Indoor soil problems. NEED ANSWERS!!

[marshall10vp]

Hello all, I have a few questions and concerns about my current grow. I am a relatively new grower, have been growing for about 6-7 months now. I am running 9 thousand watt HID lights in an enclosed room in a warehouse. I have anywhere from 10-24 plants in a room at a time. I am growing in 15 gallon pots, and my plants currently are about 5 feet tall, with some around 6 feet tall.
My biggest concern is during the flowering stage my soil seems to completely harden up. What I mean is, the soil in the pot is no longer lose soil and dries up pretty quickly. I'm not getting any water run off from under the pot, I think because the water is getting stuck inside and not getting out. I'm not sure if my root systems are just too big or what? I doubt that though. Any advice on this will help greatly, as I am about 6 weeks away from harvesting.

 

[burns1n209]

Did you add perlite to the mix, or straight dirt? Gonna need perlite in the mix to help with aeration, or vermuilite, clay balls, something in there to break up the dirt.

 

[marshall10vp]

I am using sunshine mix 4 soil. A lot of the perlite is no longer on the top though... i know that will help with keeping the moisture in the soil, but I am also worried about the water not getting all the way through the soil and running out the bottom as i water.

 

[Siomha]

you can sit the pot on a plate and water from there maybe it be an option

 

[moses wellfleet]

Are the plants looking unhealthy in any way, what makes you think there is a problem?

 

[Benjamin Check]

You're running 9k on your third grow? That's pretty ambitious. If you're not getting any runoff even with a heavy watering, that means your drain holes are blocked. I'd stick a bamboo skewer in those holes and try to loosen up some dirt. Sounds like you don't have enough drainage materials like perlite in your mix.

 

[eric2028]

I also use 15 gallon pots but with promix bx. mine take 2.5 gallons of water with no runoff. 3-3.5 gallons should give u runoff....

 

[Sat X RB]

I 'm an outdoor grower. my Sativa use 10 litres (2+ gals) per day at most.

seems to me if you just keep pouring the water in it will flood the pots eventually and y'll know for sure if the pots are blocked. if they are y'll have to unblock them.

the bottom of the pots may have formed a watertight seal with whatever they're sitting on ...

it may just be that yr UNDERwatering ...

I usually sit my pots in a saucer (make saucers out of builders plastic ... the membrane stuff they put under cement floors) to catch drainage. that way I can quickly dump a heap of water in and watch the plant suck it up thru the day. don't have yr saucers too deep ... say two inches max.

cheers!

 

[Justis]

I'm using 5 g smart pots an my blue hash plant 1 month into flower the roots make my soil hard to penetrate with a fingure but I still get run off if I really water them

 

[igrowkushbitch]

I get hard soil cause I top dress my 20 gallons pots with dolomite lime. It turns into a hard top 2 inches. I take a fork and break up the top of the soil. It really helps the water flow into the soil evenly.

 

[Jibman]

Any pics?

 

[bigshrimp]

To much magnesium can cause soil to constrict, good example above^

So unless you added far to much dolomite lime that's probably not your problem.

How do you water? The slower the better really, i go around once and give them all a little drink then give it time to soak in. Go pick yellow fans or check the Veg room or whatever. Once you've given it sometime go back and give em alittlemore.

Other than that you can try some sort of mulch, perlite, lava rock, leaf mould, living much, etc...

A little life in your soil never hurts but that's a different rabbit hole.

 

[BasementGrower]

water slow.. I usually grab the grow bags.. and squeeze them a little around the entire growbag.. and then water.. breaks up the soil a little making it take water easier it seems.

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

sunshine 4 kinda blows by itself...it'll do that once it gets dry...try adding some compost or some worm poop and some coco or even easier and/or better (however ya wanna look at it) - make a 50/50 mix of royal gold tupur and vital earth's potting soil for the perfect aeration and water like every 4 or 5 days (thats my speed)

 

[burns1n209]

nothing better then a person get on here and ask a question and they get 10 great answers and you never see the original poster again... ill atleast say thanks for everyone chimming in with there good ideas.

 

[KGB~Dragon]

nothing better then a person get on here and ask a question and they get 10 great answers and you never see the original poster again... ill atleast say thanks for everyone chimming in with there good ideas.

True story burns1 lol
I was going to add that watering should always have some run off, if not give it more, dry root balls are not good root balls. Runoff should take a while after watering to appear, if it's too fast, I'd bet dry root ball.

Any ways that's what my issue was with quick run off.
Good Luck!

 

[EclipseFour20]

For the benefit of everyone else (seems the OP maxed out with 2 posts)...

Once peat dries, it can be difficult to rehydrate as a growing medium...especially when the medium has roots, ferts and nutes in it. Lesson learned here: The OP's medium has poor water/air porosity.

"A good medium should drain rapidly after irrigation, and should ideally contain 10% (by volume) or more air space after draining (Table
2). Oxygen stress conditions are likely to develop at values lower than 10%. At the same time, a good medium should contain at least 50% water (by volume), and available water should be at least 30% (by volume)."

How to calculate these? This two page "Fact Sheet" from Rutgers explains how. Do a test and see how out of whack your soil is or is not.
https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS881

Good primer on container medium porosity...https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS812

IMHO...Many growing problems can be traced back to poor air/water porosity! Second only to growing mediums with low ph.

 

[KGB~Dragon]

Thanks Eclipse very well said ) and thanks for the links!

 

[cutant]

If your soil is hardening up easily and dries quickly then you have a problem with water retention. You can improve your soil by adding perlite, peat and manure. My suspicion is that lights you are using are heating up the soil if these are directly on the plants or you have a pretty warm environment. No water run-off means either insufficient water or the draining holes of the pots are blocked. It may not be necessarily the roots. Backed soil can block as well. Drench the pots and see if there is any run-off. If not you will need to open up the holes manually. To check for roots either check the drainage holes of the pot or dig up the soil slowly from the pot using a spoon until you get to the root system.

 

[EclipseFour20]

Bacteria and amendments containing a goodly amount of yucca schidigera are among the best amendments for compacted soil. Both are super cheap and easy to apply.