Droopy papery plants! help!

[uffda]

How long has this problem been going on? 5 days
What STRAIN are you growing? LSD and Cookies Kush
What was the establishing technique? (seed or clone?) seed
What is the age of your plants? 18 days
How long have they been in the soil mixture they are in now? 18 days - Dr. Earth organic vegetable garden mix
Were they in the same mixture when they were seedlings/smaller plant? If not, what mixture were they in before? same
How Tall are the plants? 3-4 inches
What PHASE (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in? veg
What size pots are you using? (Include how many subjects to pot) moved from 16oz to 3/4 gallon
What substrate/medium are you using? What brand of soil mixture are you using?(percentage of perlite, vermiculite...etc?) Dr Earth vegetable garden mix with 30% perlite added
What method of pH test was administered? Using Strips? pH pen? drops, brita filtered tap water PH 6.5 nothing added

How often are you watering? Around once a week, though things got very dry and droopy from day 6 to 7. Watered a small amount on day 7, still droopy day 8 and still quite dry so i watered a small amount again. by day 9 things were still dry and droopy (testing wetness with one of those cheap 3 in 1 light/ph/water testers). watered fairly heavily on the 9th day which was 2 days ago. pictures from day. Finger test about an inch into the soil feels damp but not wet
What size bulb are you using? 8x 14w 5000k LED
How old is your bulbs? <1 month
What is the distance to the canopy? 6-8 inches
What is your RH Factor? (Relative Humidity) 34-55%
What is the canopy temperature? 66-81 degrees
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include fluctuation range) 66-81 degrees
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.) ~ 190cfm minus whatever resistance from carbon filter. cab is 30"x11"x31" so should be plenty.
Tell us about your ventilation, intake exhaust and when its running and not running ? fan always running, passive intake holes with light traps
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? no
Is the grow substrate constantly wet or moist? moist
Is your water HARD or SOFT? hard
What water are you using? tap water run through brita
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so what and when? saw 4-5 fungus gnats flying around the 5th day after seeds sprouted, added mosquito bits to soil surface and haven't seen any flyers since.


I had the plants in clear plastic ice cream containers ~18oz before moving them yesterday into something larger and not clear (simply because i didn't want to repot them too many times)
the roots on these plants as of yesterday seem fine, no signs of rot though there was an abundance of roots in a circle around the bottom of the containers (normal?)

If i had to guess I'd say the problem is over/under watering but can't for the life of me figure out which. I'm pretty sure they got too dry after 7 days between watering, but looked fine on day 6 and still registered around 3/10 on the cheapy moisture meter. added maybe 4oz on the 7th day when they started looking droopy, 4-5oz more on the 8th day when there was no improvement, I also raised the lights a couple inches more in case there was an issue with heat. Gave a good drenching until there was a small amount of run off on the 9th day which was 2 days ago. The leaves feel very dry and papery to the touch.

Not sure if these are salvageable but I'd like to know where I'm going wrong? I haven't done a ton of ph testing, but since the soil is supposed to be around 6.5 and my water is 6.5 I feel like I should be safe?

 

[Mystic Funk]

I would check your soil ph. at least a run off test and they look pretty nitrogen deficient.
looks like you over watered them too. (pot too big??)


peace
mystic

 

[uffda]

I haven't watered them since I moved them to larger pots, I was actually hoping if they were over watered the extra soil would wick some away. They were in 20oz containers when they were last watered 2 days ago.

Even then there wasn't enough water run off to test. If they're over watered then I'd be afraid to get enough soil run off to test too, at this rate I don't know if they'll last until they're ready for water again.

 

[uffda]

If they are over watered, which i suspect may be the issue. Is there anything I can do in the mean time until they're ready to be watered again and I can test the run off PH?

 

[SamsonsRiddle]

you can increase temp and circulation to make your medium dry out faster, but learning patience will be your biggest lesson here.

like the person above said, you transplanted too early. a plant that large shouldn't need more than 2oz of water every other day or so. when you transplant, your plants look for the bottom of the pot before they focus too much on the foliage. It may be a slow recovery, but very possible with such young plants.

 

[uffda]

Thanks you for the response, do you think this soil may just hold too much water? Even with 30% perlite It seems like it stays wet for a very long time even with somewhat high temps for most of the day (low 80s). It claims to have some aloe gel in it to retain moisture, otherwise it seems decent.

http://drearth.com/products/organic-soils/home-grown-vegetable-garden-mix/

Once the plants dry out what course would you recommend for getting them back on track? Just plain water for now? I'm afraid of watering these things since the soil seems to stay wet for so long.

 

[Mystic Funk]

with the new soil i wouldn't feed them anything. there should be plenty of nutrients in there already. i would just give them a little water at a time when they dry out. don't let the soil stay wet too long. i think that's what your problem was.
make sure they have good light and good air circulation and they might grow out of it.


hope this helps.
peace
-mystic

 

[Vanilla Phoenix]

I agree with Mystic. But if your soil is too compact and doesn't dry out well, your doomed unless you get them into some better soil. I've never heard of Dr Earth's soil so can't really give advice on it.

 

[uffda]

Alright, so I had switched the plants back to smaller pots and let them dry out a bit and have been giving them only small amounts of water about every other day.

One plant looks great, nice and green and growing nicely again; the other looks more or less the same as the original photo. Maybe slightly larger and getting the tiniest bit of dark green back but still almost entirely lime green.

I tested my run off and with the drops it was pretty difficult to tell, about an hour or two after I put the drops in it was probably between 6-6.5. I just left the sample in the vial though and the next day it looked like 8. Which do you think is correct? The water going in is about 6-6.5 with nothing added.

I'm thinking ph may be out of whack since one plant is hardly improving at all and showing signs of deficiency, but then again the other looks totally fine.

 

[Mystic Funk]

when using ph drops you should take your reading a few seconds after you shake the vial. any longer than that it's not accurate.
if the run off water is too cloudy or discolored and too hard too read try doing a soil ph test.
soil ph test: take one part soil and 2 parts distilled water at 7 ph and put it in a jar with a lid and shake well for a few minutes then let it sit till the soil sinks to the bottom and the water is clear again then get a dropper and carefully take some water off the top and ph test that water. that's your true soil ph.
soil run off tests are just a quick soil test and can be inaccurate.


good luck!
-mystic

 

[hyposomniac]

Put a dome over the droopiest plant and see if it perks up in a day.

Ive had the overwatered look and it turned out to be from low humidity and lots of air flow.

 

[AnonEmouse]

Agree with poster above, hyposominiac, increase humidity.

The simple things are often the answer.