soil getting dry in hours, thermometer question

I have 6 CFL's 26w in my rubber maid.. I think they produce decent amount of heat

my seedlings are inside party cups with drainage holes... and I water them in the morning with about 150ml of water.. enough to soak the soil .. and then I see some drain through the bottom...

after doing this, about 4-5 hrs later... the soil on the top is bone dry... is this normal?... am I suppsed to be watering it daily? because I Read of people not watering their soaked soil seedling cups for up to 2-3 weeks...

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Also.. I just bought a walmart acurite thermometer with hygro... (wired one)

Do I follow the "outdoor" or "indoor" temp?... the homescreen seems to default to "outdoor"

and my outdoor is always around 10 degrees hotter... indoor = 82-83 outdooe = "93-94"

your vegging in a rubbermaid....i bet thats creating a lot of heat and sometimes the heat can cause plastic to give of gasses that are bad for our girls. could be totally wrong but thats how i understand it.
as far as your thermometer, i really don't know sorry

What does that have to do with my watering concerns?

If the plant wilts its not getting enough water. Sounds like you have a sealed unit and are in need of some air flow.

yes cut holes in the side and create and exhaust ventilation and my girl gets watered every day sometimes twice a day different plants take different amounts of water

but u deffinately need a venilation system

the top of the soil will dry quite quik but that will be the heat evaporating it, under the soil it will still be moist, i water everyday, just watch not to overwater, you will know if your doing this because the leaves will hang over.

as for the thermometer, does it have a long lead on it with something on the end, cos the lead is wat you put outside then the actually thermometer takes the inside temp and the thing on the end of the lead takes the outside temp,
i have the lead going into my growbox and the thermometer on top so i can always see my temps without diturbing the plants.
hope this helps

littlewing said:

the top of the soil will dry quite quik but that will be the heat evaporating it, under the soil it will still be moist, i water everyday, just watch not to overwater, you will know if your doing this because the leaves will hang over.

as for the thermometer, does it have a long lead on it with something on the end, cos the lead is wat you put outside then the actually thermometer takes the inside temp and the thing on the end of the lead takes the outside temp,
i have the lead going into my growbox and the thermometer on top so i can always see my temps without diturbing the plants.
hope this helps

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thanks alot... helped quite a bit.... .I tried to dig with my fingers to feel whether the soil was moist below... couldnt tell and didnt want dig further down as I was afraid of touching a root.

and I figured out my thermometer question

I was going to leave the sensor insde and the unit outside... but I learned the hygrometer is on the unit itself..and not on the sensor... (are all models like that) how important is it to know the humidity?

mine inside the box reads about 35%

35 is fine. I try to keep mine at about that. It fluctuates in winter and summer. I go up to 60 sometimes.

i found the same thing, drying out REALLY quickly and yet it seemed that curing this was over watering. i found a small fan, just to move the air around helped. and they can look scary dry on top but still be quite moist underneath

kmoo said:

i found the same thing, drying out REALLY quickly and yet it seemed that curing this was over watering. i found a small fan, just to move the air around helped. and they can look scary dry on top but still be quite moist underneath

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You could always let it dry out till it starts to wilt then lift the pot to see how light it is.