Hi

People seem to have many different ways of doing things when it comes to watering and I wondered how you all watered your plants.

I have always done the following:

Used a syringe to water Jiffy plugs from start until repot
Misted with a house hold water sprayer (with Chilli Focus) when potted into 3" pots
Misted with a house hold water sprayer (with Chilli Focus) when potted into 6" pots (I know it takes time but seems worth it)
When I pot on to larger pots I have them in trays or saucers. I then water from the bottom so as not to over water

A couple of years ago I also got a set of blown glass water feeders that you would fill with water and the put upside down in the earth. The earth would then absorbe what it needed but I found they were more useful for when your away than general holiday water management..

What do you all do? What other interesting things have you tried to automate watering?

I have to say i enjoy the manual process as it gives me more time with the plants.

I am going to try a couple of chillis by hydro next year but just to do someone different

Colin

I'm pretty bad to my plants in tbhis respect... When they dry out and begin to wilt slightly, I water them until I see a little coming out the bottom of the pot. Rinse and repeat.

Doesn't seem to do them any harm, but it's probably not the optimal way of watering.

Nothing very fancy for me, pipetted whilst indoors and used CF once a week. Since they have outside they have been drenched nearly everyday by mother nature. You just can`t plan for that. Saves me worrying about the soil drying out I suppose.

I can see that working..

Wait until signs the plants have dried out and then water until excess runs out the bottom...

The key thing being when the plants have dried out or you would have some serious over watering issue..

Thanks Mr C

Colin

I always mist until the first potting up, when I put into 4in pots. From that point I water from above, out of convenience more than anything else. Always wait until the top inch or so is dry before giving a good drink, plenty of run off.
Got to be gentle with it though or you end up with craters everywhere.

Paul.

For seeds I only ever use a mister to make sure the growing media doesn't dry out. Once the seedlings are at a stage where they've grown enough to be potted up, I always wait until the growing media is mainly dry and the pots feel pretty light and then gently top-water until some runs out of the drainage holes. It's not the most scientific way of doing things, but it works for me!

I also try to use collected rain water, but if that's not possible then I use tap water that's been sat around for at least a few hours so that most of the chlorine and other 'bad' chemicals have had a chance to at least partially evaporate. Not too sure if that's necessary or just me being paranoid though

Does bottom-watering actually work well? I remember reading somewhere that top-watering helps to flush salts out of the growing media and thus prevents a potentially harmful build-up.