Droopy top leaves

HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
I know it's likely overwatering or underwatering, just wanted to know if there were other options. Because when it was bone dry a few days ago it was drooping, then I gave it a good watering and now it's still drooping.

It's a Sweet Tooth Auto and it's flowering. Not sure how far into flower, I assume it has 3 weeks or so to go, but that's just a guesstimate.


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Red Hard Head

Well-Known Member
This time of year would I use large totes to dunk the whole pot till it was sunk to the bottom and heavy. If it ever got bone dry. Repeat as needed.

The flagging i.e droopiness might be a sign of phosphorus deficiency too. Although I dont really see that anywhere on the others.

I do see others are droopy and smaller fan leaves up top. More likely potassium is low. Causing similar appearance exacerbated by heat.
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
Those are pretty big plants in small pots, so watering is going to be an issue. You may have let them dry back too far and damaged some roots, they should recover, it might be wise to get them into a little shade during the hottest part of the day until the root recover. They also look a little hungry. BTW, you've got a lot longer than 3 weeks to go, more like 6-10 weeks.
 
HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
Red Hard Head said:
This time of year would I use large totes to dunk the whole pot till it was sunk to the bottom and heavy. If it ever got bone dry. Repeat as needed.

The flagging i.e droopiness might be a sign of phosphorus deficiency too. Although I dont really see that anywhere on the others.

I do see others are droopy and smaller fan leaves up top. More likely potassium is low. Causing similar appearance exacerbated by heat.
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Potassium, I didn't consider that. I'd be surprised if it was a phosphorous deficiency. But thanks for the input. I'll have to look into my organic nutrients and see if there's a weak spot. I know that banana peel tea is a good remedy so I'll start collecting those, just in case!

I am generally dunking for watering, to avoid fungus gnats. But my organic fertilizer pellets also need watering. So I do that once a week, to ensure they dissolve.

Thank you!


Phytoplankton said:
Those are pretty big plants in small pots, so watering is going to be an issue. You may have let them dry back too far and damaged some roots, they should recover, it might be wise to get them into a little shade during the hottest part of the day until the root recover. They also look a little hungry. BTW, you've got a lot longer than 3 weeks to go, more like 6-10 weeks.
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I'm trying to dial in organic nutrients. I just added more today, hopefully that helps. At the next watering, I'll supplement it with some liquid inorganic, so it's instantly available. I hope that's the issue.

I'd be surprised if the roots had been damaged from being too dry or heat damage. I'm in 55 latitude, so my sun is weak, the weather is often cloudy and it rains often.

In terms of flowering, the Sweet Tooth Auto should be ready for harvest roughly 60-65 days after sprouting and it's more than 30 days old at the moment, have I misunderstood something?

Thanks for the help!
 
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Red Hard Head

Well-Known Member
HandyGringo said:
It's an auto in flower
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Exactly. IYKYK. Which you do.

Comfrey leaves make a great high potassium tonic for plants. Ive done a quick 24- 48 hour steep and a 3 week till stinky steep. Both anaerobic. Great growth response.

Compost extract is another great preparation for all stages of growth. NPK, microbes, humic and fulvic acids. Helps with soil conditioning after getting bone dry
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
HandyGringo said:
Potassium, I didn't consider that. I'd be surprised if it was a phosphorous deficiency. But thanks for the input. I'll have to look into my organic nutrients and see if there's a weak spot. I know that banana peel tea is a good remedy so I'll start collecting those, just in case!

I am generally dunking for watering, to avoid fungus gnats. But my organic fertilizer pellets also need watering. So I do that once a week, to ensure they dissolve.

Thank you!




I'm trying to dial in organic nutrients. I just added more today, hopefully that helps. At the next watering, I'll supplement it with some liquid inorganic, so it's instantly available. I hope that's the issue.

I'd be surprised if the roots had been damaged from being too dry or heat damage. I'm in 55 latitude, so my sun is weak, the weather is often cloudy and it rains often.

In terms of flowering, the Sweet Tooth Auto should be ready for harvest roughly 60-65 days after sprouting and it's more than 30 days old at the moment, have I misunderstood something?

Thanks for the help!
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I think you may have misunderstood, perhaps 60-65 days once they start to flower. If they were wilted from lack of water, as you said, then there is a a decent chance you lost some roots.

Never trust the breeder estimates of when they'll be done, because they're autos the breeder has no idea if they'll veg for three weeks or six weeks before going into flower, plus those estimates are based on perfect conditions, which almost no one has.
 
HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
Red Hard Head said:
Exactly. IYKYK. Which you do.

Comfrey leaves make a great high potassium tonic for plants. Ive done a quick 24- 48 hour steep and a 3 week till stinky steep. Both anaerobic. Great growth response.

Compost extract is another great preparation for all stages of growth. NPK, microbes, humic and fulvic acids. Helps with soil conditioning after getting bone dry
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I don't think I have an easy access to comfrey leaves where I'm from sadly. But I'll look into compost extract!

Thanks again

Phytoplankton said:
I think you may have misunderstood, perhaps 60-65 days once they start to flower. If they were wilted from lack of water, as you said, then there is a a decent chance you lost some roots.

Never trust the breeder estimates of when they'll be done, because they're autos the breeder has no idea if they'll veg for three weeks or six weeks before going into flower, plus those estimates are based on perfect conditions, which almost no one has.
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They have never been wilted, I allowed it to get dryish to deter fungus gnats, but nothing has wilted. I hope roots dying isn't the issue. I lean more towards me underfeeding them being the issue. Because one of the plants has shown signs of a nitrogen deficiency and my organic pellets are 3-1-2 or so NPK, so if they're low on nitrogen they would be low on potassium too(?), so if that can lead to weakened leaves/stems that makes sense!

I guess I'll wait and see for the flowering time. The site literally says "Harvest time from seed: 60-65 days" but maybe the site is misleading as you say!

Thanks for the info!
 
DeadHeadX

DeadHeadX

Well-Known Member
They wouldn’t really droop from lack of nutrients in my experience. As others have said, the pot is small for the size of the plant. If it’s outside, overheating the roots could be part of the issue.
 
HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
DeadHeadX said:
They wouldn’t really droop from lack of nutrients in my experience. As others have said, the pot is small for the size of the plant. If it’s outside, overheating the roots could be part of the issue.
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I'm okay with the pot being too small since that should only mean less yield or more watering right? But if it also means it's easier for the roots to get overheated, I guess I will have to find some kind of way to protect the pot itself from the sun.

I just don't see others having this exact issue so much. Everyone seems to use smart pot outdoors without anything protecting them
 
Syntax747

Syntax747

Well-Known Member
Organics should never have a dryback period, The soil should always remain moist. Also smaller pots are not recommended for organic growing. The smaller the pot the less stable the biology becomes.
 
HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
Syntax747 said:
Organics should never have a dryback period, The soil should always remain moist. Also smaller pots are not recommended for organic growing. The smaller the pot the less stable the biology becomes.
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I guess I have a lot to learn about organic growing. It's my first year attempting it. What would you do in my situation, and do you believe the issue is roots overheating/getting too dry as well?

I guess for the small pot I can just switch to synthetic nutrients if it's pointless going organic in such a small pot. For the larger pots, I could supplement with synthetics?
 
Syntax747

Syntax747

Well-Known Member
HandyGringo said:
I guess I have a lot to learn about organic growing. It's my first year attempting it. What would you do in my situation, and do you believe the issue is roots overheating/getting too dry as well?

I guess for the small pot I can just switch to synthetic nutrients if it's pointless going organic in such a small pot. For the larger pots, I could supplement with synthetics?
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Tough call man. She's already flowering so a transplant is out of the question. Switching from organic to synthetic in the middle of a grow can be risky. Makes it much easier to burn the plants. Every time dryback occurs, the plant will cease to eat, because biology stops in dry soil. I think your best course of action would be to always keep the soil moist, allowing zero dryback and continue the organic process. Chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on from the experience.

On your next venture, if you are going to stay with organics, I would recommend a 10 gal pot or larger. Personally, I use 20 gal pots. means more stability, less top dressing, more hands off, less bullshit.
 
HandyGringo

HandyGringo

Well-Known Member
Syntax747 said:
Tough call man. She's already flowering so a transplant is out of the question. Switching from organic to synthetic in the middle of a grow can be risky. Makes it much easier to burn the plants. Every time dryback occurs, the plant will cease to eat, because biology stops in dry soil. I think your best course of action would be to always keep the soil moist, allowing zero dryback and continue the organic process. Chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on from the experience.

On your next venture, if you are going to stay with organics, I would recommend a 10 gal pot or larger. Personally, I use 20 gal pots. means more stability, less top dressing, more hands off, less bullshit.
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Gotcha, thank you. I intentionally stuck with smaller pots because I don't want gigantic plants. I don't want to draw too much attention. I think maybe in that case it just makes more sense for me to grow inorganic, moving forward. Or train my plants better. I will give it a think.

By the way, both of the plants that looked droopy are recovered today. I have no idea why. The only thing that I suspect, is that it's wind-related? Yesterday was extremely stormy, so I moved the tallest plants and the autoflower inside a barn, but I left one plant outdoors and it also looks fine now.

Do you think wind could have been the culprit?

Attached two non-droopy plants:

P_20240706_150116.jpgP_20240706_150155.jpg
 
Syntax747

Syntax747

Well-Known Member
HandyGringo said:
Gotcha, thank you. I intentionally stuck with smaller pots because I don't want gigantic plants. I don't want to draw too much attention. I think maybe in that case it just makes more sense for me to grow inorganic, moving forward. Or train my plants better. I will give it a think.

By the way, both of the plants that looked droopy are recovered today. I have no idea why. The only thing that I suspect, is that it's wind-related? Yesterday was extremely stormy, so I moved the tallest plants and the autoflower inside a barn, but I left one plant outdoors and it also looks fine now.

Do you think wind could have been the culprit?

Attached two non-droopy plants:

View attachment 5405468View attachment 5405469
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Nah, the wind has nothing to do with it. You said that you just watered correct? The droopiness you saw earlier imo was from dryback. Once watered, the biology in the soil becomes active again and the plant perks up.

As for plant growth outside during a stealth grow in a larger pot, imo I would top the plant to induce wider growth vs vertical. I would also super crop those stems that get too tall for your likeing. Maybe use indica leaning strains that for the most part promote short stocky growth.
 
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