How to deal with excessively wet media (after the fact)

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
I do not have the answer, I wanted to make a thread on solutions. The best way to avoid this is to set up a well draining media so it is harder to over water.

But what if you have your stuff set up, and realize it may not work so well with the way you water? I have seen a few suggestions.

Im in a situation where my specific media does not preform well until the roots fill out the pot. It is also drain to waste hydro, so this is an issue because I fully saturate to run-off.

I have successfully stuck shis-kebabs into the soil to oxygenate it, poking many holes. It also helped to squish the pot and roll the media around, sucking some air into it I believe.

What would you do in this situation? My media is basically all peat and holds a ridiculous amount of water. Usually I just wait until the roots fill out and then droopy leaf’s stop.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Suggest adding more perlite next run. No vermiculite ever.
Yeah that’s the plan. ive been wondering really hard, vermiculite holds water but it’s chunky, wouldn’t that allow some extra oxygen than say just straight peat?
With that said this Pro mix bx is very light on perlite, probably could use an extra cup or two.
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Yeah that’s the plan. ive been wondering really hard, vermiculite holds water but it’s chunky, wouldn’t that allow some extra oxygen than say just straight peat?
With that said this Pro mix bx is very light on perlite, probably could use an extra cup or two.
BX is made to HOLD moisture. HP is designed to drain and dry faster. Vermiculite really holds on to water.
 

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
Just a thought.. Are you familiar with a wick system?

You could try wicking it from the bottom of the pot using a strip or two of capillary matting cut and placed appropriately for max air flow, if you wet it then it poke inside the medium it'll continue to draw moisture from the medium as it evaporates off the capillary.
 

mudballs

Well-Known Member
I do not have the answer, I wanted to make a thread on solutions. The best way to avoid this is to set up a well draining media so it is harder to over water.

But what if you have your stuff set up, and realize it may not work so well with the way you water? I have seen a few suggestions.

Im in a situation where my specific media does not preform well until the roots fill out the pot. It is also drain to waste hydro, so this is an issue because I fully saturate to run-off.

I have successfully stuck shis-kebabs into the soil to oxygenate it, poking many holes. It also helped to squish the pot and roll the media around, sucking some air into it I believe.

What would you do in this situation? My media is basically all peat and holds a ridiculous amount of water. Usually I just wait until the roots fill out and then droopy leaf’s stop.
How big a plant we talking?
full blown bare root transplant.prepare new home, even rinse off the roots gently before going into new medium. Bit shocking to both you and the plant when you first do a bare root transplant but boys to men.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
How big a plant we talking?
full blown bare root transplant.prepare new home, even rinse off the roots gently before going into new medium. Bit shocking to both you and the plant when you first do a bare root transplant but boys to men.
Way too lazy for that lmao. but not too big maybe 2ft. I should have mentioned it is not killing them, just droopy leaf’s for the first 2-3 days after watering.
 
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Star Dog

Well-Known Member
Just a thought.. Are you familiar with a wick system?

You could try wicking it from the bottom of the pot using a strip or two of capillary matting cut and placed appropriately for max air flow, if you wet it then it poke inside the medium it'll continue to draw moisture from the medium as it evaporates off the capillary.
I was preparing some brick coco over the weekend, once I'd prepared it i let it drain Sunday and Monday, last night I filled a 3ltr pot with it and poked a thin strip of wetted capillary matt in the bottom of the pot within a few minutes it started dripping.

I can't say how effective it would be but I certainly moves water/nutrients from sodden medium.
 

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
When my coco gets too wet where I can tell its compact or a pot is heavy and not aerating I simply let that plant almost dry out then go back to watering like normal and note the plant that is not taking as much water so you know to give it less water at a time or less frequently.

The joy of coco is it can be pretty much 100% saturated and still function perfectly. Obviously different qualities of coco will effect this and if there is or isn't perlite or other types of stuff mixed in with it.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
So the plants seemed like they just needed to fill the root zone out. I think this is just one of the quirks I’m going to have with nearly all peat media.

I love the fact i only have to water my DTW hydro every 3 days. The only downside to this is I believe I’ll have to up-pot more carefully.

They are doing well, thanks everyone for the tips.I also added some much needed inter-tent circulation, I believe that helped also.
 
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