I keep my soil moist but not saturated, Good for the microbes. Sometimes there is a bit of run off if its is not wicked back up after about 10 mins i will remove it.
I always Ph my water Quality in quality out, I use lime in my soil mix but more for calcium not to buffer my lazyness lol. The Sohum living soil website even states to Ph the water between 6.0 and 6.5
You should check the Ph of rain water also due to the chemical compounds in the environment ( sulfuric acids from burning of fossil fuels and many other substances) The Ph can vary quite a bit. the link below is for the US but it shows how the Ph varies in different locations look to the bottom of the page.
Sativa to change the things I can, Indica to accept the things I can’t.
Yes @greentomato You’ve probably asked the most relevant question that applies to all soil or any solid medium grower for that matter!
watering (over or under) are apparently the most common causes of issues to growers (from various book and www sources)
So your question has many answers... including the ones given already! Each of the strategies given above by each of the above (Jack, Macky etc) all work well. The reason I believe for this is that they all apply their watering strategies consistently so their plants adapt to their given schedule to be as Effie isn’t as they can with it. The same as they do with the amount of light, heat, CO2 etc (see the 8 needs of the plant). As long as what you give is acceptable to the plant, as in too much too soon means waterlogged and then no air so root rotting problems etc
and so on.. too little too seldom and your plant wilts then sooner or later dies.. your job is to observe how much she drinks and how often.. this can be done through close observation and lifting the pot really tells you without doubt if the pots too light it’s definitely time to water.. if heavy still, it ain’t, so hold off..
One huge positive for you is you’ve chosen soil, the most forgiving way to grow, not always the easiest but it can be..
Other significant factors, mentioned already..
pot size - why?
smaller (<15L) = you’ll water more often when the plant is budding and growing at fast rates
bigger (20L upwards) = you have the option to water less often, if you wish
To run off or not?
this is to do more with salts and also where are you running off to..?
if feeding salts (or mineral based liquid feed) and you water til 10%max run off this is ok but can lead to a salt build up at the bottom of your pots if they sit in the run off and absorb it back. If the run off is going into a drain and away that’s not going to be an issue, but is a waste of nutrients potentially.
With water only (where the food is in the soil already) too much run off could be washing some of that food away if draining away. If left to sit in the pot it will be reabsorbed.
Other factors including plant thirst and evaporation rates will affect how prong the plant is sat in the run off. Observe this and you’ll see whose thirsty! And who isn’t!
So is there advantages to run off?
Well there can be.. but it’s a fine balance achieving run off and overwatering your or under watering your plants depending how often your watering your them.
I used to watch the Greenhouse grow videos (Arjan and Franco) years back and they’d say to let the plant dry up wks 3 and again wk 5 in flower to make her hungry and thirsty.. they’d lift the big plant up to show how light the large pot was ... then up the feed and let her have it!! Booooom they’d say what her go!
So basically there are lots of strategies out there bro.. find the one you want and don’t confuse it with what others are doing..!
For example, if you’re using microbes as your ‘feeding force’ maybe you don’t wanna risk dry soil, as it doesn’t make so much sense cos they don’t like dry soil.. if you’re feeding bottles nutes, you’re bypassing all that so maybe microbes aren’t the focus so much.. I hope this of some help and clarity lol
But you asked such a simple question, for which the simple answer is give her what she needs 😂
btw I’m in 20L soil currently, I water around 1.5 to 3L every other day for plants in flower depending on how they’re drinking, temps etc.. typically 2L but I grow variety so they don’t always drink the same.
Now I could go for 1L daily but that means watering daily.
Or I could go 3L every 3 days..
you see where I’m going.,
Each has pros and cons
make your grow the way you want it bro 😎
good luck and no more tough questions like that for at least a hour or two til I get me spliff rolled up ta 😉
Time to pop some more beans 😗
I’ve been trying to catch a bit of rain water and use that but then you even get conflicting views on using rainwater in an indoor grow
No conflict at all brother, it’s all I use and it’s zero carbon closed loop too.
Random acts of kindness make the world a better place
great answers, thanks 👍
I’m looking forward to trying some bigger pots!
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