Soil problem??

It's my first indoor grow in 5gal pails and my soil keeps going down almost 3 inches in 2 months , can anyone tell me why??
I usually plant directly in the ground in my garden so I haven't seen this before.
Does the plant eat the soil?? Haha

Allbr said:

It's my first indoor grow in 5gal pails and my soil keeps going down almost 3 inches in 2 months , can anyone tell me why??
I usually plant directly in the ground in my garden so I haven't seen this before.
Does the plant eat the soil?? Haha

Click to expand...

Do you cut the soil with perlite or other drainage increaser? If not , most soils will settle and compact a great deal.
Research soil conditioning for drainage.
Good luck.
FF

FastFreddi said:

Do you cut the soil with perlite or other drainage increaser? If not , most soils will settle and compact a great deal.
Research soil conditioning for drainage.
Good luck.
FF

Click to expand...

Yes is about 25% perlite. It's a FFOF blended with worm castings, sheep and cow compost, perlite

Allbr said:

Yes is about 25% perlite. It's a FFOF blended with worm castings, sheep and cow compost, perlite

Click to expand...

Ok, when you water, do you pour, flood the top soil and wait for it to drain and then remove? Or do you water slowly, allowing it thoroughly soak through....WITHOUT TOO MUCH RUNOFF?
FF

FastFreddi said:

Ok, when you water, do you pour, flood the top soil and wait for it to drain and then remove? Or do you water slowly, allowing it thoroughly soak through....WITHOUT TOO MUCH RUNOFF?
FF

Click to expand...

Not yelling lol, just emphasizing...too much runoff too many times will cause severe soil compaction.
Beyond that, I'm guessing your plant is indeed eating it....not really lol.
FF

FastFreddi said:

Not yelling lol, just emphasizing...too much runoff too many times will cause severe soil compaction.
Beyond that, I'm guessing your plant is indeed eating it....not really lol.
FF

Click to expand...

From what your saying I believe I'm watering too fast because I do have a lot of runoff most of the time

Believe it or not, one of the hardest aspects to get a handle on is proper irrigation of the soil...you are not alone.
Peace.
FF

FastFreddi said:

Believe it or not, one of the hardest aspects to get a handle on is proper irrigation of the soil...you are not alone.
Peace.
FF

Click to expand...

I believe it

Allbr said:

I believe it

Click to expand...

That's spot on information from @FastFreddi. Light, airy, fluffy, well draining medium that contains a network of air pockets for root development, watered very slowly to very slight run-off. I use FFOF/FFHF and perlite in my mix. It takes 7 shovelfuls to fill my 5 gal pts, 2.5 of which are perlite. Very little settling/compaction, with medium being held together by the root matrix. It may take ten minutes to water, so what.

quirk said:

That's spot on information from @FastFreddi. Light, airy, fluffy, well draining medium that contains a network of air pockets for root development, watered very slowly to very slight run-off. I use FFOF/FFHF and perlite in my mix. It takes 7 shovelfuls to fill my 5 gal pts, 2.5 of which are perlite. Very little settling/compaction, with medium being held together by the root matrix. It may take ten minutes to water, so what.

Click to expand...

Don't let your plant go out like that.

Its too young to be going out into the world wearing nothing.

Save its innocence. Put its pants back on.

Regardless of whether you water with a fire hose or a dropper, the roots will fill the pot and pull your medium together "shrinking" it in a way. I dont think your soil will shrink/compact any more than it has.

This is the tits for watering....



Super small holes in that shower head and just the right amount of flow. Both of them are way overpriced for what they are but well worth it considering how well they work.