over watering, topping cats, now root rot!?

jo2489

Member
Hey guys, New grower here and yes I said topping cats. I've recently decided to growing a few plants for personal use as a means to do something I love and save money doing it. I'm growing two plants under cfl bulbs in earthgro soil inside 3 gallon pots. Growing medium is 30% perlite and 70% soil.

Things started out great. My seeds had germinated within three days and from there went to soil in 1 gallon pots. They had sprouted the very next day and started growing like crazy. For three weeks they seemed to flourish on water alone. Then I started noticing slight yellowing around the edges of my leaves and they drooped just a tiny bit. Of course this being a first grow for me I panicked. I starting surfing google looking at different signs of certain nutrient deficiencies and symptoms of other plant problems. Everything just seemed to blur, there were so many possibilities and so little answers. Then I finally happened to notice the information I was reading was from this particular website, so I decided to join this forum and try to ask for friendly opinions and advice that pertain to my particular problems........so here I am.

Anyway, I noticed my leaves starting to change and my plant health seemed to hit a plateau. So after reading a few threads on here and posting a couple panicked, obvious newbie post, I came to the conclusion that after three weeks my plants had begun to live beyond their means in these one gallon pots filled with straight soil. So I transplanted into bigger pots with a perlite mixture and gave them a small amount of water for good measure. Things looked good for a few days, New growth looked good but seemed to slow a bit. I heard that transplanting can shock your plants and stunt them for a few days so I shrugged it off.

After another couple of days I gave them their first real watering, which in hindsight I think may have been a bit much. I didn't see any runoff in one of the pots so I added a little more water. The soil seemed well saturated with drainage appearing in the trays underneath. So I called it a day. Then the very next day my cat had found its way into the closet somehow and decided to eat one of my plants. Again, I freaked out and came here. People had some jokes to make about the cat getting in the closet but also had some very good opinions. I even had someone offer me 1000 bucks for my topping and super cropping cat. They all told me how resilient these plants are and that if anything she had probably done me a favor by topping the plant allowing for more nodes to grow which in turn would give me more bud. They were right. That particular plant is doing great. The other one on the hand, not so much. They leaves had gotten droopier and curled and were turning brown then dying.

So after noticing that my soil was still damp from their first water in this one pot, I thought that had to be my problem. So took my plants to the kitchen sink and started moderately hitting the sides of the pots. In the one pot that has been doing well I had no drainage after hitting the pot, though the soil is still fairly moist. When I started hitting the other pot though, water poured out of the drainage holes and sat there dripping for a good ten minutes. After realizing my plant had been sitting in stagnant water for a few days I once again started surfing the net. I saw a few pics of symptoms and read some info about over watering and poor drainage and the eventual lead to root rot. When I think back now the roots in the one plant did seem a little brown and discolored compared to the nice white crisp looking ones on the other.

So I'm thinking that this has got to be my problem. I've posted a few pics and I'm hoping to get some more great advice and opinions from you folks out there. It's been a hell of a ride so far but I'm determined to see it through if possible.

The plant shown is 4 weeks into veg and growth has come to a crawl, with leaves that continue to become brown and die. If this is root rot can it be fixed?
 

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Rebs4220

Active Member
any pics dude? it helps describe whats going on then words just saying, try and upload some pics ALOT of people like to see pics
 

Rebs4220

Active Member
soo i dont got time to read that LOOONNG post, do you feed her? or are you feeding her? she looks hungry or lacking nitrogen, id start feeding her and she looks good but normally when the leafs turn yellow and die of like that its cause its hungry
 

jo2489

Member
soo i dont got time to read that LOOONNG post, do you feed her? or are you feeding her? she looks hungry or lacking nitrogen, id start feeding her and she looks good but normally when the leafs turn yellow and die of like that its cause its hungry
Fed once at qtr strength when I watered them a few days after transplanting. Have not watered since because soil never dried. It's been three days since water and soil is still wet/ not draining, hence suspicions of over watering/root rot
 

vostok

Well-Known Member
The only problem here is you ...for now the plant is fine ...just a little overwatered, see those thick veins in the leaf, thats overwatering , sniff the rootzone for stinky rotten socks smell.. is root rot then the leaf curl come after for now be concerned with the red stems, is cooler nights add more light to get that 26c/75f temperature they like to my journal: any hassle just flush! allow to recover in dim light
https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/12-week-grow-sceneario-cervantas.29407/
 

Rebs4220

Active Member
yeah also man your soil looks very wet hence why all your leafs are droopy id let the soil dry out a bit, i dont know if you got fresh air going into your closet if not id get a fan blowing on them crack open a window so fresh air gets into the closet, also i think your lacking nitrogen what are you feeding her?
 

jo2489

Member
I have a fan on them, and try to leave the door cracked. Feeding generic bytes. Npk value 12/6/8. Have only Fed once. Waiting on soil to dry
 

Rebs4220

Active Member
yeah id try and help dry the soil, its called aerating the soil get like a stick or fork and poke some holes about 2-3 inches and move the top layer around so it helps dry its what i do when i overwater at times, also id start feeding her bro small doses of course dont wanna fry her, you always wanna start at a low dose and go from there.

also keep in mind when watering her you wanna do the "lift method" alot of growers do it like myself pretty much you feel how heavy the pot is when you water it, then you check back on it in a few days lift it up and should feel lighter once you know its light and most of all soil is dry then you know its time to water/feed her. used to guess when to water her or water every 1-2 weeks bad idea lol always ran into overwatering/underwatering issues, GOOD LUCK!
 
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