plants look droopy last few hours of light...

so im vegging 18/6. im using 5 gallon buckets feeding 30 minutes on 30 minutes off. the plants look great for the first 12 hours or so, then after that they go kinda limp, almost look over watered. i know its not over feeding cause they were doing the same thing when i was feeding much less frequently.

my roots are still pretty small, due to my previous infrequent feeding. they are recovering nicely and new roots are sprouting everywhere.

could my lack of roots be responsible for the lack of vigor my plants seem to have at the end of their light cycle?4


thanks for any input. peace.

What type of system are you running?
When you say 30 min on and 30 off, are you saying you flood/feed for 30 min then drain for 30 min?
Based on what you have said and without knowing the answers to the above questions I'm going off my own experience.

I was using an Ebb and Flow setup and still in 18/6 with a rather small root base as well since it was the beginning. What I noticed is either one of two things and correct me if I'm wrong someone more experienced...Plants tend to droop like that right before they go into their sleeping phase "8 Hours of darkness." It opens their stomatas allowing them to rest and not work so hard like are doing all the time. Or the issue could be that your plants are just getting too much water and are saturated by the feeding you are doing. When I began I was doing 3-4 floods for 15 mins at a time a day but then I stated to flood for 15 min for twice a day and my issues went away. Also I do use a mix of medium (half hyrdoton, half coco substrate) hence my medium maintains alot of water.

it gets better by the day. i havent changed a thing. when i feed it floods for 30 minutes. 25 minutes later the roots are starting to submerge. 5 minutes later the drain cycle starts, buts 10 before the roots are out of the water. so they end up being wet for 15 minutes, dry for 45. when i check the roots right before the flood gets to them they are still wet from the previous flood. keep in mind this set up is more aero then hydro, since ive only got hydroton in 6inch net pots and the rest of the roots just dangle in buckets. my system is a hybrid flood and drain aero bucket system. i designed it for maximum root space. i dont like sprayers in the buckets because the roots just clog them, drippers get clogged but i feel more water delivery is required for such massive roots as im trying to achieve. my last crop was massive till i had a security breech and had to tear everything down. im back up in a way bigger and better spot, the landlords know whats up and are cool, ive got all my paper work properly set up, no smell issues and no light or exhaust problems. no bugs no mold no bull shit. just had to get this watering frequency down. ive been completely dialed in for a week as of today and the difference is amazing!! roots exploading, super green huge leaves!! stacking beautifully!!

Nice to hear that you didn't actually have any issues. Just goes to show mother nature does her own thing sometimes and we try to think we can control her, which is kind of funny when you really think about it (we only have a small amount of relative control)