Overwatering young plants?

[beachbum420]

incorrect.

[george66]

My mistake sorry,should have mentioned to be careful watering seedlings.

[SoOrbudgal]

I disagree george66 you sure can overwater young seedlings.

[george66]

You cant actually overwater plalts,give them as much as you want.Its not about the amount but more about frequency at which you water them.Try not tfeed plants at the same time regularly.Plants are like humans,we all get thirsty at different times and require different amounts

[dphipps1020]

I think what gbauto is saying is that your plants are too dry, you need to water in larger amounts and wet the whole pot. You are not over-watering them, you are actually under-watering them.

[jarsh]

Hey gb, thanks for the reply! I definitely hear you on the 3 gallon containers, am planning to switch to those for my next grow.

In terms of watering to runoff, I guess I’m stumped on how to do that and not overwater. The last few waterings, each time for a day or so afterwards the plants all looked very sad and droopy, and perked up as more time passed. The coco is still uniformly wet all the way through, which makes me wonder about drainage issues/overwatering. Is the solution watering the whole pot to runoff, but less frequently? Thanks!

[gbauto]

Hi, jarsh
A couple of observations.
1. Coco HAS to treated like a hydro system.
That means whenever you allow the media to dry out it creates fluctuations in nute strengths and the plants protest.
Aside from using a lot of nute solution, there aren't any downsides to feeding to run off so I think this is an important change.
2. Starting small plants in large pots makes it very difficult to promote root growth because it's difficult to maintain sufficient moisture levels in the medium. This is what you're doing here.

I have used up to 7 gal bags with coco on various grows and I find that a 3-gallon bag in a dtw tray allows me to feed once daily to run off.

[jarsh]

Hi everybody, brand new grower here throwing himself at the mercy of all y’all experienced green thumbs.
Here’s the scoop: I’ve got three 22-day old plants, all autos (cheese, northern lights, and sin trabajo), germinated in rapid rooters in their final homes. Grow setup is:

-5 gallon fabric pots
-70/30 coco/perlite mix (I “charged” it with seedling strength, PH'd water before planting)
-2x4x5 tent, with solid exhaust and air flow
-2 Mars Hydro ts600 lights on 18/6 schedule and 18” from tops of plants
-General Hydroponics trio+cali magic, and following Nebula’s coco nutrient schedule (have been using the "grow 4-7 oz with 215w HPS" tutorial as a general guide).
-Every other watering is plain pHed water
-pH ranges between 5.5 and 6.5
-Temp ranges btw. 74.5-81 F, mostly at 79
-RH between 40-49% (it's pretty dry in the house until summer, humidity has been a bit of a struggle even with two small cool mist humidifiers in the tent)

My lil friends are all between 3”-4” and have a few pairs of true leaves each. They’ve only grown about 1/2” over the past week, and cheese’s leaves are super dark and curly (although she’s been growing new leaves pretty steadily, and has been this dark her whole life). I’m only watering in a small circle around the plants, but I'm pretty certain I’ve been overwatering all three consistently—as you can see in the pics, some of the lower leaves are yellow, saw tips along the sides of some leaves are getting yellow, and there’s plenty of curling. After a few, ahem, overzealous waterings that were done to try to get runoff to no avail, I’ve dropped the amount to 500ml and then 250ml per plant every few days over the last week and a half. The coco is still pretty thoroughly wet (not soaked) and dark all the way through, even when the top inch or two is BONE dry. The coco is about 64 degrees F through the middle of containers. Everything smells fine, no bugs or standing water or moldy bits. I aerated best I could today to try to increase air pockets and drainage, waiting to see if that helps. As close as I can figure, the issue is a combo of overwatering and maybe some nute burn from no runoff, but also, what is even happening?

Any advice you could throw my way would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, happy growing everybody!