Please Help!!!Droopy plants problem

Hi Everyone! Hope you are doing great this Sunday!
I’m a relatively new grower, and new to the community, and having some problems with my plants and hoping for some help and advise!

In the last 2-3 weeks my ladies have been acting weird. They droop when it seems like they have enough water, watering them doesn’t solve an issue. I’ve tried letting them dry out completely, and still no effect really.The bigger plant used to have very thin leaves and grows spindly, however buying a new humidifier yesterday and increasing humidity seemed to improve things a bit. The other two plants looked okay yesterday, but today after the lights came on, and they looked extremely droopy. So I watered them a bit but they still look very droopy after 2 hours of being watered. Throughout these 2 weeks leaves show no symptoms of deficiencies and don’t yellow or anything. Growth has been very slow and sporadic.At first I thought this was an issue with not enough/too much light, but after 2 weeks fighting with lights up and down and changing intensity levels with no real results (I even switched to an older light that I have to see if it will make any difference), I don’t think this is a light issue. I would really appreciate any advise someone can provide to fix this as I am very new to this!!!

Grow setup/ Feeding Program:
Genetics: 3x Autoflower Fems (Gnome Automatics, Fast Buds and Viking Gardens)
5x3 ft tent
40-50% RH
2x ViparSpectra 150w LED Lights
3x 7 Gal Pots
Organic living soil
Gaia Green Flower Fertilizer ( top dressed about 1.5 weeks ago, before then just soil and water)
Watering with plain water + Bushdoctor Organic Cal Mag (once a week, started on week 4)

How much do you water them when you do water

Those pots are way too big for autos. Seriously too big. Stick to 3 gallon bags and you’ll have far fewer issues.

Do you have air moving in the tent. they don’t look bad just a little under watered to me. If I’m reading right your saying they’re in 7 gallon pots in organic soil with good air flow and good temps in your tent you should be giving at least a gallon of water twice weekly if not a litttle more maybe a gallon and a half depending on your medium your using

Hiphophippo said:

How much do you water them when you do water

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Hi there! I don’t water until the pots feel light, and water about 3 litres per plant when I do it every 3-4 days. The pots are 7 gal fabric pots! Thank you for trying to help, really appreciate it

Your organic soil shouldn’t really ever dry completely out or lighten up that much I would water with a little extra water next time to compensate for them flowering and being in the bigger pots

hotrodharley said:

Those pots are way too big for autos. Seriously too big. Stick to 3 gallon bags and you’ll have far fewer issues.

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Hi there, thank you for your advise! I’ve heard that about autos, however being in the living soil, it’s hard to have anything smaller then 7 GAL, I also have cover crops going, and worms in the soil so it would be hard to keep it truly alive with 3 gals from what I’ve heard. Again, I’m new to this and still learning…

Hiphophippo said:

Do you have air moving in the tent. they don’t look bad just a little under watered to me. If I’m reading right your saying they’re in 7 gallon pots in organic soil with good air flow and good temps in your tent you should be giving at least a gallon of water twice weekly if not a litttle more maybe a gallon and a half depending on your medium your using

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The temps are about 76F-78f during the day and 70F during night. Have 3 fans blowing at different directions from different corners and have AC Infinity 400cfm exhaust running non stop. So def good air flow and circulation…I even increased the exhaust speed a bit as this was one of my theories lol

Sounds good probably just a watering issue autos are tricky sometimes or just don’t do right thru genetics or whatever but over all they don’t look bad

Hiphophippo said:

Your organic soil shouldn’t really ever dry completely out or lighten up that much I would water with a little extra water next time to compensate for them flowering and being in the bigger pots

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Since they are in Fabric Pots do you think I should be watering until steady run off or no? As I’m currently do not water until the run off. Of course the water drips from the sides a bit, but I wouldn’t call it a run off. I just heard in living soil and soil in general you shouldn’t water until run off, and especially when using top dressing and stuff

Bashka1755 said:

Since they are in Fabric Pots do you think I should be watering until steady run off or no? As I’m currently do not water until the run off. Of course the water drips from the sides a bit, but I wouldn’t call it a run off. I just heard in living soil and soil in general you shouldn’t water until run off, and especially when using top dressing and stuff

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A 7 gallon container should easily take 1-1/2 gallons at a time. Aerate your medium to get it loose enough that water doesn’t pass it.

I use living soil and how i do it is the 5% method or until I know in a few seconds the water will start to run off a little. For example I know no matter what that I’m putting in 1.75 gallons of water each time I water slowly and move around the pot to water evenly then by the time I’m done with the second plant water is running from the bottom of the first pot I watered so I’m getting runoff but not over saturating my pot to get it right away

Hiphophippo said:

I use living soil and how i do it is the 5% method or until I know in a few seconds the water will start to run off a little. For example I know no matter what that I’m putting in 1.75 gallons of water each time I water slowly and move around the pot to water evenly then by the time I’m done with the second plant water is running from the bottom of the first pot I watered so I’m getting runoff but not over saturating my pot to get it right away

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Thank you for the advise and help dude! Really appreciate! Will try to follow a similar practice and will see if they start doing better!!

hotrodharley said:

A 7 gallon container should easily take 1-1/2 gallons at a time. Aerate your medium to get it loose enough that water doesn’t pass it.

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I have cover crops growing, should it not be enough aeration? Since I just watered in the morning, and under watering seems to be an issue, would you add more water now or wait until next watering?

Could be plants are resting, whether we believe they sleep or not. They raise and lower leaves because of light more often than not. Worms aerate so your good. Id like to see them in a few weeks please.

Bashka1755 said:

I have cover crops growing, should it not be enough aeration? Since I just watered in the morning, and under watering seems to be an issue, would you add more water now or wait until next watering?

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I’d give it a day. If they’re the same a few hours after lights on tomorrow I would go ahead and water.

Southernontariogrower said:

Could be plants are resting, whether we believe they sleep or not. They raise and lower leaves because of light more often than not. Worms aerate so your good. Id like to see them in a few weeks please.

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Hey dude! Thank you for your response! Could they be resting in the middle of the day or shouldn’t they rest at night and perk up when the lights come on? For my ladies it takes about 3-4 hours to wake up and look a bit better then what the pics show, but still a bit a droopy and spindly compared to my previous grows. And this shit has been happening for the last 2-3 weeks, and I just can’t figure it out man…started when plants were 2-3 weeks old and how they are 5-6 and shot still happening and the growth has been stunted I think

Your VPD is more in the mid flower to late flower range. If you don't know what VPD is, look it up as it greatly affects the way your plant uptakes water and nutrients. You need to try and get the humidity up some if you can. I do organics in 5 gallon pots but it's dry amendments not true living soil. I might also think about cleaning up some of those huge water/fan leaves that are really down low so the airflow improves up underneath the plant. Consistent moisture is the key for organics, you don't want a big swing. I water until I know the bottom of the pot is damp or I have some minor runoff at least once a week to prevent dry pockets and then I usually just go by pot lifting the other days. I water every day but my medium is very porous and drains fairly quickly so I don't have problems with over watering. Hope this helps.

Bashka1755 said:

I have cover crops growing, should it not be enough aeration? Since I just watered in the morning, and under watering seems to be an issue, would you add more water now or wait until next watering?

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The cover crops will also use a lot of your water so compensate that when watering as well

FirstCavApache64 said:

Your VPD is more in the mid flower to late flower range. If you don't know what VPD is, look it up as it greatly affects the way your plant uptakes water and nutrients. You need to try and get the humidity up some if you can. I do organics in 5 gallon pots but it's dry amendments not true living soil. I might also think about cleaning up some of those huge water/fan leaves that are really down low so the airflow improves up underneath the plant. Consistent moisture is the key for organics, you don't want a big swing. I water until I know the bottom of the pot is damp or I have some minor runoff at least once a week to prevent dry pockets and then I usually just go by pot lifting the other days. I water every day but my medium is very porous and drains fairly quickly so I don't have problems with over watering. Hope this helps.

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Thank for the advise dude! I’ve been fighting with humidity and trying to get it up, so ended up buying a new humidifier as the old one wouldn’t do it anymore lol also did a little trim on the girls today in hopes to improve light exposure and air flow as you suggested. They seem to be doing much better now, after getting watered in the morning, so I think under watering combined with low humidity were the root causes, but who knows…