drooping and red stems first grow PLEASE help

this is my ak47 feminized autoflowering plant under a dark star led it is in fox farm happy frog soil i just put it in a 3 gal pot about 3 weeks ago and i believe it grew into it but then it has been droopy ever since that three week mark is this because it has used all of the nutrients from the soil?.. i started to give it 25% nutes the past 3 days and nothing happened so i put in 50% now and still nothing but a tiny pick up then i noticed the red stems ? what does that mean?? it does have constant air movement and water 2x daily and a 20/4 light cycle so i have no idea at this point please somebody please help me and if u need to know any more info please feel free to ask thank you in advance for your help

red stems= lacking NITROGEN, I've never grown autos, but i did have two plants that looked similar to that in 5 weeks into flowering, In my case, I went straight water and the plant mostly came out of it. the leaves drooped and died off naturally and wasn't an issue, also could be lack of light.

how often do you water looks under watered

If I understand correctly, you have them in 3 gallon pots and you water twice a day. Are you checking the soil deep in the pots to be sure it's dry before you water again? Keeping the roots too wet can cause drooping. Here's what you do: get a wooden pencil and sharpen it so it has nice clean, newly exposed wood at the pointy end. Stick the newly sharpened pencil into the soil, at least down to the middle depth of the pot. If the wood shows moisture when you pull it out, there is plenty of moisture in the soil and the plant does not need water yet. Or you can stick your finger in the soil if you can get it deep enough and feel for moisture.

dubba if it is lack of nitrogen y would i put straight water wouldnt i put more nitrogen in it or did i understand wrong and grorite i water them twice a day so i dont think it is under watered and bob i havent done that but i will when i get home and i will get right back to u

also thank you all for your reply it is greatly appreciated

you water 2 times a day wow then thats your prob. why do you water so much should only have to water every two or three days. depending on conditions but if your watering that much conditions cant be good

do you soak the whole pot when you water?

the conditions are actualy really good i am sure of that but the watering would be my problem then i will cut watering them so much but when i do water i put like a cup or two i dont soak the whole thing necessarily just wet it but so red stems would be from over watering?? if i stop and dont water anymore will those these still live or are they gonna die or wats gonna happen and how do i fix it he best way i can

yes just let it dry make sure to wet the whole pot till you get some runoff then let it dry before watering again

ok will do man thank u so much for ur help i will post back in a couple of days to let u know the verdict!

tazman1992 said:

the conditions are actualy really good i am sure of that but the watering would be my problem then i will cut watering them so much but when i do water i put like a cup or two i dont soak the whole thing necessarily just wet it but so red stems would be from over watering?? if i stop and dont water anymore will those these still live or are they gonna die or wats gonna happen and how do i fix it he best way i can

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there's your problem, your saturating you soil which only leads to water logging the roots. instead of a cup try 4 cups or 1 liter of water at a time. also, 3 gals of soil should only require 3-4 liters of water/food, so when you get to your 4th liter wait for a few minutes before you add it to see if you even need it.

dubba86 said:

red stems= lacking NITROGEN, I've never grown autos, but i did have two plants that looked similar to that in 5 weeks into flowering, In my case, I went straight water and the plant mostly came out of it. the leaves drooped and died off naturally and wasn't an issue, also could be lack of light.

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Lack of nitrogen? C'mon man seriously? And lack of light? Haha same thing also happened to me but they were fed plenty of nitrogen and were under a 600w HPS, so you saying it's lacking nitro and light isn't true. :L my guesses are it could be to do with the sugar in the plant? Or maybe the strain I'm no expert but I have had the same problem and mine turned out fine, so will be interested to know the outcome.

Yea I would back off on the watering as said above. I run coco and don't water that much. I run five gallon pots and at the pinnacle of flowering they only consume a gallon of water a day.

grorite said:

yes just let it dry make sure to wet the whole pot till you get some runoff then let it dry before watering again

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This is exactly the advice I would give. If you only water the top of the pot, the roots won't penetrate down into the soil. If you water the entire pot all the way down (ie til water comes out the bottom drainage holes) then the roots will spread throughout the pot. The trick is to make sure the soil has become almost entirely dry before watering again. This encourages the roots to grow and seek out water. Strong roots make a strong plant. Strong plants yield more bud.