Eeek My Plants!

[bestingr]

Okay, you smart growers! I've done a lot of research but in the end it's really helpful for me to post a subject and get feedback and talk with you directly. ( Rather than just searching the web )

 

Problem #1 (pic below)

 

- Very droopy leaves. I feel like they're just suddenly going out on me.

The only thing that has changed is I fed them a little starter nutrient on day 16 of veg. I am thinking that maybe it was too early? Before I fed them nutes ( 1/4 the recommended week 1 regiment ) they were in good shape and there wasn't any drooping.

 

- I've also read that this is common in UNDER-watered plants. They do feel very dry. For MOST of them I can go half way to my index finger without any moisture. HOWEVER, this would be a drastically earlier watering than I've been on. This would be 3 days, as opposed to their 5-6 watering NORMALLY.

 

- Also, you might be able to see the tips of the leaves are curling downwards. Which, from what I've gathered is too much nutrient...

 

 

Problem #2 (pic below)

 

- Yellowing, crispy, outside and edges of leaves.

 

- This is all in the lower growth of the plants. No where near the top where new growth has formed. I sprayed Azamax around the time when those leaves would have been closer to the top of the plant, and now natural growth has moved them lower. I am wondering if it's damage from the Azamax not fully drying before I placed it back under the lamps. Like a skin nutrient burn to them.

 

- What do you think??

[LongHairBri]

DUDE. water those plants. if you can lift them easily their dried out. when I was in soilless, I'd water every other day!!

 

you need to quit reading and start to listen to the plants. grow medium is highly oxygenated. that makes it dry out quickly

[LansingAreaCaregiver]

They look thirsty to me. As they grow they will need water more and more frequently because they'll use it faster. I think you're right on with your diagnoses of the bottom leaves. My advice? Forget about it. In another week those leaves will be dead and because they're just bottom leaves, you can pluck'em off.

[budpuffer]

gosh those look like mighty small pots and the plants look stretched like there's not enough light..but how old are they total? they maybe root bound or suffering from lock out...have you flushed them?you could try some super thrive which is an aid for sick plants..to me they look like they have root rot but given the size of the pots i doubt it...more likely lock out...a good flush couldn't hurt...but hey this is just my guess...lol..i hope they get better for you soon...bp

[Letterhead954]

In my admitedly short experience with growing, it looks like my plants do when I over-feed them (downward curling tips) and/or have the ph wrong. The twisty leaves I see on one of the pics indicates nute lockout. Make sure your ph is correct... 6.3 to 6.8 in soil. I've been going through this kind of thing lately too, and it's a challenge to try to figure out what's causing the problems.

[bestingr]

gosh those look like mighty small pots and the plants look stretched like there's not enough light..but how old are they total? they maybe root bound or suffering from lock out...have you flushed them?you could try some super thrive which is an aid for sick plants..to me they look like they have root rot but given the size of the pots i doubt it...more likely lock out...a good flush couldn't hurt...but hey this is just my guess...lol..i hope they get better for you soon...bp

 

The plants are 20 days old right now. I am using the generic Top 7cm x 7cm, Depth 8cm containers. I figure for their age it would be a bit surprising for them to need much more. Yes, 4 of them are really stretching while the other 8 are the same size. They have all the standard holes at the bottom for drainage and I packed them with some perlite. They always run off water when I water them... I'm trying to think if I just covered all my bases towards your comment.

[bestingr]

Just an update - I watered them later that day that I posted the above and the plants spruced up within an hour/hour n half. They've looked great since. I guess I was thrown back by how quickly they had drank the last bit of water. I went from watering basically every 5-6 days to suddenly 3 days.

[Kingdiamond]

Dude relax growing medical quality cannabis is simple don't overthink it learn how heavy your pots feel dry water when they feel light and watch the behavior of the plant they literally tell you when they need you .

[Faygo]

in soil never let the plant dry all the way out, when the soil dried around 70-75% water them.

[Willy]

Water is the giver of life... no water ,, no life... glad you figured it out..

[cristinew]

check your PH also

[budpuffer]

well i'm glad they're doing better for you,,i found that there's a big learning curve when it comes to being a good grower..lol..this site was very helpful to me when i started out,,,the members never failed in giving me advise.lol..it wouldn't hurt to check out your local CC club which can be another great resource for info and help..soil for me was a real trick so i went back to hempy buckets,which maybe something you should check into...nothing could be easier for the new growers out there and the results are pretty good...bp

[Barneand247]

Learning Curve,

One thing to keep in mind is that you are probably experiencing a little bit of a lot of things. In soil you have to get to know your plants. Things like moving from fluorescent lighting in veg to HID lighting will drastically increase watering needs. Ventilation and proximity to fans can also cause significant differences in water uptake even between very similar plants. If you are going to use smalls pots for your plants, expect to have more work throughout your grow, as things happen a lot quicker. This has been my experience at least. For instance, they may appear to have just enough water to get through the day and when you come back to check them they're dry and wilted. darn. Now youre scrambling to figure out which micronutrient you are over on or what random defect you have in your fert program. Then you end up on the nutrient problem solver pages and F around forever only to find that for every solution that is offered there are 10 new potential issues that could be causing your problem. When working with a smaller root zone (in a soil environment) you have to really give those babies lovin. In addition to this, when water stress occurs you're root zone is now an unstable environment. What I mean is that your pH will be off, lockout will occur and even if you were measuring your nutrients like a Harvard lab tech your plants could be getting sucked dry of the balanced meal you intended for them by simple osmotic pressure. Less water means your ferts will be highly concentrated and further complicate issues. My advice would be soak soak soak em, aerate the soil (you can run plant stakes through dirt to get more airflow to root zone), look into bigger pots for your space, and get some quality kelp amendment that can be used for a foliar spray until they come back for ya. They CAN come back, regardless of what you might hear. All is not lost, all is just going to be a headache for a while. Much luck to you