Plant Moisture Stress - Symptoms and Solutions

Kriegs · Dec 14, 2009

Hey, Uncle Ben...

Just a quick shout-out from Kriegs, who is back in da' house growing another round of fine dro.

Hope all is well with you, brother. I see you're still dispensing wisdom, and showing others just how simple this can be (if you let it..).

Growing some bubblelicious and superskunk this year, two indica dom's to supplant my still voluminous sativa stash from last year.

This grow will be even more minimalistic than last years, with the benefit of experience. And already, I'm ahead of last years' curve for it..

Here it is:

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/280742-tis-season-bubblelicious-superskunk-400w.html

Not very exciting, not yet at least.

Take care...ciao..

Uncle Ben · Dec 14, 2009

Hey Kriegs, good to see you back in the house and nice to hear you understand the KISS principle. I'll have gander at your journal.

cya ~

jimigreen · Dec 16, 2009

Since changing to 5gal. buckets, no drain holes, and sunshine LC8 , ive had trouble getting a watering schedule figured out.
when first putting new soil in buckets, how much water should you use get it wet first off.
i think i used a bit too much,
1/2 gal.

Uncle Ben · Dec 16, 2009

jimigreen said:
Since changing to 5gal. buckets, no drain holes, and sunshine LC8 , ive had trouble getting a watering schedule figured out.

You can't be serious. You mean they're not dead yet? You must have drainholes. The amount of water is moot, it's the drainage that counts.

jimigreen · Dec 17, 2009

Uncle Ben said:
You can't be serious. You mean they're not dead yet? You must have drainholes. The amount of water is moot, it's the drainage that counts.

seriously,this has been done with good results. 2 lbs under 1000 w hps , the friend that did it isnt around to help with this now. i us lc8 with my vegging plants, holes in pots, if watering till holes leak, thats a lot of water. soil would take weeks to dry out? holes or not. ive never used soil that retained like this. i have 15 yrs of hydro growing with great results in my home built pipe system. water i know, dirt is a new challenge. if you think holes will help, i'll give it a shot. but if you have not tryed sunshine lc8 , you might be amazed in the water retention. ive been trying it for 4mths. nothing dying,lots of yellow though . best round ,1lb. worst 130g. 9 hawgs. i'm here to learn ,and help where i can. any good advice is welcome.

DaveCoulier · Dec 17, 2009

Sunshine LC8 is a peat moss based medium w/ vermiculite, so of course it will hold lots of water. If you've been having yellowing issues with your plants, then you've most likely been over-watering considering no drainage holes..

Uncle Ben · Dec 17, 2009

jimigreen said:
seriously,this has been done with good results. 2 lbs under 1000 w hps , the friend that did it isnt around to help with this now.

I understand, but he had his program down pat.

i us lc8 with my vegging plants, holes in pots, if watering till holes leak, thats a lot of water. soil would take weeks to dry out? holes or not. ive never used soil that retained like this. i have 15 yrs of hydro growing with great results in my home built pipe system. water i know, dirt is a new challenge. if you think holes will help, i'll give it a shot. but if you have not tryed sunshine lc8 , you might be amazed in the water retention. ive been trying it for 4mths. nothing dying,lots of yellow though . best round ,1lb. worst 130g. 9 hawgs. i'm here to learn ,and help where i can. any good advice is welcome.

If the soil takes weeks to dry out, then you have several issues working against you, one is putting the plant into too big of a pot.

BUT, if you had a robust root system with abundant foliage, your soil would dry out quickly due to the wicking action of the plant. Based on transpiration thru a plant's leaves, a negative water pressure, turgor if you will, is established within the plant's tissues. Thru capillary action and the internal negative pressure water is drawn out of the root zone, across the plant's root epidermal gradient and finally into the plant.

You are approaching this soil thing all wrong and are surely setting yourself up for failure based on what someone else did. Don't do that, do what works best for YOU.

This is the type of rootball that insures you won't have root rot or an overwatering issue. It's a pure Zamal sativa, topped to 4 main colas with a rootball at least 3' long and very fibrous. It would be almost impossible to overwater this plant due to the exceptional wicking action of the leaves and root system.

Excess water can be collected using a plant saucer, withdrawn using a turkey baster, deposited into a plastic milk jug and then used as a tea for other plants. Recycle!

Good luck,
UB

jimigreen · Dec 17, 2009

Uncle Ben said:
I understand, but he had his program down pat.

thanx that was a huge help, i understand that plant size is a factor. if holes help in drying, i'm drillin. i have cutback on watering the last week , things are much better. i have been transplanting them at 18in into 5gal's , to be clear, with holes i water till they leak, then wait till they dry up? i know plant size is a factor in how long.

Uncle Ben · Dec 17, 2009

jimigreen said:
Uncle Ben said:

I understand, but he had his program down pat.

thanx that was a huge help, i understand that plant size is a factor. if holes help in drying, i'm drillin. i have cutback on watering the last week , things are much better. i have been transplanting them at 18in into 5gal's , to be clear, with holes i water till they leak, then wait till they dry up? i know plant size is a factor in how long.

Click to expand...

Holes help in draining, not necessarily drying.

Water again when the pot feels light to the lift. You let that soil completely dry out and you'll have another batch of problems to deal with.

jimigreen · Dec 17, 2009

i had been watering light, less than a liter per pot, to keep from over wetting. but noticed roots were clustering near the surface. instead of venturing thru out the pot. what your saying would cause them to expand to the bottem instead, that makes sence.
with holes i can water till they leak, then wait till the pot lightens up before saturating again? just makin sure we are on the same page, i want to get this right badly, hydro was so easy, but i have to move on.

alexuk · Dec 17, 2009

Uncle Ben said:
Thanks Dirtfree.

Potbound plants usually exhibit signs of slowing growth, stunting, as opposed to moisture stress which is expressed via leaf cupping.

I bet I could take 50% of the groans of the last couple of pages here and attribute some or most of the problems to moisture stress or improper watering issues.

Uncle Ben

thought i was over/underwatering but i was puzzled coz i been watering with 1 small cup once a day which i thought was reasonable, but now i know its coz its potbound.

i didnt wanna move to bigger pot coz its just a cuple weeks off and i dont wanna spend money on a new pot or stress the plant by transplanting it, as a result i have less foliar growth at the top of the plant and the stuff that is there is curled downwards, will this affect bud production :O?

DaveCoulier · Dec 17, 2009

alexuk said:
thought i was over/underwatering but i was puzzled coz i been watering with 1 small cup once a day which i thought was reasonable, but now i know its coz its potbound.

i didnt wanna move to bigger pot coz its just a cuple weeks off and i dont wanna spend money on a new pot or stress the plant by transplanting it, as a result i have less foliar growth at the top of the plant and the stuff that is there is curled downwards, will this affect bud production :O?

I made a big post, then realized that maybe you have already transplanted. If not, let me know and Ill add it to this post

Uncle Ben · Dec 18, 2009

jimigreen said:
i had been watering light, less than a liter per pot, to keep from over wetting. but noticed roots were clustering near the surface. instead of venturing thru out the pot. what your saying would cause them to expand to the bottem instead, that makes sence.
with holes i can water till they leak, then wait till the pot lightens up before saturating again? just makin sure we are on the same page, i want to get this right badly, hydro was so easy, but i have to move on.

Sounds like your practices are based on feelings, not facts. When you water, water thoroughly so you get alot of runoff thru the drainholes. You don't want any dry channels or spots in the pot.

UB

jimigreen · Dec 19, 2009

your probably right, this is not a factor in hydro, which is all i've done. i drilled them out, found dryness in the bottoms. soaked them till they pee'd good, now i wait for them to lighten. thanx for good answers, with minimum roasting.

jumboSWISHER · Dec 20, 2009

can someone help me diagnose this? this is my first grow. i flushed 3 days ago becasue i had a ph problem. and now i think they are root bound, the soil is very compact and i can see roots about 1/2 inch under the top of the soil. thanks for any help

jumboSWISHER · Dec 20, 2009

im wondering if it could b over watering from flushing, or moisture stress? the top of the soil feel really dry, witch is weird cuz usually when i flush it feels wet for about 6 days and it feels dry after 3?? any help is VERY appreciated

purplehaze903 · Dec 21, 2009

I have a plant that was doing great 2 days ago then over night her leafs went black and crispy and her other leafs curled up. I dont know if its from heat. I have 2 125w dAylight cfl's and on their sides they have 1 75w daylight cfl. I have them in a box with foil around it. They are in 4 inch rockwool. They have been growing pretty slow and they are 2 weeks old. aNy ideas?

Uncle Ben · Dec 21, 2009

jumboSWISHER said:
im wondering if it could b over watering from flushing, or moisture stress? the top of the soil feel really dry, witch is weird cuz usually when i flush it feels wet for about 6 days and it feels dry after 3?? any help is VERY appreciated

Don't concern yourself with the top of the soil, that's not where the roots are located. Water when the plant feels light to the lift if you're unsure of when. And when you water, water well, not measured.

wyteboi · Dec 26, 2009

UB , i am back again with same probs , just months later :cry:

I have been dealing with a "lockout" (not really sure anymore?) for over six months now, i thought i fixed the prob by switching from MG mix w/extra perlite to Pro Mix because shortly after that they were very healthy. (but i also raised my light way up at the same time so still wasnt really sure which one "fixed" um but with those 2 changes they made drastic improvement in just a week , and within a month they looked like plants again (nice and dark green, not purple stems and yellow leaves) here are pics of before and after in this thread :
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/207026-i-feel-like-newb-please.html

so they did fine until about the end of first week of bloom, then i started noticing the dark green turn into light green and they just went downhill throughout bloom , and harvest was nothing compared to what it should have been.
Ok so then the next batch did fine until about the 2nd week of bloom and then they lost all the fan leaves very quick and again went downhill all the way until about week 7 of bloom and then they "appeared" to be enjoying life just a lil bit better then weeks prior...? so i finished again with WAY less then it should have been.
Ok now on this batch , this "lockout" shit started right away with the lil ones (beginning of veg) so i figured it HAD to be my tap water so i switched to RO .
They seem to be looking better but its been 4 or 5 waterings since then , so i just got some new organic nutes to try instead of Earthjuice (very acidic and "picky" food but i believe the ph part will buffer itself in the dirt?)
i just dont know whats going on anymore , can u please help? i been doing this along time and learning more and more everyday, but i have not been able to fix this one ?
also i always use N in bloom (not much less then in veg)
i always thought a plant could grow fine without any nutes (just not to full potintial) but i guess i was wrong? i am scared to death of over ferting so could it be i just need to pump up the food a lil ?
(i already tried more/less food w/earthjuice but that was when i was using tap water ???
Thanks for all your help UB! :weed:

oh i also wanted to add that recently my mothers (under floro's) are starting to flower on their own? (3 different strains , one is really "forming" buds? WTF? thanks again

Uncle Ben · Dec 27, 2009

wyteboi said:
so they did fine until about the end of first week of bloom, then i started noticing the dark green turn into light green and they just went downhill throughout bloom , and harvest was nothing compared to what it should have been.
Ok so then the next batch did fine until about the 2nd week of bloom and then they lost all the fan leaves very quick

What did you do to induce such a change? Sounds like the typical bloom food drill to me.

Good luck,
UB

Plant Moisture Stress - Symptoms and Solutions

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