Plants dieing! rookie needs help!

[Rowdy Boy]

My friend gave me some clones of Blue dream. he says this strain is dummy proof! well, I must be one hell of a dummy cause every day I go outside to find more and more plants wilting and eventually dieing. Im growing outside in smart pods. I am using 5 bags of kellogs blue bag soil with one bag of gardner & Bloom premieum potting soil and one bag of worm grow per pod.
The first thing I notice is that one or two plants will be just a bit droopy. day two I go out to find the same ones that were droopy looking wilted as if they needed watering. by day three the plants are beyond repair. My friend swares I am not watering enough or not watering right. the thing is I am watering mine the EXACT same way that he waters his. I am using the same brand and type of watering wand, we are using the same soil, we water the same time of day (evening) I do not get water on my leaves (just as he instructed). he says "just keep watering them, the only thing it could be is they arent getting enough water" I have tried extending the watering time on my wilting and droopy plants they still get worse. My friends plants look great! mine are dropping like flies. does anyone have any advise?
one day I will have a super happy perkey plant. the next day it looks sad or slightly droopy, hardly noticable. they just get worse every day till finally they die. then I notice one or two more droopy plants. it all starts over again.

HELP!!!! PLEASE!
Thanks.

 

[Maer]

Re: Plants dieing!!! rookie needs help!

Is the soil dry between waterings? How often do you water? Sounds like overwatering but it is hard to tell without proper info. What is the runoff pH of your soil? What is the pH of the water your putting in? Are you giving them nutes? What type of light (outdoor?) If outdoor what kind of sun exposure? (Direct, shaded, partially shaded) Could be a pH issue or another problem with the water.

 

[Captain Kronic]

Re: Plants dieing!!! rookie needs help!

Haven't heard of Smart Pods... I do run Smart Pots myself so if those are what you are using... it's almost not possible to over water in a smart pot... they drain super!
I am already watering mine twice daily and I will tell you that if your soil drains well... you aren't over watering!

I am leaning towards what Maer wrote... check your water PH and PPMs if you can. Might be as you have a lot of chlorine in the water too!

PS... the best way I know of to check saturation w/a SP is to feel the very bottom of the pot and when it gets wet... it's good and watered!

 

[Rowdy Boy]

Re: Plants dieing!!! rookie needs help!

Haven't heard of Smart Pods... I do run Smart Pots myself so if those are what you are using... it's almost not possible to over water in a smart pot... they drain super!
I am already watering mine twice daily and I will tell you that if your soil drains well... you aren't over watering!

I am leaning towards what Maer wrote... check your water PH and PPMs if you can. Might be as you have a lot of chlorine in the water too!

PS... the best way I know of to check saturation w/a SP is to feel the very bottom of the pot and when it gets wet... it's good and watered!

Yes, I'm using smart pots. 100 gallon black cloth bags. cant be a chlorine in the water as I am running off a well. as for checking ph and ppms I don't know how to do that just yet. not sure what a ppm is.im watering once a day for about 3 minutes per plant and 24 hours later the soil is still moist.

now when you say check the bottom of the pot for wetness you mean feel around the bottom of the outside of the pot right? today I took a few of my droopy plants out of the smart pots and transplanted them into 2 gallon pots and watered the shit out of them we will see what happens but I'm thinking possibly over watering, thats all I can think if it is in fact a watering problem.
I'll try to figure out how to check the PH and PPMs next I guess.

 

[Maer]

Yea, well water will have lots of dissolved minerals and it will vary from well to well in the area even next door. You really need to test your water, and if you are watering every day in 100 gallon pots I would say you are over watering. Well water can also go from 8.5 to 5.5 on the pH scale which would be very bad for your girls. Are you using dolomite lime in your soil mix?

 

[Rowdy Boy]

No, no lime in my soil.

I do have an update on this whole thing though. Every Plant is about 2 weeks from the day of transplant. every one that has gotten sick and eventually died I replaced with new clones. The ones that were sick, the roots haddnt taken off in the cups they were placed in after they had started rooting in the rock whool. So what was happening is the plants were growing but the roots were not so the roots eventually could not susstain the plant as it out grew the roots. I have been told that B-1 might help...I don't think it matters much not cause every one that I transplanted where the roots were not white around the little planter pots edges when I transplanted have died. (if that makes sense). Now what stunted the growth of the roots on those particular plants I can't be sure. I have the feeling that the people I got them from were not watering them regularly enough. I cant be sure. perhaps they were just bad clones. perhaps the people who had them before me diddnt water enough. Perhaps the weed fairy came along and killed them...It's a real mystery. as long as no more die I think I will be fine.

 

[Dirt Farmer]

Sounds like they went into the light with insufficient roots, thereby leaving them unable to take up enough moisture to sustain the plant, but leaving a very wet medium around the existing roots promoting fungus and disease.

I've not used smart pots so I may well be incorrect here, but everything I've ever grown in soil you water in the morning, as then the plants have a chance to dry out and have fresh water available to them during the peak heat of the day, I would think that watering at night would give them a large amount of water when they least need it, allowing the over-wet conditions to persist during darkness, again promoting fungus and disease.

 

[Rowdy Boy]

you know whats really fucked up dirt?? the day before yesterday My neighbor told me "hey did you ever think of switching it up and try watering in the morning? Just skip tonight and water first thing in the morning...see what happens." I was like what could it hurt at this point? yesterday morning I got up about 4:30 am and went out and watered them all really well. I then super cropped them. went to work. I came home and the mother fuckers Just JUMPED up and out! they had grown at least 3 inches in one day and got bushey as hell!!! I told my buddy about it and he said when he first transplanted his they were growing 2-3 inches a day too. Damn, why couldn't that have happened weeks ago?
anyway, Dirt farmer I think you hit it right on the head. morning is way better than evening, especally for brand new transplants! chalk one up for the rookie! I learned something! YaaaaaaY!

 

[Dirt Farmer]

you know whats really fucked up dirt?? the day before yesterday My neighbor told me "hey did you ever think of switching it up and try watering in the morning? Just skip tonight and water first thing in the morning...see what happens." I was like what could it hurt at this point? yesterday morning I got up about 4:30 am and went out and watered them all really well. I then super cropped them. went to work. I came home and the mother fuckers Just JUMPED up and out! they had grown at least 3 inches in one day and got bushey as hell!!! I told my buddy about it and he said when he first transplanted his they were growing 2-3 inches a day too. Damn, why couldn't that have happened weeks ago?
anyway, Dirt farmer I think you hit it right on the head. morning is way better than evening, especally for brand new transplants! chalk one up for the rookie! I learned something! YaaaaaaY!

Hot damn!! Awesome news dude glad your girls are happy! You know, some things Dad was just right about LOL.(Thanks Dad!)

I envy you guys ability to do this shit in the backyard like it's a rose bush...Someday maybe!

 

[inhaleriam]

I also am growing some BD, My first year as well. All has been going great. Last week I hear about bad gnats, and how some are loosing the battle. Yesterday, I noticed one of my BD queens being lazy. I inspected her, the ground, her soil, the area, the other queens. I see nothing out of the ordinary. This morning, 1/2 of her (2 stalks) will not wake, wilted. Inspection time again, I find nothing. 2 hours later, the other 1/2 of her is wilted.
Not sure why. Pulling my hair out all day, trying to determine, what went wrong.
I PH test water daily. I PH test soil daily.I test moisture before watering, I spray with Azamax weekly, spray with pyganics weekly, I have used the Gnatroll product and watered it in, as directed. I also use the typical omi food/nutrient products. IE Bat, Maxi, Mychorazae etc.
My QUEEN is just limp, wilted, but yet still green, no yellowing, no browning, no burning. Would look happy and healthy, if it were not wilted.
Anyone with any ideas?

 

[Captain Kronic]

inhaleriam... check your thread!

As for the original problem, I'm glad it got figured out but... I highly doubt it was just feeding/watering in the morning that had much to do w/solving the problem.

In fact... plants do most of the uptake process in the dark... they use their energy in the day time collecting sun to make more energy (in la-mans terms). This is not to say that you shouldn't water in the morning, I just don't think that it is the answer... I think the timing coinciding w/the plants starting to take root is more likely.

Heck... I water in the morning and feed in the evening depending on my schedule and what I think is best for the plants.
And that w/100 gal smart pots even...

I'm just glad it took care and you can get to growing... cheers!

PS... this is just a stab but... were those clones hardened off before you put them in all that sun?