When and How to Water your Marijuana Plants

The task of watering the plants may seem like a simple job at first glance, but it is somewhat more complex than it seems, especially if you do not follow some guidelines. Everyone has overwatered marijuana plants with the thought that this way they will eat more and get bigger, and the only thing we do is damage the plant, its root system and even create fungi in the roots. Get a medical marijuana card from a verified doctor to grow your own marijuana plants.

But don’t worry, reading this article you will understand that it is not that difficult and that knowing a few things you will understand perfectly how to water your marijuana plants optimally and safely.

The first thing we should know is that the soil or substrate for marijuana has a special mixture, it is not like that of nurseries, which is mainly designed for rose bushes, geraniums, trees, or other plants. The soils or substrates for quality marijuana are composite substrates that usually have a mixture of several peats, coconut fiber, perlite, and basically humus. Each of these materials is added to the mixture because it has different physical and chemical properties from the rest, and what is sought with its mixture is to provide the substrate with a balance in terms of its permeability, drainage, porosity, water retention, oxygenation, fluffiness, etc.

But none of this will help if we do not water the substrate correctly, all these properties will deteriorate with time and watering. The two factors that most spoil the substrate and make it lose its physical-chemical properties are waterlogging or overwatering, and extreme dryness in the substrate.

At the end of the article, we explain why the excess and deficiency of irrigation spoil and hinder the irrigation tasks.

So how to properly water marijuana plants?

There is no specific number of days between irrigation and established irrigation. It will depend a lot on the substrate used, the pot, weather conditions, amount of water, etc.

To properly water your marijuana plants you must wet the substrate with water or a mixture of nutrients but without puddling, and wait for the substrate to dry for the next irrigation. We can easily “measure” this by weighing the weight of the pot or even digging a bit in the soil and putting your finger in to check the moisture in the lower layers of soil.

The amount of water is also relative, in growth they need less water than when they are in bloom, forming the buds. It is advisable to increase the amount of water instead of the frequency between waterings as they ask you to do so.

A good measure is to water slowly to make sure that the water wets the substrate even by watering the same pot several times to give it time to suck the water and stop when it starts to pour water through the drainage holes. In this way, we also manage to clean the accumulated salts at the bottom of the substrate at each irrigation.

We have already seen that reaching extremes with irrigation is bad for our land and marijuana plants, therefore, an attitude that every grower should have regarding irrigation would be to seek balance and never go to extremes. To achieve this we must have ways to measure or quantify the amount of water in the substrate and for that, we will look at two key factors: The appearance and weight of the substrate.

Four fundamental scenarios that we can find when watering:

1. Substrate with a wet and weighted appearance:

You do not have to water the plants, the soil still has water.
When we water in this state, what we do is further deteriorate the substrate and the roots. If we irrigate in this state we would notice that with a small amount of water the pot is already draining the irrigation water.

2. Substrate with a dry and weightless appearance:

Water the plants little by little so that the substrate becomes permeable again moistens and retains water.
If in this state your water is too fast without letting the water suck in the substrate, the water will fall between the holes that have been created without wetting the substrate, the water will fall through the drainage holes but the soil will not have been moistened.

3. Substrate with dry appearance but with weight:

Do not water. If the upper part were too dry, you could pour water with a sprayer, so we would only wet that surface layer, preventing it from drying out excessively.

4. Substrate with a damp appearance but without weight:

Here we must water. This is the state of the earth that we must look for to know when to water our marijuana plants. This is where we find the balance, the earth looks good because although it is dry, inside it still retains the necessary moisture.

As we can see, it is not so difficult to water correctly, since there are not so many cases that can arise but it is important to be very clear about what to do in each one of them. With this, we will get a stable substrate or soil for marijuana with which to get the maximum potential of our plants in each watering.

Tips for Watering Marijuana Plants and almost any Plant:

• Water slowly, even several times per pot if necessary. This way you will ensure that the water that you put in really wet the substrate and does not leak from the edges.
• Try not to stir the substrate too much or poke holes when pouring the water. Do it little by little to prevent the substrate from caking. The showers are great for this.
• Water your marijuana plants in the late afternoon, when the sun is not so hot, we do not want to cook the roots.
• Use warm water for irrigation 18-22ºC, hotter or colder values ​​could damage the roots of our plants.
• Never water underneath, with a dish, or by submerging the pot in water. Water from above and let gravity do its job.
• When we water our marijuana plants, remember that we must water the soil or substrate, not the stem of the plant.
• Watering can be a hassle, but there are many watering tools that will make your life easier.
• Remember that a withdrawal in time is a victory. If you are going to water “because it is your turn” and you see that it is not necessary, do not water, it is really going to be counterproductive.

As we have already said, both excesses and deficiencies are not good and we must seek a balance for the correct development of the roots and our plants. Here we tell you what are those extremes that we should not go to (excess irrigation and extreme dryness), why and what consequences they have on the plants and the substrate.

Excess of Irrigation in marijuana plants

In the case of excess water, what happens is that the oxygen contained in the substrate is displaced by the constant presence of water, causing thinner and weaker roots and greatly increasing the chances of creating root fungi that would greatly spoil our beloved plants.

Extreme dryness in the substrate

In this case, the soil or substrate is compressed, leaving holes without soil around the pot. This happens because the earth has been compressed and a large part of the materials contained in the substrate loses part of their physical properties and these become waterproof. In fact, this is an irreversible process and the soil will never have the same quality and properties again, even though we re-hydrate it and it will look the same again. But it is not that it is not worth it, it will continue to do its function, but not as efficiently as at the beginning.

With this article, we have been able to verify that irrigation is one of the most fundamental parts of growing marijuana plants and is closely linked to the health of the substrate and the plant. Knowing all this, you will have mastered the technique of irrigation for marijuana plants.