can add perlite or equivalent to your soil; and make sure your pots have holes/vents at the bottom to allow excess water drainage.

If the bottom soil is wet (but obviously not drowning the roots) while the top is dry, this may simply not be a concern, presuming the plant has grown all or most or its roots in the bottom vs. top. Cannabis and many other plants in nature often grow well in rather dry climates with dried-out surface soil, e.g., high Afghan mountainsides.

And otherwise keep in mind your prior growing in AutoPots. Here the lowest portion is essentially fully saturated all the time while the top can be dry, yet there usually aren't related problems. If the roots and plant are happy, no visible problems, a wet bottom and dry top media/soil is likely not a problem.

 

[Capt.Quirk]

Do I or don't I?

 

[BigB6]

Do I or don't I?

That's what I need

 

[Lil Dab]

Do I or don't I?

guessing the pots pretty light judging by the meters? plus the media looks dry too

That's what I need

Those things are very in accurate IMO when I used them the pot would have to be incredibly dry before they would tell me to water again

 

[MotaZona]

I grow other plants in plastic nursery pots. I always drill a bunch of holes on the bottom & around the bottom on the sides.

 

[BigB6]

Your pots being 'soaked' with water suggests you may have insufficient drainage and related poor oxygenation of roots. To avoid this, you can add perlite or equivalent to your soil; and make sure your pots have holes/vents at the bottom to allow excess water drainage.

If the bottom soil is wet (but obviously not drowning the roots) while the top is dry, this may simply not be a concern, presuming the plant has grown all or most or its roots in the bottom vs. top. Cannabis and many other plants in nature often grow well in rather dry climates with dried-out surface soil, e.g., high Afghan mountainsides.

And otherwise keep in mind your prior growing in AutoPots. Here the lowest portion is essentially fully saturated all the time while the top can be dry, yet there usually aren't related problems. If the roots and plant are happy, no visible problems, a wet bottom and dry top media/soil is likely not a problem.

The autopot thing is why I'm confused. Water when the pot is light they say, yes ok but autopot is constantly wet and I've had my biggest yields using them. I'm not in a position to be able to use them for a while hence the watering Question.
If I water a plastic pot slowly until run off it would take the plant forever to drink it. Good or bad thing I don't know. Not good at the start for sure.

 

[Cannaficionado]

The autopot thing is why I'm confused. Water when the pot is light they say, yes ok but autopot is constantly wet and I've had my biggest yields using them. I'm not in a position to be able to use them for a while hence the watering Question.
If I water a plastic pot slowly until run off it would take the plant forever to drink it. Good or bad thing I don't know. Not good at the start for sure.

I think with auto pots its supplying highly oxygenated water where as a top hand watering only gets whatever is suspended in the water already and whatever it can pull in on the way down through the surface. Also with good watering practices as the soil drys out, in a good draining medium as perlite dries out it traps oxygen in its pores and overwatering pretty much voids that out.
Since you probably have some kind of bubbler in your autopot res you arent really "suffocating" the rootzone

 

[Cannaficionado]

guessing the pots pretty light judging by the meters? plus the media looks dry too


Those things are very in accurate IMO when I used them the pot would have to be incredibly dry before they would tell me to water again

I agree with him on this one, I used to have those cheap garden store 3 way and moister meters and any kind of moisture would cause them to read either high or somewhere on the low end. Its really best to heft your pots for the best results.

I developed hydrophobic pockets in my pot on my last grow because of those things, also overwatered in fab pots too because of the hydrophobic pockets, as the probe was in one.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@BigB6 The Plagron light mix should not need additional vermiculite or Perlite as it drains well in the threads I have watched here in the past. Plastic buckets hold water longer than bags or air-pots and root problems are rare but can happen if over-watered. It is good to keep some Botanicare HydroGuard handy just in case. Be sure to use a tray with an air-gap underneath to prevent anaerobic microbes from getting a foot hold. Weighing or hefting the pot is really better than meters when you learn how to do it. The only meter that seems to work reasonably well is the Accurate 8 or the clone if it. Remember in soil you are not watering the plant. You are watering the soil to keep the microbes alive and happy even if you are using salt based fertilizer the root biome is critical to the health of the plant.

 

[Auto Tay]

I can’t be the only one using small fabric pots and watering every day am I? The top of my soil can look moist but the pot will be dead dry and almost weightless. This has been causing me headaches recently