Baffled by Drooping Leaves..?

Northeasten US outdoor grow in a mix of organic super soil in 30gal pots. Fed only water (until last week I started with SST) the entire life of the plants (watering schedule is about 2gal every 2 days). Plants have been absolutely perfect up until this point. 7 plants, 3 still left in veg. Starting yesterday, day 1 after feeding, the leaves on 2/3 of the plants still in veg have started to droop, overall the plant looks like it has lost its vitality (branches no longer pointing up to the sun).
ALL PLANTS:

-The watering schedule has been pretty consistent all around, 2 gal every 2 days or so unless I work around a storm. At first I was thinking that they could have been over watered, and due to me moving one of the effected plants (last week before the drooping) lower on the hill and having to dig it into the ground slightly that maybe too much moisture built up and the roots were being deprived of oxygen, however this has been addressed and after 30 or so hours, still no change. Not to mention it wouldnt explain why the second plant is also showing drooping since its above ground.

-Never added a chemical/nute to the girls OTHER THAN - azomite, compost, veg dry amendments, coco coir + perlite mixed into the soil from the start. The past two feedings I have been giving them 1 - 2 gallons of seed sprout tea (alfalfa sprout). The plants looked GREAT after the first feeding (1 gal SST, 1 gal water). The drooping of these 2 girls comes after the second feeding (2gal SST). Since the SST doesnt contain "nutes", and the leaves show no sign of yellowing, AND based off of the other 5 plants looking great, I dont believe the cause to be from this. I will mention that the regular water feedings come from the hose (tap). The tap water in this area is amazing, not treated with chemicals and rated one of the best in the country. However for the SST feeding I used distilled water from the store - once again shoots down this being the problem in my head since the other 5 plants look great.

-Treated with neem once every 7-12 days since week 4 of veg, no pest infestation present (I do see a lot of little leafhoppers, spiders, weevils, the general type of insects you would find around here, however no damage or sign of a destructive pest in sight!) upon checking the soil, due to outdoor + organic im assuming is why there are tons of critters living in the soil and I have not identified one of them to be a threat, so im not thinking its pest related.

-Weather has been consistently 75-90 during the day and 60-75 at night. Recently there has been a little jump in temperature to the high 80s for about 3 days. There was a period of about 5 days where the temperatures were between 90-100 about 4-5 weeks ago and none of the girls showed signs of heat stress - so I cant imagine this time around the temps are effecting only these 2 in a negative way.

(The two strains effected are Cali Orange, and Underdawg OG and have been my BEST growing plants out of the entire grow)
I understand the drooping is not the worst, and the leaves look healthy, but im looking to get ANY input I can on the problem before it could get worse. All conditions stated above go for every plant growing, and are the only scenarios I can think of that would have a negative effect on the plants - however they are conflicting scenarios in my mind. Thank you for taking the time to read through this, if you have any advice or tips for me I would greatly appreciate it

They might be root bound in the pots and drinking the 2 gallons of water really fast and drooping because they want more. I am not an experienced outdoor grower but those are some good size plants and if they have been in those pots all year they might be root bound. I would feed them daily to see if they perk up.

Uprooting a plant may cause it to droop from stress also. The majority of your root is in the pot but if its root has expanded into the ground then you are technically transplanting it.

Edit: I give 3 gallons every 2 days to indoor plants those size in 20 gals. You may be under watering.

2 gallons doesn't sound like it's enough to soak your pot. To me is looks like you are underwatering. The roots that are growing down into your pot are not growing in soil that gets drenched and when it gets dry they are much more susceptible to heat and they will droop. My neighbor has plants in slightly smaller pots and he waters 1-2 gallons 4 times a day to keep them happy or they droop.

If I were you, I'd water them until the entire pot is drenched every time you water. You may even need to water every day but at least if you completely soak that pot it might last the 2 days until the next watering.

The Gram Reaper said:

They might be root bound in the pots and drinking the 2 gallons of water really fast and drooping because they want more. I am not an experienced outdoor grower but those are some good size plants and if they have been in those pots all year they might be root bound. I would feed them daily to see if they perk up.

Uprooting a plant may cause it to droop from stress also. The majority of your root is in the pot but if its root has expanded into the ground then you are technically transplanting it.

Edit: I give 3 gallons every 2 days to indoor plants those size in 20 gals. You may be under watering.

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Getting a pretty crazy storm now. Its that one storm that comes in late august here that wreaks havoc that I fear every summer. Considering they make it through unscathed, they'll have a feeding right on schedule 2 days from the last, so ill see how they look tomorrow. When I moved the plants about 10 days ago I DID notice that there were some roots growing from the bottom of the pot into the dirt that couldn't have made up more than 2-4% of the root system - I worried and worried about this shocking the plants but day after day they kept exploding with growth unless this is some sort of delayed shock response

If they are indeed root bound what are my options from here? Transplanting into a bigger pot isnt really the most realistic thing id want to do (they weight damn near 100lbs!) but if thats what I have to do for the next 10-12 weeks of their life I will.

Danielson999 said:

2 gallons doesn't sound like it's enough to soak your pot. To me is looks like you are underwatering. The roots that are growing down into your pot are not growing in soil that gets drenched and when it gets dry they are much more susceptible to heat and they will droop. My neighbor has plants in slightly smaller pots and he waters 1-2 gallons 4 times a day to keep them happy or they droop.

If I were you, I'd water them until the entire pot is drenched every time you water. You may even need to water every day but at least if you completely soak that pot it might last the 2 days until the next watering.

Click to expand...

Will try that tomorrow after this huge storm since they should be getting a good amount of water. Ill go back to regular water feeding. I may have been under the impression that it was enough water since the plants have looked great on this feeding schedule and there was run off, but come to think of it this could be due to air pockets between the fabric pots and the interior soil since the leak through occurs in 1-2 spots only.

I would not transplant at this point, I would just feed more often and soak the medium as Danielson suggested. It will be well worth the extra effort. Its only going to drink more water at this point as it buds.

Thanks guys! Ill up the frequency of the feedings immediately starting tomorrow and see what happens. Praying that they get through this storm today. Tornado and hail warnings everywhere through the night

Shit! I would try to secure/cover them before the storm if possible. Good luck and may your crop be blessed!

Mattywolffer said:

Getting a pretty crazy storm now. Its that one storm that comes in late august here that wreaks havoc that I fear every summer. Considering they make it through unscathed, they'll have a feeding right on schedule 2 days from the last, so ill see how they look tomorrow. When I moved the plants about 10 days ago I DID notice that there were some roots growing from the bottom of the pot into the dirt that couldn't have made up more than 2-4% of the root system - I worried and worried about this shocking the plants but day after day they kept exploding with growth unless this is some sort of delayed shock response

If they are indeed root bound what are my options from here? Transplanting into a bigger pot isnt really the most realistic thing id want to do (they weight damn near 100lbs!) but if thats what I have to do for the next 10-12 weeks of their life I will.

Click to expand...

Makes sense that the roots were growing out the bottom of the pot, they were searching for water and hardly getting any. Moving plants in fabric pots is dicey too because the soil can kind of break up inside the pot because it's so flexible. This could have caused part of the droop also. Watering in fabric also requires more water because it escapes so easily as you water. It just takes a bit more to get them soaked good. They will perk up and be fine.

Just like that and they're back to loving life. Such a simple fix that didn't even cross my mind. I appreciate the help guys, thank you!