Plants dont recover after overwatering and transplanting =/

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bescheidenheit33

Member
Hey team,

I’ve been growing for about 2 years now and just wrapped up a successful grow.
However, I’m struggling with my new grow and need some advice.
I overwatered my 6 new plants, and typically when this happens while they’re young,
I transplant them, and they recover in about 2 days. This time, it’s been 3–4 days,
and none of my plants have truly bounced back. They’re still droopy and yellowish and haven’t started growing.
Light: ~250 PPFD, Temp: 27°C (~80°F). My humidity is always very low so thats normal.

Some roots came out, so there’s progress and at least I got that.
My plan: Let them dry out completely, then gradually introduce compost tea and water to rejuvenate the soil.

What do you think? Any ideas why my plants dont recover?

 
B

bescheidenheit33

Member
Wastei said:
Welcome to RIU!

What are they planted in? What soil or medium? When the plants been more developed and need another transplant you would benefit with some added perlite.

What is "low humidity"? We talking 35% RH or 20? Small seedlings benefit greatly with high humidity like 75%-80.
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Greetings, silent reader here. :p

I always use regular potting soil, wich comes with some perlite in it.

You can see my humidity on the 2nd picture, its like 22-25%.
Like I said, thats normal in my growing room,
all my grows have the same low humidity until the plants get bigger,
so thats probably not what causes the delay in recovery.

Im really just wondering why my plants havent recovered yet after 3-4 days.

Thanks in advance!
 
Blue brother

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
The humidity certainly won't help them recover but it will draw excess moisture from the soil which in turn may inadvertently help them recover, my advice is to be patient, keep an eye on them, you've stunted their growth and not every plant bounces back as quick as eachother, don't water again until the pot is considerably lighter and just be patient my friend, they don't look like they're about to die, look for signs of them getting worse then address that, don't take them taking their time as a sign that they won't recover
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
Lack of oxygen in the root zone. More perlite would have been beneficial........your soil looks more like mud without aeration.
They were too young to transplant.
Considering the size of the plants, it'll take a long time for the soil to dry out, and growth will be slow.
The soil doesn't dry out due to evaporation......it dries out because the plant drinks it.
 
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bescheidenheit33

Member
Thanks for the responses.

MickFoster said:
The soil doesn't dry out due to evaporation......it dries out because the plant drinks it.
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The pots lost 120ml of water from yesterday to tomorrow, they are at 570gr. now, and the plants didnt drink so much water.

Blue brother said:
27c and 25% humidity is well over 2.5kpa... you can bet your house that water is gonna evaporate, but yeah a fan blowing over it will speed it up
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Yea I already have a fan blowing onto them, I typically water them in those pots when they are at 450 gr. (60% of max. weight),
and like I said above, they are at 570 gr. now, so 120ml of water still left.

Probably 1-2 days still.

Still this is the worse case of overwatering I ever had, day 5-6 and they are still stunned.
 
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Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
bescheidenheit33 said:
Greetings, silent reader here. :p

I always use regular potting soil, wich comes with some perlite in it.

You can see my humidity on the 2nd picture, its like 22-25%.
Like I said, thats normal in my growing room,
all my grows have the same low humidity until the plants get bigger,
so thats probably not what causes the delay in recovery.

Im really just wondering why my plants havent recovered yet after 3-4 days.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Reg potting soil? Like from Walmart? There's the underlying issue. We generally use peat based (pro mix, sunshine mix #4) or Coco coir which is just better all around for pretty much every aspect.
 
B

bescheidenheit33

Member
Jjgrow420 said:
Reg potting soil? Like from Walmart? There's the underlying issue.
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I dont know how to say it, my english is pretty bad (Im from EU), I use this one right here for years and im pretty happy
with it and has perlite and peat in it (your browser can translate), I think the "special cannabis soils" are very overpriced, at least here in EU.

I have other plants in that soil doing just fine, so its really not the soil.
I just overwatered them and I was wondering why they take so much time to recover.

Im just paitent now and gonna report back in 1-2 days.
 
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Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
bescheidenheit33 said:
I dont know how to say it, my english is pretty bad (Im from EU), I use this one right here for years and im pretty happy
with it and has perlite and peat in it (your browser can translate), I think the "special cannabis soils" are very overpriced, at least here in EU.

I have other plants in that soil doing just fine, so its really not the soil.
I just overwatered them and I was wondering why they take so much time to recover.

Im just paitent now and gonna report back in 1-2 days.
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Ah eu. Ya I'm in Canada where we rape the peat from underneath my feet. Still expensive but that's why I use Coco. I can reuse the Coco for a good few runs.
 
B

bescheidenheit33

Member
Jjgrow420 said:
Ah eu. Ya I'm in Canada where we rape the peat from underneath my feet. Still expensive but that's why I use Coco. I can reuse the Coco for a good few runs.
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Oh I see, yea most people here are from the US or Canada I figured.

So far people in EU only told me not to use peat because of environment, but I havent really payed attention to that I must admit.
And I wanted to try out coco once, but then Ive read that you have to look out wich one you buy, some are "washed" and others arent,
I also heard that coco requires more watering or basically an automatic watering system wich I dont have, so I didnt looked at coco so far.
Really just using regular potting soil with perlite and some clay granulas at the bottom for air.

But I messed up this time :/
Hopefully they will recover.
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
bescheidenheit33 said:
Oh I see, yea most people here are from the US or Canada I figured.

So far people in EU only told me not to use peat because of environment, but I havent really payed attention to that I must admit.
And I wanted to try out coco once, but then Ive read that you have to look out wich one you buy, some are "washed" and others arent,
I also heard that coco requires more watering or basically an automatic watering system wich I dont have, so I didnt looked at coco so far.
Really just using regular potting soil with perlite and some clay granulas at the bottom for air.

But I messed up this time :/
Hopefully they will recover.
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Yes you're right. It isn't exactly environmentally friendly. At all. Lol. But, it sure makes a great soilless media.
You are correct, there are varying grades of coco. I personally buy grow!t compressed blocks and rehydrate, and add perlite. They are already pre washed and buffered but I like to pre buffer my Coco, new and used with a low ec grow a+b and added cal-mag. Yes it requires watering daily, after roots develop but automated systems are really super easy to do. I use ones small and large to automate all my watering and it really makes life a lot easier. It can be as simple as a small bucket, little pump, repeat cycle timer and an irrigation kit off Amazon. That's all I run in my 3x3 and it runs 8 irrigation sprinklers.
 
MtRainDog

MtRainDog

Well-Known Member
bescheidenheit33 said:
I overwatered my 6 new plants, and typically when this happens while they’re young,
I transplant them, and they recover in about 2 days. This time, it’s been 3–4 days,
and none of my plants have truly bounced back. They’re still droopy and yellowish and haven’t started growing.
Click to expand...
Transplanting isn't a fix for over watering. If this is a recurring problem, I'd suggest adding more perlite to your soil to improve aeration.

I typically water them in those pots when they are at 450 gr. (60% of max. weight),
and like I said above, they are at 570 gr. now, so 120ml of water still left.

Probably 1-2 days still.

Still this is the worse case of overwatering I ever had, day 5-6 and they are still stunned.
Click to expand...
That is over watering those tiny plants. They don't have the root system yet to adequately dry back those containers. Water adds A LOT of weight to a pot. I'd keep them in a smaller pot for at least a week or two more before transplanting. There's no need to transplant if the plant hasn't filled the pot, and should be drying it up every day or couple days.

Let these dry out for some days, then very lightly and carefully water-in some feed, but don't saturate everything like normal. Just a little at the base of the plant to help green them up. Then let them dry out and bounce back before resuming normal water/feed.

Your light/ppfd numbers sound ok, but the almost white-yellow leaves are a little concerning. Maybe back the light off a tad more while they recover. Hard to say without actually being in your grow space. Either way, those little plants are starving.
 
B

bescheidenheit33

Member
weedstoner420 said:
Wow, I'm surprised you were able to transplant them at that size at all.
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Yes, I had to be super careful so that the soil doesn't fall apart.

Jjgrow420 said:
Yes you're right. It isn't exactly environmentally friendly. At all. Lol. But, it sure makes a great soilless media.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it may sound a bit silly, but I try to avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary.
The problem I often face with irrigation systems is that they don't water the plants individually.
I grow a lot of strains, and they don't have the same water requirements, you know, so just using a pump doesn't work for me.
I've looked into various other systems, like using a wick for irrigation, but I haven't found the right one yet.

MtRainDog said:
That is over watering those tiny plants.
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Hmm, but that's what I've always done for years now.
I've been told that for biological growth, you have to keep the soil a bit moist for the microbes,
so I water at 60% of the maximum weight.

I just grew this Super Lemon Haze, for example, doing exactly that:


And in my "test tent," I have this cute little Wedding Cake in the same pots (900ml),
and I'm doing the same thing with no problems.
She's about to be chopped soon:


I don't know why I'm struggling so much with these little ones, but I think this one is starting to recover:


Wish me luck team!
 
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B

bescheidenheit33

Member
crownhill said:
That looks better than my seedlings.
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Well, it actually got worse. I've never seen anything like this before.
I've decided to water two of the plants after drying them down to 500g. They were really, really dry.
But none of them improved — neither the ones I watered nor the ones I didn't water.

It can't be the light since my two Do-Si-Dos (in the tall black pots) are doing great, so it can't be temperature or light.
It also can't be the nutrients because of the fresh soil.
So, it must be the water.
But no matter what I do, they aren't improving (except for that one plant to the far left).
I've never seen plants that refuse to recover from overwatering.
I'm probably going to give up on them and pop some more seeds, this seems like time waste.

 
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