Sag Man

Ok guys, I'm baffled! I have read in so many place on the net and in my grow book by Jorge Cervantes about the care that needs to be taken when watering plants, especially seedlings. But all I ever read is just that, be carefull.

The only other hard fact I have read is by Jorge but I believe it is more related to more mature plants than seedlings:

Water plant until you see roughly 25% run-off to make sure soil is thoroughly watered and all dry pockets are have been soaked. The reason this was presented that watering in such a manner would create a "siphon" type effect and draw in plentiful O2 to the roots and help flush out any nutrient salt buildups.

To set some parameters:

1. Standup Wardrobe closet grow (2' x 1 1/2')
2. Seedlings from 1 day to 3 weeks old
3. 1 1/2 qt. Pot
4. Well draining Jungle Grow Soil (Perlite, Peat Moss, Black Soil, etc) with about an additional 10% Perlite added, and a 3/4 inch layer of Scotts Charcoal on the bottom so assist in draining and potential oder.
5. Properly Ventilated with passive intakes, active exhaust with a 120mm inline Server Case fan.
6. Humidity at around 35% - 50%

With seedlings, would you add enough water to thoroughly soak this soil mix to the point of seeing it drain out the bottom? If not, then what would be the recommended amount? and roughly how often?

The perfect answer would be one that could recommend a solid quantity such as "oh, 1 cup every day". But I also now much of that depends on humidity, transpiration, ventilation, etc.

Thoughts?

Sureshot

You lost me at 1 1/2 qt.



Johnny Foreigner.

http://www.yahooka.com/forum/showthr...threadid=61780

^ These pots are substantially bigger than yours and so I would say that in your case I WOULD soak the pot through, that much run off is a lot though.

Just be sure to try and get into some sort of routine, canna dislikey shock.

SS

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Sag Man

Damned Foreigners!

Seriously though, my bad. Unfortunately, the pots that were purchased did not contain an "inches" label, only quarts. I would guess them as standard 6" pots though (I could also get off of my lazy ass and measure them too I guess ). I should have also spelled out "quarts" which might have clarified things a bit.



This definitely helps and is probably some of the best advice I have seen from a "how often" stand point. This was another item where the "expert" opinions differed. I can see the above making a lot of sense. This also goes along very well with SS's comment to "Just be sure to try and get into some sort of routine, canna dislikey shock.". Trying to get on a consistent, every day schedule would definitely be a routine.

Eh, this damned watering stuff is a black art, I swear!

Thanks guys for your help. Much appreciated.

flyboyscott68

OUr room is a lkittle bigger than moist since we are growing for three. We water every third day on seedlings and every week once transplanted. We wter just enough to wet the soil. Once in a while a little runs out, but that it sifonded offand disposed of. Just set a sedual that you cna live with. Some of us are in our room every day. Others like to leave the room alone for a couple of days. All depends on how much tiume you have. Just pick out whatever works for you. Good luck

BUDFORCE

I did not read anything but the first line. This is what I do. I give enough watter to the seedling to moisten the soil, then what I do is let the watter slowly dry up a bit, not bone dry mind ya, what I am doing here is stressing the seedling to drop its roots faster by forcing it to look deep for watter, as the watter drys the roots scramble to follow the watter to it's source, and I get lots of roots faster this way, and a bit of B1 seems to help with the beefyness of the taproot. A good root base is the foundation for all to come later! I do the same thing when dropping clones, to root faster so I can veg earlier...timing is essential in this business, the sooner you can get things accomplished the better, without chincing on quality of care or patience in the cycle, just getting to the 12/12 faster in the beginning subtracts days from expected harvest date.

Sag Man

Hehee, yeah, I tried to be pretty explicit with that subject.

Thanks for the insight to your techniques. That is some pretty interesting information you provided.

Out of curiosity, how would you define "moist" in your situation?

Sag

BUDFORCE

Moist to me is about 1/2 the hoding capacity of the medim, holding capacity is the ammount of watter the medium can retain without beginning "capilary action", or draining from the bottom...if you wish to know how to calculate holding capacity, email me at budforce21@aol.com...