Cannabis plants use a lot of water, and regardless of what sort of setup you’re using, you’re going to want to make sure you have plenty of it. Water acts a vehicle for dissolved nutrients and minerals, being absorbed through the roots before spreading through the rest of the plant. It also cools a plant down, fills up cells to keep the plant structurally sound, and is required for photosynthesis.

All plants, including marijuana, consist of about 80% water. Therefore it makes sense that issues with water management could cause damage to a marijuana plant. Outdoors, a marijuana plant usually has enough water in the soil and from nature. Depending on the quality and the structure of the soil, it can also help regulate the amount of moisture. When growing indoors using pots, however, it is very easy to give your plant too much or too little water.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to watering a cannabis plant since the amount of water that you’ll need is based on the environment it’s growing in. In general, water enough so that your soil is faintly moist, but not wet. If the environment is very hot, the plant will use more water, but you should never give a marijuana plant more water than it can absorb.

Cannabis plants use a lot of water, and regardless of what sort of setup you’re using, you’re going to want to make sure you have plenty of it. Water acts a vehicle for dissolved nutrients and minerals, being absorbed through the roots before spreading through the rest of the plant. It also cools a plant down, fills up cells to keep the plant structurally sound, and is required for photosynthesis.

All plants, including marijuana, consist of about 80% water. Therefore it makes sense that issues with water management could cause damage to a marijuana plant. Outdoors, a marijuana plant usually has enough water in the soil and from nature. Depending on the quality and the structure of the soil, it can also help regulate the amount of moisture. When growing indoors using pots, however, it is very easy to give your plant too much or too little water.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to watering a cannabis plant since the amount of water that you’ll need is based on the environment it’s growing in. In general, water enough so that your soil is faintly moist, but not wet. If the environment is very hot, the plant will use more water, but you should never give a marijuana plant more water than it can absorb.

When to Water

You need to maintain proper water balance from the very beginning – before your seed has even germinated into a seedling. Since the seeds don’t have any roots, they will die if they dry out, but they will also drown if there’s too much water. When it comes to watering your marijuana plants, some factors will determine how much and how often you should be watering. These factors include the size of the plant, the size of the container your plant is growing in, the canopy, the root level, the temperature of the grow room, the humidity level, and which stage of growth your plant is currently in. A good rule of thumb is to wait until the soil is drying (but not yet completely dry) and then water it enough to last it until the next scheduled watering.

Seedlings

Usually, it’s advisable to keep seedlings and young sprouts hydrated by spraying or misting them with water. This helps to ensure you don’t drown them by watering them too heavily. Once the seedlings have rooted down, you can start using a watering can.

Developed Plants

As the seedlings root down and grow, you can let the soil dry out for brief periods of time. These short dry periods will help limit the risks of your soil developing any mold or fungal growth, which can sicken and destroy a seedling. Just remember to water the plant regularly, but don’t let the soil get too wet or too dry. If you are growing in a different medium, such as coco coir, you can water every day or two.

The morning is the best time for you to water your plants. That way your plant has a whole day of sunlight and chemical processes that it can use the water for. Watering in the evening increases the chances that you will have to deal with fungus or mold. If you are adding nutrients to your water, water it a little more, to encourage runoff and prevent nutrient buildup. If you water your plants incorrectly, the roots of your marijuana plants could dry out or start to rot. In either case, the effects are detrimental to the health of your plant.

How Much Water

In terms of how much water you should give your plants, that number can vary as well. It is based on the size of the plant, the temperature, the composition of your soil or substrate, the properties of the water you’re using, and the capacity of your air filtration systems.

When your plants mature, the environment gets warmer and less moist, and the plants will need greater air flow and additional water. Large leaves widen the surface area on which evaporation can occur. The metabolic process is activated by heat and transpired moisture is blown away, causing plants to transpire more. Therefore, larger plants generally need more water than smaller plants.

You should also keep in mind that larger containers won’t need to be watered as extensively and that plants in the final stages of the flowering phase consume less water and therefore need less. In terms of the temperature outdoors, you should water more during hot weather, but if the humidity level is high, then you should not water as much.

Sometimes growers simply lift up the pot their plant is growing in to see if it feels light or not. If it feels light to them, most of the moisture is gone and, therefore, the time for watering their plant has come. At first, this might be difficult for people new to this method so you can compare it with another pot that you fill with the same growing medium – but don’t water it. This will help you know what a “light” pot should feel like. When you do this, you can lift the actual pot with the plant in it up to see if it is similar in weight to the dummy pot. After some experience with this, you should no longer require the dummy pot to know if your plant needs watering or not.

Regardless of how much water you end up giving your plants, do so slowly. If you give your plants too much water at once, you’ll form tiny channels. Water drains quickly out of these channels, and it won’t be absorbed by the roots. Always water your plants slowly and evenly to ensure proper hydration and distribution of nutrients.