High everyone, I have read the FAQ Watering but havenât found information on this. I have some plants in 5-gallon textile pots (so the roots have more oxygen) and donât know how much water should I give them. I am giving them almost half gallon each, but next day rhey seem to be thirsty again. I have LED Quantum board, the temperatures are between 21 and 28 \C and humidity 60%. As there is no runoff available I donât know if I should give them more, thanks ⊠
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Iâm no expert but I water till thereâs a bit of run off then wait till they ask for more. I use the same pots, but 3 gallon. Never had an issue with overwatering.
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Thanks for the reply, do you also put something below the textile pots for the runoff? Do the posts resist getting wet? Thatâs why I water them less , to avoid a wet floor âŠ
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I am not good at watering either, I usually grow bottom self feeding. Doing an up pot the other day I noticed just how bad I was. The root ball was only 1/2 way down the pot, and the bottom 1/2 of the soil was virgin dry!
After the up pot I placed a pan under the new pots and watered till ârun offâ. I was SHOCKED at how much water they needed, over twice what I had been giving them. Been watering that way since, till run off, then till dryâŠ2 weeks now, made a HUGE difference already. Will be watching this thread to make sure I am doing it right, lol.
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Throw a cookie sheet it something under them to catch the run off if the bottom of your âroomâ isnât water proofâŠ
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Yes. I use shallow clear plastic things designed to go under potted house plants. Your local garden or home supply store should have something appropriate and affordable.
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I think it depends also on your mix.
Potting mixes can be still âthirstyâ after a watering if they have peat, vermiculite, pine bark nuggets or especially coco in a significant portion.
I always keep a tray under my reg walled pots to catch what runoff gathers there but it usually gets sucked up into the pot within a few minutes.
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Ya definitely want to see a bit of runoff to make sure extra salts etc are getting pushed out. A 5 gallon pot would probably take about around 4 litres (1 gallon) to be fully saturated, then donât water again until theyâre almost completely dry.
Sticking your finger down in the top couple inches of soil is a good way to check for dryness. If itâs at all moist up there you can be pretty confident the bottom is wet.
Also picking them up to judge the weight is good too, after a while youâll get a feel for whatâs dry. Youâd be surprised how light the pots can get before they start sagging!
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Applies to any âsoilâ grow. If you arenât getting at least some run-off, you arenât watering as deeply as possible. Lift your pots, and water to the point of run-off when they start to feel light. Grab some of that first run-off to use for checking ph.
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Therein lies the problem with using the âstick a finger in itâ method for watering. The ârightâ way to water is deep watering to the point of run-off (misnamed since itâs actually draining) when your plant begins to feel light.
The trick when using a peat based mix is getting the growing medium wet in the first place. Myself, when I first wet a fresh mix I add a touch of baby shampoo to the water to help break the surface tension of the water and help aide with saturating the peat which will want to stay dry otherwise.
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Yeah id say closer to a gallon a day. You got to water slow if theyre real dry or itll run off n out the fabric. Are the pots stiff like hard close to rootbound? Try to push sides of pots in to loosen the soil some then water. Once its a solid rootball you got to water slow or itll run off the top to the sides.
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The bottom too in this case a lot of times the bottom never gets wet. I sit the pots in tub so they can soak from underneath too when theure being stubborn.
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Oh and by the way nice plant. I can see an explosion there come flower time.
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Thanks everyone, really uaeful info ⊠
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Iâd say a lot of issues with watering can stem from the media drying out to much to cause what is called channeling ( path of least resistance) if dealing with five gallon pots and smaller I like to do a whole dunk of the pot into a five gallon bucket of water 1/2 filled or so for a couple of minutes every once in awhile then let it drain with a couple sticks across the top to hold the whole unit suspended while itâs dripping away ! That way one can help eliminate dry pockets in the mix.
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Good tip! One could use aloe in their waterings as well as a Castile soap ! Made myself a gallon of homemade soap earlier this year helps killing soft body insects as well , and itâs a potassium boost as well I put the Kabosch( spelling) on the weevil Like insects on the hollyhocks!
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Yo llevo un control exhaustivo del consumo de agua en macetas, las peso diariamente y controlo el consumo exacto. Para mi la mejor medida para riegos profundos es la que se consume en 3 dĂas, con esta medida, la media de agua en maceta, cuando la planta ya estĂĄ a pleno rendimiento, es de 1,6 hasta 2L para macetas de 7L, con macetas de 11L que son las que mĂĄs uso, voy desde los 2L hasta 2,6L, etc.
Para las macetas de tela uso platos con piedras de rio, va muy bien porque permite que el aire corra entre las raĂces que salen por la base.
SĂłlo riego por la base las primeras semanas de establecimiento en maceta para provocar que bajen las raĂces, tambiĂ©n riego por arriba pues uso mulch y mantengo mucha MM en la parte superior.
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Gracias paisano, quien me dirĂa que me hago un lĂo con los litros y tengo que traducirlo a galones 
, buen truco el de las piedras⊠
t
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Just for the record, I disagree with everyone who says water to runoff.
Iâm in 5 gallon fabric pots, and I give a half gallon every other day in early flower, and then up to a full gallon every other day as the plant grows in size and thirst
Watering to runoff is a hydroponic technique that is absolutely meaningless in soil grows, unless you fucked something up
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I agree, by measuring the water you can water deeply without having runoff.
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