2nd grow, plant droopy

[Moose8810]

Problem: Plant drooping

Medium/grow method: Soil, Coast of Maine Sprout Island seedling mix, 4" RootMaker pot

Feed: and supplements used: Plain water, Recharge every other

water source: Well - around 7.1pH and ~140ppm from the tap

Strain/age: Mephisto Double Grape, day 18 from sprout

light used: 20" from a 3500k Autocob from CobShop

Climate: 5x5 tent. 75F ambient (71-73F leaf surface), ~58% humidity

Additional info: I currently have 3 Double Grape and 1 Sour Stomper. DGs sprouted 16-18 days ago, SS sprouted about a week after to replace a dud DG. Two days ago I checked my tent before work and found some thirsty plants. The pots light and quite dry, so I gave them a drink and headed out. When I arrived home that night, the other DGs and the SS were doing great, but this one was still drooping - moreso than in the picture. I'm still getting used to the change between growing with straight coco and now organic soil, but I think I've gotten a good feel for when they've dried out and need water. If anything, I think I've been a little overly cautious because of all I've read about over-watering. As of writing this right now, the pot feels nearly dry enough to water again and the other 3 plants are still looking happy.

I've learned this soil mix is a little hot for these girls, experienced some minor tip burn on the first 2 nodes, but everything above that appears healthy on this and my other plants. We also dealt with a roughly 30 hour power outage from 10/31-11/1. They were all very unhappy, nearly wilting - the first true leaves on two of the girls never fully recovered as you can see on this plant.

I pulled around 550g from my first grow with coco, but my heart's pretty set on the organic soil route long-term. Any ideas on what's going on here? What am I doing wrong and how do I need to change as a grower? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Arthur]

Right with you, moving back to soil after a couple years in coco is a total mind reset...I stand in front of the tent thinking I need to be doing something...

I'm in 1 gallon bags and well ahead of where you are, now going into flower and I've got 1 that is doing basically the same. I know its overwatering, and have been pulling it back but by bit.

 

[Moose8810]

My plan right now is to let be at at the moment to see if it needs to dry out more. But picking it up and feeling the weight makes me want to water. The other three doing great with the same treatment just confuses me more.

I get what you mean for sure, every day I have a moment of "there must be something else I need to do..." Coco at least took this aspect of guesswork out of it - hard to screw up your water schedule when it's every night.

 

[Arthur]

By the end of a run I was feeding every 12 hrs. Too much for a drain to waste setup.

 

[Smokey42o]

red petioles and yellow first leaves looks like either a nitrogen deficiency or lockout.

unless you just watered seconds before taking the picture, let them dry more.

 

[Moose8810]

@Smokey42o thanks for the tip. I was unsure of the yellowing, like I said one other is in similar shape (first leaves yellow, no drooping) and the other 2 plants were yellowed like that but regained their color after the power loss. If it's a deficiency, how would you recommend correcting it with this style of grow? Would lockout still be on the table where I'm letting the microbes handle things pH-wise?

Once they root out the pots they're in, the plan is to put them in 5gal mesh pots with Coast of Maine Stonington Blend.

 

[Smokey42o]

i'm more of a hydro guy, but I would recommend amending a 2-0-0 to boost your available nitrogen.
also if your soil is wet like that you wont get the right kind of microbes. that pot should drain thoroughly with each watering and not be soggy, or you'll end up with root rot.

 

[Waira]

-- likely she suffered more root damage from the dry-out than the others,... this makes for poorer water and nutrient uptake for a bit until they can regrow,.. best get a root tonic of some sort, and some inoculants... It's a tricky thing to deal with sometimes, often folks see the leaves staying drooped, and then swing too far the other way, watering the crap out fo the plant and saturating the soil to the point of smothering the remaning roots (O2 deprv.),...

 

[OrganicMids]

-- likely she suffered more root damage from the dry-out than the others,... this makes for poorer water and nutrient uptake for a bit until they can regrow,.. best get a root tonic of some sort, and some inoculants... It's a tricky thing to deal with sometimes, often folks see the leaves staying drooped, and then swing too far the other way, watering the crap out fo the plant and saturating the soil to the point of smothering the remaning roots (O2 deprv.),...

Recharge is a good tonic but I wouldn't use it every other watering, maybe like once a week or every couple weeks. It contains molasses, and when used too much it can cause problems with your soil. But for the watering aspect, I'd recommend watering 5-10% of pot size per watering. Let it dry out completely before watering again. And then water only with 5% and slowly go up from there, don't go over 10%. With organics you want the soil moist at all times, so obviously it can get tricky. I had an over watering issue recently and was afraid I'd kill all the microbes if I let the soil dry out. But they perked up just fine and now are flourishing.

I was watering every other day since day 4, and now I'm watering every day.

 

[Waira]

I use Recharge too! But it's an inoculant, the "tonics" like Superthrive, Jump Start, etc. have rooting hormones in them to help kick-start the process,.. B vit's too, which IMO help, but that's been of some debate from what I see,.. All I know is that both of these work well, I used them on all kinds of plants to good effect,....