Watering to runoff

I’m using 3 gallon air pots. How much water do you suggest I give each plant. Basically, should I water to runoff? I gave 1 gallon last time I watered and there was a lot of runoff. I’m thinking 3/4 gallon next time. I read their should be some runoff but I don’t want my nutrients all running out the bottom. Thanks!

1 liter max at a time in 3 gallon pots.

Unless you’re running coco… then water till runoff

Cool, thanks. But how much runoff would you say? Also, im using Gaia Green Bloom nutes and instead of top dressing i been shaking it up in water as a tea because I feel it gets to the roots better. I noticed just as a top dressing it was mostly forming a hard crust on top of the soil. Any thoughts on that?

Just under 10% runoff is the target for coco

@TolkinWhite it’s because when you top dress you need to work it in to the first couple of inches of substrate with your fingers. Just massage it in. It also helps if you give a microbe tea every once in a while to assist with the breakdown and decay.

That’s really a tough question because it depends on how you water.

If the soil is dry you can dump a half liter in a 3 gal and it will run out. So depending on how dry the soil is and how fast the water is going in.

Organically, in a 3 gallon pot, 3 top dressings should be sufficient from seed to harvest with Gaia Greens and proper watering techniques.

Generally speaking, I water a 3 gallon pot every other day with a half gallon of water. Depending on the dryness I may use a sprayer to water it.

You should not have run off growing organically so I will water a little from the tray to make sure I get the bottom roots. Once a week go ahead and run 5-10% out. the bottom. Just keep in mind… In a 3 gallon pot, the more run off, the more top dresses.

Also, if watering at all from the tray, the plant should suck it right up and leave no standing water. I prefer to just let the bottom soak up what squirts out the sides of the bag. If you have any standing water after a few minutes then remove it. But other than that don’t worry about a little run off… Let the bottom soak it up a few minutes before dumping it.