Underwatered will they be ok?

big_expectations!

Active Member
I still stand by overwatering. FFOF is peat based and holds moisture quite well. It also "AS IS" holds enought nutrient to sustain plant growth for 4+ weeks. You direct sowd into soggy FFOF? Bad idea.. but whatever shit happens, lessen learned. You need to encourage the soil to routinely dry back to encourage proper root development that in return sustains plant growth needs.
A puney room mass will not produce healthy plants robust growth.

To me it definitely looks as tho your watering habits and quite possibly over generous hand at offering "extras" into the watering scheme just added insult to injury.

Your leaves are dark green and on a couple plants the lowest fans are necrotic. Mabey it's splashed nutrient. Mabey not, but it looks like the New Growth is twisting and this is why I said your were over watering. If your root system was properly developed from the get go, before planting into the FFOF, your would have more vegetative growth than you do presently. In return, your plants wouldn't look overfed and overwatered.
I think your right and that they are overwatered, how do I go about saving them?
 

McShnutz

Well-Known Member
I think your right and that they are overwatered, how do I go about saving them?
Unfortunately you'll have to wait it out. Couple things to remember here...
1. The pH of the substrate will fluctuate based on what elements the plant is taking up predominantly according to it needs. Don't attempt to compensate for this by drastically adjusting your ingoing pH. Keep it in the sweet spot every time. Hydro 5.8 / Soil 6.5

2. For the vast majority of growers who hand water you can expect wet/dry cycles of your substrate. Everytime that your substrate dry back some, your plant will grow more root mass in search of moisture. Experienced growers who hand water learn quickly how to Guage the pots wet/dry weight. The key is never let it dry back totally and find that sweet spot. This keeps the roots in constant grow mode and helps to maintain a healthy fluctuation of pH that will "self correct" and remain in that sweet spot of 6.5, +/- .5

3. Everytime that soil dry back, your pH will raise. This the case more often than not. As a result of improper watering habits and poor pH regulations, plants exhibit deficiency and/or toxicity symptoms. And Phosphorus becomes less available in wet and/or cold substrates. Even tho the P is abundant, it's unavailable. Plants use a fair amount of P for root development.

As I first stated at the top, your going to have to wait it out. And... sorry to say... the plants will probably look worse before they start to look better. Make sure that when you water your adequately hydrating the substrate. Any dry pockets that have become hydrophobic will just be tunnels to channel the water away from actually absorbing into the substrate. So it may visually look like you watered to the point of runoff, but actually the soil absorbed a fraction of it.

What I would do if this were my grow is try to increase ambient temps and make sure the air circulation is passing through and across the plants. Point a fan directly at them, on low or just off to the side of them and create a swirl of air flow. Whatever the case just make sure they're being hit with circulating air. Lastly, if you can drop your RH that will help speed things up a bit. By encouraging the plants to shed water (transpire), you'll also encourage them to take it up, ... drying your substrate back.

Just keep in mind now,.... if you've got more than enough nutrients, mabey even in excess, the plants will take these up too. So be prepared to potentially see more chlorosis and necrosis, but this will pass as the plant rebounds and grows out of it delema. And only give plain water until they have rebounded and then go at any extras you want to give cautiously. Remember... FFOF is potent soil and can last 4+ weeks. Once the plants have rebounded, I would start that 4 week countdown then.
 

big_expectations!

Active Member
Update..after transplanting into 5 gallon fabric pots and watering in yesterday plants looking much better today..now my only question is should I trim these necrotic looking leaves or just leave them be for now? Also included pics of root mass...thanks in advance
 

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