Cherry Kush issue with roots?

I have a cherry kush plant that is just a day over 3 weeks into flower at the moment...I have her in a 4x4 tent under a Kind k3 l600 light, temps stay around 77 during the day with 44-48% relative humidity and drops to 68-70 at night with RH around 35%....I mainly just water with RO water with about 200ppm of cal mag added to it to avoid making it hypertonic (hyper or hypo...whatever)...haven't switched to flower nutes yet and only gave it a small feeding of 200ppm cal mag and 150ppm of veg nutes one time and it hasn't seemed to ask for much more...issue here is it's in a 7 gallon smart pot that I only have to water maybe once a week or once every week and a half...I noticed the other day after my wife turned the heat on in our apartment (it was cold out, but yikes! Heat?!?!) And when I returned home from work, the temp in the tent was around 84°, the leaves were all droopy and flimsy, and it looked miniaturized, like the leaves were curling away from the light....I also noticed that the soil was very compacted in the smart pot and was still moist an inch or two down even 8 days after the last watering so I pounded on the sides to loosen it up to get better airflow in there to get oxygen to the roots...but is it too late? I am wondering if my root structure is compromised which is causing these problems. Also, the girdle leaves are quickly yellowing, telling me at this point in the plants life that the increased need for nitrogen from the stretch is being pulled from the reserves in the leaves because the roots are inadequate to provide that to the plant through the media...am I on the right track with this thinking? I'm hoping she will still yield something, I hate to toss her because of these root issues because all has been good until that several hour long heat wave...I mean I'll finish it regardless lol but I'm not trying to grow crap bud or suffer a huge loss in yield...which may already have happened regardless...any input will be much appreciated! If there's any points here that I missed feel free to let me know

I may have posted the same pic twice...woops lol. This is what she looked like before the assault from our heater...quite a different plant

84 degrees if thats an accurate temp shouldn't fuck a plant up like that.
Do you water to run off and what happens to the run off?

I always water til runoff, tested ppms of the runoff and it's at 580ppm. That's why I'm thinking it's a roots issue because 84 shouldn't fuck it like that, agreed.

So it turns out that after I watered with 180ppm cal mag and 220 ppm veg nutes that the leaves all perked back up later in the day. Strange, because the soil was still damp in the lower half of the pot so it's not like it was just dry....maybe I just need to read my plant better lol this is my first grow with this strain. I'll see if it keeps up! Plan on switching to bloom nutes on the next watering in about 4-5 days which would put it at 4 weeks flower

Soil is just a difficult medium to grow in... I've never had a perfect grow in soil. I moved to hydro and coco coir very early in my "career" and found them to be a lot easier.

See I was thinking hydro but I'm looking more for quality than the quantity that hydro produces. I grow for myself for nerve damage and spasms in my shoulder post surgery, so quality really is of utmost importance to me over total yield. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with hydro bud, it gets me baked like any other bud, but there's just something extra special about soil grown buds to me

Psyphish said:

Soil is just a difficult medium to grow in... I've never had a perfect grow in soil. I moved to hydro and coco coir very early in my "career" and found them to be a lot easier.

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Did you notice a big difference in quality at all? As far as my understanding, cannabis grows faster and produces more in hydro and grows slower but produces more quality in media

Samblakaka said:

Did you notice a big difference in quality at all? As far as my understanding, cannabis grows faster and produces more in hydro and grows slower but produces more quality in media

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I never had a perfect grow in soil, so the quality was just OK. My coco buds are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than anything I was able to grow in soil, but that's just my experience.

The frostiest, smelliest, tastiest and biggest buds I've seen and smoked have always been something other than soil grown. I don't see any point in growing in soil, but then again I've never smoked organic california outdoor bud.

Maybe someone more experienced in medical bud could chime in? Is soil grown more medicinal? The only medical problem I smoke for is pain in my feet.

I as a medical patient can indeed chime in lol. I've noticed that bud grown in soil under an led light has something magical about it, id give it 10% more magical than other buds because of the sheer amount of trichomes, the density, and intensity of the terpenes. The shop I went to in Colorado grew everything organically in soil and it was definitely superior to anything else I could find...there may not be any definitive science for this, I think it all comes down to personal preference and what you're willing to settle for, since there really is no perfect way and everything really is a trade off I've learned

Hydro produces more because its quicker to veg and gets more oxygen to the roots. But the quality should be the same. Nutrients are nutrients.
Not that I'm knocking soil, if soil is your thing make your own, if your not already.

Reason I asked about where your run off goes earlier is it looked like your plant was sat on the floor of your tent. If its allowed to soak its own run off back up it can cause salt build up and also takes a long time to dry, so you end up with a root zone depleted of oxygen before it needs another watering. Causing root problems. Which is why its a good idea to raise the pot off the floor.
Anyway, may or may not be related. But glad your plants perked up.

That is a good point, I actually very carefully remove the plant from the tent and take it to the tub to water it there so the runoff just goes down the drain, then I'll set down a cup and pick it up and hold it over the cup to collect runoff to test ppms. Once it stop dripping and my shoulders are on fire (lol) I'll put it back in the tent. Still moist on the bottom but I never allow water to pool in the tent. Could this still cause an issue? I was thinking about fixing all of this by just getting one of those metal shelves with bars (not a solid flat shelf...im having a hard time explaining this lol) they have in restaurants that they store dishes on and stuff and putting the plant on that so that its like a half inch or so above the floor and then I can just dry anything that flows out....work smarter not harder lol

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks of flowering time, still about 5 to go based off of the strain I was told this is...but who knows what it is honestly lol. Haven't had any more issues with the plant like it was before, I really think it had to do with the heat and bad roots combination...I haven't done anything differently except better regulate temperature and switched to bloom nutes today...it was watered this morning and seemed pretty ok with it all day...we'll see what the morning brings lol

I think I fixed it lol

Looks thirsty to me. I also Grow in 7gal containers. And I water plants similar in size every two or three days. If you are using a peat based mix I would add a wetting agent like Yucca extract to the water.

Stink Bug said:

Looks thirsty to me. I also Grow in 7gal containers. And I water plants similar in size every two or three days. If you are using a peat based mix I would add a wetting agent like Yucca extract to the water.

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I don't think it was thirsty as the soil stayed wet for a long time, I think it is just shitty roots. I'm gonna finish her out either way

Now all the fan leaves are dying....rapidly....