Under/Overwatering??

ProphetNova

Member
I've been peeling through articles about overwatering, and I think I may have? This plant was drooping after 2 days without water. So I watered it, and it got WORSE? It came time to water the other two and they ALSO look worse for wear... The droopiness seems to be getting worse as the days proceed, not the other way around. I have two new seedlings that seem to be doing relatively good? Here's my specs;

Strain/Type; I have Gorilla Glue, Girlscout Cookies, and Bruce Banner. All three are Autos. The two new ones are Bruce Banner and GirlscoutCookies, also Auto.
Humidity; ~60%+- a few percent on a given day.
Temp; ~77-80F during the day, 71-74F during night time.
Nutes; I just started the trio at half-strength for week 5, as they just hit their 5th week of growing. I have only watered my middle plant (The one with the hydrometer/temp gauge that's rather large for it's pot.
Age; The big ones are 4 weeks old, the small ones are 3 weeks old since germination.
Lighting; I ran with a single Mars Hydro TSW2000 300w, but I bought a second one and daisy chained them together as of yesterday. I'm running it at 100% on the dimmer for both, at approximately 18 inches from the top of the canopy. I have it set for 19/5 day/night light cycles.
Water; I haven't set a specific schedule yet, I've been going by feel, which may be a bad thing? I'm giving each 5 gallon fabric bag ~1/2 gallon of water pH'd down to 6.2-6.5, with RO water.
Ventilation; I have a AC Infinity 6" Inline Fan w/ attached carbon filter. It's the one with the attached thermostat control unit.

So, in short, he's some pics.

20230228_082306.jpg
^^^ Here's the droopiest one. I'm seeing some yellowing and thinning on the bottom leaves. It's been about 3~ days since it's overwatering and it doesn't seem to be getting better. I'm worried now that it's thirsty and I need to water it again?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20230228_082302.jpg

20230228_082304.jpg
^^^^^^^^ My youngest. Stunted it looks like for week 3, but I figured it would be that way. Planted in final pot from rockwool cube germination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20230228_082310.jpg
^^^^^^ Originally my best grower, but she's drooping, and you can see the bottom leaves are yellowing as well. I just watered this one yesterday with the Big Trio for the first time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20230228_082312.jpg
^^^^ This girl appears to be the healthiest, but she looks like she's also drooping a little bit.

Thanks for your time in reading this. First time grower with a pretty good setup. I know it's an error on my part, and I would love help in figuring out a solution. Thank you!!
 

TCH

Well-Known Member
I fought something very similar on my first autos. I definitely overwatered them in the bigger pots. I ultimately let them dry all the way back u til they were feather light and dusty. I then watered them with less water and just around the stem. Basically pretend that they are in a much smaller pot. While they were stunted pretty bad, they did eventually come back a bit and produce some bud. Not as much as they should have, but they did finish out.

Another option is to repot them into fresh soil and check the roots out to make sure they aren't rotting.
 

DarkLordMelkor

Well-Known Member
Okay let me tell you something about this. It happened to me before.

Droopy leaves are not always sign of over/underwatering or anything else. Now go to youtube and watch cannabis timelapses. You will see there, plants in even perfect conditions are drooping their leaves and then they lift up their leaves while they are growing. They doing that all the time.

When first time i saw droopy leaves on my plant i thought same and gave her heavy feeding with water but pot was heavy and soil was moist enough. Then few hours later ooops they went down and lower leaves was touching to dirt.

Always use pot liftting and finger method. If 2 inch deep of soil is dry then time to water. If pot is light like there is no water then time to water.
 

Splinter7

Well-Known Member
your lights are turend up too high. do they look better at lights on? if you don't have a lights on that would be another item related to our issue. it might have nothing to do with water. i am in week 6 of veg and my plants are tired after 16 hours of 157w at about 30 inches.
 

ProphetNova

Member
I fought something very similar on my first autos. I definitely overwatered them in the bigger pots. I ultimately let them dry all the way back u til they were feather light and dusty. I then watered them with less water and just around the stem. Basically pretend that they are in a much smaller pot. While they were stunted pretty bad, they did eventually come back a bit and produce some bud. Not as much as they should have, but they did finish out.

Another option is to repot them into fresh soil and check the roots out to make sure they aren't rotting.
I'm going to let the droopiest one of all have another day or two of drying with a fan on it. Hopefully that'll dry it out.

Okay let me tell you something about this. It happened to me before.

Droopy leaves are not always sign of over/underwatering or anything else. Now go to youtube and watch cannabis timelapses. You will see there, plants in even perfect conditions are drooping their leaves and then they lift up their leaves while they are growing. They doing that all the time.

When first time i saw droopy leaves on my plant i thought same and gave her heavy feeding with water but pot was heavy and soil was moist enough. Then few hours later ooops they went down and lower leaves was touching to dirt.

Always use pot liftting and finger method. If 2 inch deep of soil is dry then time to water. If pot is light like there is no water then time to water.
I think I overwatered. I know what you mean about the time-lapse, how they naturally droop towards night time, then come back up. I don't think mine are coming up as much. And the yellow leaves at the bottom attest to that. Thank you for help! I'm going to water a little less frequently.

your lights are turend up too high. do they look better at lights on? if you don't have a lights on that would be another item related to our issue. it might have nothing to do with water. i am in week 6 of veg and my plants are tired after 16 hours of 157w at about 30 inches.
I thought maybe the same. I turned the dimmer down to 50%. Here's to hoping it works!!
 

Django66

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty new at this too. I do understand that if the only the ends or tips of the leaves on most of the plant is drooping, you over watered. If the whole leaf and stem of the leaf is drooping you may need to water. Like anything else leaves droop and change colors for many reasons. Not always watering issues. I also found that my soil was holding moisture that I couldn't detect by using my finger. The soil surface appeared dry, yet the pots were heavy, and the plants looked fine for days. I have since added perlite to the mix and that should help. I'm trying out XL Autopots for two Double Grape, a Blackstrap and Sour Stomper. The beans went into paper towel baggie last night. I'll let you know how it goes.
 

Splinter7

Well-Known Member
I'm going to let the droopiest one of all have another day or two of drying with a fan on it. Hopefully that'll dry it out.



I think I overwatered. I know what you mean about the time-lapse, how they naturally droop towards night time, then come back up. I don't think mine are coming up as much. And the yellow leaves at the bottom attest to that. Thank you for help! I'm going to water a little less frequently.



I thought maybe the same. I turned the dimmer down to 50%. Here's to hoping it works!!
it might need to be lower than 50%, don't you have several lights on too? i run about 120w for the first 3 or 4 weeks at 26 to 30 inches. how long a lights off do you have? lately, the first 2 weeks or so i do an 80w blurple blue...they love that. i water all the time, whenever i want really, but some mediums let you do that.
 

ProphetNova

Member
it might need to be lower than 50%, don't you have several lights on too? i run about 120w for the first 3 or 4 weeks at 26 to 30 inches. how long a lights off do you have? lately, the first 2 weeks or so i do an 80w blurple blue...they love that. i water all the time, whenever i want really, but some mediums let you do that.
Just the two Mars Hydro TSW2000. Each is 300w. Lights off is 5 hours.
 

Nutty sKunK

Well-Known Member
I've been peeling through articles about overwatering, and I think I may have? This plant was drooping after 2 days without water. So I watered it, and it got WORSE? It came time to water the other two and they ALSO look worse for wear... The droopiness seems to be getting worse as the days proceed, not the other way around. I have two new seedlings that seem to be doing relatively good? Here's my specs;

Strain/Type; I have Gorilla Glue, Girlscout Cookies, and Bruce Banner. All three are Autos. The two new ones are Bruce Banner and GirlscoutCookies, also Auto.
Humidity; ~60%+- a few percent on a given day.
Temp; ~77-80F during the day, 71-74F during night time.
Nutes; I just started the trio at half-strength for week 5, as they just hit their 5th week of growing. I have only watered my middle plant (The one with the hydrometer/temp gauge that's rather large for it's pot.
Age; The big ones are 4 weeks old, the small ones are 3 weeks old since germination.
Lighting; I ran with a single Mars Hydro TSW2000 300w, but I bought a second one and daisy chained them together as of yesterday. I'm running it at 100% on the dimmer for both, at approximately 18 inches from the top of the canopy. I have it set for 19/5 day/night light cycles.
Water; I haven't set a specific schedule yet, I've been going by feel, which may be a bad thing? I'm giving each 5 gallon fabric bag ~1/2 gallon of water pH'd down to 6.2-6.5, with RO water.
Ventilation; I have a AC Infinity 6" Inline Fan w/ attached carbon filter. It's the one with the attached thermostat control unit.

So, in short, he's some pics.

View attachment 5265203
^^^ Here's the droopiest one. I'm seeing some yellowing and thinning on the bottom leaves. It's been about 3~ days since it's overwatering and it doesn't seem to be getting better. I'm worried now that it's thirsty and I need to water it again?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View attachment 5265204

View attachment 5265206
^^^^^^^^ My youngest. Stunted it looks like for week 3, but I figured it would be that way. Planted in final pot from rockwool cube germination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

View attachment 5265207
^^^^^^ Originally my best grower, but she's drooping, and you can see the bottom leaves are yellowing as well. I just watered this one yesterday with the Big Trio for the first time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View attachment 5265208
^^^^ This girl appears to be the healthiest, but she looks like she's also drooping a little bit.

Thanks for your time in reading this. First time grower with a pretty good setup. I know it's an error on my part, and I would love help in figuring out a solution. Thank you!!
Did you water 1/2 gallon when they were young?

Growing in pots that big you need to pre moisten the soil before planting the seed. Otherwise it’s going to dry out at the bottom/edges. The roots get to the bottom in under a week!

Looks like a watering issue.

You’ll get some bud but with autos every mistake = drop in yield. Personally I think they are harder to grow perfectly healthy than photoperiod.

This girl is 14 days in a 5 gallon pot in soil for a comparison

330B6DF4-3742-405F-8871-4B21211FCEF1.jpeg
 

ProphetNova

Member
Did you water 1/2 gallon when they were young?

Growing in pots that big you need to pre moisten the soil before planting the seed. Otherwise it’s going to dry out at the bottom/edges. The roots get to the bottom in under a week!

Looks like a watering issue.

You’ll get some bud but with autos every mistake = drop in yield. Personally I think they are harder to grow perfectly healthy than photoperiod.

This girl is 14 days in a 5 gallon pot in soil for a comparison

View attachment 5265237
Ooofff. Yeah I'm nowhere near that. My new ones are not even close to that and they're like 3 weeks. Darn. Should I keep at it? Or do yall think they may be too stunted to even be worth continuing?
 

DarkLordMelkor

Well-Known Member
If you have more room and more seeds just plant them and keep this little ones too. This is good thing with autos. You can plant new seeds even other ones are 4-5 week old. You are always on same light schedule. So easy to add more plants.

What i am doing with autos is saturating whole soil before putting seeds in. For 20L pots it takes 10 days for first watering but they keep growing.

Don't forget that it's easy to fix underwatering but hard to fix overwatering. Always wait long enough to get soil light (lifting) and dry. If they are underwatered, it's easy to fix. You see bone dry soil and droopy leaves then you just add water and they are happy in few hours again. But overwatering takes days even weeks to fix.

You may not see that but cannabis developing double or even triple size of roots than their visible size. If you have 5cm plant above soil, she is probably have or developing so fast 15-20cm roots. So whole soil should be saturated all the time.

I am currently growing photoperiod plants and i am used to start and finish in final pot (that's mistake for photos yeah but anyway). As i said i am used to do that with autos. They are 18 days old plants and i watered them twice. But there is no underwatering sings yet. Because first mistake i made and first lesson i learnt was watering.

It's not rocket science tho. You need to learn how to read your plants. Deficiency or toxicity is anohter thing but watering is pretty simple if you don't hurry or stress yourself.
 

ProphetNova

Member
If you have more room and more seeds just plant them and keep this little ones too. This is good thing with autos. You can plant new seeds even other ones are 4-5 week old. You are always on same light schedule. So easy to add more plants.

What i am doing with autos is saturating whole soil before putting seeds in. For 20L pots it takes 10 days for first watering but they keep growing.

Don't forget that it's easy to fix underwatering but hard to fix overwatering. Always wait long enough to get soil light (lifting) and dry. If they are underwatered, it's easy to fix. You see bone dry soil and droopy leaves then you just add water and they are happy in few hours again. But overwatering takes days even weeks to fix.

You may not see that but cannabis developing double or even triple size of roots than their visible size. If you have 5cm plant above soil, she is probably have or developing so fast 15-20cm roots. So whole soil should be saturated all the time.

I am currently growing photoperiod plants and i am used to start and finish in final pot (that's mistake for photos yeah but anyway). As i said i am used to do that with autos. They are 18 days old plants and i watered them twice. But there is no underwatering sings yet. Because first mistake i made and first lesson i learnt was watering.

It's not rocket science tho. You need to learn how to read your plants. Deficiency or toxicity is anohter thing but watering is pretty simple if you don't hurry or stress yourself.
This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you! I've got some Granddaddy Purple Auto seeds that I'm looking to plant, so I think I'm going to start those guys here soon. I'll hold off on watering. I'm going to do transplants for half of my seeds, and final container for my other half and see which works best.
 

Django66

Well-Known Member
I was watching a grower on his you tube channel and was pleased (in a way) to see that he overwatered a plant and admitted it. Even people with years of experience can screw up the simple stuff. I think that was the point he was trying to make.
Too much nitrogen can look like overwatering too. You will get dark green curly leaves sometimes with only a little yellowing.

Nutty Skunks plant looks great for 14 days. I think when you get past the first 20 days with autos without problems, you'll have a good shot at a decent yield. I have a mini plant for 21 days that I overwatered. I just started a few more autos to take it's place and an extra "freebie" just for fun.
Autoflowers, you either love them or you don't. I like the fact that I can have plants in all stages of life in the same room on the same light schedule.
is it easier than photoperiods? Maybe so, maybe not. Who are you and how do you like to grow. It's up to you.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
I've been peeling through articles about overwatering, and I think I may have? This plant was drooping after 2 days without water. So I watered it, and it got WORSE? It came time to water the other two and they ALSO look worse for wear... The droopiness seems to be getting worse as the days proceed, not the other way around. I have two new seedlings that seem to be doing relatively good? Here's my specs;

Strain/Type; I have Gorilla Glue, Girlscout Cookies, and Bruce Banner. All three are Autos. The two new ones are Bruce Banner and GirlscoutCookies, also Auto.
Humidity; ~60%+- a few percent on a given day.
Temp; ~77-80F during the day, 71-74F during night time.
Nutes; I just started the trio at half-strength for week 5, as they just hit their 5th week of growing. I have only watered my middle plant (The one with the hydrometer/temp gauge that's rather large for it's pot.
Age; The big ones are 4 weeks old, the small ones are 3 weeks old since germination.
Lighting; I ran with a single Mars Hydro TSW2000 300w, but I bought a second one and daisy chained them together as of yesterday. I'm running it at 100% on the dimmer for both, at approximately 18 inches from the top of the canopy. I have it set for 19/5 day/night light cycles.
Water; I haven't set a specific schedule yet, I've been going by feel, which may be a bad thing? I'm giving each 5 gallon fabric bag ~1/2 gallon of water pH'd down to 6.2-6.5, with RO water.
Ventilation; I have a AC Infinity 6" Inline Fan w/ attached carbon filter. It's the one with the attached thermostat control unit.

So, in short, he's some pics.

View attachment 5265203
^^^ Here's the droopiest one. I'm seeing some yellowing and thinning on the bottom leaves. It's been about 3~ days since it's overwatering and it doesn't seem to be getting better. I'm worried now that it's thirsty and I need to water it again?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View attachment 5265204

View attachment 5265206
^^^^^^^^ My youngest. Stunted it looks like for week 3, but I figured it would be that way. Planted in final pot from rockwool cube germination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

View attachment 5265207
^^^^^^ Originally my best grower, but she's drooping, and you can see the bottom leaves are yellowing as well. I just watered this one yesterday with the Big Trio for the first time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View attachment 5265208
^^^^ This girl appears to be the healthiest, but she looks like she's also drooping a little bit.

Thanks for your time in reading this. First time grower with a pretty good setup. I know it's an error on my part, and I would love help in figuring out a solution. Thank you!!
I'm confused. You started feeding FF nutes at 5 weeks but the plants are 3 and 4 weeks old? Or am I missing something?

What kind of soil?
 
Top