Happened overnight- Help!

Due to long periods of drought and high (95F/35C) temps I have had to water my plants every 2-3 days once the medium they are in becomes dry. On two occassions, I didn't water soon enough and the plants drooped. Last water/feeding was two days ago.

Plants are growing in ProMix BX medium.
I feed everytime I water, using Botanicare Grow/Bloom buffered to pH of around 6.0.
The girls have been looking good all season though have been howing some nute deficiency with yellowing leaves at the bottom of the plants (this happens every year...)

I got home from work last night; one of the plants (Durban seed from Sensi Seeds) looked nearly dead:



It's sister (same seed and feeding regimen) is looking healthy:


My Mexican Sativa (Sensi Seeds) started stressing as well:


These three plants just started to flower, I added a little BC Bloom to the BC Grow nutes starting last week.

My Shaman (Dutch Passion Seeds) plant has been in flower for 5 weeks now and is about 4-5 weeks from expected harvest. It has been getting BC Bloom nute only for the past three weeks:


Plants are in 7 gallon cloth bags- I didn't know the Durbans would be so big! Way too late to transplant.

They all are getting about 6 hours direct sunlight at this time of year; I rotate the plants every feeding. Currently the containers are very heavy so they are not dried out.

Any suggestions are welcome- please help!

Looks like heat stress. Put up some shade cloth. In MY experience with using those bags outdoors, it's nearly impossible tp keep the media evenly moist. I grew potatoes in the bags and I watered to the point of ridiculousness....snd STILL found a bunch of dry pockets when I harvested.

Best advice I can think of is to water the heck out of them with a bit of surfactant added (a couple drops of dish soap will do just fine) and make sure the soil is evenly moist.

Thats rough. You could try setting up a drip irrigation on a timer.

When I was growing outdoors in Southern California, I would always transplant the ladies straight into the ground. It was too much of a hassle and a little stressful watering potted plants. The heat during the summer, full sunlight from sunrise to sunset... It was just impractical growing anything in a pot. Lol

Put them in the ground

I say that because they are already outside and my plants were smaller than that 5 I started in the ground in 5 I started in a pot the five I started in the pots were all root bound by the time I took them out and put them in the ground so you're probably dealing with that also

Agree with above, it's definitely not too late to transplant into the ground, or at least a much larger pot. With that kind of plant size to pot size ratio, the margin of error is very very slim when it comes to watering and fertilizing...

Thanks for the quick input and suggestions. Other readers- your input is also welcome!

I don't have the option of planting in ground fo several reasons- I do have a 10 gallon cloth bag and will try to transplant the distressed Durban to see if that would help; if I don't kill the plant, I can go buy another bag and transplant the healthy Durban. and possibly the Mexican Sativa. The plants will not be ready to harvest until near first frost (10-12 weeks from now) so there is plenty of time for plants to recover.

Would it help if I put the cloth bags in a catch basin full of water to make sure the root ball gets fully hydrated?

I had to chop two male Mexican Sativa plants the weekend before; neither were root bound but were not nearly the size of the Durbans. I was also wondering if they (the Durbans) are root bound...

One other input- I have growing my plants in fabric bags for years; I have not had this sudden collaspe issue in the past.

IvyPirate said:

One other input- I have growing my plants in fabric bags for years; I have not had this sudden collaspe issue in the past.

Click to expand...

I used them a few times, myself. I think the problem comes when the soil is allowed to get completely dry. Once it dies out in those bags, it's HARD to get the soil evenly moist, again. You mentioned that you weren't able to get to them for a few days when the weather was hot, so I concluded that the plants got too dry and too hot and that's what might have caused the stress.

I think the best solution (pun intended) to rehydrate the soil, would be to take the bags and place them into a large bucket or trash can and then fill up the can until the water level comes up to the soil line and you can observe any bubbling (which would indicate dry pockets). Once the bubbling stops, take the bags out of the can and allow them to drain. That's what worked for me. Subsequently, I have just gone back to the good ol' plastic garden pots. Those plants are likely wanting to drink a ton of water in that kind of temperature and they are transpiring so much, the root system is working overtime.

I grow outdoors in peat mix, but I use a HP mix or I add enough perlite to the mix to make it almost impossible to overwater.
Then when a heatwave hits, I cut the EC to about half and water 2-3 times a day. I run the garden veggies and herbage off a 1000L IBC with a timer and irrigation lines.

Some silica would probably get you a little longer between watering as well

UPDATE: It looks like the issue was waterlogged cloth buckets. I did transplant one of the Durban and the Mexican Sativa to larger plastic buckets- both look happier (though a lot less full after pruning back the damaged growth). The Shaman wasn't as damaged and, since it is just 3-4 weeks away from harvest, kept it it it's cloth bucket after trimming out a couple of isolated moldy buds. I'm looking at getting the three ladies to harvest and plenty of Christmas presents for my network.

Thanks everyone for the input and views!