Wilting Hempy Buckets

These girls are still giving me a hard time :S .. can't seem to get them on a happy schedule! Any ideas?

76F (24.5C) 60% RH. Water is Nute+Ph'd / Plain / Plain+Ph'd / repeat.

I was thinking underwatered, they feel limp. But they get watered lightly 3 times per day. So then I thought over-watered, but if I water once morning and once night ..before the night feeding their WAY to limp! (which is why I switched to 3 waterings per day).

Then I thought maybe root issues? But there are not that many roots, but they all look nice and white?

Hole is about 40% the way up.

Lack of Oxygen maybe? Can't think what else it could be?

I'm feeling pulled towards overwatering and/or over-ferting...how much are you feeding?...How often are you watering?...Do you check how much it weighs before you water; then wait for it to feel way lighter to water again?...Those babies look close to death if we don't find a solution for them soon. Also, light....what is their main source of light, are they outdoors? I know that light and UV can cause harm to roots....idk if it's at all related to the problems you're having, but I definitely see some roots exposed to light. If they're underwatered, they would be doing a total 180 within 6-8 hours of applying more water...I wouldn't give ferts till we straighten her out.

They don't look too happy! Do you think Hydrogen Peroxide watering might help?

Or get them out of the perlite and into soil asap? (I'd rather salvage than have them die!) But I only intend to keep them in there another week or so, before I can put it into a smaller dwc... so If I can make it work without buying soil I'd prefer that.

Definitely not over-fert., as I'm giving seedling dosage but I haven't even mixed nute water in the last week to be honest. Mostly alternating between plain tap and ph'd tap.

Then over-watering is it? ... should I pour out the water at the bottom and keep a very close eye on them for an hour or two before replacing some?

Does it have drainage holes out the bottom for excess water to drain out of?...If it does, there shouldn't be much in the bottom to drain out..but yes, as a start, I'd hold off on watering until one of our vets comes along and can give better advice. I don't think it being in the perlite is causing this...

@Logan Burke No drainage holes, they are "hempy" style containers. Just the hole on the side.

I drained them, let them sit for two hours. Then just gave them a really light watering. They seem well, not as sad now but still a little down. I'll keep a close eye and keep you guys updated!

I'm a rookie but aren't clear buckets a no no for roots?

Fixed up said:

I'm a rookie but aren't clear buckets a no no for roots?

Click to expand...

Yeah you're not, but roots aren't really there yet anyways. I'll cover them soon lol.


Anyone else, they're still droopy!

I'm really inexperienced with Hempy Bucket type set ups, so I'm really out of my element here or I could be of more help But you said there has been a little improvement? Maybe you could try poking a few dozen holes all around the sides of the container, just a shot in the dark there though man.

Thanks for the help man!

I know, it should be somewhat straight forward but I don't know. IF it really comes to it, maybe I'll just move them to soil, but if I can get a few more days out of them, that's all I need before I can push them into dwc.

Hopefully someone can throw some other suggestions. I'd really like to figure out the cause, even if I do an emergency transplant. (For some reason I feel like they'll be fine in soil, idk..)

They're still somewhat wilted looking.

Joint Monster said:

Thanks for the help man!

I know, it should be somewhat straight forward but I don't know. IF it really comes to it, maybe I'll just move them to soil, but if I can get a few more days out of them, that's all I need before I can push them into dwc.

Hopefully someone can throw some other suggestions. I'd really like to figure out the cause, even if I do an emergency transplant. (For some reason I feel like they'll be fine in soil, idk..)

They're still somewhat wilted looking.

Click to expand...

From the soil perspective they look over watered. But it is different with hempy. Easier than soil because it is actually impossible to overwater hempy buckets. Perlite does not hold water. The food sits in the bottom of hempy were she feeds from. Always water to run off. You wash away old solution and the fresh solution sits in the bottom of bucket or the reservoir. The roots will feed from there. The drain hole should be 2 in. Up from bottom. Get them in a black or dark bucket. Roots need darkness. They wont grow in the light. Roots get ton of oxygen in hempy buckets resulting in explosive growth. You literally see it daily. With young plants water lightly ONCE a day until roots hit the bottom of bucket. Once they hit bottom water to a good run off with every watering to wash away old nutes and avoid salt build up on your roots. You want a clean final product. Now that the roots are established in the bottom you shouldn't have to water again until bucket is light. Almost dry. Usually once a week. Than water again always with a good run off. Neat tip, try adding 5ml peroxide per gallon of solution. This adds extra oxygen to solution add roots love getting washed with it. I always add first thing to solution with every watering. Hope I'm not confusing anybody. This girl is 36 days old from cutting and 2 ft tall. Daily growth. Huge full fan leaves. I would try flushing them with good pure ph water with peroxide. Good heavy run off .Gives them a dose of extra oxygen. Then water with fresh solution they should begin to prey to the heavens.

I'm curious; Why are you pH'ing your feed and every other water vs. pH'ing everything you put in the plant? If your tap is way out of pH range straight from the faucet, it's not going to help your plant. It's like putting unleaded gas in your car most of the time, but throwing in diesel every other fill up...your car's not going to like it. This is where I'd start, before doing anything else. Plants love consistency...in all things.

And if it were me, I'd cover up your pots...the roots, even though you can't see them, don't like the light...and trust me, they see it through that clear pot.

As a rule of thumb tap is crap. Keep ppm low when there young like that. About total ppm, You don't give baby plants a whopper meal you give them a kiddie meal. Think of ppm like calories. As they grow slowly increase ppm as the plant requires. If your using tap water and adding fertilizer on top of that chances are your way over feeding which is why those plants look fried. Nuclear holocaust. No offense. So if your young plant requires 300 ppm of food and your tap just for example is around 150-200 out of faucet and you than add what the manufacturer is telling you on the label I guarantee your way over feeding. Your basically feeding her whopper meal when she needs a kiddy meal. The pic I posted above in my last post is being fed 450 total ppm using RO water, so she is getting good balance diet without the added poison out of tap water. What ever your ppm is out of tap, to be safe just consider those added ppm to be an unbalanced diet of bad calories. I recommend RO water being it is close to if not 0 ppm. Now you can control exactly what you want her to get. Remember keep those ppm levels low for a lot of reasons actually. You'll never fry your plants to a burnt crisp. Light fertilizer usually not a problem, but to much fertilizer(high ppm) ALWAYS is

@CannaCountry I was in a temp setup didn't have easy access to my nutes. I'd mix a batch of nute+ph'd water, than water every 2nd or 3rd with that to stretch it out (only when I'd notice yellowing). Otherwise it was straight Tap water, no nutes, no Ph adjusting.

I don't believe it had to do with nutrients.

I believe more of a push and pull between underwater and waterlogged. I noticed towards the end of the week, they'd start to look droopy no matter how much I watered. Then thinking it was overwatering, I would water less, and that would actually starve them.

Dumping the water out, and squeezing the container to get the rest of the water out once every few days seemed to help a little. I just had to make sure to water shortly after dumping the water, then continue with a 2-3 times per day watering.

No H2O2 for me as I am/ will be running Bennies.