Here we go again, You guys can tell me this time

If you have been following my grow at all,you know every few days the plants get droopy. It is not over watering because they have been fine since watered every time. These were watered on Wed, they WERE a tad over watered wed but over night perked up nicely and looked great until this morning. No nutes, FFOF soil, 6.3-6.5 ph. Light 18" inches away, Optic 2 LED. They do not need water, the pots are still heavy from Wed watering 1/2 gallon each, soil is still pretty wet. So to recap, 3 days of great, than this. This always happens and I cannot understand why or what is causing it. They look like they need water, but that cannot be possible. There is plenty of water in those pots. You will see the bottom left plant is still loving the life, the other 3 not so much. I am all ears.
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Over watered and under lit

You need more light those plants would be reaching for the sky with more light

Where is the tent and what is it sat on?
Where does the run off go when it leaves the bottom?
Whats the air temp when you measure it out of direct light?
How do you water, all in one go or slowly?

Don’t forget these are autos.

I pull them out of the tent to water and let them drain than put them back in. 10 min process.

Not enough light? 205watts in 4sqr ft? I guess I can lower the light down below 18” but I was following manufacturers recommendations 18-24” for flower.

Temp under the light is between 73-77f. Out of the light and higher up is usually 77. Tent is inside my bedroom. Ambient temp outside the tent is 74-76. I water half gallon each with a party cup slowly. 3 gallon pots.

I have not watered since Wed. How can they go from happy to sad and be overwatered in 4 days without adding water? I do not understand that. I must agree they do look overwatered, but how!! lol. If they were over watered wouldn’t they look shitty from when I watered them??

Stop watering till you get runoff. Your soil is holding too much water

Cool, might be a good idea to allow the temp to rise to like 80-82 if you have control over your fan.
Might help with transpiration and save them been too wet too long, increasing root health ect ect.
LEDs lack the radiant heat of HID, lots of folks have more success at higher temps with LED.

Most of what I asked was because a lot of folks leave them sat in run off or are on cold floors which slows them down.

I agree with all. I will raise the temp to 80. I can either lower my exhaust speed down, or raise my ambient temps. Which should I do? My exhaust is a 4” 203cfm fan and filter combo it is on full speed. I also had this issue with my hps last grow. I think, the soil just holds too much water. I didn’t add extra perlite to the FFOF and I think I should have.

When the plants and roots get bigger you can dump on more water, right now they arent uptaking that much. Even less if your temps are low.

Boatguy said:

When the plants and roots get bigger you can dump on more water, right now they arent uptaking that much. Even less if your temps are low.

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Ok I increased ambient temp by 2 degrees temp inside the tent will be 80-81 shortly. I will just leave them I guess until the pots get lighter. Will they bounce back once the soil dries out more and the roots get more gas exchange? I am def going to add perlite to the soil next round.

They should.
Just give them enough of a good drink to last a day or two. You shouldnt have to worry about checking runoff ph in that soil.

Still doesn’t explain how they didn’t show signs of being over watered for 3-4 days and just now show signs of it when I haven’t watered. Just does not make sense to me at all.

Now that I think about it, in the past month when the plants looked like this I would simply put them outside (it is still 85-90f here) and they perk up within an hr and be happy again. Sooo maybe it is the tent being a little too cold. They love outside! I just don’t like doing it becuase Of the possible insect intrusion.

So I took the plants out of the tent to observe closer and noticed I was wrong. The 3 plants that looked droopy, the pots were actually really light compared to the one plant that looks super happy. So I added some water to the 3 and they all perked up within 45 min. So looks like they needed water, not over watered. I guess they are drinking more than I thought.

I give my plants about 1 quart of water per gallon of pot size, then wait till the pot is light and water again. I've never had any water issues....yet, lol

Capn-Crunch said:

I give my plants about 1 quart of water per gallon of pot size, then wait till the pot is light and water again. I've never had any water issues....yet, lol

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So just under a gallon it would be for me 3L. The issue figuring out when they need more, well mine anyway. I find the pot weight is better, but still doesn't give me a definitive answer.

Also I now see that under watering looks exactly like over watering, because they did look over watered, but actually needed water.

jtrizzy said:

Also I now see that under watering looks exactly like over watering, because they did look over watered, but actually needed water.

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Little trick to remember, stems north with leaves south is overwater, stems and leaves looking mopey is underwater

Bbcchance said:

Little trick to remember, stems north with leaves south is overwater, stems and leaves looking mopey is underwater

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awesome! simply way to remember. Thanks!

Bbcchance said:

Little trick to remember, stems north with leaves south is overwater, stems and leaves looking mopey is underwater

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look at the top pic, is that under watered? The stems looked droopy as well.

jtrizzy said:

look at the top pic, is that under watered? The stems looked droopy as well.

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Over water, the stems aren't drooping, the leaves are drooping from the stems, on underwater the stems of the leaf are pointing down too, those are pointed up