Does my soil drain too well?

[coneoisser]

Hi there everyone,
Wondering if its possible that my soil drains too well. I have had problems with slow seedlings and was a bit worried about over watering but now think that they may not be getting enough water for long enough. A link to my previous thread is here with some pictures and background story.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/647623-newbie-advice-needed-have-read.html

So anyways I'm using organic potting mix with a fair bit of perlite and vermiculite maybe 15% or 7.5% each with a small amount of regular potting mix.
Have been watering when top two inches are dry. Have been monitoring soil closely lately and even two hours ater watering the soil kinda feels dry right down. It almost still looks wet and is kind of damp but I wouldnt say moist. This is a couple of inches down and looks like its like that all the way through. Is it possible that it is draining too well and not holding enough water in between waterings? You can see the size of my pots in my previous thread and when I water with 360mls of water I still get more than 10% runoff.

Also, I have been shaking the shit out of my water in a bottle to aerate it before I use it so that there is loads of tiny bubbles that dont get a chance to settle out before i use it. Will this be helping with oxygen dissolving in it and thus making it ok to water more freuently?

Still just so confused as to why these litle ladies dont wanna grow.

Peace all,
Coneoisseur

 

[theganjamonger]

Less perlite maybe get some manure in there.

 

[Doer]

Well, I read the other thread. There are hints that you had about temp etc, why ask again?

They grow by themselves. You can't force them. On a ebb and flood, we drain all the water out, so that ain't it. Follow the best advice and don't freek out.

Don't overfeed, don't over water. Here you are freeking about under watering. Almost impossible. And wilt fixes itself after some water, as you can see from other house plants.

Over watering, is still the problem, I think. But, you don't need two threads.

 

[galildoughty]

When checking that the top 2" are dry, the bottom 2" may still be holding water. Keep an eye for signs of wilting so you know there thirsty.

 

[coneoisser]

cheers for they prompt replies guys.
Ok, on an ebb and tide doesnt the water cycle through the tray 4-8 times per day though? My soil feels fairly dry after a few hours and I have been watering every 24-48 hours. Should I let it get bone dry for the first 3 inches before I water? because that is what it is like after 48 hrs. I'm suss on how dry it feels so soon after watering its almost like it needs to be treated like an ebb and flow. It rains heaps where I live, over the past few months have had 4-5 day spells of rail frequently and none of my potted plants have shown signs of not liking all that water so it seems weird that youd have to let mj plants get so dry, its not like its a cactus. I will take the advice though and give it even longer before I next water.
Thanks for reading the previous post, you will have seen that my temps really arent that bad. theyre 78-80 average lights on and 65-68 lights off, couple of spikes on occasions nothing over 90 and not more than an hour or two before it cools again. I have more than adequate lighting and ventilation and use pHed water. hehe its supposed to be a weed.
And I know you cant force them to grow, but it would be nice to see SOME change from time to time. they look the same as they did the day they popped up pretty much and I have read heaps on growing and tried to stick to all the rules especially the important ones. The setup wasnt cheap. Power consumtion isnt cheap and at this rate it will be a year before I can flower.

 

[coneoisser]

thanks galildoughty! pretty sure that its the same the whole way through. have dug fairly deep to check and it looks the same and no moisture underneath the pots either.

Would biting the bullet and switching to dwc/bubleponics be a good idea? like just get those out of that soil and start having full control over what is going on?

 

[Mr.Vega]

No..ur soil cant drain too well. . When I water it runs thru quickly...and clearly...some ppl grow in straight perlite. ....u just have to adjust ur feeding and watering accordingly

 

[kinddiesel]

take my advice. no need to shake the shit out of water, just let it sit over night before you use, and stop stressing. if you watch a plant grow it will not grow, and your doing every thing correct. with watering. just water them then get out of the room asap. look at them weekly only,

 

[firechile007]

I agree with kinddiesel. The less u mess with ur girls the better they will grow. It's good to monitor them but being an over-protective parent will just cause more problems. These wonderful plants are very resilient so relax. As for ur question on soil drainage... from the looks of ur previous thread u planted them way to early into those 5 gallon pots. If u havn't already take them out of those pots u should do it now. Put them into some cups or thoses seed starter kit trays until they grow at least a couple of inches then transplant into some 2-3 gallons. After they grow to about 7-12 inches then u should use the 5 gallon pots for the remainder of the grow. Yeah, the water is not reach their roots man. As for ur light setup, I would first use CFL bulbs for ur veg. stage not the 600w HPS bulbs. U should only really use them during the flowering stage and since they're so young still and due to the fact that create a lot of heat. U don't want to cook ur babies!!! By buying CFL bulbs u can fix ur temp issue and bring the bulb closer to the plants without damaging them. Recommend 2-3 inches from plant. Hope this helps.

P.S.- If u have any questions u should check out the other threads on proper lighting, feeding, watering, etc. because there is plenty of knowledgeable people on this site. Keep on growing

 

[coneoisser]

Thanks Firechile!

I thought after doing some reading that I should move them into smaller pots but in another thread people told me that now their in there that I should leave them and not mess with them any more. I have turned my light down to 400w to cool things down a bit and I also noticed today that even though the first few inches of soil kinda felt dry the bottom of the pot was still quite moist so decided to put off another water for a bit.

Going to take your advice however I had to re plant two of them in the same pots to cover more of the stems due to stretching and noticed the rootball would quite easily fill a small cup so would something around 25 fl oz be ok to transplant them into? that way I can lay an inch of soil down then the roots and fill around the edges.

Thanks again legend

 

[Doer]

cheers for they prompt replies guys.
Ok, on an ebb and tide doesnt the water cycle through the tray 4-8 times per day though? My soil feels fairly dry after a few hours and I have been watering every 24-48 hours. Should I let it get bone dry for the first 3 inches before I water? because that is what it is like after 48 hrs. I'm suss on how dry it feels so soon after watering its almost like it needs to be treated like an ebb and flow. It rains heaps where I live, over the past few months have had 4-5 day spells of rail frequently and none of my potted plants have shown signs of not liking all that water so it seems weird that youd have to let mj plants get so dry, its not like its a cactus. I will take the advice though and give it even longer before I next water.
Thanks for reading the previous post, you will have seen that my temps really arent that bad. theyre 78-80 average lights on and 65-68 lights off, couple of spikes on occasions nothing over 90 and not more than an hour or two before it cools again. I have more than adequate lighting and ventilation and use pHed water. hehe its supposed to be a weed.
And I know you cant force them to grow, but it would be nice to see SOME change from time to time. they look the same as they did the day they popped up pretty much and I have read heaps on growing and tried to stick to all the rules especially the important ones. The setup wasnt cheap. Power consumtion isnt cheap and at this rate it will be a year before I can flower.

It's more like a semi-arid cactus than you realize. Dude, this is a ditch weed. It grows anywhere and everywhere. Only humans can screws this up.

I'm gonna tell you something you may not believe, but, I struggled. So, I'll help you. There is an awful lot of bad advice and almost no rules. You have commercial interests up the yin-yang, that are only taking your money and killing your plants by recommending you start at 400 ppm. Death to cannabis. All this may work on other plants. But, plants are much more varied than mammals.

And even then you can't raise pig and goats the same, either. And since there is the matter of the law and an underground economy, I'm not sure anyone will tell their secrets. I found one for myself, the other day, and thought... too hard to explain.

All this is unique to your set up. If you wait till the very young plants gets thirty before you water, you are doing them a favor. You are manipulating their hormones to make them grow more roots down to the water.

It is then same as when we throw the photoperiod into 12/12. Hormone signals... auxins, gibreillins, etc control the plant.

So, no rules. All technique. Clean working condition. Rubber gloves if cloning or hands in live hydro, proper measuring tools, that's the main thing. Be very careful at every step.

It takes a while to get the routine. Don't try to Make them grow. Withhold the water to make them stronger. Don't worry about these, even. Start some new ones, also.

 

[coneoisser]

Well I couldnt wait for a reply, I noticed my cotyledons on one plant was starting to fade and yellow at the tip. transplanted them all into much smaller pots, got the roots near the bottom and buried those stems up to 3/4" of the cots. Gave them a good water. The two that I replanted due to stretching had smaller rootballs than the one I didnt and I think will be hurt the most by this and I hope they survive. The other one went in nicely and will hopefully make a full recovery. hoping that this is what they needed. have a good one guys.

 

[coneoisser]

Doer! I must have sent that reply at the same time as you! Cheers for the reply going to be way more sparse with water in the future, however, should I be liberal for a few days because I just transplanted?

 

[coneoisser]

Hey Rollitupians!

So I think we've made some headway into the source of my slow seedlings. BIG POTS. I dont know why but now that I have transplanted into smaller pots, they dont need to be watered so much. Its weird. When they were in the big pots the top few inches would be bone dry in a day yet its been 48 hrs since transplant and watering into way smaller pots and its all still moist. Dont think I'll even have to water tomorrow.

My seedlings still only have the one leaf apart from the cots, those two leaves are a bit droopy and the cots are definitely starting to go a bit yellow. I hope they will recover, any ideas why the cots are yellow? Hoping that the droop is from over watering and they will correct themselves when they get used to the smaller pots.

Have 2 WWxBB seed germing now as backup.

Comments greatly appreciated

Have a good one all