I have 5 plants going in 20gal smart pots outdoor. Started with clones mother's day weekend, then transplanted to 1gal containers for a week, while getting them used to the sun. Transplanted into 20gal smart pots. Everything was going good up until we started having a lot of wind, 20-30mph average with temps of 80-90 degrees. Plants are in full sun from su rise to sunset. After about 5 weeks, they were probably 3ft tall and looking great. I was watering about 2 gallons a day, and light feeding 2x a week. Now here's the issue, my dumbass forgot to use permits in my soil mix, even though the organic soul I bought is pretty loose, after a month of watering it settled, then I added a few more inches of soil (again no perlite) was added. The plants are green and growing, but they are droopy. Just not happy. They are 6ft now and still growing, leaves have curled like a taco and drooping, but still green. I know im still getting ok runoff because i can see it...I have went over all these things in my head and came to about 4 conclusions. 1 is that I fucked up royally by not adding any permits for proper drainage. 2 our 95-100 degree days with full sun cant be good for them. 3 the constant wind we have early on cant be good for them. And lastly, I still haven't really figured out how much water and when to water. Everyone says oh stick your finger, well my mix is compressed about 2" below top and still feels moist all the time. Others say to lift the pot, which is what I have started doing. So what I'm thinking is that since I'm not getting proper drainage, I'm over watering them and or getting build up of nutes. However, I didn't water them for 1 day, and 3 of them blew over and cracked the stalk at the base of the plant, which are now medical taped and staked with bamboo. I've done a lot of research and it says plants shut down after 85 degrees and don't use as much water. But on a 100 degree day, I've also read where people are just pouring the water to them. I am just trying to get them all back to baseline before flowering starts at the end of the month. I'm growing 3 Dutch Treat (sativa hybrid phenotype) a black berry kush (indica) and a strain that is like 4 crosses of dank this and that from Cali. Thanks for any and all good criticism!
Over watering and not enough drainage and you said not enough perlite. No need to water every day. Let them dry out, and see if they perk back up. If they do, then there's you answer. IMHO
Thank you. There is ZERO perlite in my mix Too late now. I'll just have to cut back on how much water and how often. I'm thinking 2 gallons every 2 or 3 days. I was doing 3-4 gallons earlier but since learned that is too much given the size of the pot. Everything I'm reading is to water 10% of your pot size, so 20 gal pot use 2 gal water, 50 gal pot use 5 gal water, etc. It's been a week since the storm blew them over and I realized something just wasn't right with them. Hopefully they can snap out of it in a couple more weeks? The roots on these plants are already crazy big. They have found there way to almost the top soil. And they have started coming out the bottom of the pot. Since I want them to be mobile, I put each pot on a pallet this morning to help with the air circulation on the bottom, as well as not sitting in its runoff. Again thanks for any and all help.
I’m having heat stress in my garden and I’m shading my bottomless containers and hoping for the best. It hasn’t got worse yet. Tomatoes look healthy but just taco leaves.
I watered each plant 2 gallons yesterday since it had been 48 hrs since the last watering and it was another 90 degree day. 3 of the 5 pots have pretty good drainage still while 2 don't. It's like the 2 gal of water just water logged them...those plants obviously are not doing as well. The other 3 are looking ok. I think my BlackBerry is already in flower or got pushed into flower from all the fuckery... Blackberry Dutch Treat
I didn't water this morning, although 3 of the pots felt a little light. 2 are definitely heavy. Do you think it'd be worth it to take the 2 out of pots and put them in the ground,or will they come out of it? Dutch Treat Dutch Treat Mystery strain from Cali (Indica dom) Bad drainage on the pot, feels waterlogged. No run off from 2 gallons of water yesterday morning.
So I went home at 2pm to check on my dog and her pups, also to check on the girls annnnnd holy fuck they need a drink, after all its 95 degrees and like 50% humidity today...I said fuck it and gave 3 that drain good 2 gallons, gave 1 of them 3 gallons as their was no run off until about 2.5, and 1 of the pots is waterlogged, I didn't even water it. Pot still weighed like 100#, but looks like complete dog shit. So it's not using any water or what?? Thinking about transplanting that one in the ground. Anybody??? Been fighting these bitches for almost 2 weeks now trying to get them to perk up some...Should I up the water to 3 gallons a piece each day then?? Frustrated as all get about now