All sorts of great advice you’ve gotten. I’ll just add this…when the top half inch of soil is dry to the touch its time to check to see if you must water. The weight test mentioned before is best. Sometimes in a hot grow room during lights on the top part of the soil will dry out as the bottom stays very wet…so its good to check the container weight. ( mulch fixes this issue with uneven moisture levels.
I often run low on time, so i need to water quickly. I go through all the plants once with a small amount of water,( a third maybe) wetting the surface as much as possible and by the time I am done doing this (usually due to being distracted) it has been around 20 minutes or 30 minutes. Perfect. I go back through a second time and fill each contaner to the top quickly with water. I usually have my soil about 3/4 inch below the lip of the cup or container so whatever amount of water it takes to reach the top of that container works very well. By watering twice you will avoid dry pockets in the soil which can form when water follows roots( like highways) right out the bottom of the cup without wetting the soil much. All the substrate gets moist.
. Roots need as much air as water, and as soil dries it pulls fresh air down into the depths of the dirt. When you water the air is forced out and an air exchange occurs as the process repeats. Healthy roots, big fruits. When you see uniform light colors in plants, if it isn’t ph/ food issues its likely overwatering/ lack of O2 in the root zone.
Good call to up pot. That’s my go to fix.
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