Overwatered? Root rot?

Oblivi0us

Member
Somewhat novice grower. First time have issues, not sure if they will bounce back... I apologize for the long post.. I did make a shortened version.

Info:
Vegetative state 18/6 light schedule
Ph of water is 6.5
Fox farm ocean forest, ph reads 6.2 in soil
630w cmh
Temps: lights on 80f , 55% humidity - lights off 66f, 65% humidity
Light is 24" from my tallest plant
3 total plants

TL;DR - built greenhouse. Got grown up clones in 1 gal pots, transplanted them to 3 gal. Put in greenhouse, Greenhouse too hot and not rain proof. Moved them indoors where they sat for 4 days under led light(non growing led) for 4 days at 65f. Built tent, Put them in tent, leafs drooped next day. Checked moisture of soil, seemed ok. Let them go another day, next day leaves drooped more. Hit them with recharge, 2 days later still droopy on fan leaves but my small new growth is praying towards the light. Dug around soil gently and can see white roots but they are small. Can they be saved? Did they get root rot from sitting in the hot and cold? What next steps can I take?

I'll try to keep this short but want to include the whole story for background. Built a small cheap green house. Received clones already grown up in 1 gal pots. Clones were healthy. Root system wasn't very strong as they were grown under t5 lights, but it was white and plants were happy.

Transplanted to 3 gal fabric pots, watered each one With 16 oz of bottle water that was at 6.5 ph then moved plants to greenhouse. Greenhouse temps were hot and humid, I'd say 90 degrees (didn't have thermometer yet, the one I picked up didn't work) plants were in the greenhouse for 2.5 days and 2 nights.

Had a big thunderstorm roll through and found the greenhouse leaked too much water within 30 min of it raining. Immediately pulled plants out. No water touched them. Moved plants to the basement as I couldn't keep them outside in the open. Put them under an LED light (not a growing one, but a regular one) in the basement. Basement temps were 65f with 35% humidity. Plants had to sit there for 4 days while indoor setup was shipped and built.

Plants still looked ok before putting them into the tent. Put in tent around mid day and by next day the leaves were drooping. Check moisture level with finger and with soil meter. Felt a little wet, moisture reader said 4 for wetness. So I left them alone. Next day the leaves were drooping worse.

Decided to hit them with the compost tea Recharge thinking maybe they are underwatered. That was 2 days ago and my fan leaves are still drooping.. but my newer growth at top of plant is praying towards the light. Dug around the soil a little and roots were white colored but small and not vigorous.

My plan is to let medium completely dry out before trying water again hoping it takes 7-14 days to see if they come back.

Guess my question is what do you guys think or have you experienced over watering? I think when I transplanted them and watered them and put them in greenhouse it was too hot for the roots to be happy and grow.. then throwing them in a 65f degree basement for 4 days while wet caused some type of root rot or unhappy roots. Then put them into the tent into perfect conditions and they didn't like it because they were trying to grow without a root system established

What do you guys think, is there a chance to save them? Should I drop my humidity levels? Should i scrap them and start over? Based on the pictures and info what do you think?

Thanks for any suggestions... sorry for the book i wrote, I am an overthinker and suck at keeping details short and to the point
 

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Oblivi0us

Member
Get them back into good light and more humidity, and let them dry out before watering again, I think they’ll recover.
They have been in good light and humidity for 5 days now and are looking even worse this morning than in the pictures.

I found out last night my ph pen was reading all over the place. Have a new pen coming today and going to use color testing as well. Going to get my water ph as close as 6.5 as I can and try to water then lightly to see if I get any positive response. This is just a bummer.. I've grown 100s of plants and this is the first time I might kill them because of a shitty series of events. (Greenhouse leaking, putting them in a cold 65f basement for 5 days while soil was damp while I waited on indoor equipment to arrive)

Thanks for your suggestions and positive energy
 

Oblivi0us

Member
it might be the combination of cold and much stronger light than they were used to.
Yes and it happened right after I transplanted them too. My 2 smaller ones leaves aren't yellow or dying so I have hope they might make it. They are light green colored but still drooping. My big ice cream cake though now has fading yellow leaves and have 1 brown leaf turning crispy at the end. Other leaves are curling up more.

Soil was dry this morning, I lightly watered them more closer to the edges to try to make the roots branch out further in search of water. Ph was at 6.4, water temperature was 68f. Hopefully they give me some sign of happiness

These were supposed to be flowering by now... not surviving and reviving lol
 
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