Don't worry about your vocabulary - we can figure out what you're saying.
* Remove the plant from the cache pot.
* Flush the soil thoroughly by pouring a volume of water equal to about 10x the volume of the pot through the soil.
* After you've flushed the soil and the pot has stopped draining, tip the pot to a 45* angle and a allow it to continue to drain. Compare B to A below to see the effect tipping the pot has on water retention.
* Only after it has stopped draining should you return the plant's pot to the cache pot (if you wish). No water should collect in the cache pot unless you have the pot up on a block so water in the cache pot has no pathway by which the effluent can make way back into the plant's pot. One way of preventing effluent from getting back into the soil:
* Wait a couple of days, then fertilize. I suggest you use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 at the production rate according to directions. You won't likely find a better choice.
* When these exercises have been completed, use a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water. More on that below.
* Whenever you water, water copiously, making sure the entire soil column is saturated and at least 20% of the total volume of water applied exits the drain hole. No need to be precise about the volumes, an approximation is fine.
* During winter, fertilize at production rates every 4th or 5th time you water, and every 3rd or 4th time in winter. Fertilizing according to the number of times you've watered makes much better sense than allowing yourself to be guided by the calendar.
* To keep track of when it's time to fertilize, drop a marble or other object into the pot each time you water. When you're about to drop the 3rd, 4th, or 5th object in the pot fertigate (fertilize + irrigate) and pick up all the marbles.
* Follow the instructions below re how to make and use a 'tell'. It is much more precise than a water meter or a finger.
* Invest in a 150W equivalent LED bulb and brood light fixture and power it on 16hr off 8hr.
* If it seems reasonable, try to keep humidity levels between 50-60%.
Using a 'tell'
Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.
Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.
In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.
Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.
One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16" (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48" (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.
Al
