Experienced Indoor pot/soil growers plz help....watering?

So I'm a newbie...been growing indoors with soil and pots. On my 3rd grow....finally I'll be getting a respectable harvest. My first 2 grows were good learning experiences...I've dealt with bugs, hermies, light burn, nute burn, you name it.

On to my question: should I water to 15-20% runoff? Or just as needed? There doesn't seem to be a consensus. I'm in 3 gal pots and water til I see runoff.

So is it better saturate the pot/soil and wait 4-6 days to water again?

Or water in smaller amounts every 2-3 days?

You dont need alot of runoff...its just good to see some to make sure you have complete watering,no dry pockets etc.You need to make sure you have good drainage.Water frequency has alot of variables,but you need to be very careful not to overwater.Make sure the soil gets a chance to dry out some between waterings.

You're about to get bombarded with opinion. Honestly there are a ton of different ways to do a ton of different things man. If it isn't broke, why fix it? I bottom water whenever my plants are light. I also throw a cup of compost tea on them once a week....ish.

Littlebeezy said:

On to my question: should I water to 15-20% runoff?

Click to expand...

The nice thing about 20% runoff is that it will reduce your risk of salt buildup which can become a problem in early flower. Some people will "flush" when they switch to flower as a safeguard. Feeding with 20% runoff is the same thing, but doing less over the course of the grow.

If you dial in your nutrient strength so that you know you're not getting salt build up (or if you grow with an amended soil and the plant gets most nutes that way) you don't need runoff. It's just a matter of pragmatism. Some people just want to feed and not worry about it.

I have dialed mine in and tried no-runoff. My plants like being fed more and having the excess pushed out (refreshed/replaced) with fresh to a modest extent. I probably overfeed by 20% and counteract that with 20% runoff.

When I ran synthetic and dialed mine in - I did not water to run off.

Why? Are you overfeeding when you feed?
What are you using for nutrient?
How much are you using?

I water a measured amount everyday at lights on. It is enough to get the pot/plant to the next day at lights on.
I do this because I like to get as much o2 to the roots as I can.
It is better to water/feed less more often then to water mass amounts and let is sit for days to dry out. Your tempting fate with pH problems that will cause a lot of problems if it swings to low or to high to long......

Many methods work. I liked mine better (and had far better results) then the one az does.
He of course runs a different nutrient line then I did and many tell you to use to much so that's something you have to dial in your self.

Some nutrients tell you to and H&G is one and I ran that one testing it for a shop and NEVER liked it.....No matter what you did, it at some point turned your soil into a brick that did not like to take water.......They tell you it wont "salt" build up soil and tell you to use to high a ratio with 20% run through. That translates to the product running out 20% faster. (Your throwing away 20% in my book)

In soil you should be watering and feeding on alternating "waterings" anyway!
Water - feed - water - feed - etc. etc.

I no longer do ANY synthetic......It took to much time and money! I always ran organic runs right alongside the synthetics and then did some synthetic/organic along with the organic runs to see if I could increase the synthetic efficiency that way.
In the end I'm back to all organic, water only soil and will never look back or do "testing" again for anyone.
I don't care what synthetic guys say about yields.....I just had 4 HSO Blue Dreams about 4 ft tall in 5 gallon pots average 10.4 zips a plant.....and that's better then doubling the 1 zip per gallon of pot size rule of thumb.
This was in water only soils - 1 for veg and up pot from a 2 gallon (clone/seedling to solo to 1 gallon to 2 gallon) to the bloom soil in a 5 gallon - 10 days to let the roots get into the soil nicely and flip the time....

I do not have to go through a daily routine of mixing or measuring or testing or ANYTHING! I walk in, I water and inspect the plants when I water. Then walk away - done.

I recycle my soils and have to do only minor work doing so (even building them to start) only once at the end of the run. I have enough stored in plastic garbage cans to keep going as the old is re-amended and cooks for the next run. I run a perpetual harvest and take of over 2 lbs every 2 weeks in my personal op.

You decide