Soil not drying out between waters.

[xswesx]

I need help this is my first grow. FFOF 25-30% perlite, 400 watt MH

I have 4 plants 24 days old in ~2.5 gallon containers. The problem is the soil is simply not drying out after like 4-5 days of no watering. My plants were progressively wilting after going 5 days without water so I thought i was underwatering so I gave it more water yesterday. Before water I stuck my finger 2 inches down and it was still a little moist but the container felt way lighter than it did after a fresh water using the lift the pot method, so I gave water anyway.


The plants perked up for like 1 day after water and I could see new growth. Now they are drooping even more than they were since the original water. right now leaves are touching the dirt, big time wilt.

I've noticed they wilt a lot more towards the last few hours of having the 400 watt on. 18/6 lighting.

I don't know what to do, maybe take my plants out of the 2.5 gallon containers and place them into something smaller so the soil drys out faster which promotes root growth? Would this stress them out too much? Is it normal to go upwards of 5-7 days in between waters?

 

[YoungBud]

.. just wait longer and it will dry out..

 

[xswesx]

.

 

[hey.jude]

put some broken clay pots at the bottem of your pots for better drainage you might as well just up grade to smart-pots they are a fiber cloth pot that litterly drys really fast i use them in ebb and flow and hand water coco and it is pretty awsome!!!!!!!

pull those girls out of their pots and put tons of perlite at the bottom of the pot if you want to i would water with normal fox farm soil every weekend only ever7-8 days mang but i suck at soil so dont listen to me just buy a bunch of smart pots and you will be glad you wasted your time on the internet

 

[boo]

try misting them...they look like they are transpiring...

 

[hey.jude]

nice tent i hope you get a nice 2.5 oz out of their if your lucky youl get 2 oz of bammer plus 2.5 of some top dank nugs i love tents for the space and the time they take to put up and configure from start to finish its so worth sacrafice in yield if you really have to i would PACK THAT tent like COMPLETELY i got 6 oz out of a tent one time not saying it was dense only some was good most of just ok a tiny bit of it was SOOOO DANK like it was some super fire but the nugs are tiny most of the time

i would put a little table in there buddy or just pack it full of plants like some coco plants and you will have a really good run if you like to water every day coco is the way to go..

it looks like you put some effort in to making a draining system thats cool man
i always add perlite to my soils you maybe just need to do that

 

[h^2 O]

any chance the temperature in there is too low?

 

[hey.jude]

oh crap hows your temps everything must be EXACT indoors thats a downside of doing stuff inside
\

i think everything needs to dry out maybe you dont understand any watering methods yet
you should scrach an inch of the surface in soil and dont let it be SOAKED it will rot your plants out i would let them dry out ALOT LIKE IGNORE THEM FOR AT LEAST A WEEK LIKE DONT OPEN THAT TENT FOR A WEEK IT MAY DO YOU SOME GOOD HOW MUCH ARE YOU FIDDLING WITH THINGS?


to love something you must take care of it but you must let it go on its own sometimes and let it call you on the weekends. dont leave a 1000 voice mails asking how their doing they want some time to them self plants will out live human kind and they didnt need us before they sure dont need us now

your prob over loving your plants to the point they prob think your creeping them out

this hopefully makes some sense

honestly did you like it when your parents wouldnt leave you alone? how do you think your plants feel?

a heathy relationship is good for plants and people

 

[xswesx]

Temps are 77-80 during the day. I have a thermostat hooked up to an inline fan so its pretty much always 77-80. At night when lights are off I noticed sometimes the temps drop to around 70.

Could the low temps at night attribute to the problems listed above? Maybe I should adjust my light schedule to turn light on overnight when its coolest in my cab and off during mid day.

thanks

 

[oregon_guy]

xswesx,
It looks like you have everything right. FFOF and added perlite sounds like it should have good drainage. I see one fan in the pic, do you have good ventilation throughout your area? I had the same problem with the pots not drying out after a week, I added more perlite and threw in another fan and that seemed to take care of the problem. I think your pot is just a little big for the plant and the roots need to grow out more. You should probably be fine in a couple of weeks once those roots start spreading out more and consuming more water.

 

[fireman]

How much are you watering them each time? Do you have excessive run off? I would say for plants that size they should be getting about 3/4 a quart give or take.

P.s. Stopsticking ur fingers and breakign you plants rootball. This is a bad way to judge if the plant is ready to be watered.

Start picking your plants up so you can get a feel for how heavy they feel when wet and when dry so you know when they probably need water. Also start looking at the plant and see what it is telling you.

Solution:
Give them about another week and if nothing changes transplant them into a mix with about 20-25% perlite.

 

[BigPhil]

Temps are 77-80 during the day. I have a thermostat hooked up to an inline fan so its pretty much always 77-80. At night when lights are off I noticed sometimes the temps drop to around 70.

Could the low temps at night attribute to the problems listed above? Maybe I should adjust my light schedule to turn light on overnight when its coolest in my cab and off during mid day.

thanks

your temps seam fine, you want them to drop abit at night, untill there is a nice big root mass in your soil, your soil will stay dry for about 5 days or longer. more roots more water been sucked up

 

[haze crazy]

I usually don't start my vegging in such a large pot. I like to use a 4-5 inch pot for the first 6 weeks or so and get a good small ball of roots. That is especially good if you can water often. Then, when you transplant into the 3 gallon size many tiny roots grow from that ball into the larger dirt mass. When you start out in such a big pot the roots seem to grow straight out to the edges and don't take full advantage of the mass of soil in the larger pot.


Transplant shock is minimized by using a few simple steps. I grow organically in dirt so this may not apply using other methods. Using Mycorrhizae preparations and kelp in water during the transplanting process really helps and be sure to transplant late in the day so the plant can recover overnight. I also lay off the nutrients for a few days before and a week after to promote new root development.

I'm sure you will do fine, after all it's just a weed! LOL

Peace

 

[xswesx]

I am watering approx 2 cups per plant. Runoff is around 15-25%, a decent amount. Runoff PH is 6.8. I water with 6.5 PH.

Next grow for sure I am going to start in smaller containers and transplant to larger.

Ventilation is good, this tent is inside a closet. I have a few darkroom louvers to intake cool air.

update: overnight things seemed to turn around for the better, plants perked up. This is what happened last time I watered, plants perk up for around a day and are wilting by the next day again. I'll keep this updated if they are wilting again.

 

[ibjamming]

Don't water them for a week...then only enough to wet (not soak) the top layer...and then begin normal watering in another week. It's too wet down deep in the pot.

 

[silent_lemon]

dont have so much run off?

when i was watering my ladies, same type of deal, small plant big pot:

i found they would NEVER dry out if i didnt wait upon more waiting. I just moved into a new place, and all my plants have suffered without their usual conditions, i havent watered any in way over a week, and they still look fine, soil is DAMN dry, but they look fine, i would take under watering over overwatering anyday - they can handle it, dont make a point of torturing them(unless theres a valid point to it) but you can let them dry out, actually, no biggy. nice plants tho!

 

[xswesx]

Don't water them for a week...then only enough to wet (not soak) the top layer...and then begin normal watering in another week. It's too wet down deep in the pot.

thanks for this advice, i'll try this and see if plants improve

 

[Hella THC]

The good news here is that your plants are big and strong enough to take one hell of a beating.

Let em dry out, as you know. They can take it. Have faith. It sounds corny, but growing really requires a lot of it.

Best,

- Hella

 

[Groucho]

Whatever man they look great n I'm SURE in a few days when the roots expand try will explode. Keep it up. The weight method of determining the moisture ima pot is a good one I use and also recommend. And, hey. Judes Hilarious analogy to females is correct but not neccesarily fitting. I run automated systems; ebb n flo n aero. So with the exception of my barely trained partner topping off the rez n making sure it dosent flood. I only see them about every week or two. For the important tasks, other than that thy do there own thing. Exactly what I tell em to do hehe Anyhow they're off to a great start. Best of luck
Grouch

 

[xswesx]

just an update, 4 days of no water since last pic and plants are wilting more and more, but they are slowly growing.

The container still feels heavy so I guess I will go another 3 days without water and then water lightly. Still have used zero nutes so far.

I planned to LST but not sure if now is the best time, although they do have 6 nodes atm

4 days ago, just watered

3 days ago (1 day after water):

Today: