How does slight underwatering affect flowering?

[Gjourney101]

I've adopted the belief that your girls will tell you when they're thirsty. Aside from the weight and the soil moisture, the leaves will begin to droop. Some times only slightly, and sometimes drastically. I water every 4-5 days. I monitor everyday though and this tends to happen on the 5th day. My question is, does this technique harm the plant? I don't wait for all the leaves to droop, just a few and only slightly.

[CaptainWiese91]

Im watering on the 4th or 5 day.
I have 30 L pots, so when they are in flower and I give them 1,5 L I still get run off and it takes those they to drink the pot.
I have one friend in particular he only water once a week.

I wait to they a slight droopy too. Not much but a little

[crunchyfrog]

Good question. I can share what I have experienced on my first grow. Pretty early in my grow, I started weighing my pots (5 gal) and I would wait until they got nearly completely dry, and then would water/feed one gallon, with some runoff. From about the 4th week of veg to about the 4th week of flowering, it was about every 4 days. I then started noticing that in flowering some of the stems would start bending pretty significantly and I think it was from lack of water. I then noticed that I was drying up in about 3 days and have been watering every 3 days for the last two weeks (going into week 7 of flowering today). I "feel" like the lack of water during the flowering "hurt" my plant more than in veg and at this point, I probably am going to try to avoid going as dry as I have in the past up until near harvest. For me, during the veg stage the plants were relatively bullet proof and during flowering, they appear much more sensitive. Given your experience, I am sure this is likely not much help, just sharing what I have experienced. Would like to hear what others have to say.

[Gjourney101]

I don't like seeing my girls completely slumped over and you're right it does seem much more detrimental in flowering. I think I'll water a day sooner than usual. The pot goes dry and I still wait for droopy leaves

[bboyfromwayback]

When I started growing I was drowning my girls with love which led me to the polar opposite of starving them which wasn’t good either. Now I prefer to water them every 2-3 days until slight runoff. If they need water sooner then the pots too small and if it takes longer then the pots too big. That’s what works for me but if I had to choose between the two, I’d rather they be slightly underwatered than overwatered.

[AccidentalGardener]

Watering is kinda like the Force, isn't it? You just gotta feel it, lol.

I hate seeing any of my growing things slumped over or drooping. It means they are stressed. I don't want anything that is trying to flower to be distracted looking for water - any kind of plant. My two 5-gal containers get water every day, but nutes only every 4th or so, and only half strength. I just use less water each time. Just enough till it dribbles out the bottom. In my experience with everyday plants is if you let them dry out, they don't like it. I read someplace that they might uptake too much food in the quest for water if they get desperate after they've dried out too much. The uppermost reaches suffer the most, so the taller plants tell me first. Same with indoor plants.
I notice that my 2 plants, somewhere in the middle of flower, plants which have shared the same everything since day-1 are now drinking different amounts. I notice they drink less after they get a haircut, which makes sense, because the water has fewer places it needs to go. And then there's the outside weather, which affects my grow area even though it's indoors. If it's humid or raining, they need less.

It's really up to each plant- any plant - no matter where it is, to tell us what it needs and when.
That's just my 2 cents. Don't have a lot of weed experience, but have a whole lot of container experience.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I've read that letting them go good and dry after flushing just before harvest helps with potency and with drying and curing. Aside from that, I can't think of any good reason to let them lack for moisture during the grow.

[bboyfromwayback]

That my method as well. I usually let them dry up after a good flush before giving them some dark time before harvest.

[Canuck147]

I water to runoff each time and let my plants tell me when to feed them - there are stages when they drink more than other times.