I need help please

I have 5 gallon soil pots. I was watering them once a week with 1 Gallon of water. I notice the plants starting to droop and I gave the half a gallon every 4-5 days now. The temp stays around 68-75 with around 30% humidity. 12/12 light schedule. Please someone help me. They atr in week 5 flower. I waited until theybare fully dry to water also

So you underwatered them. That’s why the dry tips and the droop. It is possible that even 5g pots are too small for these. If you can’t go 2-3 days no water without getting droop the pots are too small for plants size. At week 5 it seems silly to transplant them now; just ride it out and water more often. Snip off the damaged parts to prevent mold but keep the green parts intact. They look more like week 7 to me.

Richard Drysift said:

So you underwatered them. That’s why the dry tips and the droop. It is possible that even 5g pots are too small for these. If you can’t go 2-3 days no water without getting droop the pots are too small for plants size. At week 5 it seems silly to transplant them now; just ride it out and water more often. Snip off the damaged parts to prevent mold but keep the green parts intact. They look more like week 7 to me.

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So it's ok to water them with the pot somewhat moist?? Could it be because my humidity is around 30? I wait until it's fully dry where I can't even poke through the soil to water

notorietysounds1000@gmail said:

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So it's ok to water them with the pot somewhat moist?? Could it be because my humidity is around 30? I wait until it's fully dry where I can't even poke through the soil to water

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When you water soak the pot good and that should need repeating every 2 - 4 days with plants that size in 5gal pots. I use 4gal/16L for my final pots and will up-pot when they can't make it a full 2 days without water before that.

You aren't giving them near as much water as they need.

I'm one to talk. I've been unwell the last few days and forgot that it's warmer now and when I checked my 4 mothers today they were all bone dry. Only one has perked up since watering so I may have lost the other 3. Turned off the light and fans, poured a litre of water on the floor and zipped the tent up after spraying the plants down real good. Sealed up all the outlets too and going to leave them like that to see if any of the others survive.

When do I count the flower time? From the time I switched to 12/12? Or the time I seen the buds. Because I switched from 12/12 on March 20th and seen buds March 25th. Also if they are under watered how can I get them back right??

notorietysounds1000@gmail said:

When do I count the flower time? From the time I switched to 12/12? Or the time I seen the buds. Because I switched from 12/12 on March 20th and seen buds March 25th. Also if they are under watered how can I get them back right??

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I count from the flip but many wait for buds but that can vary depending on when you think they are actually buds. If you grow the same strains often timing from the flip makes more sense to me. X takes 63 days while Y takes 80 days then you know better when to get ready for the dreaded trim jail.

When underwatered all you need to do is water them. With soil or peat-based soilless mixes you want to saturate the pots when you water. Then let the pots dry down enough that they feel light when you lift them. Not so light that the plants are drooping tho waiting until one does start to droop lets you know they are good and dry. At that time I will measure how much water it takes to soak it good so I can estimate how much water I'll need to water them all the same. Makes mixing nutes easier when you have a bunch of pots. I'll mix up enough for all the plants in a big jug with an airstone bubbling in it then pour out into something like a milk jug the amount for one plant and dump it in when I'm in a hurry. The tray underneath will fill up and the plants will suck it back up. Any left over I'll remove later then I know the medium in the pot is totally soaked with no dry areas. If I know 4L will soak it and I don't want to fart around with removing runoff then I'll give it 3.5L and walk away. Any that ends up in the tray will get sucked back up.

When you have a smaller plant in a big pot the roots will still reach all the way to the bottom so if you only water a little bit only the upper part of the pot will be wet and those roots near the bottom will dry out and die. If you water too often then the lower portion never dries out so oxygen can be drawn in and roots love oxygen. That's how overwatering causes root rot eventually and what overwatering means.

Now if you're growing in coco it's supposed to remain wet all the time and one of the reasons I don't use coco. Other reasons are that it's not available near me and costs up to 3X as much as the ProMix HP I've used for almost 20 years. I did buy a big bag of Canna coco last year and plan to do a side-by-side grow using it just for the heck of it.

Hope that helps.

Stop counting days as though you're counting down to harvest.

Count days purely as a means of keeping track of progress.

It makes the process alot less complicated.

notorietysounds1000@gmail said:

View attachment 5287906

So it's ok to water them with the pot somewhat moist?? Could it be because my humidity is around 30? I wait until it's fully dry where I can't even poke through the soil to water

Click to expand...

Yes. After watering pull up on the container to gauge the weight roughly. When the pots feel light water again; their water needs change as they grow/develop and is directly related to ambient temps/humidity. You are probably holding back on watering because everybody says overwatering is bad….using fabric pots makes overwatering nearly impossible.

notorietysounds1000@gmail said:

When do I count the flower time? From the time I switched to 12/12? Or the time I seen the buds. Because I switched from 12/12 on March 20th and seen buds March 25th. Also if they are under watered how can I get them back right??

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Count weeks not days. When you see white pistils emerge your plant is in flower mode. Count 10 weeks from this date; this is the beginning of your harvest window. Most strains on the planet Earth are done in a full 70 days or 10 weeks.
So if your plants were in week 1 of flowering on 3/25 then they should finish around the last week of May. This is how I estimate harvest window and it’s usually fairly accurate. Like I said your plants look to be about week 7…so 3 maybe 4 more weeks to go I’d say.
Correct underwatered plants by watering them more often… any damage done to leaves will not recover them but if you add a moisture retaining soil conditioner like vermiculite and/or mulch with coco coir or straw added and keep it moist that should help prevent that droop in the future. Bigger pots also regulate moisture better than smaller ones do so go larger next run if you can.