Young lady is wilting to crisp!

This is not a serious grow, but a tester to not mess up later with my good stuff (ordered 10 feminized autoflowering seeds today ) I checked the plant hospital and im not sure exactly whats happening and none of the pictures really match mine. Im at day 21, older leaves have been wilting rapidly starting from the tip moving inward yet each day new ones still sprout from the top & sides. The worst they get is burned like a crisp where they are yellow/brown and crumble or pieces break off when touched. On day 9 I watered but started noticing fingers were drooping and the top of the soil was green. After some online research I suspected over-watering and didn't water for four days. Day 14 I cut off the two wilted leaves and watered but noticed more wilting had started at the tips of some of the new leaves. Each day the plant has been growing taller, the stem is thicker and much stronger now (originally fell over and I had to tie to a post) and at the same time new leaves appear or grow bigger so growth doesn't seem stunted??
but here's some specs.


Closet Grow

Lighting: 4 CFL's all 30w 120v with a 2000 lumen output each. All about 2-4 inches away from plant, (Heard 4in is the maximum distance allowed?)

Soil: is USED from some cheap plant at a local store, (Like I said, tester grow didn't even buy real soil though I wish I had)
not sure about ph but can provide upon request since I just bought a meter.

Watering: Usually every 2-3 days, let water sit out for about 24-48 hours to allow chlorine to evaporate.

Nutrients: None until yesterday, Yesterday I inserted a MG Plant food stick in hopes that this is all a nutrient deficiency.

And heres some pics so you can see what im talking about..

Cheap ass setup
Looks dim but its super bright! Lights the room when my closet is opened.

Droopy ass leaves


Crispy ass leaves


Healthy ass new leaves


I hope you guys can diagnose her! Guinea Pig as she may be, I love her and while im not expecting to harvest anything or very much since she is out of season.. This is my first grow, but a harvest would still be nice or just watching her grow and knowing I made her what she is!

The only thing that has caused droopy leaves that I've seen as common is over/under watering and root rot. I saw you watered every 2-3 days, how dry is the soil when u do this? Every 2-3 days in a non climate controlled environment, if you water heavy could actually be a lot too much, this is what i would consider most likely scenario even knowing all the other details. Especially since most over the counter mixes are actually made to retain water and a high porosity mix is preferable. Another issue is u said That it's in used soil. That could have any number of things wrong with it from no nutrients left (which is probably your best case scenario) to whatever diseases or pests.

I guess at this point your new growth actually doesn't look bad and u probably have plenty of light to support life. I think as a trial run the set up might be great for u. It's kinda an imperfect environment so u can see problems and figure out how to fix em. When you go commercial size next time around u will have a wealth of knowledge to work off of.

^ agreed. check the soil, let it dry. also try cutting back on any nutes, its too little to be adding a bunch in there for now

get some real nutrients

Overwatering is probably the problem here, you could pop the plant out of the pot to check the roots and see if they are rotting.

You can't determine how often to water by measuring out days. there are so many variables in how fast a plant will dry out the soil that you must guage when to water by checking the soil and seeing if it is dry. Best way to check is pick the pot up, if its really really light than you can water again.

Soil: is USED from some cheap plant at a local store,

theres yo problem get quality soil br0

Thanks everyone, I usually mist now instead of pouring water because when it was young the water knocked it over and it needed a post for a week. The soil seems pretty dry and like I said i suspected over watering so my waterings havn't been heavy. Yeah I can see why the soil is bad to, hopefully I can make this reverse. When I stick my pinky in it feels dry beneath the surface so I guess it needs more water??

Littlebigwig said:

Thanks everyone, I usually mist now instead of pouring water because when it was young the water knocked it over and it needed a post for a week. The soil seems pretty dry and like I said i suspected over watering so my waterings havn't been heavy. Yeah I can see why the soil is bad to, hopefully I can make this reverse. When I stick my pinky in it feels dry beneath the surface so I guess it needs more water??

Click to expand...

If the soil doesnt have any weight to it... only then is it ready to be watered

Your problem with overwatering is much harder to deal with because you have poor drainage in the poor soil... if there were perlite or something else that would allow for more drainage, overwatering wouldnt be a problem. I'm not sure there is much you can do at this point though, except be very patient between watering, even letting the soil dry so much that the leaves wilt would be a good idea. Just don't wait too long and let the plant dry out

Well I watered it alot today, the soil was BONE dry. I turned the pot upside down like i've seen the people transplant on youtube and after a light pat to the bottom, the whole thing slid out without crumbling X_X so I watered. It was really light-weight like you said so I hope I did the right thing. Im really proud of my self for growing this though, it looks beautiful in person minus the leaves and I feel like im getting good training before I mess with anything I actually paid for. But the wilting seems to be slowing now versus the leaf growth. They are sprouting from everywhere, when i cut of a leaves looks like 1-2 new ones are sprouting from that spot :O

Sounds like your getting the hang of it

light pot or slightly, evenly drooped fan leaves.......whichever comes first.