Bottom watering

WoodSprite · December 12, 2020

I know this is an old thread but I'll comment, too.

I always bottom water. My cell packs & pots are in 1020 flats. I try to leave one pot out of the corner of the flat so that I can easily pour water in at that location. With the one pot missing from the corner of the flat and the type of watering bottles I use, I don't need to raise the lights to water. I just pull one tray at a time out from under the lights by a few inches and pour the water into the corner, and put the tray back into place. Since my trays are level, the water will level out and reach all of the pots.

If I don't leave a pot out of the corner, then I just temporarily remove a corner pot, water, and put the pot back in.

For a watering can, I upcycle several large juice bottles that I've rinsed well. After each watering, I refill the containers with tap water, leave the caps off the bottles and let them sit until the next watering time. When it's time to start adding fertilizer, I just add it to the bottles, put the lids on, give them a good shake and remove the lids again.

As far as how much, that's going to depend on how dry the seed starting mix is and how many pots/plants I have in the tray. When learning to gauge how much water, it's better to err less than you think, give the water a chance to soak in, check the soil with your finger and add more if needed. You'll develop an instinct for how much to use over time.

If you get too much water, instead of taking all of the pots out to empty the excess water, it's easy to slightly lift one side of the tray (so the water pools to the other side) and use a plant-dedicated turkey baster where the missing pot is to remove the excess water. Just have a container handy and suction some water out, squirt it in the container, and repeat until you have removed the amount of water that you want to remove.

December 12, 2020	#23
WoodSprite Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 23	I know this is an old thread but I'll comment, too. I always bottom water. My cell packs & pots are in 1020 flats. I try to leave one pot out of the corner of the flat so that I can easily pour water in at that location. With the one pot missing from the corner of the flat and the type of watering bottles I use, I don't need to raise the lights to water. I just pull one tray at a time out from under the lights by a few inches and pour the water into the corner, and put the tray back into place. Since my trays are level, the water will level out and reach all of the pots. If I don't leave a pot out of the corner, then I just temporarily remove a corner pot, water, and put the pot back in. For a watering can, I upcycle several large juice bottles that I've rinsed well. After each watering, I refill the containers with tap water, leave the caps off the bottles and let them sit until the next watering time. When it's time to start adding fertilizer, I just add it to the bottles, put the lids on, give them a good shake and remove the lids again. As far as how much, that's going to depend on how dry the seed starting mix is and how many pots/plants I have in the tray. When learning to gauge how much water, it's better to err less than you think, give the water a chance to soak in, check the soil with your finger and add more if needed. You'll develop an instinct for how much to use over time. If you get too much water, instead of taking all of the pots out to empty the excess water, it's easy to slightly lift one side of the tray (so the water pools to the other side) and use a plant-dedicated turkey baster where the missing pot is to remove the excess water. Just have a container handy and suction some water out, squirt it in the container, and repeat until you have removed the amount of water that you want to remove.