Reusing Drained Water

OROZCONLECHE · Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:55 am

So after giving my seedlings some water and the water drains to the bottom were it stays till I remove it, wich is about 2-3 days I noticed the water is yellow and has a few soil particles, I was thinking and can some of the nutrients from the soil be put back by reusing the same water and making the water beter everytime like some sort of tea

DoubleDogFarm · Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:12 am

I would suggest you switch to bottom watering.

Take a look at this [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0mYNAt-D4]Video[/url] It's a vary simple watering system. No electricity, but you will have to do a little plumbing.

Eric

OROZCONLECHE · Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:21 am

Em I dumb or what..... lol I guess the buttom tray is for watering the plants from bottom I didn't know that till after this video, so I shouldn't take the water away cuz if I leave it, it should rewater its self

DoubleDogFarm · Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:41 am

but, you only apply enough water the soil can wick up. Any remaining water should be drained off. I beleive Rainbowgardener sets her seedlings in a shallow tray of water, then lifts them out and back onto the light bench. In the video, there is less fiddling. Lift the bucket walk away, come back and lower the bucket. Done.

Eric

rainbowgardener · Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:07 am

No.. I'm the lazy gardener. I just pour water into the bottom of the tray, but VERY little. Just enough so it barely touches the bottom of the soil so it can be wicked up. If there is still water in the seedling tray 8 hrs later, you are using too much! Too much water kills way more seedlings than too little.

And yes, there's nothing wrong with re-using drained water, but if you pour water through from the top and then leave it standing in the saucer/ tray, you are looking for problems. I do it with my house plants, in large containers, but that's because I only water them twice a month. By the time I water, they are very dry. I leave water in the saucer, but they suck it up within about 24 hrs. Then I let them dry out again.

OROZCONLECHE · Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:08 pm

On nice info I guess I'm going to start watering them from the bottom