Is it okay to let the soil dry up before you water your plant again?

There are several ways to know when your soil is dry enough that different people feel comfortable with. Checking by pressing your finger down is the most common way. It is not the best. The reason for this is soil compaction. It is important for cannabis roots that there is the least compaction, especially if you container and area is poorly ventilated. I have been growing for many years and have seen all the problems. What 1 do is touch the top of soil and only dig very slightly. If the soil looks lighter brown at the top and rubbing your finger down just a bit and there's slight dampness, it is ready to water the next day or 2 max. If it takes much longer you either have too slow drying of the soil and there's various reasons for this, either grow room related or cannabisplant health related. Lifting the pot is risky because a human does not make perfect scale and these plants prefer the least disturbance. Remember how much water you poured the very last time you watered. All you have to remember is "ok, I added half the bottle last time so the next time should require around this amount not much more." This is only accurate if the first time you've measured water volume was when the soil was completely dry, 1 inch down. When the plant gets bigger, it can do irreparable damage if you wait too much longer after 1 inch down is fully dry. Plants start drinking faster and faster and transpire faster too, and then eventually slow down.

Also keep in mind, both transplant to a much larger pot, and near harvest, soil will stay wet longer than usual. The best way to know how much water is enough is to drill may holes evenly spaced all around your container especially at the bottom sides. Elevate your container on a block of sorts, and have that sit in a bowl, whatever size needed so your container doesnt drain on your floor DUH! Always let a bit of water run off. If you pour, then look, keep doing this when you get close to the known amount, you can succeed every time making sure there's only 1 cup or so of runoff

Run off is super important because if ensures there's no water logging and tells you you watered enough. Decent soil has a max moisture and with many holes and not watering too frequently, it is thus impossible to overwater. Keep in mind, cannabis when it gets over 2bweeks absolutely needs a fan

If you use miracle grow or promix and similar potting soil, you will notice soil stays moist longer than a lighter more porous soil like Rootfarm

I should also mention a terrible mistake people make when using potting soil. Hardly press the soil down when adding to a container. Pressing down brings too much potential for root rot suffocated roots. Even a seedling prefers hardly compacted soil. Many people think its a ph problem, I've grown amazing bud with city water ph of around 9 with 0 problems with the leaves. It's soil compaction that's the biggest killer. Best to start seedling and germination with low sodium spring water as city water is lower quality. If you start them good for at least 1 month, the rest is a breeze

This is all related to soil drying and needs to be posted places like here so people know why they are wasting their plants and prevent this wasted energy money environment

Here are my 3 King Kong's and 1 Highlands. 1 of them may actually be a White Russian which would be the shortest one. Oddly, the White Russian grows shorter for me than the Kong. I had a knat problem from some sick plants given to me, finally think I resolved it. They are hard to control if you dont lay out the sticks like this, right away. These 4 plants are all healthy but knats are known to transfer to different plants. Dont take the sticks for granted, put them everywhere even if no knats.

Some more pics

Hey man, I know you are new here, but you are pretty much talking to a wall in this thread. You are replying to a thread that has been dormant for 4 years. You'd get more visibility and replies to your posts if you started your own thread or joined into the conversation of a current and active thread.

Thats ok, its a relevant place to post, not concerned about many people replying or seeing

Kingkongbud said:

Thats ok, its a relevant place to post, not concerned about many people replying or seeing

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I've been growing for the first time lately, and have been especially interested in over/under watering. So thanks for posting all this on an old as shit thread. Seriously I learned a bit more than I would have otherwise. Made an account just to say that

5 gallon pot of soil = 1 gallon of water / last about 3-5 days depending on environment (heat etc..) / lift pot should be easy to tell if your are consistent daily when is right to water.

based off of a plant roughly 1 1/2 months old.

Kingkongbud said:

Thats ok, its a relevant place to post, not concerned about many people replying or seeing

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Hey bro. I appreciate your information. I've been looking up this topic for a hot minute and you explained it well. Plus, you have proof for the method. Just look at your plants. They look amazing. Thanks again.

Boomshak7 said:

Hey bro. I appreciate your information. I've been looking up this topic for a hot minute and you explained it well. Plus, you have proof for the method. Just look at your plants. They look amazing. Thanks again.

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Dude. C mon. Really? Your replying to a wall and those plants are harvested

You never want the roots to be DRY but you do want to let the soil/medium dry out a little before watering. Roots should always be moist.

Sometimes it's confusing when they talk about "dryback" time and stuff like that..