Watering question for large containers

[wiesser]

Hello everyone, just had a question regarding watering. I know it's totally relative to location, plant size, weather, etc.... but I just wanted to see where some of you guys are at with the amount you water and frequency. I'm running 200 gal. smart pots, no straw or anything to shield the pots from the sun. The plants are shading the top of the soil however. This is my first big outdoor grow and I feel like im having a hard time judging watering needs. I've got 13 different strains so that isn't helping maters, but most are doing really well. I've never dealt with this amount of soil before for a single plant, in my indoor days I could just lift the pot off the ground if there was any question, not this time. I was going 20 gal. a day, every other day. I'm thinking about going down to 10 gal. everyday. Weather is hot right now, mid 90's in the afternoon, cools down to high 50's at night. I'm in Cali, Mendo Co., but more towards the coast, not in the super hot and dry area. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[DrGreenthumb333]

Hey Wiesser very good question....what I do is probe the soil with a thin bamboo stake then feel the moisture on the stake, or u could use ur finger or even buy a moisture meter. But I always make sure my soil drys out before watering again, now we use 65 gallon smart pots with damn near full uninterrupted sunlight (pots are shaded by the plants as well with avg 80 degree days) and we give enough water to not have to water everyday, unfortunately I'm not exactly sure how many gallons I use per plant but its a normal hose with normal pressure and a wand and I usually run it for a minute and 30 seconds per plant. But of course this is all subjective to conditions, strains, size...I just think that if u can get away with it id stay watering every other day as long as there not showing signs of being thirsty id let that soil dry out.

 

[Bulldog420]

The question is, what is the average humidity, temp and size of plant.

Sounds like your fairly close to the coast, and things cool off at night, so you might get a fairly humid onshore breeze. I will guess 40-60%.

Temps you stated when hot, mid 90's, yet it cools into the 50's at night.

Plant size you didn't state, but if they are fully shading 200gal pots they are fairly big at a minimum.

With all my guesses, I would estimate you would require about 7-10 gal per day. If you have some monster plants that would only go up. Just my two cents.

 

[mendo-local]

I have one plant in a 200 gallon smartpot. It's big and most likely rootbound by now but it gets 20-30 gallons a day. I've never used them before so I don't know if that's the norm.

 

[Stoney Johnson]

I do a gallon of water per 10 gallons of soil everyday. I seem to remember Tom Hill saying this was full saturation. My cheap moisture meter confirms.