I am installing a hammock support post to support one end of a hammock. Following the manufacturers instructions, I dug a hole 18" in diameter to about 25" deep. Our soil is red clay, if that matters, and it hasn't rained recently.
I put about 2 inches of gravel in the bottom, placed the post in the hole, then poured 4 red bags (50 lbs each) of dry quikrete around the post. The instructions say to use about 1 gallon of water per bag, but when I poured the first gallon into the hole, it drained very slowly. I added a second gallon and the water pooled there for a long time. I eventually went in for the night. This morning I checked on it and the water is gone but the top 1/2" of cement is very soft — I think some particles were floating in the pooled water and didn't cure.
Did I mess up the process? I'm worried that I only used about half of the water called for and even that seemed liked too much liquid to absorb quickly. Is there any chance that 2 gallons would be enough to cure 200 lbs of Quikrete?