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seeds watering seedlings
- Thread starter twilliams386
- Start date
able eye said:
I guess some, maybe.
Did you ever notice that, even during a drought, established deciduous trees maintain green leaves? They're doing that because their deep root system pulls water up from below... i.e., without top watering. They've been surviving droughts through bottom watering for over 65 million years.
able eye said:
Still not an explanation of "all kinds of nasties".
No one with any common sense is going to let water sit under their plants for so long that it goes stagnant.
Proper bottom watering doesn't invite any "nasties". Yes, there is such a thing as proper bottom watering.
Watering from the bottom is known to help reduce damping off diseases and also help to stop fungus gnats.
If anyone else would like to make use of the ignore feature just click on your user name.
Proper bottom watering doesn't invite any "nasties". Yes, there is such a thing as proper bottom watering.
Watering from the bottom is known to help reduce damping off diseases and also help to stop fungus gnats.
If anyone else would like to make use of the ignore feature just click on your user name.
Ah thank you, I was wondering how to flip that switch.Ocho Cinco said:
Yeah just looking at the glogs is enough to trust their opinion.jimbo53 said:
Its definitely an art to master, nobody's perfect.
bucdout57 said:
There's many a remedy for fungus gnats. I've never had good luck watering with Mosquito dunks. Some say a thick layer of perlite ontop the soil. I've also read sand.
Bottom watering and letting lop layer dry out is always a good way.
Hydrogen Peroxide is what i'm trying right now on a few test cups. Seems to be working fine with no ill effects on the seedlings. I was careful not to get any 3% solution on plant structure and only a few cups just in case. Just remember that it can kill off the good microbes in the soil along with the bad. But also kills the fungus gnat larvae. I suggest doing your own research on it and making an educated decision and not just take my word for it.
Last year I bought some aphid infested plants from the nursery. I filled a 5 gal bucket full of soapy water and some peroxide. dropped the whole plants pots and all into solution and let soak for a few mins. Rinsed real good and planted. Not a aphid to be seen on those habs the rest the summer.
I've had the mentioned issues with top watering, and switched to bottom watering a few years ago.
The method of bottom watering I use is to fill a soaking tray with 1 inch of water and put the seedlings (pod trays or pots) in the tray to soak. After 20'ish minutes I move the seedlings back to their original dry tray and dump out the leftover water in the soak tray. I saw this method in a video someone posted in their GLOG a while back. I want to say it was Spicy Chicken, but I don't really remember.
The thing I like about this process is you get all the benefits of bottom watering, but aren't going to run into a problem of over watering, stagnation, nasties growing in the water, whatever. 20 minutes is enough time for the soil to soak up all the water it needs for one watering session.
I could see this process being a pain in the butt if you have dozens of seedling trays, but I only have one 50 cell tray so its pretty easy. Once I move the seedlings to pots it'll becomes more time consuming but still no more than an hour once every few days.
Another technique I use to help keep moisture in the pots, is to line the tray I put the pots in with a layer of clay potting pebbles (often used for orchids). I pour water in the tray until its about half as deep as the pebble layer and put the pots on top of the pebbles. This provides some humidity under the pots without making the plants sit in water. In the winter / early spring I put a germination heat mat under this tray to provide extra heat to the surrounding area. The clay pebbles act as a heat sink buffer to protect the soil from getting too hot and damaging the roots.
I haven't had any issues with bugs / nasties breeding in the clay pebbles, but if I did I could treat the pebbles with peroxide to kill them off without harming the plants. I also throw the old clay pebbles out each year and start with new ones each season.
The method of bottom watering I use is to fill a soaking tray with 1 inch of water and put the seedlings (pod trays or pots) in the tray to soak. After 20'ish minutes I move the seedlings back to their original dry tray and dump out the leftover water in the soak tray. I saw this method in a video someone posted in their GLOG a while back. I want to say it was Spicy Chicken, but I don't really remember.
The thing I like about this process is you get all the benefits of bottom watering, but aren't going to run into a problem of over watering, stagnation, nasties growing in the water, whatever. 20 minutes is enough time for the soil to soak up all the water it needs for one watering session.
I could see this process being a pain in the butt if you have dozens of seedling trays, but I only have one 50 cell tray so its pretty easy. Once I move the seedlings to pots it'll becomes more time consuming but still no more than an hour once every few days.
Another technique I use to help keep moisture in the pots, is to line the tray I put the pots in with a layer of clay potting pebbles (often used for orchids). I pour water in the tray until its about half as deep as the pebble layer and put the pots on top of the pebbles. This provides some humidity under the pots without making the plants sit in water. In the winter / early spring I put a germination heat mat under this tray to provide extra heat to the surrounding area. The clay pebbles act as a heat sink buffer to protect the soil from getting too hot and damaging the roots.
I haven't had any issues with bugs / nasties breeding in the clay pebbles, but if I did I could treat the pebbles with peroxide to kill them off without harming the plants. I also throw the old clay pebbles out each year and start with new ones each season.
able eye said:
Alkaline soil.
able eye said:
Mine was a response to your assertion that top watering "pulls oxygen down through the medium", so this reply of yours does not even make enough sense to be wrong... because that would imply that you had followed the conversation and were just incorrect.
This bit of yours is just random babbling. I say, "one plus one equals two," and you say, "I like turtles."
able eye said:
I bet it might have something to do with the fact that there are differences between deserts and germination trays.
able eye said:
turbo covered this one.
^^Love this
able eye said:
#1 - Say WHAT?!
#2 - Actually, there are LOTS of examples of vegetation growing in extremely dry areas only because the plants CAN reach the local water table. The plant may struggle for a while, and may even need a few unusually wet season to survive, but once the roots reach permanent moisture the plant is set for life and can grow much larger/faster.
#3. Maybe you should consider taking a few basic J.C. physics classes....
Mulcahey said:
PFFFT!! You guys are all woosies, using wimpy germination trays.
I just toss my seeds out the window, onto the sun-baked desert floor.
The little guys seem to love it, and I always get 95%+ germination rates!
turbo said:
Yeah, 8th grade was Gifted and Talented Earth Science. My teacher was Mrs Love. Then BIOLOGY in HS my report card had 8 straight 97's on it counting the semester avgs.
Capillary action only defies gravity to a certain height which is dependent on a couple things.
Keep bottom watering and when your plants have no surface roots and blow over in a breeze once you plant them or up-can them you'll know why.
Or invite the pythium with stale water.
I don't care. Y'all obviously know more than anyone else.
Geonerd said:
#1 - Say WHAT?!
#2 - Actually, there are LOTS of examples of vegetation growing in extremely dry areas only because the plants CAN reach the local water table. The plant may struggle for a while, and may even need a few unusually wet season to survive, but once the roots reach permanent moisture the plant is set for life and can grow much larger/faster.
#3. Maybe you should consider taking a few basic J.C. physics classes....
PFFFT!! You guys are all woosies, using wimpy germination trays.
I just toss my seeds out the window, onto the sun-baked desert floor.
The little guys seem to love it, and I always get 95%+ germination rates!
1. You covered it in #2. Without surface roots a tree isnt going to reach any water table, underground river, or China. Derp.
2. So provided all those qualifications are met, vegetation may reach the water table. Thats what I was already saying. Good comprehension. So dont worry fellas, as long as you do it exactly perfectly you might get some peppers out of it. Great method.
3. I recommend reading comprehension for you.
I don't know why this is so hard.
Bottom watering promotes root rot (Pythium). Period. This is a fact. Why? Because quite a bit of the time, you don't have deep enough or as many roots down that deep to suck all the moisture out before it drowns your roots. If you have really well draining soil (tons of perlite or sand), you may never see this effect, but that doesn't change the science of why it happens. Regular potting mixes are generally too dense for bottom watering to work well on younger plants with limited roots.
Bottom watering is said to be a deterrent to fungus gnats. I don't buy that either. I've seen fungus gnats fly right in and out of the drain holes in the pots. They don't give a shit if there is perlite, sand or whatever on top of the soil.
And what good it that going to accompolish? He actually does know what he is talking about if you can get past his argumentative personality. Juyst putting decent advice on ignore doesn't do anything but keep you from evaluating all of the good advice.
Bottom watering promotes root rot (Pythium). Period. This is a fact. Why? Because quite a bit of the time, you don't have deep enough or as many roots down that deep to suck all the moisture out before it drowns your roots. If you have really well draining soil (tons of perlite or sand), you may never see this effect, but that doesn't change the science of why it happens. Regular potting mixes are generally too dense for bottom watering to work well on younger plants with limited roots.
Bottom watering is said to be a deterrent to fungus gnats. I don't buy that either. I've seen fungus gnats fly right in and out of the drain holes in the pots. They don't give a shit if there is perlite, sand or whatever on top of the soil.
Ocho Cinco said:
And what good it that going to accompolish? He actually does know what he is talking about if you can get past his argumentative personality. Juyst putting decent advice on ignore doesn't do anything but keep you from evaluating all of the good advice.