Under-Watered Or Over-Watered With Pictures & Examples

[TheFertilizer]

Day 1​

As expected, nothing to show. This is going to be like watching paint dry for a while.

I wonder if you will be able to see a difference in the texture and color of the soil through the cup? Would be interested to see the difference between the top half of the cup and the bottom at day 3 or 4. I am surprised that your temperature and humidity are as close to mine! It's like you took a picture of my hygrometer.

 

[Major PITA]

I'll definitely be taking the red cups off for pictures once there is something to see. I usually have them above ground around day 4 so it shouldn't be too long.

 

[Kalomessimeri]

I think this should be made into a poster for new growers. It is the best example (worst case) of over-watering I think I've seen on 420. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Rather sorry sight, poor little plant

 

[Major PITA]

Day 2 & 3​

As expected - nothing on day 2, but the first guinea pig in this experiment raised its head today. I removed the outer cup but I can't see any roots yet or any difference in the soil from top to bottom. It is difficult to capture in a photo but I'll see if I can find lighting or some technique to improve it.



Onward and upward...

 

[Major PITA]

Day 4​

Everybody is now present and accounted for. Actually the other three popped up shortly after I posted the update yesterday so it is more like 3-1/2 days for them.

Still nothing to see in the soil. There are no visible roots at the bottom and I cannot see any difference from top to bottom as far as color, dryness or texture of the Promix.

I added a small fan to toughen their stems and keep them a little cooler since the T5 is only about 2" above them. I also tagged each with a number so if I try a few things I can track the differences. I will probably add one to the "Roots of Agony" thread and try to keep it healthy all the way to the finish.

Crappy plant pic' du jour

A pretty useless soil shot

Now it will be a waiting game to see how long it takes before they need water.

 

[TheFertilizer]

What are you taking your pics with Major? If it's an Android device, the app "Open Camera" is great for lighting. It has an option to keep the flash on, and an exposure setting. I can't manage to get a decent pic to save my life without it.

 

[Major PITA]

What are you taking your pics with Major? If it's an Android device, the app "Open Camera" is great for lighting. It has an option to keep the flash on, and an exposure setting. I can't manage to get a decent pic to save my life without it.

It is an S5. I'll take a look and give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Major PITA]

Day 5​

In person, the soil still looks uniform under sunlight. No roots visible at the bottom or sides.
The cups have lost an average of 68 grams, or about 2.4 ounces. I didn't have them labeled the first time I weighed them, but they averaged 355g. Now: #1=284, 2=296, #3=288, #4=282
We are about to get a hot spell in a couple days, going up to about 90F.

 

[Major PITA]

OK - this is taking wet/dry cycles too far (not mine). This plant bounced back just fine and was harvested. They don't get much more thirsty than this...and survive.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 6​

The first roots are showing in the bottoms. I tried to capture the layers of soil moisture and its texture. Hopefully you can see how light and airy the soil has become.

These cups are losing well over an ounce per day. With the heat being higher and the humidity being much lower than I'm used to, I'd normally go ahead and water them soon. That puts it only at about one week. I'll try a couple different watering cycles to see if there is a difference in both root and above ground growth.

It now looks like we will be in the upper 90's in a couple of days. Have a great weekend!

 

[TheFertilizer]

OK - this is taking wet/dry cycles too far (not mine). This plant bounced back just fine and was harvested. They don't get much more thirsty than this...and survive.

I had a Master Kush plant get like that a few times. Their leaves stay kind of ruffled up for a while, like a shirt that needs ironing.

Looking good in the clear cups, I can pretty easily tell where it's drying out.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 7

So we are one week into this experiment with no watering whatsoever. I decided to pick one and give it a drink in order to compare its growth (above and below ground) to the others. For no particular reason, I grabbed #2 and gave it a dunk.

Sorry for the blurry shot but it serves the purpose.

Plant #2 was at 208 grams when I watered it. It appears they are drinking/evaporating about 1.5 oz. of water per day. If correct, the others are going to start looking sad in the next couple of days. No real additional development in the roots of any of them. Plant #2 weighed in at 380 grams after its drink = 6 oz. of water added.

See ya' tamale!

 

[Major PITA]

Day 8​

Still not a lot of root activity. Only a couple are showing and only one plant has growth to the sides of the cup.
The plant watered yesterday put on a small growth spurt overnight, as expected. It lost more than 2.6 oz. od water in one day. The ones that didn't get anything lost 2/3 to 1 oz. You can see a little moisture beading up on the plastic but the cups are very light. Somebody is going down soon.

See if you can tell which one got watered. They all looked about the same yesterday.

Spoiler: The plant in the upper-left is the one that got a drink.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 9​

Nothing to show in the way of root development. They all look about the same. One thing I found interesting is, the three cups that have not been watered all weigh exactly the same now. I had to re-weigh them to verify. They came in at 180 grams each, losing 14-16 grams of weight yesterday. This tells me there probably isn't much of anything left for the plants to draw from. They all weighed different amounts originally and have lost different amounts over the last week, but they all ended up at the same place. The one that got drenched lost 46 grams yesterday = 3 times as much. If they make it through today, I'll drench one more at day 10.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 10 & 11​

Sorry about yesterday. The pictures were so bad I decided not to use them.
I gave seedling #1 a drink at the 10 day mark. It took just over 7 oz. (204 grams) of H2O. I will give a drink to another one if it makes it to day 14. Not a lot to show in the way of root development. I am beginning to see them along the sides now. I'll try to get good quality pic's of them soon. The last tow plants must be running on fumes at this point.

When they have all the water they can use, they can lose 74 grams per day in my environment. When thirsty, they only lost an average of 8 grams yesterday.

 

[mypassion]

Nice pics. I am an expert in this department )

 

[electro gypsy]

Nice pics. I am an expert in this department )

Yep. If it involves plant stress.. been there. Done that.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 12 & 13​

The reason I wanted to do this is to see how the root development varies for plants watered less, and to see how long a seedling can safely go w/o anything. The conventional wisdom is, plants left to dry out will grow a bigger, finer root ball while seeking out the small amount of moisture in the soil. I've taken this as gospel for decades but have never really seen it up close and personal.

Tomorrow, #3 will get a drink. Plant #4 will get left until it is obviously suffering. I should start watering one frequently so I can compare how it does to the others. So far the root development (hard to capture with glare on the clear plastic) is not all that different from one to the next - but it is early still.

The cups with bone dry Promix weighed about 96 grams. Plant #3 is down to 134 so there is only about 1.5 oz. of water left in the cup...somewhere...maybe. Hopefully it will make it until tomorrow. It will get a drench and I will begin watering #1 frequently to see what happens.

Day 12

Day 13

Roots: #1 - #4, left to right

#1 & #2 have gotten a drink with #1 being the most recent. The other two have not gotten a drop. I'm surprised there isn't a bigger difference in size above ground. #2 & #3 appear to have the most developed roots.

 

[Major PITA]

Day 14​

Day 14 means plant #3 got its cup drenched for the first time since before the seed was planted. That only leaves #4 still running on empty.
I am watering plant #1 every other day so it will have lots of moisture at all times. Plants #2 & #3 will get water after a one week dry cycle unless they tell me differently.
I'll start focusing more on root development in the pictures now that we have something to see.

 

[dr.h00k]

will be interesting to see some more root shots...to these ole eyes...looks like 2 and 3 are showing more root development...cheerz...h00k...