The truth about watering autos in 5 gallon fabric pots

I keep getting conflicting suggestions on how to water. I am using roots organic + 25℅ growstones. Center Solo cup sized light warrior for seedling.

At first I watered lightly and used the knuckle check. When they got about their 4th set, I watered to 10℅ runoff. 4 days later she was dieing from lack of water though she was 8' high and a bushy 10" wide at 20 days. She perked up after watering to 20℅ runoff.

Now my issue.
Some say to weigh the pot to see when it needs water. That could get old quickly with 6x 5-gal pots.
Some say to water it every day since it is hard to over water fabric pots. Couldn't that stress them?
Others say, since after 4 days they drooped, water after 3 and water more often as it gets bigger.

Has someone done autos starting in 5 gal fabric pots with soil?

My last auto in 5gal fabric used to get a full 2L bottle every 4-5 days , do you check your plants daily if so I would just say water when needed by using the lift pot method and knuckle deep soil test I think you will run into more issues watering daily then you will letting them dry up a little

Crisis Manager said:

I keep getting conflicting suggestions on how to water. I am using roots organic + 25℅ growstones. Center Solo cup sized light warrior for seedling.

At first I watered lightly and used the knuckle check. When they got about their 4th set, I watered to 10℅ runoff. 4 days later she was dieing from lack of water though she was 8' high and a bushy 10" wide at 20 days. She perked up after watering to 20℅ runoff.

Now my issue.
Some say to weigh the pot to see when it needs water. That could get old quickly with 6x 5-gal pots.
Some say to water it every day since it is hard to over water fabric pots. Couldn't that stress them?
Others say, since after 4 days they drooped, water after 3 and water more often as it gets bigger.

Has someone done autos starting in 5 gal fabric pots with soil?

Click to expand...

The logic of gauging soil moisture level by run-off is entirely flawed.
For example, go dry some potting mix right out. Completely bone dry. Now pour water into the pot. What will happen? 99% run-off. Why? Because it's really wet? No- because it's really dry. Potting mix will repel water when it's dry. This can actually make re-wetting a very dried out pot difficult. On a side note if you even need to do this, it can help to actually put the pot in a larger (sealed) bucked of water, so when the water runs out of your pot it will still be submerged. You may actually find your pot floats when you do this. It can actually take an hour or longer for the pot to stop floating/re-wet fully.

The only reason you should care about run-off is a rough gauge of knowing your soil is being flushed through (to avoid salt build up from fertilizers). However from the above information, you can gather that it's not an accurate measure if the soil is dry at the time.

There is no easy way to tell when your soil is wet enough. A lot of it you will need to learn by feel and intuition, based on knowing the thirst level of your plants, the behavior of your soil, knowing when you last watered, etc. It can be helpful though to just stick your finger into it (if you can, though you often can't in late stages with lots of roots and soil compaction, etc). You need to be aware that the surface will appear dryer than just below. This may actually be part of how you gauge the water level though, along with other details. You may use a system where you see the surface look dry and then wait until the next day, or etc.

To add a little more to the 'go by feel/intuition', try to learn the thirsty periods of your plant life cycle. In the mid to late flowering period, they can go from watering maybe every 2-3 days to every single day or it will wilt. Don't use that example as an exact recipe though; as it will come down to the size of your plants, size of your pots, composition of your soil (such as how much perlite or other aeration, etc).

If you can, watch the plants like a hawk. The leafs will tell you when they are a little or very thirsty. If you get it wrong one day and see a bit of sag, adjust your feel/intuition to try to get it right over the next week (and make note about the life cycle period you are in for the next grow).

One last thing I will add: weed is very thirsty. You are more likely to dehydrate it than drown it. As long as your soil has a good aeration component (so is not just 100% peat or something) then it will be less harmful to go over the top with water than to withhold it.

Youre overthinking it. And I hope this doesnt seem rude, but if lifting the pot up to see if it needs water is too much for you maybe you shouldnt grow. Its alot of work to do it really well, and if you arent willing to commit to it and put in the work then you wont get the rewards. Sometimes even if you put in all the hard work you still dont get anything because something can go wrong and ruin it at anytime.

Water the plant as much as it needs, when it needs it. I know this sounds douchey, but listen to the plants and they will tell you what they need. And they will need more water as they get bigger for sure. I dont water till runoff with my autos until they are as big as theyre gonna get usually

Actually one last thing to add to the above, for another tip: If you can (depending on bag/pot shape), try feeling in the drain holes. The bottom of the pot will usually be the driest. If you put your finger in the drain hole and it's dry, chances are the whole lot is. If it's soggy, probably sufficient moisture in the rest of the mix.

dynospec said:

Youre overthinking it. And I hope this doesnt seem rude, but if lifting the pot up to see if it needs water is too much for you maybe you shouldnt grow. Its alot of work to do it really well, and if you arent willing to commit to it and put in the work then you wont get the rewards. Sometimes even if you put in all the hard work you still dont get anything because something can go wrong and ruin it at anytime.

Water the plant as much as it needs, when it needs it. I know this sounds douchey, but listen to the plants and they will tell you what they need. And they will need more water as they get bigger for sure. I dont water till runoff with my autos until they are as big as theyre gonna get usually

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Sorry, maybe I should have left this in the Newbie section but it is an Autoflower grow. overthink it? Perhaps. But as a newbie I'd rather overthink it then under think it and kill something I've spent thousands of dollars trying to do. Yes I do think it's a bit rude. I am a newbie with zero previous background on growing with my first planting. Getting dressed down by a grow Pro is not going to be helpful. I have spent at least 200 hours reading conflicting reports about growing. I have spent over a 100 hours building and tending these plants. Sometimes hourly. I lifted each pot, one to two times a day and it still felt fine right up till the time they wilted. I tried a moisture probe. It said there was moisture 6 inches below the plant. I have an unwatered pot to compare it with. You can't listen if you don't know what they are saying.

Thank you for your helpful advice about not watering till you get runoff. Problem is , I have no idea how big they're going to get. As I'm going along I'm getting the idea that I'm not going to have enough room for all these plants. So maybe start the runoff at 5-6 weeks?

dl290485 said:

The logic of gauging soil moisture level by run-off is entirely flawed.
For example, go dry some potting mix right out. Completely bone dry. Now pour water into the pot. What will happen? 99% run-off. Why? Because it's really wet? No- because it's really dry. Potting mix will repel water when it's dry. This can actually make re-wetting a very dried out pot difficult. On a side note if you even need to do this, it can help to actually put the pot in a larger (sealed) bucked of water, so when the water runs out of your pot it will still be submerged. You may actually find your pot floats when you do this. It can actually take an hour or longer for the pot to stop floating/re-wet fully.

The only reason you should care about run-off is a rough gauge of knowing your soil is being flushed through (to avoid salt build up from fertilizers). However from the above information, you can gather that it's not an accurate measure if the soil is dry at the time.

There is no easy way to tell when your soil is wet enough. A lot of it you will need to learn by feel and intuition, based on knowing the thirst level of your plants, the behavior of your soil, knowing when you last watered, etc. It can be helpful though to just stick your finger into it (if you can, though you often can't in late stages with lots of roots and soil compaction, etc). You need to be aware that the surface will appear dryer than just below. This may actually be part of how you gauge the water level though, along with other details. You may use a system where you see the surface look dry and then wait until the next day, or etc.

To add a little more to the 'go by feel/intuition', try to learn the thirsty periods of your plant life cycle. In the mid to late flowering period, they can go from watering maybe every 2-3 days to every single day or it will wilt. Don't use that example as an exact recipe though; as it will come down to the size of your plants, size of your pots, composition of your soil (such as how much perlite or other aeration, etc).

If you can, watch the plants like a hawk. The leafs will tell you when they are a little or very thirsty. If you get it wrong one day and see a bit of sag, adjust your feel/intuition to try to get it right over the next week (and make note about the life cycle period you are in for the next grow).

One last thing I will add: weed is very thirsty. You are more likely to dehydrate it than drown it. As long as your soil has a good aeration component (so is not just 100% peat or something) then it will be less harmful to go over the top with water than to withhold it.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your advise. When I say I watered till run off, I don't mean I did it all at once. I put the water in a quart at at a time with a half hour break in between. The first two quarts, nothing came out. The third quart was 1/3 runoff.

Believe me, I've been checking them often. Trouble is with my humidity spiking every down time, it takes them a while to stop sagging after lights come on. The dehumidifier should be in within a day or two.

My oldest are a little over three weeks and filling the pot.

dl290485 said:

Actually one last thing to add to the above, for another tip: If you can (depending on bag/pot shape), try feeling in the drain holes. The bottom of the pot will usually be the driest. If you put your finger in the drain hole and it's dry, chances are the whole lot is. If it's soggy, probably sufficient moisture in the rest of the mix.

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Even after 4 days it was still damp cloth on the bottom. I have since proped them up with paper plate holders to get air under them. Holes? Not with fabric, right?

Meh screw fabric pots. I made the switch to spinout and haven't looked back.
With fabric pots though what I would do is throw them on top of watering trays. In a 5 gallon I'd generally need 3 liters to a gallon of water to get the soil totally hydrated. I'd just leave them be if there was any runoff. They usually wicked up any runoff within an hour or so.
For checking I just use a moisture probe. I've found that if you can figure out how to keep it right in the perfect zone your plants will love you for it.

Crisis Manager said:

Thank you for your advise. When I say I wanted till run off, I don't mean I did it all at once. I put the water in a quart at at a time with a half hour break in between. The first two quarts, nothing came out. The third quart was 1/3 runoff.

Believe me I've been checking them often. Trouble is with my humidity spiking every down time, it takes them a while to stop sagging after lights come on. The dehumidifier should be in within a day or two.

My oldest are a little over three weeks and filling the pot.

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Dude they look great!!
I have only used 5 gallon fabric for my autos and also not to sound rude but you are slightly over thinking it, it's just watering a plant.. when it comes to autos use the KISS method (keep it stupid simple) I don't ever water to run off and when my plants become full sized I usually never water more than 1.5 liters. Next time you water your baby's pick up the container and feel the weight now water it, lift it again, you'll notice a big difference in weight it'll be a lot heavier, now when you check the plants the next day lift the pots again if they seem super light water em, if not check again the next day, when I first started this same issue stressed me out and I didn't know how much to water if I should get run off or not then just stuck to the method I described and got in the habit of it inna couple weeks you'll get them hang of it man! I personally like to water less and more often rather than more and less often as well
Happy Growing

Yes. Is true I tend to overthink things. That is not being rude. Keep It Simple Stupid is why I used soil instead of Hydroponics. I will keep checking the weight so I will eventually be able to tell. I just want to be very careful not to disturb the root system when I lift the fabric pot. From what I understand plants don't like that.

For now I will try to get good at using the moisture probe. I was kind of afraid to use it because I didn't want to damage roots when I stuck it in the soil.

Watering to just before runoff makes a lot more sense to me.

Crisis Manager said:

Yes. Is true I tend to overthink things. That is not being rude. Keep It Simple Stupid is why I used soil instead of Hydroponics. I will keep checking the weight so I will eventually be able to tell. I just want to be very careful not to disturb the root system when I lift the fabric pot. From what I understand plants don't like that.

For now I will try to get good at using the moisture probe. I was kind of afraid to use it because I didn't want to damage roots when I stuck it in the soil.

Watering to just before runoff makes a lot more sense to me.

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Hell yea man use both the probe and weight check you'll like one better than the other in a couple weeks I personally don't trust the probes but also didn't give them enough time, as for picking up the pot and disturbing the roots... Nah won't happen that easily unless your deadlifting them like weights and throwing em back on the ground haha, you only have to lift about 2 inches off the ground and just be gentle like always

Crisis Manager said:

I put the water in a quart at at a time with a half hour break in between. The first two quarts, nothing came out. The third quart was 1/3 runoff.

View attachment 3888714

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I'm not even gonna pretend that I have a bunch of experience growing herb, but I will tell you from almost 20 years of experience as a horticulturist and botanist..
"Right or wrong". This is how I water plants. You will learn with practice what to look for, cause the plant will always tell you.. whether it be too late when you "hear" them or not.
I personally think there's no substitute for experience. I wouldn't ever say a plant needs this much water this often. Too many variables can come into play. Sure there's gonna be minimum standards, but in time you can pattern their needs to your particular circumstances.
Lifting them up to feel weight is something I do occasionally, but that's not how I gauge if a plant needs watered or not.. it's basically something I do as "troubleshooting" if that makes sense..?

Not saying this is the correct ideology, just what has worked for me so far..