What's happening here?

Was healthy prior to transplant. Not so healthy now. One other plant has been affected as well but not like this. The rest are fine. Supersoil, mixed at about 60/40 soil/perlite. The outer edges of the leaves have died/dried and break in your fingers.

Overwatering is a common mistake when growing cannabis, though it ultimately comes from a good place. Of course, you want to make sure your plants are receiving an adequate water supply, but giving them an excess can turn out to be too much of a good thing.

Water is critical to plant health, but saturating your plant’s growing medium with water can lead to crispy leaves that may even begin to turn brown.

Heat stress can, over time, start to dry-out leaves and make them crispy in the process. Heat stress will most likely start to occur when your crop is exposed to temperatures exceeding 85F.

I think aridbud is right, they look 'overwatered'. To me, those containers look too big for the size of the plants and that is probably the cause of the problem. Smaller containers 'breathe' better and the soil mix stays aerated. Remember, there's really no such thing as over watering, it's just lack of O2 at the roots.

With over sized containers, it's harder to know exactly how developed the root system is, so timing the watering intervals is harder too. If the plants roots aren't down there in the soil mix, the nutrients can go to work fermenting themselves, which messes up PH a lot.

That said, with as much perlite as you have in the mix, underwatering is a real potential problem as well. Under and over watering tend to chase each other around like puppies. We compensate for the one by doing too much of the other. It's all a part of watering accuracy, which is really one of the 'high kung fu's' of horticulture, so don't beat yourself up about it! Even advanced growers have trouble with watering accuracy when it comes to cannabis.

They were just transplanted from 1gal to 5gal. And just enough water to the new media for the roots to search for water. They were bone dry at the transplant. They're only getting water as required. I feel like it's something else. My ph pen just stopped reading but I'll take a run off check as soon as I get a new one.

Yup, you underwatered first, then over. Like I said, over and under watering chase each other around like puppies. I've seen it so many times over the years. You're obviously having trouble watering accurately. First, you need to water thoroughly after transplanting. Then, no water for a few days, give the roots a reason to grow in search of it. Timing the intervals is a real skill, it's the 'high kung fu' of horticulture. When a plant gets big enough to fill the container with roots, it should NEVER be allowed to dry out. At that point, it either needs to be repotted, or (if it's going to be flowered) needs a large runoff tray and want's to sit in it's own runoff for a couple hours a day semi hydro style. A big plant in a small container is absolutely impossible to overwater, no matter what mix it's in.

A smaller plant in a large container of 'hot' soil mix is always trouble. If the mix is mellower, it won't begin fermenting before the roots get all down into it. Also, if the mix drains better, it allows O2 to penetrate which prevents anaerobic yuck. Also, if the container is smaller, that allows air to reach the roots no matter where they are.

'Hot' mixes are fine if; the mix has lots of non organic drainage promoting stuff, or the container is small enough to let the roots breathe, or better yet, both.

Fitzera said:

Was healthy prior to transplant. Not so healthy now. View attachment 486741

Click to expand...

How long ago was transplant?

Fitzera said:

They were just transplanted from 1gal to 5gal. And just enough water to the new media for the roots to search for water. They were bone dry at the transplant. They're only getting water as required. I feel like it's something else. My ph pen just stopped reading but I'll take a run off check as soon as I get a new one.

Click to expand...

Here's an old school tip: when you transplant into a larger container, lift the container before watering, then soak it - water it in. Water to the point of a good runoff. Then lift the container again. Note its heft. Don't water again until the container weighs about what it did before watering in. It's good that you let it dry out before transplanting. But if a good root ball was formed, then you had roots on the whole surface area... with "just enough" water at transplant, you are depriving roots that are ready to drink. You have a highly aerated mix. Soak those girls next time—and then sit back and wait for that pot to lighten up before the next watering. Each pot independently.

Up potted these girls two days ago from 18oz to 1g. You can see they're still really wet. But it's day two and they've perked up since transplant, which is what you want to see. Transplanting should bring signs of improvement.



So I am not sure as to "what's happening here" but just wanted to say that over/under watering, as mentioned, is high on the list of probabilities and worth considering.

Your advice is solid.

I appreciate the input and replies but I respectively disagree with the under and over watering. I have had an overwatering issue in the past and while I am erring on the side of caution, I'm not causing drought. I also do use the weight method of gauging moisture content. This soil was mixed at a rate of 60/40 soil/perlite to ensure good drainage.

What I have personally concluded is that the mix was too hot. The soil I am using this round is all new. Last round got a bad gnat infestation so I started from scratch. I used bluesky organics super soil as my base and heavily amended it and watered it with ewc tea, cooked for 2 months. I used 2 large totes so each tote could have been slightly different. 4 of my plants were from one of the totes, the other 4 were from the 2nd tote. It is these 4 that showed issues which later appeared to be burn. Mainly the critical cure was affected.

This was the root development of the ghost train haze at transplant, the others were a little more developed.

Glad you figured it out. I've often had to re-trace my steps to figure out what I did wrong.

What is your starting water?