Smart/Fabric pots and watering? Come read plz

[MountainBudz]

All you guys that are growing these huge yielding plants in smart pots please tell me the secret or ways you water them?

For some reason in the past year or so im having issues over watering my plants and for the fuck sakes of me ive done everything to correct it and still no hope. Better yes, but still not cured.

Ive went from gallon per 3 gallon container down to a cup of water and everything in between and even wait till they dry out for days and still its moist around the center of pot around the roots. Its like it never fucking dries out.

Things I have in check:

Yes very good ventilation.
Very good temps and humidity.
Plenty of fresh air.
80% promix, 20% ffof. I added a lot of perlite as well, almost 40% of the mix is perlite.

Things that concern me with watering:

Some of you guys say you only water a little bit at a time instead of saturating the entire pot to run off.

How does the bottom of the pot ever even recieve and water then? The tap root grows down, it needs water right??

My plants are currently almost a month in veg and have been suffering in and out of overwater symptoms/issues fkr a while now. The bottom half of the pot is dry as a bone ( this area has more perlite than the top portion) and has never been wet. Why? Because I dont wanna take a chance of overwatering. But i want my soil throughly moist. I am not comfortable any longer givibg a couple solo cups full of water at a time. Because the bottoms never get water... i thought about bottom watering but these guys getting huge yields in fabrics dont bottom water. They say they only feed/water the roots and dont let it runoff.

Whatever the issue its driving me nuts and im tired of fighting it. 15 years of growing and just now starting to run into problems. Experts please chime in and help me for christ sakes... please.

 

[chronosync]

How large are the plants? I had similar problems in coco at first. I learned not to fear transplanting, and to start in small containers and to step up gradually. My problem was putting new cuts in 3 gal pots. They werent getting too much water, they were just not getting enough OXOGEN.

 

[MountainBudz]

They went from solo cups to tall 3 gallon smart pots. I really don't think the size is too much as ill be running 12 plants per 4x4 tent. But I could be wrong.

 

[MountainBudz]

The sativas are ranging from 8 inches to a foot tall and the indicas are pretty much 8 inches and under. But lots of nodes. Just not that vigorous like im used too... They are under a 600 watt hortilix eye (my MH busted lol)..

 

[MountainBudz]

And in the last week or so i've running air pump in the water to oxygenate the water more which might be helping a tad. Too soon to tell. I have noticed that the soil has compressed a lot since I transplanted.

 

[MountainBudz]

Lastnight I actually went thru all containers softly squeezing the sides and breaking up the compressed soil.

 

[MountainBudz]

Just keep em coming guys, I want to hear from those that are growing nice yielders indoors in fabric pots.

My problem is far from being resolved right now haha

 

[Avinash.miles]

with all that perlite in there you aren't going to over water. get your media all wet and try to keep it that way aside from some light dryout around the surface of soil if you are not using mulch...
with 40% perlite in your mix you really don't need to worry about overwatering imo.

 

[Boyd Crowder]

what chrono said

 

[MountainBudz]

Well I agree with Chrono on the oxygen thing. But, I am not able to transplant them again. I don't have the soil nor the containers to transplant too. I think maybe I will try and keep loosening up the soil in the pots around the sides to get more oxygen in there until they fill out, keep feeding them oxygenated water and probably soak the bottoms that are dried out to give the roots a chance to spread to the bottoms and once the roots fill out the container then maybe there wont be any issues anymore. Because if you know the basics of watering then it honestly is hard to over water in fabric containers.

 

[MountainBudz]

I'm either going to take a sprayer and spray the bottom half and give it a soaking or let them sit for a few minutes in a tub of water to moisten them throughout.

 

[Vanilla Phoenix]

I grow in 3 gal smart pots using straight FF Happyfrog and they dry out pretty quickly. Most likely the reason I have noticed on increase in yeild...more waterings, more growth spurts.

I start my clones out in solo cups, then 1 gal containers, and then to final transplant in 3 gal smart pot. I, personally, wouldn't suggest going from solo cup straight to 3 gal container. You need to transplant to the correct size container for the size plant to get optimum growth. I also tried to skip the middle transplant back when I first started this hobby and had the same kinda results you seem to be getting.

For the record, I always water to run off with every watering, even when transplanting

 

[stoned-trout]

i have never had issues with fabric pots ..i water 2 times ..once to break soil resistance with small amount and second to finish the job....done deal...yeehaw

 

[MountainBudz]

I mean I can still get optimum growth skipping the middle transplant right? Its just going to take more time, right?

I mean its gonna fill in one way or the other shouldn't it?

Usually when using plastic containers I go from solo cups to one gallon, two gallon to three or 5. But this time I skimped out on it...

 

[MrBungle]

water around the edges mostly... and forget what other guys do.. do what works for you... if that includes a lil run off so they are thoroughly watered then do it

 

[MountainBudz]

Alright y'all as stupid as this may sound, I actually think I wasnt watering deeply enough.

When I transplanted early from the solo cups to the 3 gals, it was due to an over watering issue. During transplantation I never watered the soil in because the promix was already pretty moist.

My theory on this is;

Even though the soil I transplanted into was moist, it wasn't moist enough. I believe that the moisture in the soil evaporated quickly before the roots ever got a chance to venture out to new wet grounds. I never once gave them a thorough watering. I let the over watered plants sit in the new soil long enough to dry out and let the leaves perk up a bit. Then out of fear of over watering I watered very lightly for the last few weeks around the edges of the pots. I never gave my roots time to grow out, or give them the chance at least.

And the entire container being bone dry from the bottom to half up, I really believe they are deprived of water and the droopy leaves are actually due from UNDER watering

Why?

Because last night I actually said hell with it and tried watering one of them to runoff that looked over watered (and the soil was actually moist and cool to the touch) but only around the main root mass in the center. I just now got the opportunity to check them when the lights came on and the one I watered deep has already got new shoots begging to pop out and leaves standing up high and a good lush, healthy look to it.

I was just playing illusions with myself this whole time, starving the girls of what they need most. Water.

Tonight I will soak the rest of the girls bottoms and then lift to drip wastes (till the drip stops of course) and see what happens from there.

Thank you all very much for stopping by and giving me a hand and great advice... We all need that sometimes.

Plus rep will be given when I get on my laptop (phone wont let me for some reason) thanks!!!

 

[Granger2]

Well you did what I was going to recommend. Roots won't venture into dry soil. I don't know where this notion came from that somehow runoff is bad. I'm glad to see that you figured it out mostly on your own.

When transplanting, they need to be watered to runoff to settle the medium, etc. The term for this is "muddied in." Standard nursery/horticulture practice. Good luck. -granger

 

[MrBungle]

I ran into the same prob when I started smart pots... underwatering on the outside and overwatering on the inside.. it is devastating to the plant and your well being...

I started out by getting a watering can with an aerator to slow my watering down, and spread it out more (more dissolved oxygen too)... then I concentrated on the edges mostly and wrapped up with a few seconds in the middle.... I also got a lil fan and pointed it downwards so air flow made its way to the middle portion of the soil... You may have to water more often this way or not... I usually just pick up on a side of the pot and can tell when its ready for water...

once you get you get the watering down, youll understand why so many folks use em!

edit: I also switch up the amounts of water i give them... for my 5 gal smarties a big watering might be a gallon, while a light watering might be a quart or half gal....

 

[FunkBomb]

I have experience with 3 gallon fabric containers with either Happy Frog or Ocean Forest soil. They get 3/4 of a gallon for their watering and that does the trick very well. There may be some runoff from the bottoms of the pots and that is fine. The key is to water the soil slowly and evenly.

-Funk

 

[MountainBudz]

Well you did what I was going to recommend. Roots won't venture into dry soil. I don't know where this notion came from that somehow runoff is bad. I'm glad to see that you figured it out mostly on your own.

When transplanting, they need to be watered to runoff to settle the medium, etc. The term for this is "muddied in." Standard nursery/horticulture practice. Good luck. -granger

Hey Granger, I actually didn't water them in because the reason I transplanted them is that they were severely over watered. The soil however was damp, the bale of promix was not one of those dry powdery ones, it actually contained lot's of moisture.

I have worked in the greenhouses for years "not mmj" just flowers and veggies and must say that I have learned a lot just by doing so. I usually always water in.

However, the good news is right after I posted what I was going to try, I tried. They looked even worse by the time I was done. The next day though however they were perky as ever and the slow growth has really exploded since and they look so much more vigorous! I feel so much better now lol.

I think I will continue watering the way I did the other night, only not as much. I wanted to thoroughly soak the medium then to make sure I had no air pockets, dry spots and to allow the roots their chance to venture to the bottom.

I will say this about smart pots, or any container for that matter. I have always used shorter/wider pots rather than taller/deeper/slimmer pots. From doing plenty of research online, actually most people say the taller pots give them a bigger plant. Not in my case whatsoever....

They are all in 3 gallon containers and the short wider ones are so much bushier and all around wider plants and more growth opposed to the taller containers. I have 3 plants in the wider ones and they were add on's started about a week later. Surprised they passed the others up in growth lol. I do know from experience though in my guerilla holes outdoors, wider holes produce much larger plants than deep ones that are not so wide though....

I guess my advantage to this though will be more room in the tents since i'm running 12 per tent. Possibly11 or 10. I'm not sure yet.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help and advice. Means a lot to have good peeps around here tryin to help!