Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
from the top or the bottom?
Yellowing leaves but buds are close
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Emilya Green
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Ok... so you determined that your plants used 1 quart of water every other day... how long have you been doing this? How did you figure out that this was the amount of water that you needed to give? How did you determine that the plant needed more after just a day?
False.
I believe that this watering practice has allowed water to back up, and for some time now, your lower roots have been under water. The clawing of your leaves points to the ground, telling you that there is a problem with your roots.
This plant needs the roots to dry out all the way to the bottom between waterings. I have some right now that have been taking 6-10 days between waterings, and they are working on reducing that time. To be able to water every other day requires some extraordinary roots, and you have to work up to that.
You are suspected of being an overwaterer, by watering too often.
False.
I believe that this watering practice has allowed water to back up, and for some time now, your lower roots have been under water. The clawing of your leaves points to the ground, telling you that there is a problem with your roots.
This plant needs the roots to dry out all the way to the bottom between waterings. I have some right now that have been taking 6-10 days between waterings, and they are working on reducing that time. To be able to water every other day requires some extraordinary roots, and you have to work up to that.
You are suspected of being an overwaterer, by watering too often.
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- #25
I have used Airpots on the last two girls. I placed the pots in a pan that holds water when I want the two to wick up water from below. That pan always seems to have a bit of water in it, run off I guess. The bottom of airpot is a plastic grid. Sits about and inch and a half above water level in pan. I tried to pick up pot and change pans but could not lift it. She will be home soon and will enlist her help. With the small fan blowing inside tent I believed soil would dry out inside pot in two days. I’ll look for roots below airpot base, reaching for the water. Thanks to all who have commented today.
get them out of the stagnant water.
those pots are meant to be elevated above the drain trays with air space underneath.
leaving them in the water leads to ph problems and a pile of other stuff. you got pretty lucky so far actually.
those pots are meant to be elevated above the drain trays with air space underneath.
leaving them in the water leads to ph problems and a pile of other stuff. you got pretty lucky so far actually.
Depends. Some damage done by a nutrient deficiency will recover when the correct nutrient and dosage is applied. If the deficiency is not caught in time or ignored long enough the cells and veins in the plant leaves will not recover.
Most insect damage seems to be permanent. They have chewed microscopic holes in the cells and have either sucked the sap right, similar to what mites or thirps might do. Then there are the bugs which literally eat the leaf and caterpillars and several others come to mind. The plant will not replace those parts.
However, as many of us have found out over the years, if the plant looses the entire leaf it might grow an entire new one.
So much to learn about the plant and then file away.
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Emilya Green
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I really doubt it is dry to the bottom in this short time and with damaged roots. When you lift the container, can you feel ANY water weight? If you have a moisture meter, is the level of the water table down into the bottom inch of the container? If so, it probably is not yet time to water.
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- #30
Nothing to compare it to. Haven’t weighed them wet or dry. The idea to enlarge a hole for my finger came to me a few weeks ago. Are there moisture meters that actually work?
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
compare it to a similar container filled with dry soil. If your human senses can tell a difference, that difference is mostly water weight.
Unless you have freakishly long fingers, they are not long enough to get to where you need to be to tell if it is time to water. Unless you can finger your way all the way from the top surface down to the very bottom, and then feel what is on the bottom, your finger is not the right tool for this job. This is why we have moisture meters. Unfortunately, not many people know how to use the cheap little meter to be able to tell them anything.
All moisture meters work. They have 2 useful readings, dry and wet, everything else can be ignored. Moist is a sillyness that needs not even be considered. Start sticking your probe down into the soil, inching deeper as you watch the meter. It will go from dry to moist and then suddenly when you hit the top of the lake of water hidden deep down in your soil because of gravity, the meter will swing all the way to the right, indicating wet.
You have just found the top of the water table. This lake of water will continue to fall as the plant uses up the water in there, until it reaches the last inch or two of the container, in a normal container, where it never really will dry out down there because of capillary action between the mass of roots and themselves, and the sides and bottom of the container. When the water table gets down to that last inch or two, it is time to water. In your airpot, you have put an air barrier between the bottom of the soil and the actual bottom of the container. You have perched your water table up above the bottom, where it can be made to actually dry out without the capillary action, and in these containers it is best to wait until all the water has been used, right down to the bottom of that screen.
Unless you have freakishly long fingers, they are not long enough to get to where you need to be to tell if it is time to water. Unless you can finger your way all the way from the top surface down to the very bottom, and then feel what is on the bottom, your finger is not the right tool for this job. This is why we have moisture meters. Unfortunately, not many people know how to use the cheap little meter to be able to tell them anything.
All moisture meters work. They have 2 useful readings, dry and wet, everything else can be ignored. Moist is a sillyness that needs not even be considered. Start sticking your probe down into the soil, inching deeper as you watch the meter. It will go from dry to moist and then suddenly when you hit the top of the lake of water hidden deep down in your soil because of gravity, the meter will swing all the way to the right, indicating wet.
You have just found the top of the water table. This lake of water will continue to fall as the plant uses up the water in there, until it reaches the last inch or two of the container, in a normal container, where it never really will dry out down there because of capillary action between the mass of roots and themselves, and the sides and bottom of the container. When the water table gets down to that last inch or two, it is time to water. In your airpot, you have put an air barrier between the bottom of the soil and the actual bottom of the container. You have perched your water table up above the bottom, where it can be made to actually dry out without the capillary action, and in these containers it is best to wait until all the water has been used, right down to the bottom of that screen.
PaulyG
Well-Known Member
Without seeing photo of plant. Would guess natural aging process. End of life stage. Plant is exorbing nutrients from unneeded leaves. To fuel bud growth as it nears full maturity. Good luck hope you have a great harvest.
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PaulyG
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Looks like watering issue. Drying leaf tips and dropping leaves. As well as natural aging.Here ya go.
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- #35
I was going to harvest over the weekend, but now that the soil has dried out, I want to hold off a bit longer. See if the trichomes go amber, some anyway.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
You should always wait until the plant is dry all the way to the bottom (like I think you just did) and then when you finally do water it, water it to runoff. Don't try to guess for the plant how much it needs. How in the world would you know how much it needs? You couldn't, so you only guess... and you are guessing a quart at a time.
Overwaterers often note that their plants droop almost all of the time, but that they briefly pick up after a watering. Most of these people are watering to runoff each time, way too often, but the symptoms are similar.
You however seem to be underwatering, too often, resulting in problems a little different than normal, but still, big enough problems that your plants are being affected. Here is what is happening when you water with a quart after waiting a day or so...
There are two sets of roots in these plants, the deep feeder/tap root system down at the bottom, and the top fine web of spreader roots that exist in the top 3-4 inches of the soil. You have been exercising those top roots really well by coming by every other day, and they quickly soak up all the water and nutrients they can handle each time you water. That which they can't pick up, because of gravity, drops to the bottom. It sounds like these roots were easily able to suck up most of that first quart and maybe a lot of the second quart, before it reached the bottom. Anything that would be left over as it passed the top third of the container would eventually work its way to the bottom, if there was enough to soak all of the soil between, but if you haven't watered to runoff, it very well could be that the top spreader roots were the only ones to see water/nutes on that session and as soon as the water passes through towards the bottom where the damaged roots are at, the plant can no longer get what it needs... and the droop returns.
Let's fine tune your watering practices a bit more. When you water, water with gusto, treating that soil like a sponge. See how much water you can get it to hold, before any more would just run out of the bottom as runoff. I do this once with my plants and then wait a half hour or so before coming in again with more water, just to make sure that I have saturated the soil with as much as it possibly can hold. Because I am growing organically, I have no worries what is in the runoff water, so I always end up with at least an inch of runoff water in my drip trays.
Then, sit on your hands and do nothing until that plant can drain 95% of that water. At first it can take 7-10 days to accomplish this task, but as the roots get stronger, or in your case, repair, the time between waterings diminishes, until the roots are so strong that you can drain every drop of all of that water, in 24-36 hours. This is how you build roots, by working them and teasing out the water that you give them. Once you can easily drain that container in a day or so, it is time to uppot to one at least 3x as big, and start this root building process over again.
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- #37
Thank you ma’am. Didn’t know there were two sets of roots. I can use the pans I had before to use as a drip pan. Then empty that. I have place the airpot on a 2-3” high plastic stand. The small fan in the tent can blow thru this stand and the airpot. I was surprised how long it took for the soil to dry. I am going back to 7 gal bags on the next grow. Trying to sprout auto fem cherry seeds now. Are you enjoying your winter break from growing Em???
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
ah ha! Yes, that changes everything. Good luck on the cherry... sounds like a good one.
Funny thing about my winter break... it hasn't happened yet. I have a load of 5 LSD plants and one Amnesia that are less than 2 weeks into bloom, and then I have 6 more ready to go to bloom after getting into their final containers, probably this week and at least several weeks before I would be ready to flip them.
Try as I might, it doesn't look like I am going to get my break and am going to have to use space heaters anyway. Oh well, it wasn't critical that I took a break now, and I think I am going to enjoy 3 more varieties of pot coming out of my rooms enough that I can overlook the added electricity this is going to cost me. My partner tells me that I must not have really wanted to take that break, since I certainly didn't plan this right and I am kicking myself because I turned down 2 free seed offers, thinking that I was going to be shut down about now. What is it that they say about best laid plans?
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Also told her you grow from cuttings, not seeds. Was I wrong??? Is growing weed all you do, for income? Can you charge anything you want for it, or do you give your “patients” a price break
