Help. Dying Plant. Everyone!

I have one plant. I've been so excited because so far, everything has been going smooth and the plant is quickly growing. For the past 5 days, it's been on an18 hour light schedule. From noon to 6:00 a.m. I had to slowly work the plant into this schedule about 5 days ago because I was apparently not giving it enough light. Anyways, I had to work this morning and no one was here to turn the light on at noon. So I turned it on at 8:45 this morning before leaving. I came home about 30 minutes ago. The leaves are droopy. I'm worried. I really don't want this plant to die. Could the light have hurt it? I watered it last night before going to bed. I usually water every 2 days. Could it somehow be over watered. I need as many opinions as I can get to save my plant. Also please tell me what I could do to correct it? How could they have suffered so quickly? They were perky last night... Even this morning right before I left. Now they look... Sad. They're droopy. Especially the bottom leaves. They seem to be turning a yellow/brown color. The only leaves changing color. The row of leaves above this are just droopy. None of the others are yet, but I'm afraid this problem might escalate. I've posted some pics.

Problems and solutions:

1. Overwatering. Here's a rule of thumb to know when to water. Stick a finger 1inch deep in the soil. Does it feel moist? If it feels completely dry, water it. You want to add enough watering solution so that 15-20% of it escapes through the draining holes on the bottom of the pot/container. If you don't have draining holes, make some and pot the container on a draining dish.

2. Nute burn. If you've added nutes, stop and flush. If you've bought soil with time release nutes like Miracle Grow soil, transplant into simple potting soil for flowers. Any soil with more than 0.10-0.10-0.10 is too much for your plant to handle and nute burn is inevitable.

3. Root lock. Well, you don't really have this, but I'm just warning you. You should think of transplanting a new pot soon (sometime during the next week).

the bottom 1 leaves always die...check out my link

gotot said:

the bottom 1 leaves always die...check out my link

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Totally agree, but so soon?! If you've experienced yellowing of the leaves so soon, then I can only say, ilovekasey, you can go ahead and give her nutes with no problem. The bottom leaves start yellowing after some 3 weeks for me and fall out somewhere in the 4th week.

Are you referring to the rounded leaves falling off? Because they already have. The ones that are turning yellow are the two right above it. Do they fall out as well?

Also, the plant looks slightly large for it's container. Maybe it DOES need a transplant.

No, not referring to the cotyledons (rounded leaves). The one-fingered leaves also fall off, but it seems a bit early to me. How old is your lady?

She's between 3 & 4 weeks old.

Hopefully she's old enough for those leaves to fall off. However, I'm still concerned about the leaves about them. They've become very droopy throughout today. I'm not sure if it's from under-watering or too much light. Should I flip the light out now and water her? The lights been on since 8:45 this morning. It's now 11:45 p.m. Been about 15 hours.

Oh, well then it's perfectly normal. Don't worry about it. It's also normal for those leaves to become droopy.

Let the light on as much as possible, but no more than 18h. Get a timer, it will make your life much easier. Also, don't water her before turning off the lights. I always water after lights come on, so she can use the nutes in the soil and the light to grow and produce nice buds and stock up.

ilovekasey17 said:

She's between 3 & 4 weeks old.

Hopefully she's old enough for those leaves to fall off. However, I'm still concerned about the leaves about them. They've become very droopy throughout today. I'm not sure if it's from under-watering or too much light. Should I flip the light out now and water her? The lights been on since 8:45 this morning. It's now 11:45 p.m. Been about 15 hours.

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What kind of light? Unless it's a HID you can forget about over lighting them and worry about your real problems. Your plant need to be fed. Take care of it.

Wow. Thank you, thank you. Very helpful. I'll turn the light off in 2 hours. I'll just set the alarm on my alarm clock to go off at the times at which I need to either turn the light on or off. Also, I'll water it tomorrow as soon as I turn the light back on. I'll keep ya posted on how things worked out. Thanks again.

I'm using a setup containing two 48" tube plant and aquarium lights. They give off a nice bright purple/blue light. They're about 2 inches from the top of the plant.

In that case heat is not a problem for you.

dude go to home depot and buy a lamp timer they are like 5 bucks, if not just let the light run all day, i mean i veg under a 600 and a 430 24/7 and they grow fast as shit

fat sam said:

dude go to home depot and buy a lamp timer they are like 5 bucks, if not just let the light run all day, i mean i veg under a 600 and a 430 24/7 and they grow fast as shit

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18/6 ---> stretchy, lanky, tall plant
24/0 ---> short, bushy, compact plant

Depending on strain, you could make good use of this. All my micro grows get 24/0 to remain small, while my cabinet grow gets 18/6.

In order for me to turn the light on and off without being stuck at work when the light is supposed to go on or off. So, I now have a 18/6 schedule. 6:00 a.m - midnight light on. Midnight to 6:00, light off. I haven't been home yet, but I turned my light on at 6:00 this morning and watered the plant a bunch. I gently squeezed the cup and it felt hard. I watered it and at first a lot of water seemed to come out of the bottom. THis confused me, but I put 2 and 2 together and assumed that the water was going around the edges only and going straight to the bottom. I poked a few shallow holes in the middle around the stem and watered there... It formed a puddle that last like 10 seconds. But once the oce drained through once, it went through in no time when I gave it a little extra water for testing purposes. I guess the dirt somehow hardened up, which makes me think the problem was a water deffiency.