Droopy plants...Over or Under water???

Hey So today is day 15 since I put some seeds in soil to germ. I watered on Saturday (~2.5 days ago). I normally water every 3 days days, and nightly spray the top of my soil with pH 6.0 water. I've noticed my runoff after watering is a nice chunk of the water I put in maybe 20-30% and it is pH 8.0+. However, on saturday I watered in the morning instead of the night (hence 2.5 days rather than 3).

My plants are growing in a 2.5 : 1 Miracle gro moisture control:Miracle gro perlite mix. I've read a guide from Cranker which describes how to grow in Miracle-gro and says to water every 3rd day. However I've noticed some droopiness and I don't know if I may have over or under watered.

I also forgot to spray my babies last night, and the soil feels quite dry. On Friday night I also switched the babies from 18/6 light cycle to 24/0. There are 4 23-26w CFLs less than a foot from the top. Temps range from 71-86, humidity has been in low 40's to low 50's. A fan is run only when I'm home intermittently as it raises the temps in my tent and it has gone up to 89 before so I monitor it.

No nutes added yet.

Day 12 (Friday, 1 day before water)


Day 13 (day of watering)- Notice droopiness on Top right and Mid left.


Day 14 (yesterday) - All look a little droopy yesterday.


Day 15 (today) - look at the bottom left plant...it is yellower and has spots (seen in last pic up close)


Another pic of today- Notice the dark brownish discoloration.


Any ideas?
here's a link to my Journal if u have more Q's.
northern lights cfl miracle-gro Grow

Thinking poor drainage. Are there holes in the bottom so the water can run off. If there is you may want to remove the other (overflow) cup and let the holes in the main cup breathe more. Heat, may be another factor, they don't have very robust root systems that young.

Drainage is very good, there are holes in the two cups on every plant and in less than a minute a good amount is draining out.

Do they look under or over watered? As this is my first grow I don't know.

The soil seems dry to me but I'm here for the advice from experienced growers.

check to see if your getting rootbound, it may be time to transplant. Put those lights closer or your gonna have issues real quick, 3 or 4 inches, tops.

What is this rootbound thing?

if after watering barely any water is running out the bottom should i add holes to the bottom pot

I'd go with rootbound too.
I just experienced rootbound 4-5 days ago in my very first grow, and I had the very same symptoms.
Once I transplanted my plant into a bigger pot she just exploded!

Could also be Calcium defiancy and/or bad pH of the soil.

EDIT: Here's a guide to help you identify your plants problems;
http://growweedeasy.com/marijuana-symptoms

Really good.

first off, Idon't thanks for the info and +rep for that resource it's badass to say the least! Seeing as I have noticed roots on the periphery of my transparent cups and some jumbled on the bottom I may be inclined to buy into the rootbound theory. I'll be getting some new containers hopefully tomorrow and bringing them home to transplant my babies. Updates soon in the journal

Looks like you've got a few things going on. The beginnings of nute deficiency due to lockout, and overwatering. One person's watering schedule doesn't necessarily apply to you. Different environments, different temps, different plant sizes, etc. all determine how often you need to water. When they're young, the soil stays moist, but as your roots fills out the cup, it will take up more water faster, till you need to water it everyday. Best way to determine if your plants need water is to lift up the cup. If it feels too light, then it needs water. Also, stop spraying the top layer of soil. There are no roots in the top layer, and that prevents the bottom layer from evaporating, thus lengthening watering times. There's nothing wrong with it, but it will throw you off if you don't know how to properly water your plants and are using somebody elses schedule.

I don't use solocups past the 2-week mark, though nothing says you can't, it just avoids problems. A better medium to mix your MG with is peat. It's cheap (unless you buy brand-name shit like pro-mix) and it will help lower the PH of the soil. When I used MG, I used a 50/50 mix of soil to peat, with extra perlite and a few other ammendments.

Ok so according to the consensus I was "rootbound" and today I transplanted into 2L soda bottles! Now one of my plants was looking very bad today and I hope this helps it out.

Dude. Ditch the plastic cups and get mini planters with better drainage. To me those definetly look a bit saturated. Like they're choking a bit.

And I've let seedlings get bigger than those in smaller containers. I don't think they were rootbound bro.

I agree i dont think they were rootbound. Some strains sag a little after watering then spring back up the next day, relocation/ transplant can also cause this droop.

GorbertJones said:

if after watering barely any water is running out the bottom should i add holes to the bottom pot

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

No the pot should have enough holes. Your not watering with enough water if you have no run off.

Thanks fellas, they're looking better. The bottom plant on the last pic is the one that was looking bad for a while. My grow is in the sig as well.

Before


After
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