Watering Techniques?

[anonnoats]

I read in one of DrBud's threads about how he fully submerges his plants in a bucket for watering. I went ahead and tried this with a few of the stragglers in my first grow here, figuring they're probably going to get scrapped anyways, and noticed that I lost a lot of the soil on top of the mix when I first submerged. In other photos I've seen of this technique, there is no additional soil in the water. Am I doing this wrong? Is the soil on top too dry? It all seems pretty straight forward. I wanted to give the dunk method a try because I read it disturbs the soil the least and I almost bowled a seedling over the other day! 45 degree angle grower now and it's my strongest!

All of that being said, how do you water your soil plants?

 

[GrassRoots]

I water them with a watering wand hooked up to a pond pump which is submerged in a rubbermaid roughneck container. Easy on/off with the squeeze of the handle and gives me the reach to get into the deepest corners of the grow room (walk in closet). In grows past I have hand watered with a watering can and watered from the bottom by just filling up the overflow trays with water.

All methods worked and the roots never complained about me disturbing them, then again, I never asked.

 

[Anti]

I use the dunk method in containers with large drainage holes in the bottom. The first few times I water I *DO* lose a bit of soil and a LOT of perlite (which floats). Subsequent waterings you lose less and less as roots grow and soil compacts.

I use 5 gallon buckets of nutes and dunk my plant just below the water line. I watch for bubbles and when the bubbling stops I pull the plant out and place it in a basin for a few minutes to drain.

Been doing it for two years without a hitch.

Started in soil and moved to Light Mix (peat/sphagnum/perlite) with 30% extra chunky perlite added.

 

[simon]

I use 2gal pots and watering cans whose volume is a perfect match for the pot. The process is a nobrainer; just pour it in.

Simon

 

[tuinman]

I submerge 1 gallon air pots about 1" from the top, and hand water the very top while it's sitting in the bucket soaking so I don't lose any topsoil/mulch.

 

[HighDesertJoe]

I'm using little Hempy beer cups. I put my finger over the hole on the side pour in my nute water mix and listen till it stops bubbling then release finger and shoot for about a 10% run off.
Been working great for me.

 

[Lazyman]

I handwater my veg and pre-veg rooms from a 55 gallon barrel of RO and nutes, witha pump/long hose/watering wand, into 2 gallon Smartpots of Coco/perlite until the saucer underneath shows some runoff.

In flower I use Tropf Blumat autowaterers, gravity fed with no pumps or timers, into 5g Smartpots of the same mix. We strive to keep every plant constantly moist in coco, with no drying out periods.

 

[Steinawitz]

I have my plants sitting in a flood tray above my reservoir. I don't flood the tray however. Instead I have a pump connected to spray emitters on a timer. Emitters are spiked next to the trunk of my plants (rockwool/cocco mix). I have them on an auto timer to water daily, then at about flower week 6 I'll adjust the timer to water 2x per day. I PH the rez water each day, the plants get watered by timer, the run off goes into the rez and the rez gets dumped, cleaned and changed weekly.

 

[johnnybsmokin]

Hey annonoats, the trick to mot lossing the top layer of soil is to ensure the "water" level only comes up level with the top of the pot being used. I have been doing this for the past 8 months, again after reading "Drbuds" method and have had no problems at all. And as "anti" said it does settle down a little with time.
Don't be put off as I find it a great way to get a thorough watering, just wait untill it stops bubbling before taking the pots out.
Cheers John