Yet another watering question

[Neofolis]

I assume this will vary from plant to plant, but frequency of watering has often been discussed but quantity of water not so much.  With all my plants being in pots, I was wondering if anyone meters water quantity by size of pot.

[Kamipalms]

Hey corey,

As I would fall in the same catagory as you with all of my stuff in pots I would have to say that a consistant watering schedule is more important like you have pointed out but quantity would depend on what your growing.

I've learnt the hard way that irregular watering is more damaging, epecialy through the summer months. All of my stuff is looked after by an automatic watering system and duruing summer everything gets about 1/4 of a litre a day regardless of size but we are talking shaded palms here which wouldn't dry out as quick as something in full sun.

Seedlings differ by not being allowed to dry out and rather than flooding the pot , they receive very high humidity which stops the medium drying out. and speaking of mediums, this would also be a big factor on warer retention/drainage. I use the same medium for everything ( palm wise)

hope this some help.

Jason.

[Neofolis]

I think different media is what inspired me to ask the question actually.  I have some pots that I water and the water seems to go straight throught the medium and out of the bottom of the pot.  Other pots, the water seems to just collect on the surface and increase in depth until I stop watering and then can take as much as a few minutes to soak into the medium.  I assume neither of these is ideal, as the first is not holding enough water and the second is either not sufficiently well draining or is too hard/compacted allowing insufficient air in the medium.

If quantity of water is less important than frequency, I assume the things to consider would be, too much water washing out soluble fertilizer or insufficient water encouraging salt build up from said fertilizer.

What would be considered high humidity?  My polytunnel at the moment is 30.2°C/86.4°F with 64% humidity, so a dewpoint of 22.6°C/72.7°F.  This is actually a little higher than normal, partly due to higher than normal outside humidity and also because I've only just opened the door, which will probably reduce the humidity by 10%.