Hi all, hopefully someone can help me. I've been given a good start to growing by all the helpful posts and replies on here and from listening to the High on Homegrown grow guides, but I'm noticing issues that happened to my last, failed attempt to grow are happening again.
I have a Northern Lights strain (left pot) and a Sweet CBD (right pot), both from Ali Bongo's. I'm about 2.5 weeks in from when I successfully germinated both and the tap root emerged. I popped each seeds in a pot each. But now I'm starting to see drooping leaves.
I'm using Biobizz light mix with added perlite. I'm adding a couple of drops of PH down to take my tap water from 7 down to around 6.5. Watering started very small, building up to slight run-off, and then when soil drys I water again. That left about a 5 day gap. I have recently started to feed nutrients, but only twice so far, those were very small amounts of alg-a-mic and bio-grow (to slowly introduce nutrients, as recommended here). The droop started well over a week from first feed, so don't think it's that.
I've read and watched so much on under and overwatering, that I can see signs of both, but I honestly don't even know if that is the issue.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, honestly don't know whether to water or not.
Cheers.
Welcome to Percy's @pistoleer, glad you found us. I'm not a soil expert but I can get the ball rolling.
How are you testing your waters PH and what type of down are you using?
The soil maybe a little hot I haven't used that brand.
I'm using one of those garden multi meters that measures moisture, PH and light. I mainly use it for moisture and it took me a bit to see when I should water, but I'm in a larger container. Now that I'm pass the learning curve it helps my heavy handed.
Their also getting big and may need to be up potted, have you looked at the roots?
Someone with more soil experience will chime in I'm sure. Glad your here.
Thanks for your reply @woodi2 - appreciate it!
I'm using PH strips to test the water, I did try a digital pen but found it unreliable and didn't want to spend big.I
I'm using VitaLink Essentials pH Down Phosphoric acid.
I did consider their size and the pot size (these are approx 13cm diameter), but to be honest, I don't really want a massive grow, I have a small grow box (2ft x 2ft x 3ft high) and I just want a few buds. I'm happy to achieve something more along the lines of a micro grow.
@pistoleer, well if your using boi-bizz nutz then if they were mine I'd consider a light flush with proper PH'd water and then a light feeding of nutz after they dry out, basically a reset.
What is your water source? tap, well, rain?
@pistoleer even if u dont want massive growth, i would suggest bigger pots. Unless u really like to water everyday or two times a day.
Just transplant those and flip them to flower schedule.
And im with Macky. That is just drought drooping. Its quite impossible to over water those anymore, without swimming pool as a tray. Their so big for those little pots that its impossible to get 2 weeks of wetlands. ✌🏽
Cheers @juglans - my feeling is that it is underwatering, the pots are very light and the soil is dry.
These are autos, so I'll let them carry on at their own pace. But thanks for confirming, really helps having a couple of corroborating opinions.
@pistoleer pot weight is very good indicator! Especially if u use same soil mix all the time. Gets very easy to tell.
And yeah autos ok, dont flip any lights 😁 if u want to really keep them small, let them show pistils in those pots and maybe transplant after that. Small pot will trigger many autos to flowering stage, most of the times, too early.
I think the medium is too dry mate, you need to water them : )But they look great, youre doing a good job man, keep it up. Welcome to Percys too : )
Thanks for the reply @macky - and the encouraging words. Honestly, I'm doing my nut in reading and watching too much about this.
I was worried about doing a flush as it seems a bit extreme, especially if overwatering was the cause.
My water is tap water with 2 drops of PH down (VitaLink Essentials pH Down– phosphoric acid), to bring it to about 6.5.
@pistoleer let your tap water sit out for 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate before using it. You can get a air pump and air stone to help evaporate it within less than half a day, depending on the strength of the bubbler. Then what I use is general hydroponics ph tester kit. all you do is fill a little tube half way with your water and drop 3 drops of the testing liquid in and put the cap on to shake it. Then the testing liquid bottle will have a ph chart with colors. It’s easy and very cheap.
This is a good one I use it to aerate my water just for a higher oxygen level when it hits the roots.
@weedkiller chlorine is disinfectious and evaporates in 10 minutes without air stone. Monochloriamine (mmmuricca) is (relatively) non disinfectious and needs airstone and hour or more to evaporate from a bucket of water.
Ive never evaporated anything (on purpose) and never had problems with chlorine.
@juglans different amounts in every different city water. I’m glad you have good water.
@juglans Water needs to sit for a minimum of 24 hours to dechlorinate. It can actually take almost 5 days for chlorine to evaporate completely from the water, depending on the initial concentration of the chlorine, and the total volume of water.
@weedkiller yeah i looked it up. Ok so with chlorine and boiling it takes 15minutes. With fridge it takes 24hours to evaporate. And chloramine does not basically evaporate at all. But google didnt take note on the air stone method.
I dont remember what salts and kelations chlorine causes, it supposedly kills microbes etc, but i never evaporate water and my soil is teaming with life. 🤷
@juglans I’m not going against you I’m just confused because what you said does not match up with what I have been learning.
@weedkiller yamaaaaan, i can be totally wrong or too high (and tired) to comprehend xD
@juglans I just never heard that information that chlorine burns off in an hour without an air stone that’s all. Do you believe that?
I'm doing my nut in reading and watching too much
Don't make it any more confusing than it needs to be man. Listen to the grow guides episodes 
Everything is covered in that series mate. Just stick to one source for info and it wont get so confusing. Just try and enjoy the learning process of growing. Don't get too stressed about it 😉
@pistoleer You've had a lot of good advice here, maybe even too much to process, but I agreewith @Macky that your soil looks way too dry. Yes, they probably are root-bound and should be potted up if you want bigger plants. However, you can keep them small if you want, you just need to give them more frequent waterings. Really small (micro) pots need several waterings a day.
Personally, if they were mine, I would not flush them at this point because I am fairly certain they are just dry, and flushing messes with O2 and loss of soil nutrients.
With waterings, its important to keep them evenly moist (not wet). Letting them dry out then watering heavily causes problems with the root hairs that we don't need to get into here. Yes people advocate doing it, but it is outdated info -- as long as you have enough aeration in your soil (e.g., perlite, etc.). Just stick you finger into your soil, 1 knuckle deep, half-way between the stem and rim of the pot. It should be lightly moist, not wet.
Hope that helps!
That's really good info @im_sparky - thanks so much for taking the time to lay it out for me.
Hi mate
Welcome to percys,
Firstly I just like say your plants look great .
Looking at the pictures and reading some of the comments, I would say they need water and a bit of a feed .
Small pots and big plants need watering regularly.
Big pots and small plants need watering a lot less
Also when your lights are off your leaves will droop a bit but as soon as the lights come on again they will pick up again
Some strains like hazes are naturally droopy
It's best to keep your grow medium moist but not wet or to dry . Weighing your pot and plant can give you and idea of your moisture content but can be a bit misleading as your plants grow
Keep things simple don't get to hung up chasing ph and ec. Follow the feed guide with your choose nutritiants , although Personally I would just water roughly after 3 feeds .
Water feed slowly , use a watering can with a rose attachment, if you add water to quickly you can get your soil to compact .
Try not to stress to much, enjoy your grow . Let your plants do there thing . Watch how they go through germination veg stretch flower and as you gain more experience Try new things be it different mediums strains techniques Lst sea of green topping etc
Soon your have a harvest, cure your weed and happy days
Sincerely your doing great , happy to help .
Best wishes
H
Cheers for the encouragement @hashimoto - and thanks for supporting what the others have said, it helps. There's so much conflicting info (YouTube, articles elsewhere, etc.), it's hard to keep sight of the basics. Your tips on watering regarding plan/pot size is really helpful. Thanks.
I dunno what everyone else said I skipped it read it later
to me the plant looks like it’s begging for water & it’s far to dry
5 days between watering no should be more like 3 days in veg in flower 4-5 ok but not in veg state & not just seedlings anymore
sounds very much like your drowning them witch makes them droppy as well then having to wait that long for them to dry
The dry droopy looks different to droppy from to much water
unsure on that part however it definitely looks like it needed watering yesterday
btw if it was mine I’d repot them into bigger pots
thanks @mix - I think you're right, I overwatered them followed by long wait before next water. Everything I can see and the feedback I've got here supports that. So late last night I did a light water (light compared to previous waters) and it had perked up by this morning, I'll post a photo later after lights go back on.
Hi
Thanks for getting back .
I think if you like cannabis then really the best thing is to grow your own . I get lots of pleasure growing and of course I love to vape cannabis .
There are some very experienced and skilled growers here and what is really wonderful is they are happy to share there knowledge. I have been growing 30 plus years and since joining percys and listening to HOHG I have learnt so much and have been inspired by the guys and gals here
What I would say is everyone started where you are now. I know I felt overwhelmed by all the different growing techniques, feeds equipment, and if like me if you live in a probitited place it's not easy to get advice or hands on experience etc.
The best advice I can give is start simple and as you gain experience you can try different things
Don't be afraid to ask if you have questions
Happy growing
H
As mentioned, here's an update photo, following watering 12 hours ago (just after lights on). Both are looking much perkier, hopefully the curling near the top will recover in time following your advice.
Long story short, the small size of my pots mean I was leaving it too long between watering and they were drying out.
I'm going to measure my waterings and find a good balance between more water each time to give me a suitable gap between watering, or less water but more frequent watering.
Bit of yellowing on lowest leaves, but I'm trying to not worry about chasing perfection, on the whole they're on the right track.
Thanks again everyone for all your help, very much appreciated 👍
Looking good , happy days 🙂
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