How to relieve saturated/too tightly packed soil?

hey, I've got 5-gallon buckets filled with soil that was not mixed properly (doesn't have perlite or anything for drainage/aeration... stupid, I know, but at the time I was super broke and couldn't get everything). I fear the soil is now saturated, and since they are SCROG-ed, I can't transplant. The soil is still wet after 4 days of not watering (4 weeks into flower) which concerns me. I drilled a couple holes in the sides of the buckets, but that didn't seem to do much. Some of the smaller leaves are curled down and up, indicating moisture stress. Is there anything else I can do so my babes' roots can breathe better? Once again transplant is unfortunately not an option

thanks, any help is much appreciated!

Unfortunately, you can't turn the bad soil of a potted plant into good soil, at least not in any realistic time frame. You'll have to either put up with the problems or remove the screen and transplant.

ok, so they are transplanted into better soil (yesterday). Sadly it was a lot of stress/shock on 'em to take the screen off and re-pot. i'm afraid their growth may be stunted, and there's soil that got rubbed onto some of the buds... are they going to come back with a vengeance, or am i screwed? was it too late in flower for a transplant? (5 weeks)

chittychitty said:

ok, so they are transplanted into better soil (yesterday). Sadly it was a lot of stress/shock on 'em to take the screen off and re-pot. i'm afraid their growth may be stunted, and there's soil that got rubbed onto some of the buds... are they going to come back with a vengeance, or am i screwed? was it too late in flower for a transplant? (5 weeks)

Click to expand...

shit i would never transplant at that late stage especially with scrog. Anyway its done now ,to help with that saturated soil prob,run a couple osc fans pointed toward soil and add just a little hyd peroxide to your waterings as this puts some oxygen in soil again.

thanks, I will do that. yeah I never would think to transplant this late, but going 4-5 days without the soil drying whatsoever, I knew something was wrong. and all my other conditions are perfect -- good fert schedule, nice 70 degrees and 55% humidity, under 240w of LED. I figured, fuck it, it'd be worth the risk if they started filling out nicely. I'm goin' the DWC route next time anyway, so there should be plenty to make up =) specially with serious seeds chronic.