Is this a root bound issue?

Hey guys,

First soil grow, I'm a dwc guy.


- Ilgm autoflower seeds week 4/5 from sprout

- temps and humidity and air flow are good, same for light distance

- FFOF + 30% added perlite

- started on rapid rooters and transplanted to 3 gallon pots

- watered every 3-4 days, dry top and light container ( was afraid of overwatering)

- no nutrients were ever used, only plain water, hard water dechlorinated

- no type of training until I learn stuff

- I did tested run off a couple times, ppm was around 850-950 and pH was low on the plant that was struggling, 5.5 so I used some 7ph water to try to balance the soil

- I did see some fungus gnats suckers around, got sticky traps on the way



So one day I woke up and soil was dry on one of my plants and leaves were dropped, thought was underwatering, so I gave them some water. But today a week after she still not happy at all and now my plant 1# that was doing good is also showing dropping leaves and some lime green color due to be neededing some nutrients since I never gave her nothing (expected) and always watered till 20% run off since I was using a hot soil.



these two plants grew like a atomic explosion until they started to hit flower and my issues started. like, faster than my dwc grow, which is crazy.



I took them from the pot, had the suspicious of having root for ( dwc life ugh), but for my surprise the roots were white and what It seens they are getting root bound in a 3 gallon pot?



do I have root bound issues already or I'm miss diagnosing it and should focus more on my ph/nutrients? Can't test run off quite yet since I flushed one the plants that had the worst symptoms, thought it could be salt build up, have one of those cheapo soil ph meter arriving today and a fan drying the soil.



Interesting fact: I though my soil in the really bad plant was hydrophobic because I was giving both plants the same amount of water but the run off on the bad one was very excessive, almost like going straight through, I confirmed the lower portion of the soil being moist after removing it from the pot.



Pics below thx

Since you “ haven’t fed them “ ... that would be top of list. FFOF can carry an auto approximately 5-6 weeks before showing depletion.
Not sure why you pulled plant .... all you had to do was TOP DRESS more FFOF and simplywater in to recharge it.

FFOF will feed an auto through it’s entire life ... with simple recharging during grow.
It does not need to be runoff checked. FFOF is 6.3 ph right from bag .... all you have to do is stay within range of it ( 6.5 -6.7 ).
No more no less.

Now the elephant in the room .... autos HATE STRESS , any kind of stress ( root disturbances / overwatering ( flushing ) / over-under feed , etc.

They are plug and play plants .... you plant them and let them do their thing. They technically only have to be happy for about 90 day average of life. Screwing with them , overthinking them can stunt them . Autos can thrive in ANY SIZE CONTAINER.

You can grow them in 1/3/5 gallon containers without much effort . Even a solo cup.

Thanks mate for the answer, I definitely stressed out one of them for sure, used it as a control and learning. The other one is pretty much untouched besides not being receiving any nutes. I will water then later on today and add some 1/4 strength nutes and see if they pick up.