Watering tips for the rookie soil growers out there

Anyone have more inputs or corrections or ideas?

From my experience... (which is VERY limited, but feel I've learned tons from first few grows, and know this is one of the more mystic unknowns to the rookie, so why not share a little knowledge!?), these are the most key components to watering when starting from seed OR clone:

0) soil must be super loamie and fluffy with whatever floats your boat (e.g., perlite, peatmoss, coco, whatever), but still have some "dirt" mixed in. A good mix is somewhere around 50/30/20 peatmoss/perlite/worm castings or other organically rich soil.

1) don't over-water!!! This generally means frequency of waterings, not quantity per watering. Especially when young- just moist to touch at first, until one day, the plant's root system almost "turns on" and starts actually taking up water and demanding more. Might only water once during first two weeks, only losing water to evap slowly at first. Once plant has sprouted/rooted and started to take off, you need to wait for plant to get a little thirsty and droop some before adding more each time. A plant can get scary droopy and spring back within an hour, but not ideal of course. Might only need water once a week for a while, but then foliage builds, and demand increases. I get to needing a watering about every 2-3 days by time flip lights. This is where "you can't give the plant too much water" (i.e., you can soak the shit out of the soil and let it drain off the excess, but then you need to wait till it gets thirsty again!)

2) no nutes till maybe 3rd watering, maybe ~3rd or 4th set of leaves start

3) get a ph test kit (vial and drops) adjust ph to ~5.8 throughout grow, but can research and adjust for each stage like anything else. 5.8 +/- has been good for me though

4) ramp nutes up slowly- you can get a tds/ec meter, or you can start with fractions of the recommended dosages. A little goes a long way!

5) watch and read your babies! They will tell you what they need.

I've been informed that ph 5.8 is too low for soil, but haven't had any issues as far as i can tell.. my tap ph is 7.5-8, and nutes drop that to about 6.5ish, so parhaps that's more ideal?

ColoradoHighGrower said:

I've been informed that ph 5.8 is too low for soil, but haven't had any issues as far as i can tell.. my tap ph is 7.5-8, and nutes drop that to about 6.5ish, so parhaps that's more ideal?

Click to expand...

Like I said, 5.8 is hydro. Soil should never drop below 6, 6.5 is better, and that's the pH of the actual particles in the soil. If your soil is a proper pH you should absolutely not add any acids to your watering solution aside from nutrients if the plant asks for them. The very process of decomposition in soil releases humic and fulvic acids. In a soilless/hydro medium there is not any decomposition happening, ideally, thus you can drop the pH a bit which aids the absorption of heavy metals such as iron.

You may not see it now, but once the salts accumulate in the soil from the use of pH down, and unused nutrients, you'll begin to see calcium and phosphorus lockout. This will decrease your yield a lot. Everyone really should understand this graph.

Question? I just planted 10 germinated seeds in promix hp, I watered the soil really well last night and let it drain all day today and planted the seeds.. Will they be fine without water for a week or more.. I have them in a grow box I built with t5 light, it stays between 72-78 degrees. I appreciate any response. Thanks.

Bozy said:

Question? I just planted 10 germinated seeds in promix hp, I watered the soil really well last night and let it drain all day today and planted the seeds.. Will they be fine without water for a week or more.. I have them in a grow box I built with t5 light, it stays between 72-78 degrees. I appreciate any response. Thanks.

Click to expand...

You'll want to make sure the soil around the seed doesn't dry out for a while. So no, they will need water before a week is up more than likely. That would all depend on air circulation and humidity, and with how dry it is in a climate controlled area during the winter months, I'd say you need to water them every day.

What I do is start in peat pellets, you could use solo cups like most people do. I keep some water and a glass dropper from walmart (with all the scented oil and incents). I set them somewhere safe, but somewhere I wont forget about them, and keep a close eye on them. When they need water (before the soil appears dry) I just use the eyedropper to drop enough water on the surface to wet it again. If the seed dries out before it sprouts it will die.

Then when you see the seedling cracking the soil set it under the light with the light about 3-4 inches above it, and a very light breeze blowing in the room.

Thanks man, I'm sure this won't be the last question I have...its my first indoor grow, I had trouble with my previously g3rmed seeds, I tried roxul grodan 1" cubes and pretty sure they were overwatered. I didn't realize till it was to late how wet the cubes were.. so trying promix now and are worried About overwatering again.. .they are above ground this morning.

Also a question about nutrients?? I have GH box set of the three main ones flora veg, flora micro, and bloom.. there is also a root enhancer called (Rapid start).. when is it safe to start using??

use pro mix
use organic dry fertilzer
1-feel the weight of a fresh dry filled container(with drainage) of pro mix
2-divide the promix volume by four and add this amount
of water all at once to the top of the pro mix container, when absorbed
3feel the weight of a freshly watered container of pro mix
add Organicare organic chicken shit per package instructions
when seedling is transplanted.
when container feels like #1 add the same amount of water each time,
before plant wilts.
If you can control your humitdity
Foliar feed as desired while in veg.

money was no object tried shelves of systems and this is where I found the cheapest, easiest, and most successful
plant expressions ever., cost of ferts is less than 4 dollars per life span of a 5 week veg, 70 day flower plant in a 2.5 gallon container under 1000 watt lights with c02.

Thanks, can I use General Hydropnics (Rapid start) on the very delicate seedlings???

Thanks, can I use General Hydropnics (Rapid start) on the very delicate seedlings???

Also I had already planted the seeds before I got your post about dry organic fertilizer, so it is kind of hard to add now, until I transplant. Will the GH flora series be ok??

Bozy said:

Also I had already planted the seeds before I got your post about dry organic fertilizer, so it is kind of hard to add now, until I transplant. Will the GH flora series be ok??

Click to expand...

No you can top dress and water it in

ColoradoHighGrower said:

I've been informed that ph 5.8 is too low for soil, but haven't had any issues as far as i can tell.. my tap ph is 7.5-8, and nutes drop that to about 6.5ish, so parhaps that's more ideal?

Click to expand...

Most decent soils will buffer as long as the ph isn’t too far off. The only time I ph my water are my hydro rooms.

So the General Hydroponics flora series won't work for me in promix?

I feel like promix is just an expensive version of any reasonable home-made mix (e.g., peat/perlite/worm), idk though, no?

dtl420 said:

Like I said, 5.8 is hydro. Soil should never drop below 6, 6.5 is better, and that's the pH of the actual particles in the soil. If your soil is a proper pH you should absolutely not add any acids to your watering solution aside from nutrients if the plant asks for them. The very process of decomposition in soil releases humic and fulvic acids. In a soilless/hydro medium there is not any decomposition happening, ideally, thus you can drop the pH a bit which aids the absorption of heavy metals such as iron.

You may not see it now, but once the salts accumulate in the soil from the use of pH down, and unused nutrients, you'll begin to see calcium and phosphorus lockout. This will decrease your yield a lot. Everyone really should understand this graph.

Click to expand...

Seems like ph 6.5-7 is most ideal across the board?

@dtl420 thanks btw

ColoradoHighGrower said:

I feel like promix is just an expensive version of any reasonable home-made mix (e.g., peat/perlite/worm), idk though, no?

Click to expand...

My soil mix I love to use is, roots organic green fields and pro mix bx.

Bozy said:

Thanks, can I use General Hydropnics (Rapid start) on the very delicate seedlings???

Click to expand...

you can use any quality nutrient system when its time to feed.
watering promix is not guess work.
promix volume/4= water volume needed at each watering.

ColoradoHighGrower said:

I feel like promix is just an expensive version of any reasonable home-made mix (e.g., peat/perlite/worm), idk though, no?

Click to expand...

promix is perlite and peat , some starter ferts.
what does your cost of home made mix of perlite.peat/worm cost, assuming you have to purchase
the items to mix and continuously add?


I spend 25 dollars to fill around 15 containers= $1.60 per plant cycle
If I compost used promix for reuse next year= $ .80 cents per container life cycle
$2.80 fertilizer per container for life cycle of plant.

I never add anything but water when dry. less than $ 5 bucks per plant is not an expensive version of anything. It simply does not get
cheaper than this I find. I was willing to spend 10x that per plant and have even, money being no object. But I cannot find a better performing system in my room, incidentally its dirt cheap to maintain also.

chemphlegm said:

use pro mix
use organic dry fertilzer
1-feel the weight of a fresh dry filled container(with drainage) of pro mix
2-divide the promix volume by four and add this amount
of water all at once to the top of the pro mix container, when absorbed
3feel the weight of a freshly watered container of pro mix
add Organicare organic chicken shit per package instructions
when seedling is transplanted.
when container feels like #1 add the same amount of water each time,
before plant wilts.
If you can control your humitdity
Foliar feed as desired while in veg.

money was no object tried shelves of systems and this is where I found the cheapest, easiest, and most successful
plant expressions ever., cost of ferts is less than 4 dollars per life span of a 5 week veg, 70 day flower plant in a 2.5 gallon container under 1000 watt lights with c02.

Click to expand...

hey, i was wondering when u say a container of dry promix does that mean bone dry?