water Bottom watering

[SnakeDoc]

I've read about how bottom watering is good for pepper plants since it prevents over watering, but how much water should you put in the pan of a 72 cell seed starting kit to do this?

 

[rainbowberry]

I only give enough water until they can't drink it up anymore with bottom watering but I haven't done it with seedlings.

 

[patrick]

When you're starting seeds you need to keep them moist. Bottom watering is when you have roots. It encourages them to go deeper.

Get yourself a misting bottle and mist the top of the soil. Good luck.

 

[thepodpiper]

I let mine sit until I see the top start to get wet.

 

[wordwiz]

I'm with Dale. If the top of the soil is starting to look damp, they have had enough to drink.

When I am starting seeds, unless they are ultra hard to germinate (such as Brugmansia) I don't water them after the first time. I use plastic to-go trays, add about 1.5" of potting soil, plant the seeds and stick the tray in water until is so super saturated. The plastic lid goes on and it sit over a heat source. It takes the tray about 10-12 days before the soil starts getting dry and by then the seeds are normally up.

I think this is one reason my plants got so big this year - instead of taking 2-3 weeks to pop through through ground, it was a week or less. Plus they had larger roots and once I transplanted them into pots, they were able to grow a lot faster.

Mike

 

[splitcane]

I water/feed from the bottom from the jump and it's worked real well for me. There are a lot of benefits to doing so, less change of over/under watering, disease, mess, ease and the plants love it. I just fill up the groves in the bottom of the tray and let them drink, add a little more if needed till the top of the soil is moist. Then just add water/feed filling og the groves every other day or so keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged...