How much water (per pot size)

[mtbazz]

Just wondering on how much water everyone uses for watering and feeding. For example, for a 5 a gallon container do you use 1/3 gallon, 1 gallon, etc? Im not talking about flushing, but regular feeding and watering.

I water/feed when the container gets pretty light, and than add enough water/nutes until I see it coming out the bottom. For a 5 gallon container, this is typically about 1/3-1/2 gallon.

 

[TGT]

The best way to water is let the soil go through a moderate dry spell (not enough to droop the leaves) and then water slowly until just a little water starts to seep out from the bottom of the pots. I use a water catch plate under each pot so not to make a mess. Do this with well established plants only.

With smaller plants you can do the same thing as long as they are in appropiate sized pots for the age and size of the plant. If your just transplanting into the final large pots, its important to keep that root ball moist as well as the surrounding soil until the roots have a chance to branch out into the new soil.

I have seen plants that have been recently transplanted drooping from no water even when the pots were heavy. This is because the plants sometimes get a little root bound in the smaller pots, so when in the larger pots they drink all the water from the root ball but have no newroots yet into the new soil, so they start to droop. This usually only lasts for three or four days and by then the roots have had time to spread. Then water like stated in the first paragraph.

I hope this helps and didn't confuse you. I smoked some Kush and it kind of fried me out a little too much, so I hope I didn't go into detail too much. Any questions, just ask - good luck.

TGT

 

[el dub]

A dry 5 gallon container can take up to a couple of gallons of water. I give gallon containers about 1/3 gallon of water. Three gallon pots get maybe a gallon of water.

lw

 

[igrowkushbitch]

I go with 1 gallon for 5-7 gallon pots.

 

[250wscrogger]

In my experience it takes about 0.25-0.30 gallons of water per gallon of soil...for well established plants in appropriately sized containers.

 

[simon]

About a 2 quarts for a 2gal pot.

Simon

 

[ibjamming]

There is NO "right amount to water...there is no "schedule" for watering. EVERY plant is a little different and requires a slightly different amount. Also, as the plant grows, it needs more and more water. For a seedling, it get's a tablespoon...for a tree it get's a few gallons.

there are no absolutes...it's an art AND a science. You'll get it, it takes experience.

 

[mtbazz]

there are no absolutes...it's an art AND a science. You'll get it, it takes experience.

ITs not really that I dont "get it", I was just wondering what others are doing.

Like I said, for a dry 5 gallon container I typically see runoff occurring when 1/3-1/2 gallon of water/nute solution is added to the container (they are gro bags btw).

 

[Cammy 2 Dope]

i gotta question about water...i got tap water chillin in some 2l's and they've been sitting out for over 24 hrs, they've been chillin for 3 days. Should that be okay to water them with?

and one more question, how do you low/up ph levels with homemade stuff? for water and soil

 

[southstreets]

i also had a question regarding this i also have some plants in bags i got some clones in a 1 gal bag i currently give it a quart of water per plant but this is my wquestion...when watering the plant and the water flows to the bottom of the "saucerdisc/waterufocatcher" if the water in the disc fills up and over flows a couple how would i be able to tell if im over watering it?

 

[kevinn]

I am growing in 5 gallon fabric pots with promix in a grow tent. I water every 3 days with 2-2.5 gallons of water but never see any run off, but pots are heavy. Think I am watering too much at one time. Should I be seeing run off i fabric pots like I would be plastic buckets ?

 

[shotalick]

water more often and less. Yeah, runoff is must. You have any drainage?

 

[kevinn]

25% perlite in ProMix.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I am growing in 5 gallon fabric pots with promix in a grow tent. I water every 3 days with 2-2.5 gallons of water but never see any run off, but pots are heavy. Think I am watering too much at one time. Should I be seeing run off i fabric pots like I would be plastic buckets ?

I've never been a fan of watering until runoff, it's like drowning the roots, imo. But I'm an old dinosaur, so what the fuck do I know? And my definition of heavy is probably quite different than yours, so it's impossible to quantify how much you should water. It's almost like asking, how long is a piece of string. The main thing is not to stress out over it, as long as your plants look good, you're doing good.

You made the move to fabric pots and that is absolutely the best thing you could have done to improve your plants.

 

[growsjoe1]

There are so many variables when considering when and how much to water. There is no ‘SET’ rule on how to go about it…This is how I do it. Edit(I'm in Living Soil)

This is my rule of thumb. Edit(I'm in Living Soil. I never allow my containers to dry out.)

5-10% of the soil volume for potting soils.

Small Containers with bigger plants need daily water.
Here's how to measure the amount of water per gallon of soil.

So how much water is 5% or 10%?
Use your soil volume to multiply by 5% or 10%
For example: 30 Gallons of soil = (30 gallons of soil x 5% = 1.5 gallons of water)

For instance. You have 10 gallon soil containers. You’ll probably water half of a gallon per watering, and you could even use a little less if you do this daily or the plant is not large yet.

Water when the lights turn on or in the morning and at a consistent time.

Just sticking to a watering routine can eliminate issues. It only becomes a problem when the routine leads to over-watering instead of paying attention to the plants and soils needs.

Think of soil moisture on a scale of 1-10. 1 being bone dry and 10 being muddy wet. We want to operate in the 3-7 range all day long, day in and day out. You can do this by calibrating automatic watering systems or by hand watering with a little intelligent thought.

I can water every day to every other day in small amounts.

The same grower with small plants could go a week.

I prefer less water and more often. The best drip systems are watering several times per day in small amounts. I hand water, usually every day or every other day, depending on container size, plant size, etc.

Little to no run-off…water slow and even like rain and not fast and rushed like a tsunami.

A large container with a small plant, error on the side of less water. A large plant and small container, error on the side of too much water

So many variables. Container size, plant size, What PHASE (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in?
What medium you're using, Relative Humidity, temperature. Ventilation and more.

Edit(I'm in Living Soil. I never allow my containers to dry out.)

 

[Ca++]

If a 5G is running off at 0.5G and less, then something is off.
Could be that this unknown soil has very little water retention.
Could be that is wasn't dry. Dry being subjective.
Could be that it was really dry, so watering quite quickly, allowed it to pass through the cracks.

Certainly, a 10% watering shouldn't lead to runoff. This is soil, not clay pebbles.

 

[shotalick]

Im using 11l pots, wattering with around 800ml. Every second day.

 

[mr.brunch]

This new peat free stuff is a whole new thing- I used to water a 20L with 2L water every third day with a little run off, now it’s more like 1.2L every other day, split into two waterings 5 minutes apart- with more run off

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

It's ludicrous to define a set amount of water per pot. That's noob stuff. World of nursery growing just doesn't work that way.

You water until you get a good runoff and are assured that ALL soil medium particles are saturated. For indoors it's a PITA but you do what you been doing for 55 years of gardening. I collect the water in plastic saucers, dump in a 5 gal. bucket and use on my indoor and outdoor plants.

 

[seedcollector420]

these are the girls at about 50 days from germination of seed

been running Coast of Maine Stonington, in the 10 Gallon Fabric Pots, and feeding a recharge every other watering.

I tend to water dechlorinated tap that has been ph'ed down to 6.3 and between 1/2 gallon and 3/4 gallon every time I water. My soil was moist, but the plants were good and healthy when i transplanted from solo cups, zero shock and for the next 7 weeks booming and stacking up.

for good measure, i would try to catch them right when the leaves start pointing up, and that means i can water a little less, but more often.

however, just after some of these pics were taken, i got the advice to water to runoff. I was hesitant at first, as they started to get above 20"- 24" i had not intentionally wanted to consider giving bigger drinks for them, so it was not ever on my list of good practices, just wasn't healthy soil does wonders i dont use any fertilizers or boosters or plant food.

im taking care of soil microbes best i can, added nematodes and lady bugs and handful of worms, im still playing with compost before i decide to top dress them.

On Day 51 I changed my habits, I watered all 5 plants, each with about a gallon of water, seeing runoff fair amount..... and for another day after, they looked perky happy..... until they just completely fell over from over watering. drooping and everything......it took 5-6 days to dry them out enough and they are still recovering from it,

had me fuuuuuuucked up thinking i killed them. the paranoia the dread the paranoia of choking out the roots and paranoia of getting root rot just a couple weeks before flipping them, because some master grower with decades said to water to runoff and i changed from taking care of soil and listening to a dipship who isnt with my plants gonna saturate to see results end up killing them,

i will post another go round here in a couple days,

no shit........i was ready to pull them out and start over


maybe it works for some people. im not going to go through that again.