Watering help repost

Use this forum to get advice on growing succulents and keeping them healthy
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SpriteFish
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat May 11, 2024 12:05 am
Location: Wellington, New Zealand. 70 - 80% humidity

Watering help repost

Post by SpriteFish »

Hello, this is a repost so people who mainly check the succulent growing sections can see my post. I just wanted to ask for some clarification on some of the information I've learnt regarding watering.

Recently I've gotten a scale (and a water meter because I'm paranoid) to have an iron-clad way to ensure I understand when my soil is wet or dry.

While reading about succulents specifically I saw that generally beginners tend to water their succulents very little (or they rely or terracotta pots) which means generally their succulents are getting less than the ideal amount of water but still living because their succulents. While the other info I read said that to get the most 'ideal' growth, you don't let them dry out completely (so basically advises not letting them dry out for weeks to speed up growth but still avoiding rot) example: https://debraleebaldwin.com/how-to-water-succulents-2/
"Drench, drain and dry?"
Not exactly. Although succulent “experts” may advise letting soil dry completely, it makes sense that if roots desiccate, growth ceases. A succulent may grow new roots, but dead roots that remain in the soil may rot when it's drenched again. Rotten roots can harbor pathogens that spread to healthy tissue.
Basically my question is: should I let my soil dry COMPLETELY (no water for like 2 weeks) or should I let it dry out mostly, then water. That way the roots don't dessicate. And if I should only let it dry mostly, when should I water if I'm relying on weight to tell me how wet/dry my soil is. (I hope I've explained my question well, please let me know if some parts don't make sense)

An example of how my plants dry is this my 'Zebra harworthia' (I forgot the scientific name, but you get the general idea of what plant it is). I didn't water it for about 2 weeks to see how low the weight could get and the loss of weight per day slowed down completely at 240g.

Measuring once every day, this is how the weight changed over 2 weeks (they had already be dry for a week before I started measuring):
day 1: 251g, day 2: 248g, day 3: 245g, day 4: 244g, day 5: 242g, day 6: 241g, day 7: 240g/241g, day 8: 240g/241g, day 9: 240g.

As you can see starting at day 7 the weight barely changed, being stuck between 240g and 241g for 2 days. So I decided to settle on 240g as the dry weight. After watering this plant, the wet weight was 304g. I'm wondering when I should water if using weight as a guide, e.g. should I only water when the weight change started to slow significantly around day 7? Or should I water a bit earlier?

Measuring weight since watering, the weight changed like this:
Watering day: 304g, day 2: 289g, day 3: 279g, day 4: 268g, day 5: 263g, day 6: 258g/259g. (I'm still measuring the weight currently)

Just looking for advice and thoughts on watering succulents specifically!
Wellington, New Zealand.

Humidity 60% - 75%.
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