Over/ under watered

[Brwnthmb]

This photo shows the drooping leaves in the middle portion of the plant. My first inclination was that the plant needed more water. However, the upper leaves are cupped down and the pot feels heavy, like it has water in it.
Therefore I’m thinking now to let the plant dry out some and ignore the drooping leaves (ignore that they seem non-turgid).
Ideas?/ opinions?

[2ShedsJackson]

Soil or coco?

[Brwnthmb]

Soil, cloth pot

[Allotrope1000]

Hi, Brwn.
I am assuming you are growing in soil, since my experience is coco/perlite is next to impossible to overwater.
Let the plant dry out and see if it recovers. BTW, if you have over watered a soil grow, the plant is suffocating from lack of O2 at the roots. It might take a few days to start growing again.
I cannot see your pot. Fabric pots allow much better air/root circulation than solid wall plastic nursery pots.

[Brwnthmb]

Thanks for your response.
I went against your suggestion (and my convictions) that the roots needed O2 not H2O and watered it, so I probably made it worse not better. But what pushed me towards watery was that yesterday I had the problem of wilting on half the leaves and I didn’t water, then today all the leaves were wilted. However, I didn’t aerate the soil yesterday either.
Today I aerated and watered, so it’s not the best test but maybe the plant will recover. (And I realize that water will fill the pockets where the aeration is done so that the only O2 comes from dissolved oxygen in the water.)
Thanks for your input. I hope we both are wrong and the water will save it!

[Brwnthmb]

The photo below is today. The entire plant wilted as you can see. I aerated the soil with a pencil and may should’ve waited until tomorrow but I didn’t. I put 0.75 liters of water in the (3 gallon cloth) pot. The pot felt heavy I guess I wasn’t sure of my convictions because everything tells me that the roots were starved of O2 not H20.
We’ll see what it’s like tomorrow.

[2ShedsJackson]

I think you need to stop with the water ASAP! Next time use Coco. As Allotrope1000 says, it's almost impossible to overwater with coco if you prep it right to begin with. ie sieve out the coco dust before you start.

[Brwnthmb]

You’re probably right but today the plant looks much better. It might just be getting O2 from dissolved O2 in the water however. I’ll post a picture.

[Brwnthmb]

this is the plant today.
the leaves on top are curled down on the sides as you can see but the leaves in the middle are standing out again “turgid”. Is this normal for a healthy plant or is it a sign of excess water in the pot?

[DabberDog]

Sup! Just saw this.
Take a look at the root ball when you pull this plant. I'll bet it isn't very big. Maaaaybe half-way down your bag. Let's see if I can explain this...
The driest and fastest drying soil is around your root ball. You not only have evaporation and gravity drying out the soil, you have the roots sucking the moisture out. The soil below the root ball does not have the roots sucking the moisture out. So, while the root ball is dry, the soil below it is still wet and your pot can seem wet, but the plant is still dry. When you water, you are watering a dry plant on wet soil and you wind up drowning your plant with only a little water because it does not drain as well.
When I water, like-size plants get the same amount of water. Smaller plants get less. Do I do that because I am worried about overwatering a small plant? No. It just isn't necessary to give more than necessary.
I would like to suggest you switch to coco. If I remember back to your previous grows, you have had issues with watering and nutrients. In my experience, you cannot give too much water to plants in coco. Bad water, yes, but not too much.