Watering?! *PICS*

Ok... So, i've read you should water your plants until water leaks from the drain holes, and then you are good to go.

My plants are crazy droopy. I will post a pic of how they look today and how they used to look.

Watered:
Watered everyday from seed until the first date listed below.. I would just water with a few "dumps" of a water bottles worth. Never let it come from the drain holes..
Oct 18th - watered until poured from drainhole
Oct 21st - watered until poured from drainhole

Oct 23rd - looked very droopy, dirt seemed very dry, but wasnt seperating from the sides of the pot, watered until poured from drainhole.

This is how they look today.. And no i dont water straight from tap, I just water them in the shower so when they drain, it's in the tub rather than in my growbox




This is how they used to look


Am I trippin, or is there a prob?

they look almost over watered, or heat? i see you have some fans up so it must not be heat. i just went and bought a 5$ moisture meter and it solves your watering problem

I have one of those things with the 2 prongs.. It tells you light, pH of soil, and moisture.. You stab it in your dirt. I suck it in my dirt before watering and it didnt register any moisture.

The temps are perfect so it definitely isnt heat. I will go test that moisture meter thing now while I know for sure they are wet.. maybe that fucker is broken.

over watered with that fan those cfl's shouldnt put that much heat. only water once the medium has dried out otehrwise u risky root rot

I just tested that prong thing, says 2/10 for moisture.. I just watered them... ???

yeah i got the cheaper one, and settled with ph test strips. its been accurate for me but alot of people complain about them

i bought a 5 dollar moisture meter today. I tested it in dry soil and it registers "dry", i tested it in watered soil, and it measures "moist". I dunked it in a glass of water, still "moist". So it never registered WET. more or less a piece of junk i think.

lift the pots when dry, then lift em straight after you water (obviously much heavier).... then just test and wait till they are light again (like when they are dry) thats how i tell when my plants need watering.
Grade

Grade said:

lift the pots when dry, then lift em straight after you water (obviously much heavier).... then just test and wait till they are light again (like when they are dry) thats how i tell when my plants need watering.
Grade

Click to expand...

I agree with Grade on this one.

They do look overwatered to me. I had the same problem recently due to my wife. She came home drunk about three times during one week (No, she's not an alcoholic just had some big events all in a row). I also check my plants by lifting them up to see if they need any water.

Anyway, she has her own little garden on our enclosed balcony (she likes gardening, she just doesn't do our type of gardening). She came home and thought she'd water her garden. Then, she decided she'd give me a helping hand and watered my babies as well but forgot to tell me about it until about a week or so later. I'd still been watering to my usual schedule (I hadn't actually been checking the soil, which was a big mistake as I would have noticed that they didn't need any).

I actually had a double whamy. I had just put some fertilizer on top of the growing medium and when they got too much water. Too many nutes had flowed down with the water at once and they got some nute burn. I then over corrected, and removed all nutes and repotted them into larger pots. I ended up waiting too long to start giving them nutes again and they went hungry.

After realizing what had happened when my wife finally remembered to tell me she'd watered my babies every night she came home drunk. I was able to quickly work out what to do thanks to some very good advice I received on this site (thanks again guys).

My babies have come back to health a treat. I've just recently switched them over to a 12/12 light cycle.

Here's a link to my thread so you can see what happened to mine and how I fixed them. There are some before and after photos towards the end of the thread as well as a lot of photos in the OP.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/117671-leaves-curling-under-themselves-also.html

Ok, thanks for the replies. Let me play devils advocate though for a moment.

The roots that I can see from the drainholes seem dried out. They look like spaghetti noodles that have sat out on the sidewalk for a week.

I used a fork, and ran it around the dirt before I watered yesterday and the dirt was all DRY.. like dusty dry....

Are you guys sure it's OVERwatering and not UNDERwatering???

Ahhh.. this morning they looked SLIGHTLY better... But I dont know if thats because I watered them, or because they were drying from the watering.

Ok I have got to know...How water exactly do you put in before it starts to run out the bottom? If you waterd them on the 18, 21 and 23 thats WAY to much, unless your only giving them a little bit each time. Sounds like that meter you have is junk or like i said you didn't really give it much water before it started coming out the bottom.
In that size pot you should water about every 5 or 6 days a good amount a water.
Your plants will droop if they are too wet OR too dry. It is VERY easy to tell which it is. If your plant is drooping ask yourself " did I just water or has it been a while?"
Also...You can add hydrogen peroxide to your water. 1 - 2 tblsp. per gal. ( I only use 1) It adds extra oxygen to your soil. This will help forgive any overwatering. Roots need oxygen! they will love it. It's also a good soil conditioner. It's good for the "good" microbes and bad for the "bad" microbes.
Ahh here it is>
"Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizer that can be used to destroy fungi, molds, bacteria and other infectious agents as well as some pollutants. Adding it to your water helps plants by destroying infectious agents and by adding oxygen to the roots' environment.

Hydrogen peroxide is an essential ingredient in maintaining a clean growing room. It replaces chlorine bleach, which is antiseptic but harmful to breathe. When added to reservoirs, hydrogen peroxide slows the growth of algae and other water organisms so that trays and utensils need to be cleaned less frequently. Soil and water borne diseases such as pythium and other stem and root rots occur at much lower rates in hydrogen peroxide-enriched water. Hydrogen peroxide works because of the oxidative reaction, so micro-organisms are unlikely to develop a tolerance."

Probably 1/4 gallon or so? It comes from the bottom fairly quickly.

If I am over watering, then why would the soil be like dust dry? I never water the plants when I can see any wetness of the soil.

icurbyou said:

Probably 1/4 gallon or so? It comes from the bottom fairly quickly.

If I am over watering, then why would the soil be like dust dry? I never water the plants when I can see any wetness of the soil.

Click to expand...

Yeah that what I thought. 1/4 gal is not enough to get ALL the soil in those pots wet. IMO you need more water less often.
You must have good soil...its loose and the water goes right though it. Thats a good thing. But with too little water you can have dry spots where undissoved salts and nutes collect. This can cause problems down the road. I'm only on my second grow, but let me tell you....a grow takes a while to complete and during that time I read A LOT about growing. I mean a LOT!!

I use the FoxFarm Forest shit

I used to water from a 17oz drinking water bottle, daily but then they got bigger, and people told me about the whole "let water drain from bottom"...

Today when I get home, if they are still droopy, which do you suggest?:

A) Give a throughal watering IE: 1 gallon for per pot (pots are 1.5 gal containers) and then wait until like Tuesday (Today is FRI where I live) and do another 1 gallon per pot?

or

B) wait like days... and do???? SOMETHING ELSE??

I just dont fucking know how to get back on track if Im doing "too little water, too often"

Im going to be honest, they seem DRY rather than over wet. But... iunno.... I just dont know man. I want them happy again!

Just relax, they'll be fine. Its not that big of a deal. We are talking about watering plants!. Its not rocket science. I know how it is though. I was there too. Every little thing that my plants did I was OMG now what.
Some periods of dryness and periods of overwettness will do nothing but strenghthen your plants. (what ever dont kill you makes you stronger) same with plants.
The key is pay attention to what you are doing and keep track of the results, eventually you will get a handle on exactly how much and when to water your plants. You are not going to kill them trust me. They (like everything and everyone) are not always going to be perfectly happy. This is life.
You care, you are asking, you are reading, you'll be fine, your plants will be fine.

I have been keeping the schedule, but Im just curious as to which direction I should go at this point as I am in the middle.. Over vs under

I guess if I get home and they appear to be "worse" than this morning, then I will take the water route, and I will do as you say - Water MORE throughly LESS often

if they look better than this morning then I will leave them for a little bit.

thanks!

Good idea. Also like Grade said lift your pots. There is a noticable difference between a dry pot and a wet one.
One more thing to consider....your tap water could be (and probably is) really nasty. If you use tap water let it sit out for at least 48 hours.
Peace!

Try poking a bamboo skewer around down in your soil before watering. Like tenderizing a steak. Sounds like you've got watering channels giving you false sense of how wet it really is. Don't FORCE the skewer thru big roots, but get down deep and get those channels collapsed. This happens a lot. Watering slowly and starting near the stalk, then working your way outward, seems to help, as does pausing for a minute a few times, then continuing. Water needs to come out from multiple holes, not just one, or one area.

I actually use a turkey baster until I've got the top few inches evenly moist, then I can slowly add water from a bigger container.

MrFishy said:

Try poking a bamboo skewer around down in your soil before watering. Like tenderizing a steak. Sounds like you've got watering channels giving you false sense of how wet it really is. Don't FORCE the skewer thru big roots, but get down deep and get those channels collapsed. This happens a lot. Watering slowly and starting near the stalk, then working your way outward, seems to help, as does pausing for a minute a few times, then continuing. Water needs to come out from multiple holes, not just one, or one area.

I actually use a turkey baster until I've got the top few inches evenly moist, then I can slowly add water from a bigger container.

Click to expand...

A vote of confidence....I've seen Mrfishy in here giving lots of good advise. What he just said makes perfect sense, very true. Ty fishy

MrFishy said:

Try poking a bamboo skewer around down in your soil before watering. Like tenderizing a steak. Sounds like you've got watering channels giving you false sense of how wet it really is. Don't FORCE the skewer thru big roots, but get down deep and get those channels collapsed. This happens a lot. Watering slowly and starting near the stalk, then working your way outward, seems to help, as does pausing for a minute a few times, then continuing. Water needs to come out from multiple holes, not just one, or one area.

I actually use a turkey baster until I've got the top few inches evenly moist, then I can slowly add water from a bigger container.

Click to expand...

Thank you, really good pointers.. I only let it drain from one hole.. which is probably stupid as shit. Usually Im not so stupid, I promise. lol

thanks everyone.. I need to go give my +Reps.. I hope i can get it all fixed!