Every living thing on the planet requires water in some form, but, when working with marijuana, extra caution should be exercised. During the germination period, avoid overwhelming the marijuana plant with moisture.
The top layer of soil should be kept moist, but even then it’s best to only use a few spritzes of water from a spray bottle. When the plant actually sprouts, keep the area near the stem dry. This is because moist conditions around the stem are often conducive to stem rot.
At this stage (and, really, any stage) it’s relatively easy to overwater marijuana plants. Using excessive water can cause significant issues with the soil and place stress on the plants.
As mentioned previously, the soil should not be too wet. If you make the soil soggy by overwatering it, the roots will essentially drown due to a lack of oxygen. This is particularly true when watering small marijuana seedlings in large pots. These plants won’t need to be watered as much as bigger plants because they won’t need to take in as much water.
Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell if you are overwatering your plants because the symptoms of overwatering and underwatering are exactly the same (i.e. the leaves will droop).
Checking moisture
One way to check is by inspecting the moisture level of the soil. You can do this by merely touching the soil with your hand
If the soil feels damp, then holding off on watering your plants is the best course of action. It will still have plenty of water to draw from in the soil if it is clearly moist. If the soil is dry, then adding more water is advisable. As the plants grow, they will require more and more water to quench their thirst.
Overall, keeping the soil exceptionally moist or exceptionally dry for any long period of time will not be good for the plants. In fact, it actually needs to alternate between moist and dry to provide better aeration in the soil. Tap water is frequently used to grow marijuana, but many growers have concerns about its viability. Some municipal water systems put a lot of chlorine in the water which could kill beneficial bacteria around the plant.
In general, chlorine isn’t going to be a huge problem, and many plants grow and thrive using chlorinated water. Some solutions that are normally used for fish tanks can also work for growing a marijuana garden. Try adding sodium to the tap water prior to watering. The sodium then bonds with chlorine in the water to make sodium chloride (a.k.a. salt). This won’t harm the plant but, if used in excess, the soil could become too saline.
It’s also possible for your water supply to be infected with other minerals, which is a condition known as hard water. While hard water might be detrimental to your plumbing over an extended period of time, it won’t have any negative effects on the plants. In fact, the minerals in the water actually help promote growth by adding extra nutrients.
It is advisable to stay away from artificial water softeners during the growing period because they tend to put excessive amounts of sodium in the water supply, making it unsafe for the soil and the plant. They also use a lot of other artificial additives that might not be good for your plant later on
During the vegetative growth period, the plants are likely going to become “thirstier” and require more water as they get larger.
The same rules still apply when it comes to watering: don’t severely overwater and don’t severely underwater. Many growers develop patterns for watering their marijuana plants.
For instance, you might water one day, skip watering for two days, and then water again. It really depends on the plants themselves. You need to pay close attention to exactly how dry the soil gets after a few days.
If the soil is still moist, then you can probably continue with the same pattern, but, if it dries out significantly before the next scheduled watering, you should increase the rate at which you’re watering the marijuana plants.
