0:12

Ladies and gentlemen , stoners and growers

0:14

, welcome to a midnight rendezvous

0:16

like no other . I'm your host

0:18

, Socratesgrows , broadcasting

0:20

from a server in the heart of America . Join

0:23

me on this extraordinary journey to the lush

0:26

foliage of my autoflower garden

0:28

to learn how to grow your own to fire it home

0:30

. This is Autoflower Power

0:32

, the podcast that takes you deep into the

0:34

hidden realms of the horticultural marvels

0:36

that we call autos . On

0:39

this episode , we'll be discussing watering

0:41

for your autoflowers . I'll share how

0:43

to water your autoflowers at each stage

0:45

of their growth , how to recognize and solve

0:47

both overwatering and underwatering

0:50

issues . I'll also discuss

0:52

the benefits and drawbacks of topwatering

0:54

and sub-irrigation . Then we'll

0:56

wrap up the show with a little bit about

0:58

water quality , ph and

1:00

some last watering tips and

1:02

tricks to get your autoflower garden

1:04

dialed in . So sit

1:06

back and enjoy this episode of

1:09

Autoflower Power . Water

1:17

is a simple molecule , but it plays a vital

1:19

role in your autoflower garden . Beside

1:22

light , nutrients , oxygen

1:25

and heat , water fuels

1:27

your plants to its full potential . Understanding

1:30

watering autofowers will help you to elevate

1:33

your grow and avoid some very common mistakes

1:35

. Before we get to watering , I

1:37

just want to say thanks to everyone who wrote into the show over

1:39

the last week . I've gotten a bunch of great

1:41

questions and comments and I wanted to invite

1:43

anyone else who wanted to write in at SocratesGros

1:46

at protonmailcom . Also

1:49

, if you like the show , please share it with any fellow

1:51

gardeners who may be interested in autofowers

1:53

. I really appreciate it . Alright

1:55

, let's talk about watering . So

1:58

watering your autofowers is very

2:00

similar to watering any other cannabis plants

2:02

or any other plants , but there are a couple

2:04

things to take into consideration specifically

2:07

with autofowers when we consider watering

2:09

. Just like anything else , autofowers

2:12

are unique compared to photo period plants

2:14

in that they run a lot quicker

2:17

, they can take a lot more light

2:19

and they tend to be a bit

2:21

smaller in size . So let's

2:23

talk about each one of those factors in turn

2:25

and think about how that might affect watering

2:28

. So the speed of your plant

2:30

, basically going from seed to harvest

2:32

, is significantly quicker . You're

2:34

going to run through your vegetative stage

2:36

, your big growth stage , much , much

2:39

quicker than you will in a photo period plant

2:41

. That's why a lot of photo

2:43

period plants take a lot

2:45

longer to veg as opposed

2:47

to autofower plants

2:49

. So when we consider the quickness

2:51

of the autofowers , we've got to consider

2:54

that it's going to take more water in

2:56

that sort of like more sprint

2:58

versus a marathon type growth

3:01

period . So you're going to want

3:03

to consider , if you're coming from photo periods

3:05

, that you're going to probably want to do a little

3:08

bit more water and be a little bit more on top of

3:10

it . But in general , as far as plants go , you're

3:12

going to want to stay on top of these plants because they're going to want

3:14

their water . They're super quick and

3:17

you don't have time to catch up . This

3:19

is something we talk about with a lot

3:21

of environmental variables With

3:25

autofowers . Basically , if you stunt

3:28

them early on , you have issues

3:30

because you are on a timeline

3:32

. So basically they're going to flower

3:34

whenever they want to flower and they're only going to do

3:37

as much as you can get done in

3:39

that timeline . So you've got a very small period

3:41

of time to work with them . So autofowers

3:44

are a little

3:46

bit more speedy and we got to take that into consideration

3:48

when we're considering our watering

3:50

. It's a little bit more fussy . Overwatering

3:54

and underwatering can cause stunting

3:57

issues . So we want to make

3:59

sure that early on in the plant's life we're

4:01

not doing that . All right , let's

4:03

talk about size . Autofowers

4:07

tend to be smaller plants , but not always

4:09

. It depends on how we're growing

4:11

them and the strains that we're growing , but

4:14

generally smaller plants will require

4:16

less water than a similar

4:18

strain but a larger

4:21

plant . So if you're

4:23

thinking about growing an auto

4:25

, it's probably going

4:27

to be smaller . So overall , over the

4:29

course of its life it might take a little bit less water

4:31

but going back to the speed

4:33

, it might run through that water a little bit quicker

4:35

. These are just some guidelines to be thinking

4:38

about . Another big

4:40

factor as far as size goes is

4:42

the size of the pot . That's going to determine

4:44

a lot about how often you're going to have

4:46

to water and how much water you

4:49

can actually hold in that pot . So

4:51

when we're thinking about autofowers

4:53

, we're usually growing

4:55

in something between like a three gallon

4:58

or a five gallon pot . Those are

5:00

pretty good . They can hold enough moisture

5:02

for a while , for a couple of days , so

5:04

that you don't have to continuously water on

5:07

the hour , every hour like in a tiny pot . But

5:09

consider the size of your pot too

5:12

when considering your watering schedule . You're

5:15

going to want to avoid any kinds of extremes

5:17

from like super over watering to super

5:19

under watering or letting things dry back

5:21

too much , and you're going to want to be consistent

5:23

. You're going to want to check your watering every few days

5:26

, and I'm going to talk about that a little bit

5:28

more in watering by growth stage

5:30

in just a minute . I

5:32

do want to mention that consistency

5:34

with watering and making sure that you're on top

5:37

of it is really important

5:39

. They say that one of the best fertilizers is

5:41

a gardener's shadow , and

5:43

I think that's true . The more love you give

5:46

to your plants , the more you're on top of them

5:48

, the more you're making sure that things

5:50

are going correctly and they have what they

5:52

need . They're going to be happier plants . So

5:55

overall , I would say , be consistent

5:57

with your watering , be

5:59

in your garden , enjoy the process

6:01

and let's talk

6:03

about the stages of autoflowers

6:06

and kind of some specific needs of

6:08

watering in each stage . So

6:11

water is first introduced

6:13

at the seed stage . This is the germination

6:16

stage . You're going to want to make sure you're

6:18

using dechlorinated water

6:20

when you're germinating your seeds

6:23

. All that that means is that

6:25

if you're using tap water , you're going to let it

6:27

air out for 24 hours with some type

6:29

of open cap or in an open container

6:31

to let the chlorine get out

6:34

of the water . One

6:36

method you might do is soaking

6:38

your seeds . Again , you're going to want

6:40

to use dechlorinated water . Another

6:44

method that I like using is to

6:46

put your seeds into

6:48

toilet paper or a paper

6:50

towel , inside of like a DVD case

6:52

or something warm , and

6:54

let them germinate in there

6:56

, basically allowing the tap root to establish

6:59

itself in moist paper

7:01

. You're going to want to make sure

7:04

that the paper remains moist . Allowing

7:06

it to dry out will negatively

7:10

affect your germination , so

7:12

you want to just make sure that it's kept

7:14

wet in there Not like

7:16

sopping wet , but you do want it to be moist

7:18

. So while your

7:20

seed is germinating , you're going to

7:22

also want to consider pre soaking your

7:24

medium . You might even do this before you germinate

7:27

your seeds , depending what type of amendments

7:29

you're going to be using in them . Presoking

7:33

your soil does a few different things that you're

7:35

going to want for your plant . It

7:37

activates nutrients , so anything in that soil

7:39

it's going to keep them alive or activate any

7:42

sort of dry amendments and get them started

7:44

, even though it will take some time to really

7:47

break down and get into use . But

7:49

you're not going to need them right away . So doing

7:52

this during germination , giving yourself

7:54

a couple of weeks to let that stuff

7:56

break down and start activating , if you

7:58

will , in the soil is a great time

8:00

to do it because you're just germinating

8:02

your seeds and they won't need anything for that time period

8:05

. Additionally

8:08

, pre soaking your soil or your medium

8:10

, depending what you're using reduces air

8:12

pockets and any

8:14

dry areas . So when your plant

8:17

actually goes in there , you're making sure everything

8:19

is fairly evenly moist

8:21

. You don't want it sopping wet again , but you

8:23

do want to make sure that all

8:25

of your soil has been introduced to some moisture

8:28

so that there's no big dry areas

8:30

anywhere in there . Now

8:32

, while you're germinating your seeds , you're going to want to check

8:34

back in on that DVD case

8:37

or paper towel every

8:39

12 to 24 hour methods 24

8:42

hour methods every 24 hours

8:44

, just to make sure it is moist . If

8:46

it's not moist , just use a little

8:48

hand sprayer and spray

8:51

it . You don't want it super

8:53

wet , so make sure you're just adding a small

8:55

amount of liquid each time when

8:57

you're doing that . And again , your germination

9:00

shouldn't take more than 48 hours . So

9:04

I would say checking it maybe two or three times over

9:06

the course of a couple of days should do you good . If

9:09

you're soaking your seeds , don't soak them in there for a

9:11

long time . That's

9:13

just a way to soften up the

9:16

seed in preparation for germination

9:18

. The next stage

9:20

we're gonna reach is the seedling stage

9:23

. Aside from

9:25

flowering , this is the most vulnerable

9:27

stage in your auto flower's life . I

9:29

would say it's probably the most vulnerable . You

9:32

are trying to allow

9:35

your plants roots to establish

9:37

and acclimate to the medium

9:39

. You're getting your very first leaves

9:41

showing . It's showing above soil

9:43

, your stalk is beginning

9:45

to develop and your

9:48

leaves are starting to multiply . This

9:50

is really when you're starting to see the beginning of

9:52

your plants growth . You really

9:54

, really want to refrain from over watering

9:57

at this point . That's

9:59

why I think one great method during the seedling

10:01

stage is to use this two solo cup

10:03

method , which is basically using two

10:06

solo cups . One of them is gonna be a clear

10:08

interior cup with some drainage holes and

10:10

the exterior one is going to be opaque

10:13

, with no holes . You

10:16

basically fill the main cup

10:18

, the clear cup , with your

10:20

medium and you

10:22

could put some myco in there or

10:24

whatever you want . You're

10:26

just gonna water that once the seed

10:29

is in there , only through bottom watering . You're

10:31

just gonna put a little bit of water in the opaque

10:33

solo cup and you're gonna

10:35

place your clear solo cup in there

10:37

so that it can wick up through

10:39

those holes that we

10:42

put into the cup , into

10:44

your soil and just take up what it needs . You're just

10:46

gonna put that in there for maybe 20 minutes

10:48

at most , just making sure that the soil is fully

10:50

saturated , and

10:52

then you're gonna pull it out and you're gonna drain

10:55

the main solo cup before you put

10:57

the clear one in there to

11:00

continue doing its thing under the light . That

11:03

is a great way to make sure that you

11:05

are not over-watering your plant , because

11:08

one of the easiest ways to over-water your

11:10

plant is to have a little tiny plant in

11:12

a huge pot . It's

11:14

super easy to give

11:16

too much water to that little plant , to

11:18

disturb its roots and to

11:20

cause a lot of problems down the line , because

11:23

at this early stage it just can't handle

11:25

that much water intake and the roots

11:27

are super . They're just

11:29

developing , so they're super susceptible

11:31

to any disturbances . So

11:34

make sure you don't over-water at

11:36

this point . Humidity trumps watering

11:39

and make sure to check your plants

11:41

every maybe two days

11:43

just to make sure that they have enough moisture

11:46

and that there's no issues going on that you've

11:48

got to step in and take action on . Alright

11:52

, after the seedling stage comes the vegetative

11:54

stage . The vegetative stage is awesome

11:56

. This is where you're going to see explosive

11:59

growth . You're going to be growing , basically the scaffolding

12:01

for the flowers that you're eventually going to grow . This

12:04

is really the base of your plant . This is

12:06

where you see the major

12:08

jump in size for auto flowers

12:11

compared to any other plant . This

12:13

is going to basically be from day about

12:15

14 to day 35

12:18

, when you get into pre-flower . These are just kind

12:20

of loose numbers , so don't hold me to them , but

12:24

just kind of an idea of what to expect . During

12:27

the vegetative stage , there is an increased

12:29

need for water and nutrients because

12:32

the plant is pushing its growth so

12:34

quickly , you're going

12:36

to want to add more water . As the plants get bigger

12:38

, it's going to take up more water . It's going to

12:40

use more water . You're going

12:42

to see that your plant is drying out more and

12:45

this is why , if you're transplanting

12:48

from seedling into a bigger

12:50

pot a bigger pot

12:52

is a great idea right now it's going to be

12:54

able to hold more water . It's going to be able

12:56

to , for a longer period , sustain

12:59

your plant's water needs and it's also going

13:01

to be able to hold more nutrients

13:03

in its soil . Let's

13:06

talk about a few ways to

13:08

know when to water your auto

13:11

flowers or any plants really , especially

13:14

now that we're in the vegetative stage and our plants

13:16

have hopefully developed pretty well . Our roots

13:19

are pretty established and they're pretty solid

13:21

and they could take a little bit more

13:23

. I don't want to say a beating

13:26

, but they can take a little more

13:28

tussling around or whatever you want to call it

13:30

. The first way that you can

13:32

start doing this , depending on what types

13:34

of pots you use or what type of watering system

13:36

, is just to lift up the pot

13:38

after you've watered it and

13:40

get an idea of kind of how that feels . The

13:43

difference between a watered pot and an empty

13:45

pot is tremendous . I

13:48

don't know what the actual numbers are on there , but

13:50

you can definitely tell that a water

13:52

pot is heavy , it's hard to

13:54

pick up , and an empty pot basically feels

13:56

like it's empty . There's

13:59

nothing in there . You're basically pulling

14:01

up an empty bag . You

14:05

will very quickly get to know

14:07

if your plant is watered or not

14:09

, and if the plant is super

14:11

light , make sure you water it . If it still

14:13

feels relatively heavy , don't

14:16

water it . Just give it another day to

14:18

dry out a little bit more and let the plant do

14:20

its thing . Another method

14:22

that I really like is to

14:24

just stick your finger into the soil . The

14:27

top layer of your soil is where

14:29

it's going to dry out first , because it's

14:31

got exposure both to the light and

14:33

to airflow . This

14:35

might not be the case if you're using some type

14:37

of a mulch , but typically

14:40

your top soil is going to

14:42

dry out before anything in the interior

14:44

of the pot . You're

14:46

going to want to stick your finger maybe an

14:48

inch or two , maybe up to your second knuckle

14:50

, in there and see if you feel

14:52

any moisture or any coolness

14:54

or anything like that . If you do

14:56

, you know that your pot is still

14:59

fairly moist and you don't have to go

15:01

ahead and water it at that point . Wait

15:03

for it to be kind of dry a couple inches down

15:05

and then it's a good idea to water it . Don't

15:08

forget , the top soil will dry out first

15:10

, so don't water just based

15:12

on the looks of the top soil . It's super

15:14

deceiving and it's super easy to over water when

15:17

you're just looking at that and not checking

15:19

either the weight or the soil

15:22

below the surface . Another

15:24

thing that you can do is you can find fairly

15:26

inexpensive moisture meters . You

15:28

can get these at local stores or on

15:30

Amazon and

15:33

they're pretty useful . I don't typically

15:35

use them because you can use these other two methods

15:37

to pretty accurately check

15:39

whether or not you want your

15:41

plants to get more water

15:44

or just kind of keep doing their thing

15:46

At this stage in the vegetative

15:48

stage , I would recommend that you check

15:50

the pot , either with the finger method or the weight

15:53

method , maybe every couple days , just

15:55

to make sure everything's going well . They

15:57

will be wanting more water at this point , so

16:00

you really want to keep on top of it and

16:02

make sure that your plants have all the water that they need

16:04

during this vegetative stage so that you can grow

16:06

a really nice big plant , so

16:09

that during your flowering stage you'll have a lot

16:11

of room for your flowers to grow . All

16:14

right , we've made it to flower . Flowering

16:17

stage is always probably the

16:19

most rewarding , but it's also the most

16:22

demanding stage for your autoflower

16:24

grow . You're trying to

16:26

manage a smooth landing for

16:28

all the work you've done to make sure everything

16:30

ends up in the right place . You've

16:32

got awesome buds that smell beautiful

16:35

, look beautiful , will smoke beautiful , nice

16:38

big yields or flavors . Whatever

16:40

you're going for . During

16:43

the flowering stage , your plants still

16:45

want to drink a lot of water and uptake nutrients

16:48

, especially in early flower

16:50

and pre-flower , but your water needs

16:53

will drastically taper off

16:55

as you approach harvest . This

16:57

is actually one of the really good signs

17:00

that you can keep an

17:02

eye out for that your plants are

17:04

ready for harvest is that they will take

17:06

in a lot less water and do it a lot

17:09

more slowly . The

17:11

metabolic processes in the plant

17:14

are slowing down as the plant's dying

17:16

and it's no longer taking up water

17:19

at the same rate that it was before , because

17:21

it's not needing it at the same rate

17:23

that it was before . So make

17:25

sure that you are not over-watering your

17:28

autofowers during the late

17:30

flower stage . This is

17:32

the same as in the seedling stage . These two

17:34

are kind of like the most susceptible

17:37

to problems . When you are

17:39

dealing with autofowers

17:41

and watering , you want to make sure that

17:43

you've got low humidity in your tents during

17:46

flowering , and one of the ways to do that is

17:48

to keep your water in your pots somewhat

17:50

lower than you would the rest of the

17:52

grow . So just keep

17:55

that in mind . And before you

17:57

water during the flowering

17:59

stage , you want to triple check . I

18:01

would use maybe two or three methods at this

18:03

point just to make sure

18:05

that your medium is in fact dry enough and

18:08

you don't need to just wait another

18:10

day or two . At this point you're going to want

18:12

to be checking your water every two to

18:14

three days and you're going to want to make sure

18:16

that the medium is really dry

18:18

. You're going to want a little bit of a dry back period

18:20

not completely dry , but you do want it to get

18:22

somewhat dry and be careful because

18:25

you're really protecting your awesome new buds

18:28

at this point . So those

18:30

are the different stages of the autofower

18:32

life cycle and how to water for each

18:34

one of those . Next

18:38

up , I want to talk about recognizing

18:40

overwatering and underwatering

18:43

. This is super important

18:45

because , aside from nutrient feeding

18:47

issues , underwatering and overwatering

18:50

are some of the most common issues for new

18:52

growers , especially in the beginning . I

18:55

think the reason why is because

18:57

when we're growing for the first time , we want to

18:59

feel like we're doing something . People

19:02

just stand there and do something , but

19:04

a lot of times , really just

19:06

letting the plant do what it needs to do and not

19:08

interfering is probably the best thing and what the

19:10

plant actually needs . Both

19:12

overwatering and underwatering

19:14

can stunt your plant and slow it

19:17

down , and this will greatly

19:19

affect your plant's development . You

19:21

want to be careful , especially during the seedling

19:24

and late flower stages , like we just talked

19:26

about , that you

19:28

don't cause extra watering issues

19:30

that you're not forced to . You

19:33

don't want any unforced errors at this point

19:35

in the grow . One

19:37

difficulty is that overwatering and underwatering

19:40

actually will look pretty similar to new

19:42

growers . But I promise that

19:44

after a couple of runs and looking into

19:47

some pictures and with some information

19:49

under your belt , you're going to be able to tell the

19:51

difference between underwatering and overwatering pretty

19:54

quickly . I've both underwatered

19:56

and overwatered when I started growing

19:58

and now I can walk into somebody's grow

20:00

room and they can be like what's wrong with this ? Within

20:02

an instant I could say it's overwatered or

20:05

it's underwatered or whatever the watering

20:07

issue might be . Overwatering

20:10

, overwatering

20:12

your plants causes a lot of problems , but

20:15

the main one is that your plants

20:17

really need oxygen for your roots to

20:19

be able to develop and do their

20:21

job properly . Oversaturating

20:26

your medium is basically drowning your roots

20:28

. It's going to stunt

20:30

your auto plants and it's going to keep them from

20:32

developing to their full size . Remember

20:36

that we've only got a limited timeline with these

20:38

auto flowers , so we want to make sure that every

20:40

step of the way we're not overwatering

20:42

and stunting these guys , because we don't have time to

20:44

make that back up . Overwatering

20:48

occurs much , much , much

20:51

more frequently than underwatering

20:53

. For new growers , I would

20:55

say in my experience , typically

20:58

it's not one session of

21:00

watering that's going to get your plants to be overwatered

21:03

, but it's typically too much water

21:05

too frequently . Give

21:08

your plants a few extra days in between

21:10

to dry back

21:12

a little bit . It's just the constant barrage

21:15

of water that actually

21:17

causes the overwatering issues . What

21:20

are some of the symptoms of overwatering

21:24

? You will see your

21:26

plants become droopy . The

21:28

leaves will start just hanging

21:30

down . They're going to look heavy . They're going

21:32

to look like exactly what you would imagine a

21:34

leaf filled with too much water would

21:36

look like . As

21:39

overwatering progresses , your plants are

21:41

going to lose some of their green

21:43

and start turning yellow . That's

21:46

one thing that you can look out for is yellowing

21:48

leaves that are droopy and heavy looking

21:51

. Another

21:53

sign that you might be overwatering your

21:55

plants is that your plant just isn't growing

21:57

that fast . Auto flowers

22:00

are super quick , especially once you

22:02

hit the vegetative stage . If

22:05

they're not going the way you would experience

22:07

normally , or from a typical

22:09

strain that you've grown before or something you

22:11

might have seen online , there's a decent

22:13

chance that you're overwatering it and causing

22:15

stunting . What

22:18

are some solutions to

22:21

overwatering ? I know it sounds really

22:23

simple , but let your medium

22:25

dry back , basically

22:27

, give more time in between

22:29

waterings . You're

22:32

going to also want to check the weight of your

22:34

pot or use your fingers to tell if your plant

22:36

actually needs water , every

22:38

couple of days , just to confirm that

22:40

you're not overwatering your plant and that your plant

22:43

is in fact dry enough or light enough

22:45

. Next up , you

22:47

will want to water less frequently

22:50

. Again , overwatering

22:52

is typically not done in one

22:55

session , but too many sessions

22:57

, too frequently with too much water

22:59

. A big help will be

23:01

spacing out your watering sessions . Even

23:04

if you're spacing out your watering sessions , that doesn't

23:06

mean you should be spacing out your checking

23:08

in on your plant sessions . These are

23:10

two different things . Make sure you're always

23:12

checking your plants , but air

23:15

a little bit more on the side of less

23:17

water if you find yourself in an

23:19

overwatered situation . Also

23:22

, make sure your pot has a good amount of drainage

23:24

. Fabric pots are great

23:26

for this purpose . You

23:28

are going along with that . You also want to make sure that

23:30

your medium is porous enough to allow

23:32

drainage . I think with these tips

23:35

, you should be able to avoid overwatering

23:37

, which is a super common beginner

23:40

mistake that I think everyone has had at some point

23:42

and you will definitely

23:44

be able to conquer , so don't let that frustrate you

23:46

. Up next is underwatering

23:49

. It's a counterpart . Basically

23:52

, underwatering is just not providing your plant

23:54

with the necessary water to allow it to uptake

23:56

nutrients at an optimal rate and

23:59

produce photosynthesis and

24:01

keep up with the light and heat demands

24:03

for the growth potential

24:05

that your plant has . Underwatering

24:08

your plant again can stunt your plant

24:10

and lead it to smaller harvests in the end

24:12

. Not good . What are the symptoms

24:15

? All right , we

24:17

said that overwatering

24:20

is droopy , heavy-looking leaves , whereas

24:23

underwatering is

24:25

also drooping leaves . But you're going to see

24:27

more drooping towards the tips initially

24:30

, as opposed to the entire leaf . This

24:32

will be your first tip off that you are looking

24:34

at underwatering

24:36

versus overwatering . You'll

24:38

also notice that , as opposed to the fullness

24:40

or the heaviness of overwatering

24:43

leaves , that there's going to be

24:45

a dry crispiness to your

24:47

leaves . Think

24:50

of what dry leaves that have fallen off the trees look

24:52

like in fall . You can crumble them up in your

24:54

hands . Once you start seeing

24:56

that on your plant , it's a

24:58

pretty decent sign , as long as it's

25:00

not a nutrient deficiency , that

25:02

it is underwatering and definitely

25:04

not overwatering . A

25:07

general dead , lifeless look

25:09

to your plant is another

25:11

giveaway that your plant isn't getting

25:13

what it needs . What

25:15

can we do to resolve underwatering

25:18

? Pretty easy Just rewater the plant

25:20

but don't overwater it . You

25:22

can shock the plant if you're using the incorrect

25:25

water or too much water when it's coming

25:27

from an overdried period . Be

25:30

careful , watch your

25:32

plant come back to life and

25:34

make sure that you're not adding too much . Ramp

25:36

it up as you get back into it . You're

25:40

going to water more frequently and

25:42

with enough water to make sure that your

25:44

pot is heavy but it doesn't have too much

25:46

runoff . The opposite

25:49

of , if you are overwatering , lean

25:52

a little bit more towards more water

25:54

and more frequently , because it seems

25:56

like your thermometer , personally

25:58

, is running a little bit dry . Last

26:02

but not least , is considered using transplanting

26:05

methods from a smaller solo

26:07

cup to a larger pot , especially

26:09

if you're having issues in the seedling

26:11

phase . This can help you

26:13

a lot managing your water

26:15

intake in those smaller plants . That

26:19

is , underwatering and overwatering

26:22

. That should help you get past some of these pretty

26:24

common mistakes . Up

26:27

next , let's talk about top watering

26:29

and sub-irrigation . These

26:32

are two ways in which we can get water

26:34

into the medium itself . We could

26:36

either go through the top or through the bottom

26:38

. Basically are two options . So

26:41

let's begin with top watering . This is probably the most

26:43

common and most understood of

26:45

the ways to water With

26:48

top watering . Basically , you're gonna be using a

26:50

watering can or some

26:52

type of a sprayer A lot of guys

26:54

like using sprayers so you can have even a little bit

26:56

more control over the flow

26:59

of water versus a watering can

27:01

, which is a little susceptible to you Maybe tippying

27:03

over and the flow going in a little

27:05

bit rushed . So

27:08

you might wanna use a watering can or a sprayer

27:10

for this , and doing top watering

27:12

gives you full control . Top

27:15

watering also comes with the benefit of being

27:18

able to flush your medium to some

27:20

degree , which allows you to get excess

27:22

nutrients to drain out

27:24

through the bottom of the water . That is not

27:26

possible when you're feeding from the bottom , so

27:29

what you're doing is you're basically capturing some of these excess

27:31

salts in the water and pulling

27:33

them down through the bottom of the plant to

27:36

drain out so that they're no longer sitting in

27:38

the medium itself . That's

27:41

another great reason we might wanna

27:43

consider top watering at certain points or

27:45

throughout the entire process . Another

27:47

cool thing about top watering is you can so

27:49

easily add compost , teas

27:51

or any other liquid nutrients that you might be

27:53

working with , without worrying about

27:55

managing of reservoir or

27:58

any standing water . You

28:00

can mix it up to

28:03

whatever stage you're at and

28:05

you're ready to go . Top

28:07

watering also encourages the

28:10

root zone to grow and

28:12

have extra oxygen because the water is

28:14

pulling oxygen into the root zone

28:16

and into the medium and

28:19

it does allow for some really

28:21

nice root development when

28:23

you don't overwater your medium . It

28:25

also allows you to activate

28:27

any top dressings , any

28:30

dry amendments or anything that you might put on top of the

28:32

soil . All those do take some

28:35

water , some time

28:37

, some heat , to actually activate

28:39

, break down and become part

28:41

of the soil . So top

28:43

watering , if you're using dry

28:45

amendments , is almost a necessary thing

28:48

to get them going and

28:50

into your soil system . There

28:53

are a few downsides

28:55

to top watering too that I think are worth addressing

28:57

. One of the main

29:00

topics of this whole conversation and this

29:02

applies to top watering is you

29:04

are much more likely to overwater

29:06

when it comes to top watering

29:08

versus sub irrigation , because

29:11

you're fully in control of top watering

29:13

. It's gonna take more time . It's a lot more

29:15

manual labor when you're doing

29:17

this , versus feeding from this type

29:20

of reservoir or tank

29:22

where you're basically mixing a solution

29:24

and letting it do its own thing , where

29:27

you can kind of have a backup system . This

29:29

is any water that's going into your

29:31

system is put in there by hand by

29:33

you per plant . So that's

29:36

something to consider . If you have any

29:38

sort of time constraints or

29:41

you're opposed to spending

29:43

time watering your plants , this will be more time

29:45

consuming than sub irrigation . The

29:48

other downside is that we

29:50

aren't letting the plant control

29:52

the medium's moisture , and

29:54

I think that's a downside because we really

29:57

want the plants to kind of be able to tell us exactly

30:00

what they want , at what rate they want to

30:02

be able to take it up . So making your

30:04

auto flowers kind of more automatic

30:06

, I think , is something that's pretty cool that we

30:08

could do with our next topic , which is sub

30:10

irrigation . Sub

30:13

irrigation is cool . You're basically

30:15

filling your plants from the bottom . It's

30:17

using the medium to wake

30:19

up any water

30:21

from either a reservoir or a filling

30:23

tank or something like that , and

30:26

the plant itself is actually

30:28

both monitoring and

30:30

regulating the amount of water that the medium

30:32

takes in , so it's not gonna overwater itself

30:35

and as long as the tank is filled , you

30:37

won't under water your

30:39

plants either . So that prevents a

30:41

couple of big problems . Another

30:44

cool thing about sub irrigation is

30:46

that your

30:49

roots are gonna love it . Basically , sub

30:51

irrigation encourages your roots to

30:54

seek out the bottom of your containers

30:56

and the size of your containers and

30:58

create vigorous , big , healthy

31:01

roots that are well watered and are able

31:03

to take up nutrients and able to

31:05

spread and grow a big , large plant

31:07

. I've seen plants completely

31:10

take off once you put in sub

31:12

irrigation systems Really

31:15

cool . There's a lot

31:17

of different systems available . There's DIY

31:19

systems , there are

31:21

systems like the earth boxes

31:23

, which are bigger containers

31:25

. There's auto pots , there's AC

31:28

infinity water bases . There's

31:30

a bunch of different cool systems out

31:32

there for sub irrigation and

31:34

they're at a bunch of different price points

31:36

and I think it's something worthwhile

31:38

to look into at some point if

31:41

this sounds attractive to you . Now

31:44

, with all these upsides to sub irrigation , there

31:46

are a couple of downsides . I'll

31:48

start with one that we kind of mentioned before and that

31:51

is that there's no real natural flushing

31:53

process of the salts . If you have any buildup

31:55

in your medium , since the

31:57

plant is taking the water

32:00

from below , there's no way for it to

32:02

clear out . Basically

32:04

, your extra salt excess is gonna be

32:06

stuck

32:08

in the medium . There's nothing pouring

32:11

down or getting removed from

32:13

the system , it's only being added to . So

32:15

if you need to flush a

32:17

plant that is in a sub irrigation

32:20

system . You're gonna have to top water

32:22

. This takes me to my

32:24

second downside , which is if

32:27

you have a

32:29

system or a

32:32

nutrient line that is dry

32:35

amendments , you're gonna have to top

32:37

water still . So if you're top amending

32:39

soil or you're doing anything like that , you're

32:42

gonna have to still top water to activate

32:44

those amendments . This

32:46

is also additionally true if you're doing

32:48

compost teas . That's gonna be top

32:50

watered . And what I would do in these

32:53

cases because I do use different

32:57

types of sub irrigation along with dry

32:59

amendments and top amending , and

33:01

what I'll do for this is I'll let the

33:04

bases or the reservoir run

33:07

out and basically when it's time for the next

33:09

fill of the tank , I'll skip

33:11

that , I'll dry amend

33:13

the top of the pots

33:16

or the medium and I will water

33:18

that in and I will just do that manually

33:21

for maybe one or two feedings and

33:23

then I'll go back and I'll fill up the res again and

33:25

let that kind of do its things , because

33:28

the nutrients and the amendments

33:30

should be activated . Exact same

33:32

thing goes for compost

33:35

tea . You're just gonna wanna add the compost tea and

33:38

then go back to your reservoir once

33:40

you are ready . Let's

33:43

talk about water quality and some of

33:45

the ways we can get water and what to do with

33:47

it once we have it . Water

33:50

quality is very important to

33:52

your plants . Getting water

33:54

straight out of the tap that's got a lot of chlorine in there

33:57

and a lot of extra garbage is

33:59

not ideal for growing plants . It

34:01

could greatly reduce the

34:04

growth rate and even kill your plants

34:06

if you aren't careful about what you're putting

34:08

in there . So a

34:11

lot of great growers

34:13

and successful growers grow with

34:15

tap water . So I'm not saying you can't

34:17

use tap water , but if you do

34:20

use tap water , you're gonna wanna let it dechlorinate

34:22

and I think I mentioned

34:25

this earlier . But basically what you're gonna do is you're gonna let

34:27

that water sit out for at least 24

34:29

hours without a lid on it . So I

34:32

think milk jug containers or something

34:34

like that , you wanna have a few

34:36

on hand and you're gonna want to make sure that

34:38

that off gases or dechlorinates

34:40

for 24 hours . So when you put it into

34:43

your plants

34:45

they are nice and

34:47

clean . You

34:49

will also get the benefit

34:52

, when you let them sit for 24 hours , of

34:54

letting the tap water adjust to room

34:56

temperature . I would start with cold

34:58

water , because there's less issues

35:01

for minerals to be in there than in hot

35:03

water . So I run cold

35:05

water into containers

35:07

and then let those sit for 24 hours , typically

35:10

if I'm using tap water . If

35:13

you have issues with your tap

35:15

water , there's a couple things

35:17

you could do . I have a friend

35:20

who uses well water . He has

35:22

access to a well on his property and

35:24

he finds well water to be great

35:26

for growing his cannabis plants

35:29

. He does grow auto flowers and

35:31

they love his well water . I can attest

35:33

to that . If

35:37

you don't have access to

35:39

well water and

35:41

you don't have great tap water , another

35:43

option is to filter your water

35:45

with something called reverse osmosis

35:48

filtration . This is real

35:50

popular with growers and other

35:52

people who need a super clean water

35:54

, and what this does is it strips

35:56

everything out the chlorine , the

35:58

minerals , everything bad from

36:00

your water and it basically gets you down to

36:03

just pure H2O . This

36:05

is really good because it lets you start

36:07

from a completely blank slate . But

36:10

the issue with this is that your plants

36:12

do need minerals in there , so you're gonna

36:14

have to remineralize any

36:17

reverse osmosis water

36:19

that you make , or RO water is what you'll see

36:21

it commonly referred to . So

36:24

consider that there's gonna be a little bit more effort that goes

36:26

into RO water in

36:28

addition to just filtering it and paying

36:31

for those filters Up

36:34

. Next we need to discuss when discussing

36:36

water for auto flowers

36:38

is pH balance

36:40

. Ph is super

36:43

important to auto flower growers and

36:45

cannabis growers in general . Ph

36:48

stands for the potential of hydrogen

36:50

and basically what this tells us is

36:53

how acidic or how base a solution

36:55

is , or how base or acidic

36:57

a medium is . This is important

37:00

to keep in mind and we gotta keep this

37:02

within a certain range for our autos so

37:04

that they can uptake nutrients . The

37:06

reason why this is important is because

37:08

all the different nutrients that we're feeding

37:11

our plants all the stuff

37:13

in the dry amendments , all the stuff in the salt

37:15

amendments it can only be

37:17

used by the plant . The roots of

37:19

the plant can only absorb those

37:21

nutrients if it's in an environment

37:24

that is properly acidic

37:26

, slash base . So we

37:28

need to shoot for a proper pH

37:30

to make sure that we don't

37:32

lock out is what it's

37:35

called our nutrients , which is basically

37:37

our plants being unable to take

37:39

in any more nutrients and that's

37:41

caused by pH imbalance

37:43

. So we need to make sure our pH is definitely

37:45

in balance to have a beneficial

37:48

and strong root zone that's

37:50

healthy and able to uptake nutrients

37:53

. So

37:55

let's discuss briefly

37:57

how to pH your water . It's really

38:00

easy . You do need a couple of things for

38:02

this . You're gonna need a calibrated

38:05

pH meter . In

38:08

addition to that , you're gonna need some distilled

38:10

water which you can go get at Walmart

38:12

or the grocery store . You're

38:15

gonna need your own water to test this

38:17

is the actual water that you're gonna be testing and

38:19

you also need a pH up or pH

38:22

down solution . You

38:24

could find a lot of these in growth stores

38:27

and it will last you a very

38:29

, very long time . So

38:31

let's say you have a

38:33

calibrated pH meter . If

38:38

you haven't calibrated your pH meter in

38:40

a week or two weeks sometimes

38:42

up to a month , depending how often you

38:44

use it you're gonna wanna calibrate it . The

38:47

more accurate your pH meter , the

38:49

better your pH reading is

38:51

gonna come off and the better and more accurate

38:53

that your feeding is gonna be . So

38:55

calibrate your pH meter first . Next

38:59

, you're gonna want to test the water

39:01

that you're gonna be feeding to your

39:03

plant and basically

39:06

, you are just gonna put your meter

39:09

into the water . It's gonna give you a reading

39:11

and you will determine , based

39:14

on your medium and what the ideal

39:16

range is for both your medium and for

39:18

your nutrient line . What

39:20

you need to do next , whether

39:22

your pH is too low or too high

39:24

, this is where the pH

39:26

up or pH down come in . Ph

39:29

up pH down are gonna come in little

39:31

bottles . They're liquid and they're

39:33

gonna come with a little dropper and you're

39:35

gonna add just a tiny , tiny

39:38

, tiny , tiny amount

39:40

, a single drop to a couple

39:42

drops at a time . Before you retest

39:44

your water , I'm telling you , if

39:47

you put in more than maybe like four or five drops

39:49

into a gallon of water of

39:51

pH up or down , it could totally

39:53

swing your pH and you gotta

39:56

throw out that water . And what sucks

39:58

about that is that most of the time

40:00

, like we just talked about , you've let that water sit

40:02

out for 24 hours . So if you

40:04

don't have extra water on hand and you pH

40:06

your water way too high or way too low

40:08

, you're probably not gonna be able to get it back

40:10

into range and that water is basically

40:12

junk for your plant . So you wait till that time

40:15

In

40:18

a pinch , or if you got , you

40:20

know , for some reason you don't have

40:23

pH up or pH down for the

40:25

time being . You can use vinegar

40:27

for pH down or baking

40:29

soda to up your pH

40:32

. I wouldn't use these permanently , but

40:34

they can help in a

40:37

one or two time deal

40:39

. As

40:41

far as a pH in water

40:43

, I just want to say again small

40:46

adjustments are the key to this

40:48

. You want to add a little bit and

40:50

test it with your meter . In between

40:53

each meter reading , you want to rinse off your

40:55

meter with distilled water to make sure that

40:57

whatever reading you're getting is clean and

40:59

accurate . Just test , test

41:01

, test and make small , small adjustments

41:04

. It's worth the time putting in to make sure

41:06

you don't lock out your plants . Let's

41:09

go over a couple of last tips , a couple of recap

41:11

tips and some tricks that , when

41:14

you walk away , I think should help you . Don't

41:16

forget to de-chlorinate your tap water

41:18

for 24 hours . Let your water

41:21

sit with an open top for 24 hours

41:23

to make sure that all the chlorine dissipates

41:25

and comes to room temperature so that

41:27

your plants are happy to receive it and aren't

41:29

shocked by it . You can

41:31

use rainwater . Rainwater is great if you

41:33

have a collection system . It's super clean

41:36

, it's free of chlorine and

41:38

it is super

41:40

useful . It's great . It's got lots

41:42

of minerals that your plants are going to love . It's about the most

41:44

natural thing you could add to your garden . If

41:46

you can collect rainwater , it's a great

41:48

resource . If you're having

41:50

trouble with your tap water , consider

41:53

buying filtered water or buying

41:55

a filter . It can get a little expensive

41:57

and you've got to consider remineralizing , super

42:00

filtered or arroed water , but

42:02

it could be worth it if you don't have any other solutions

42:04

. Once a week

42:06

or so , considering adding some type

42:08

of an instant tea to

42:11

your watering schedule . This can

42:13

help with the microbial life in

42:15

your soil environment and it's really easy

42:17

. As long as you're already watering your plants

42:19

, don't forget

42:21

you don't want to be too rough and disturb

42:23

the soil or the early roots

42:26

in your seedling plants . Be careful

42:28

when watering . A spray nozzle

42:31

or a spray can might be a great

42:33

way to go to give your plants a

42:35

much lighter mist . Consider

42:38

using some type of a mulch to help retain

42:40

the water in your medium . This

42:42

will help you keep

42:44

your water in the side of your medium

42:47

for a longer time and you won't have

42:49

to water quite as frequently . Make

42:52

sure that when you adjust your pH , that you're doing

42:54

it a tiny bit at a time . Just add

42:56

a tiny bit of pH up or down and

42:59

then test . Then add a little

43:01

bit more and test . Don't do too much

43:03

or you're going to be wasting water and

43:06

always keep extra clean water

43:08

on hand . You don't know when you're going to pH

43:10

it up or down too much . You don't know when you're going

43:12

to add too much nutrient solution . You

43:15

don't know when you might just spill it or forget

43:17

to fill up another bottle . So if you need

43:20

typically five gallons of water , keep six

43:22

or seven on hand . It's always worth having

43:24

a couple backups when it comes to water . It's

43:26

always useful in your garden and it's great to have clean

43:29

stuff on hand . Thanks

43:36

for checking out this episode of the Auto

43:39

Flower Power Podcast , where we dove

43:41

into the essentials of watering your auto

43:43

flowers . We've covered

43:45

the unique watering needs of these resilient

43:47

plants , offering you strategies to sidestep

43:50

the common problems of over and

43:52

under watering , from

43:54

exploring the benefits of top watering and sub-arriation

43:57

to understanding the critical aspects of

43:59

water quality and pH adjustments

44:01

. If today's episode has

44:04

helped you on your gardening journey , please

44:06

share it with a friend or fellow gardener who's

44:08

passionate about auto flowers or cannabis

44:10

cultivation . I hope you've taken

44:12

something from this episode that you can directly

44:15

apply to your garden today to grow bigger

44:17

, more vigorous , monster and giant

44:20

plants . Check out the show

44:22

notes for this episode at SocratesGrovescom

44:25

slash water . You'll find

44:27

show notes and links to resources from

44:29

this episode there , or

44:31

feel free to email me at SocratesGroves

44:33

at protonmailcom . And

44:36

until next time , take

44:38

it easy . Bye

44:43

.