Comparison and Solutions? Overwatering/Disproportionate bottom leaves?

ProphetNova said:

Hey all, quick question. These girls are about a day shy of 4 weeks old. They are autos, BB, Gorilla Glue, and Girlscout Cookies. Here's the issue though;

The droopiest one needed water, so I proceeded to give it wayyy too much and it soaked the soil. I got the fans pointed on it and am gonna hold off watering for several days. We will see if she makes it. Lesson learned.

Next is the middle girl. Her bottom two fan leaves only have 3 actual leaves and they're touching the soil. The stems are also purple, when the rest are green. It makes watering a huge pain because i have to gently wipe off all the dirt and mud from those leaves. The third healthy girl for comparison.

My question; would trimming those bottom 3-pronged fan leaves be too much at their current age? Or would we be able to chalk it up to LST and give her some needed breathing room? Thanks all!

Also; any recommendations on that overwatered lady besides cross my fingers and hope with a few fans pointed at her?

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simpleleaf said:

I don't typically start trimming them until they get a bit larger. Sometimes I pinch the growing tip to encourage side branches, but they'd be a bit taller than yours when I do that.

I think your pot sizes are too large relative to the plant size, that's the cause of overwatering. I personally like the pot size (with a plant growing in it) to be fully dry within a few days, a week at most. You may be able to manage the large pot size by restricting irrigation volume.

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DarkLordMelkor said:

Don't stress too much after that post. Some pros will come and tell you what is exactly problem for sure.

4 weeks since breaking soil? If so they are pretty small and will start flowering soon. I think you overwatered or somehow you stunted growth more than once. Comparing your plants with my autos i grew before and yeah they are pretty small. I wouldn't expect much from this run. I am sorry. I am not pro tho but i grew autos 3 times. They are usually flowering at week 3-4 or max 5.

But let me tell you some tips from my experiment.

- Autos are not forgiving plants. Single and easy mistake can ruin many things. One of them is transplanting. Always start and finish in final pot. I use 20L pots always.

- What i am seeing from here is your sweet spot of plants are watered but edges are pretty dry. I think you are not watering properly. Always saturate whole pot and get 20% run off. You may not see that but when they are 1 to 3 weeks old, they are developing roots double or triple than their visible size.

- Don't go hard with nutes. Always use half strenght of nutes on company chart and don't use any nutes at least 2 weeks.

- I usually start LST at mid or end of week 3. They love it.

Here is indica and sativa dominant autos from my grows and both of them exactly at end of week 4 (28 days). You can compare.

Thats Autopilot XXL day 28 from different angles and LST'd.

View attachment 5264878View attachment 5264879View attachment 5264880

This is White Widow Auto day 29 and not LST'd.

View attachment 5264884

Hope you can fix it.

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ProphetNova said:

Hmm. Well, I appreciate your insight! I messed up A LOT this run as I was still ironing out my process and learning as I went. I've heard they're pretty small, but every day they're getting bigger and bigger at an exponential rate. I'll check in in the morning, then that same night it feels like they have almost another set of leaves. I feel like I watered the extremely droopy one with the 'proper' amount. 5 gallon fabric bags, I used close to a gallon on that pot and it nearly killed it... The problem is, I see runoff halfway down the fabric. Not at the bottom. Maybe I'm doing something wrong idk.

Thanks for the help!!

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DarkLordMelkor said:

And don't trim/prune any fan leaves. Anyway they are fast growing plants and not accept


Day 19 when i just water around stem spot. Then went to forums and ask why it is so small. Thank to guy who said just water whole pot.

View attachment 5264959

After proper watering and 19 days of hardcore stress but then it will reward you for good caring.

View attachment 5264961

It was bushiest plant i ever grew.

As i said, saturate whole pot when you water. Don't hurry on feeding. I don't know what light you are using but get at least 600w or 1000w HPS to get satisfying yields. Give good air circulation and 20/4 light. Then you have best weed you ever smoked.

After running few autos and understand plant needs go for photos. They are forgiving every mistake you made. You have zero control over autos.

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