How to Water Pot Plants (for Maximum Yield)
As simple as it may seem, watering your pot plants correctly can be the difference between a successfully grown plant and harvest versus a weed plant that produces sub-poor buds. Let’s face it, nobody wants to fail at growing weed – you want the biggest, best buds possible. With a little guidance, you can learn how to water pot plants to get those big buds.
Pot plants should be watered when the top inch of soil is damp to dry. If all the marijuana leaves on the plant are drooping, that is another sign of the plant needing water. How you water pot plants will also depend on the type of soil you are using. An organic soil will need less watering compared to coco as the soil will hold onto the water better.
It sounds straightforward right? For the most part it is and as you grow more and more pot plants, you will get better at it. The great thing about growing marijuana is the plants are very hardy and can take a bit of abuse and still be able to bounce back quickly – once you realize something is not right.
In this article, I will talk about watering your pot plants as seedlings, in the vegetative and flowering stages and a bit of fertilizing as well. I will also touch on watering based on the different common soil types for growing weed.
How Often Do You Water Seedlings?
Assuming you have successfully gotten a seed to sprout a root and have planted the seed, now is the time to water it to make sure it keeps growing. Until the seed pops up out of the soil, make sure to keep it moist. Don’t let the soil dry out at this stage.
Once your seed pops out of the soil and the first two leaves start growing, you want to keep the soil wet.
At this stage, of the pot plant’s life it wouldn’t take much to lose the plant if you missed watering it for two or three days.
I prefer to water my plants around the same time every day. Every morning I check on my plants before I get ready for the day. This makes it easier to gauge how the plants are doing. If any adjustments are needed, it will be easier to identify this when you have a set watering schedule.
If you are using a medium like coco, you will want to check twice a day to see if watering is needed. Coco allows the water to flow through much easier than a soil. Considering a new plant/seedling has minimal roots, you should water a couple times a day if you are indeed using coco.
While watering and growing your seedling, be aware of how the new leaves are poised and growing. If the leaves are reaching for the lighting and seem to be growing, then you have the watering figured out.
Watch out of drooping leaves that are possibly changing color. Growth can also be stunted when the seedling is overwatered. Even though you want to soil wet, you don’t want to drown the plant.
So, to recap this section:
- When using soil, water the seedlings once a day minimum.
- When using coco, water twice a day as necessary.
- If the leaves start drooping, use less water. Alternatively, the leaves could be drooping because the plant wants more water. If you know you are watering quite a bit, then pull back on how much water you are using. If you feel you aren’t watering that much, then try using a bit more.
The great thing about pot plants is they react to watering within an hour so you should be able to troubleshoot if you are watering enough or too much, very quickly.
How Much Water Does a Plant Need Per Day?
Once the plant gets past the seedling stage, the demand for water increases as does the size of the pot plant.
I would consider your seedling not a seedling anymore after about 14 days. At this point, what you have is a marijuana plant in the vegetative stage.
In the vegetative stage, your pot plants are going to grow very quickly with the stems and stalks getting bigger and thicker. The amount of leaves growing will seem like they are doubling every week. To make sure your plant grows effectively, you need to pay close attention to how you water it.
If you are growing in coco, you can plan to water once to twice a day during the vegetative stage, especially if you are getting a good runoff after watering. The roots will be filling in amongst the coco and will be absorbing the water as the water flows through.
I would recommend starting to add fertilizer to the water after 14 days. I usually mix a weaker than recommended mixture for my plants just so I don’t over fertilize. If you are using coco and end up watering twice a day, you can fertilize once that day and use straight water for the other watering.
If you are using soil, even if it is mixed with perlite, I would shoot for watering once a day in the vegetative stage at the most. Depending on how the water flows through your soil, you might even water less than once a day.
I use soil and every day or two I stick my finger in the soil to check how wet it is. If it is very wet, I do not water. I typically water in the mornings but if I find the soil too wet, I check later in the day. Sometimes you just don’t need to water every day.
What I use for watering a plant in soil vs coco is less water since the water does sit in the soil. If you have good runoff in coco, you can water much more with less worry of it sitting and pooling in the pot.
As your plant starts getting bigger in the vegetative stage, you can offer more water each time you water. As mentioned earlier, your plant will tell you if it is thirsty or not by displaying drooping leaves and possibly the leaves turning yellow.
How Often Should You Water Pot Plants in the Flowering Stage?
I wanted to separate this section from the vegetative stage to point out a couple of different things.
When you flip the grow lights to 12/12 to have your pot plants go into the flowering stage, you can also change the fertilizer you use to one that promotes bigger buds.
Feel free to fertilize every time you water during this stage. You want the biggest yield possible and that’s how you will get them.
Also make sure to stop fertilizing about a week before you harvest. Keep watering, just don’t fertilize. You want to flush the buds with clean water at this point. It is believed this leads to smoother smoking and a better taste.
When your pot plant is in the flowering stage, your plant will still keep growing. It actually grows quite a bit. The buds will require a lot of fertilizer and water so the watering quantity will slightly increase for the first 4 weeks or so of flowering. After that, the watering will level off.
Again, you can identify if your plant is getting enough water by the look of the leaves whether they are turning color or drooping. That said, when you are close to harvesting the buds, be aware that the leaves will start turning yellow at that point and it’s not an issue of overwatering.
Recap for this section:
Keep the watering schedule you were following in the vegetative stage but consider offering a larger quantity of water for each watering.
It only makes sense that as the plant gets larger it will need more water.
How Often Should I Water My Indoor Pot Plants?
In my experience, indoor plants should be watered a bit less than if they are outdoors.
Follow the directions of this article, as it was based on my experience of growing plants indoors.
You can control how much watering is required by the type of grow medium you use. However, your plant requires water plain and simple. You never want to hold back on the amount of water you use if the plant wants more, give it more.
When using soil, it will require less than a coco medium or that of a mixture with both soil and perlite.
How Often Should I Water My Outdoor Pot Plants?
Watering pot plants outdoors is a bit of a balancing act as you will water based on how much it rains.
Even though the pot plants are outdoors, you can still over water them so just be aware of that. Watch for the signs I pointed out above.
Check your outdoor plants every day, if possible, and water them accordingly. With the plants being outside, I would use the finger in the ground method to see how wet the soil is.
Can You Overwater a Pot Plant? (How to Fix an Overwatered Pot Plant)
As mentioned earlier, if you are over watering your pot plants the leaves will droop and most likely start turning yellow.
If you notice either of these signs, you must pull back on how much you are watering and the grow medium you are using should be fixed.
Chances are, if you are overwatering, you are using soil. The best way to fix this problem is to make sure your plant pots have holes in them unless you are using fabric pots.
Then, what you should do is take the plants out of the pots and mix in at least a quarter of the soil with perlite. Use more if you have enough. Then replant the pot plant and resume your watering schedule.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to point out the important bits of information in this article for you.
- Water once a day unless the soil is very wet at the surface.
- Check the leaves on the plant. Are they drooping? If so, you should give the plant some water. If the leaves are turning yellow? Then you have been overwatering and will need to remedy that. Use the directions I provided above.
- If you are using coco as a plant medium, you can water more often as the water should flow through the pot more easily than when using soil.
- Stop adding fertilizer to the water about 7 to 10 days before harvesting.
Most importantly, you don’t want water sitting in the pot. If you are not having any runoff after watering and you feel you used enough water for that to happen, then fix the problem.
Good luck with watering your pot plants.
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