Watering seedlings???

cannabis culture

cannabis culture

Well-Known Member
My seedlings are 4 days old from sprouting. I was wondering for watering; would it be okay and/or ideal for me to just spray the soil with a water bottle till it is really wet or moist? I heard a lot of poeple prefer this way to water their seedlings.
Or should I just water iit normally by pouring water into the solo cup till
I get some run off??
 
I would rather spray the soil, it'll be easier for me and to me it makes more sense when their young like this, they get enough water but not over doing it. Am I on the right track?? Anyone here water their seedlings by spraying?
 
I have a sandwich bag over my seedlings for the first week (post-sprouting). Ever 2-3 days, when it looks like the humidity is low, I'll pour some water in the cup. After I remove the sandwich bag, they grow bigger and start drinking more (as evidenced by dry soil) and I begin watering more. I only use my sprayer when I'm germinating seeds in paper towels and before the seed has sprouted, in effort to keep the soil moist and moveable. Umm...... you could spray-water, sure, but the water probably won't reach the tap root of a seedling. Just be gentle/slow/careful when pouring water into soft soil.
 
Yup I water with a sprayer for the first couple weeks, bottom of the soil barely gets wets if at all in a cup. I like to spray the leaves a few times a day and leave the water droplets on it since they love humidity at this stage. My little one is now 18 days old and just today, I filled the cup so water comes out the holes. O and she looks good.

DSCI0560.jpg
 
How big is your pot ?

I useally start mine out in Cup`s so they don't stay wet for too long, but yes misting the top soil is a good idea with small young seedlings

Will also make em wet under the leaves (where there pores is located) so its also like misting them at the same time, now I don't know how your humidity is, but seedlings do like it moist

And you don't want to "over water your small seedling with there small root net to start with either, so atleast don't over do it in the start, on the other hand you also want to water em good to make the hole pot/cup wet now and then, its a trail and run, and also depend a lot of the size of your pots, your temperature and RH, your medium and even light

A good thing to have around if you end up over watering them (witch actually is lack of oxygen in the medium) is hydrogen peroxide (the 3% works just fine)

http://hubpages.com/hub/Hydrogen-Peroxide-for-Plants


I like it when I have to water every 3-4 day, when they begin to dry out in less then 2 days and I have to water every day I like to repot em (this is in Veg and when all other factors is with in optimal conditions 24-26C and 50-60% RH) a big pot for a small seedling (etc 5 gallon) is often a bad idea if your not very careful and have a medium that drains well
 
cannabis culture said:
Do u personally mist the top of th soil or water by pouring in the first week or so? And also they are in solo cups, thx
Click to expand...

let em dry out so they are really light to lift, then water with a small Can/bottle until you see some run off, then wait them 3-5 days agin until they are dry and light to lift agin, in between it can be a good thing to mist em, when they are small, specially if you have a RH under 40% ?
 
the medium you put your seedling into should already be moist when you put it in, at least to get it through the first week, after that I mist/water every 3-5 days lightly =D
 
I use plastic see-through pint glasses, with lots of holes cut in the bottom for my seedlings. A pint works well until their first new pot, giving them plenty of depth (as long as you don't over water, so the roots are forced to fill the whole cup) to grow into.

I put them inside cardboard tubes to keep the light out, but I can easily remove that to let me check the roots. When you do that you often see the moisture on the inside too, which is a good indicator that you don't need to add more water. And obviously you can tell clearly when it's time to re-pot.
 
I use clear cups also, but put them in red cups. Anyway I mist spray the first week or ten days. After maybe 5 days the roots should actually be to the bottom of the cup. I set them in a pan of maybe 1.5" deep water for about a minute and let them suck it up from below.

I don't feel the "water until runoff" is really suited to tiny seedlings. Just too much water and soil stays wet too long. A half dozen squirts from above and set in water for a minute and I feel they are perfectly watered.
 
For seedlings is it the methodology for watering as vegging/flowering plants; I.e. wait till the soil is dry then water? Or do they need a lot more moisture in the soil then normal? Should I wait for the top of the soil to get dry to water again?
 
cannabis culture said:
My seedlings are 4 days old from sprouting. I was wondering for watering; would it be okay and/or ideal for me to just spray the soil with a water bottle till it is really wet or moist? I heard a lot of poeple prefer this way to water their seedlings.
Or should I just water iit normally by pouring water into the solo cup till
I get some run off??
Click to expand...


My temps are about 74-78, humidity is about 40-50%. I have 18 seedlings going right now: DJ short Blueberry and Original GPD. They were sprouted in paper towel and gently place in damp soil. As long as the soil is moist and/or the humidity is high enough your okay. I use a little peat moss in my soil to help during this stage, that way when it gets dry it still has enough water to keep the plant happy. I have found that solo cups are too small once the plant starts growing. I use 3/4 of a gallon, that way the roots stretch out and I don't have to transplant so soon. I us a small cup to water and keep the top of the soil from drying out (spraying would work to). The roots have plenty of water from inside the soil so the top drying out is my only concern. After the first 2 weeks they have rooted enough and need more water and I make sure to water them all the same amount (slowly). At this stage they start growing well. Picking them up to feel how light the pot is works too, but to have a scheudual would be better. Just remember the smaller the pot you us, the more often you have to water and the faster your seedling will root bound. Seedlings grow much larger root systems then clones.....if a seedling could talk it would ask you for a bigger pot! :)
 
cannabis culture said:
For seedlings is it the methodology for watering as vegging/flowering plants; I.e. wait till the soil is dry then water? Or do they need a lot more moisture in the soil then normal? Should I wait for the top of the soil to get dry to water again?
Click to expand...

I'd keep the top moist, its the driest part of the pot. After she starts growing 2nd and 3rd set of leaves you can watering more to soak the cup, then let it get dry enough before you water again!
 
Okay I just sprayed down the top soil but What would be signs of under watering & over watering these little seedlings? The classic "drooping" and curling seen in mature plants or what? Stems bent?
 
Over watering has the look of drooping leaves, under watering is when the entire leaf is drooping from the petiole (stem that attaches the leaf to the plant).
 
AimAim said:
I don't feel the "water until runoff" is really suited to tiny seedlings. Just too much water and soil stays wet too long. A half dozen squirts from above and set in water for a minute and I feel they are perfectly watered.
Click to expand...
good advice.
 
cannabis culture said:
For seedlings is it the methodology for watering as vegging/flowering plants; I.e. wait till the soil is dry then water? Or do they need a lot more moisture in the soil then normal? Should I wait for the top of the soil to get dry to water again?
Click to expand...

I'm currently experimenting with just that question. My current seedlings are being kept on a very hardcore low-water diet. No misting, just a wet towel in the cupboard to increase humidity a touch. They certainly aren't complaining so far. My hope is that it will improve my root growth and speed up the first few nodes, as my previous grows all seemed to me to stall a bit in their very early development.

I think that in the past I over-watered very slightly (good soil holds much more water than you imagine), so I'm going to take it to the other extreme and see how things go.
 
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