See, for me this is the problem with starting out in big pots. If you water all that soil, it'll take forever for the soil to get dry with only that little toddler in there, which is not a good environment for a plant.
On the other hand you can't let the outer soil crust dry out completely for two weeks until the plant starts getting anywhere near that area.
So what I'd do in your clothes is water around the root enough for the top inch to dry out in 2-3 days, and then just sprinkle the outer area just enough for that to not dry out into cracked desert mud and keep it fresh.

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