Watering once per day VS watering twice per day

[newbutoldgrower75]

Hi guys and girls.
Just looking for a little advice on watering. I have 3 plants in 30litre pots with 70% coco 30% perlite under a 600w hps each and have been in 12/12 for nearly 2 weeks. Temperature is between 24 and 26 degree celsius and humidity 35% to 40%. My girls seem to be drinking a lot from 2 litres a day each a couple of days ago to 2,5 to 3 litres a day each the last couple of days. Is it better to feed them the whole lot in the one watering? or to break it up into two maybe 3 waterings? Also, would I need to worry about my plants being root bound? They were in veg for just over 2 months. Any help advice appreciated. Thanks

[crucialbunny]

I prefer to water until my container is saturated and I'm getting some runoff. Water travels the path of least resistance and I have seen where water will not travel to every area of a container because it follows only a certain path through the medium leaving areas dry. Different plants seem to have different needs in the amount of water they require so trying to have a "fits all" formula is a pipe dream. I have never harvested a plant where the container wasn't root bound. Many of us control our plant size by the area of the container it is in. With proper nutrition the plant remains healthy but won't normally grow larger than the pot will allow. If you have good drainage I think the saturation method will work fine for you.

[newbutoldgrower75]

I prefer to water until my container is saturated and I'm getting some runoff. Water travels the path of least resistance and I have seen where water will not travel to every area of a container because it follows only a certain path through the medium leaving areas dry.

I always water until I get some run off, but have been hand watering up until now, and its only been once in the morning an hour after lights on. I installed hydro halo's at th beginning of last potting just incase I needed to go away for a night or two. Also just incase the feeding became more frquent, I wanted to be prepared. I was also wondering about having dry spot in the coco last night. Would dry spots make the water drain out quicker or slower through the medium? And would more frquent watering help with getting less dry spots? Sorry if these questions sound dumb, just trying to get my head around it haha.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Different plants seem to have different needs in the amount of water they require so trying to have a "fits all" formula is a pipe dream. I have never harvested a plant where the container wasn't root bound. Many of us control our plant size by the area of the container it is in. With proper nutrition the plant remains healthy but won't normally grow larger than the pot will allow. If you have good drainage I think the saturation method will work fine for you.

I have sort of worked out from all the reading I have done in the last 6 months that different plants/strains require different enviroments, nutrients, watering schedules etc, but can be a bit of a brain overload haha. I have researched the strain(Incedible Bulk) and have been reading every bit of information I can find on it. Been trying to give my girls the best of everything that I can.
I never really had to deal with rootbound in the last 15 years, been growing straight in the ground outside, so they could grow as big as they wanted. But I never knew that they will only grow to their enviroment(pot size). I am just getting ready to start my first outdoor grow in pots, so that bit of information is perfectly timed and greatly appreciated. Do you have any tips you would part with in growing in pots outside(eg medium, nutrients, etc)? Was thinking of recycling my indoor grow medium, once I'm finished with it, and soil somehow..any ideas?
I definitely will be using the saturation method for my next grow, wish I had done it from the start in this grow. Thanks for all your help/advice buddy, appreciate you taking the time to reply.

[crucialbunny]

You'll hear a lot of talk here and other places about over watering in containers. If you use a soil that drains well you just won't have that problem and you can saturate your medium.I would much rather water more often than constantly worry that my plants are drowning. I always cover the bottom of my containers with pebbles to aid in drainage. Lots of coarse sand and pearlite in your soil and above all, no time released fertilizers. I miss the days of being able to grow in the ground because I could grow monsters. I'm confined to a balcony now so size & stealth are important. A 5 gallon container usually will keep my plants at around 4 feet. I gave my buddy some seedlings I started the same time I started this years grow and he put them in the ground and all of his are well over 8 feet now. I have some clones I put in 3 gallon pots and they have all stayed about 2 1/2 feet. I have become a convert to living soil in recent years and that has solved a lot of issues like PH and lock-out, so that is also something to consider. I have been making all my own nutrients and the only thing I purchase now is Epsom and blackstrap. I recycle all my old soils through my worm compost bin and that has been a huge difference maker. Best of luck on your next grow.

[newbutoldgrower75]

I think that is one of my biggest problems, you read and hear so much when you are researching that you become hesitant because you start doubting what you are doing.But I guess that will all start changing once I learn more and get more experience under my belt. I try to just stick to the one site now GWE as I do find the tutorials easy to understand and the people seem great in the Forum.
Im using coco 70% perlite 30% and the drainage seems good, always water until run off. Growing in the ground is much easier and cheaper, last grow 3.5lb off one plant, all i did was bury a dead sheep 12 months beforehand, soil was perfect. But I like the fact that you can control the environment etc indoors. And with a good feeding program and good medium, they grow a lot quicker thats for sure.
So I should be right growing in a 30litre(7.9gallon) pots then, dont really want them going over 4ft I dont think, indoor or outdoor. Just moved to suburbia, so no more growing 7 to 8ft christmas trees outdoors haha. What are your thoughts of growing autoflowers outside? Im new to the whole autoflower thing, just learning. And thanks for all the info on growing in pots outside in pots, especially the pot size and the soil mixture, saved me some research time.

[Cunjo420]

For me I water in morning with 3 liters of nutes in 25l pot. By 1 2 3 pm leaves drop and I have to water again. I'm growing outdoors so heat and light dries it faster

[newbutoldgrower75]

What sort of medium are you growing in buddy? I was watering in the morning 2 litres for each 30 litre pot per day up until the day I made this post, they took 4 litres per pot. I was just thinking before while in the tent, that maybe the girls became quite thirsty due to the stretching and the how much the bud sites have grown in the last 4 to 5 days? Also I have been gradually replacing 400w lights with 600w lights, which might have made a little difference in the consumption of water. I have been thinking of breaking up the watering similar to what you are doing, twice a day at 2 litres per pot and increse it from there when needed?

[Cunjo420]

newbutoldgrower75 tbh I do t even know its one of those garden soils for flowers. Black colour

[newbutoldgrower75]

Have a bit of an accident there buddy(blue tape)? Whats your drainage like? Just asking as your soil looks so compact and damp..

[Cunjo420]

Little bit runnof. But yea with time soil got little solid and used but nutes do the job

[Covid420]

You can't over water coco. Dependent on your availability to water, you can water 5 times a day. With coco you can also feed nutrients every watering. If you can only feed once or twice a day (like me working 12+ hour shifts 6 days a week) then feed at lights on. If you are able, break up the total watering throughout the day. Coco should never be allowed to dry out.

Lots of good information here:

Cocoforcannabis.com

I've spent hours taking notes on their every topic and my girls are happy plants.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thanks for the advice mate. Going to start watering up into 3 times a day to start off with, then work it out from there. How long should you leave between your last watering and lights out? I have done a lot of research myslef on that site as well, have found it very informative. But I have also done a lot of research on every other site out there as well, spent everyday for the first 2 months of lockdown researching, and still researching now haha. It helped me figure out the basics etc, but has also left me with a lot of questions due to conflicting information, misleading and bad information. I now try to stick to just the GWE site/forum as majority of the information is spot on and makes sense to me, plus the people are great. My opinion anyway. Cheers

[Covid420]

Juat gotta take the tide bits of info that work for you and compile your own style of growing. I was following ppm recommendations but I add a lot of different nutes as well. And dont use any micro compilations.

https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/watering_coco/

Here is some info. There is a chart on this page I'll post below as well

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thats what Im trying to do, but sometimes all that information does become confusing, thats why I like this Forum. Im on a feeding program that the company sent me, it has done right by me so far, actually Im quite impressed haha. But it didnt come with a watering schedule unfortunately.I keep my EC at around 2.0 then start lowering to 1.8 in the 6-7th week of flowering.
I use that same chart for my watering schedule, but I wanted to get other peoples opinions, once again to much rsearch haha.
Thanks again for the advice and taking the time to upload that chart, apprecite it.

[Covid420]

[Wjskush]

I like using cloth pots/ bags and go by feel of weight if I need to water . I over watered a few times with plastic pots so then I switched I think it made a big difference in my grow

[newbutoldgrower75]

What sort of medium are you using buddy. I have been looking at the cloth bags and was cosidering them for my next grow inside. What do you have the bags sitting on?