Having some issues. I’m not sure what going on. First grow.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

So I’m running a SF g3000 light at 34% just over 100 watts.
Temps are between 78-81
Humidity is 50-70%
pH was tested at 6.3 going in and I’m yet to get a reading on the runoff.
18/6 light schedule.
Only water every 3 days or when top 2 inches is dry.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong here.

BearWater · Apr 12, 2026

Greengonja said:
So I’m running a SF g3000 light at 34% just over 100 watts.
Temps are between 78-81
Humidity is 50-70%
pH was tested at 6.3 going in and I’m yet to get a reading on the runoff.
18/6 light schedule.
Only water every 3 days or when top 2 inches is dry.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong here.

HAHAHAHA! That baby is having a great time! mine are all older now, i miss that stage! it gets cool though for sure! : ) still young enough to keep stuff interesting though hahaha!

the medium is looking dry. what is it? are the plants photo or auto?
it looks like you need to water in better, give them a good dry back and then repeat. are you able to heft your pots to feel the weight of them?

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

BearWater said:
HAHAHAHA! That baby is having a great time! mine are all older now, i miss that stage! it gets cool though for sure! : ) still young enough to keep stuff interesting though hahaha!

the medium is looking dry. what is it? are the plants photo or auto?
it looks like you need to water in better, give them a good dry back and then repeat. are you able to heft your pots to feel the weight of them?

The medium is adoria living compost, 3 lb bag of perlite, and a one lb bag of worm castings.
Pots all feel very heavy.
I watered about two days ago. I added some top soil and mixed all the soil up 2-3 days ago. Also what does dry back mean? lol sorry I new.

BearWater · Apr 12, 2026

Greengonja said:
The medium is adoria living compost, 3 lb bag of perlite, and a one lb bag of worm castings.
Pots all feel very heavy.
I watered about two days ago. I added some top soil and mixed all the soil up 2-3 days ago. Also what does dry back mean? lol sorry I new.

Dry back means after you water the plant you let the pot dry out a bit over the next few days. Not like bone dry so your pots feel empty but you want the bottom layer of your medium dry out a bit also before you are watering again. You can achieve this by watering less frequently but with more water when you do water. Do you water to runoff at all, Some dripping?

Are they photoperiod plants or autoflowering?

trygrowup · Apr 12, 2026

How old are they?

And the 2 inch dry soil gonna make it harder to water correct. Some make it work but i can't.
Then again i use pots, it might be different.
But even if you use the 2 inch metode, you can tell yourself that 2 inch dry doesn't work the same in small pots as it does in bigger pots so that advice should take pot size into consideration.

It's a hot topic but lets clear it up.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

BearWater said:
Dry back means after you water the plant you let the pot dry out a bit over the next few days. Not like bone dry so your pots feel empty but you want the bottom layer of your medium dry out a bit also before you are watering again. You can achieve this by watering less frequently but with more water when you do water. Do you water to runoff at all, Some dripping?

Are they photoperiod plants or autoflowering?

They are autoflowering plants. I have 2 Godfather Og and 2 Zkittles. I have noticed the bottoms is very very wet compared to the rest of the plant, and seems to stay very heavy while the top dries out sort of fast.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

trygrowup said:
How old are they?

And the 2 inch dry soil gonna make it harder to water correct. Some make it work but i can't.
Then again i use pots, it might be different.
But even if you use the 2 inch metode, you can tell yourself that 2 inch dry doesn't work the same in small pots as it does in bigger pots so that advice should take pot size into consideration.

It's a hot topic but lets clear it up.

They are 16 days old today. I was a little iffy about the two inch method, however I’m just taking advice as I get it. I totally see how that could vary depending on pot size, pot type, etc.

That actually opens my eyes a ton to overwatering.

Just to add I did add Gaia green all purpose on day 14 as instructed by my local grow shop. Not sure if this could why they look withered and sort of just slumped.

BearWater · Apr 12, 2026

Greengonja said:
They are autoflowering plants.

This is where I “Homer Simpson slow creep backwards into the bushes”

maybe we can get some auto growers up in here? : )

Greengonja said:
They are 16 days old today. I was a little iffy about the two inch method, however I’m just taking advice as I get it. I totally see how that could vary depending on pot size, pot type, etc.

That actually opens my eyes a ton to overwatering.

Just to add I did add Gaia green all purpose on day 14 as instructed by my local grow shop. Not sure if this could why they look withered and sort of just slumped.

yeah generally im not really feeding anything to my plants at that point. The medium and ewc would have enough to give you that little heads up before needing to really lay it on, if you will.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

BearWater said:
This is where I “Homer Simpson slow creep backwards into the bushes”

maybe we can get some auto growers up in here? : )

yeah generally im not really feeding anything to my plants at that point. The medium and ewc would have enough to give you that little heads up before needing to really lay it on, if you will.

How would you be able to tell? Are their generally signs to when the plant needs to start getting that extra feeding?

BearWater · Apr 12, 2026

Greengonja said:
How would you be able to tell? Are their generally signs to when the plant needs to start getting that extra feeding?

For the photoperiods I’ve grown. Ill start them in the medium with nothing but ewc and some perlite and i can get those to grow for days before needing to up pot and feed, the seedlings alone have enough food in a sence to get themselves by pretty far along.
Yeah the leaves will start to yellow from the bottom up. It can mean other things depending on your situation, but for the sake of this discussion its when they are hungry : )

trygrowup · Apr 12, 2026

Greengonja said:
I have noticed the bottoms is very very wet compared to the rest of the plant, and seems to stay very heavy while the top dries out sort of fast.

Exactly.
And what i think has happened.
It's both over and under watering. Or wrong watering.
I think what happens is the water runs through the hydrofobtic top soil and get easy absorbed by the moist bottom part.
And on top of that, it can make you think the soil is all wet, when it drips out of the bottom.
Thats why the top soil feels dry quick.

What i would do is what Bearwater said in his first answer.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

BearWater said:
Dry back means after you water the plant you let the pot dry out a bit over the next few days. Not like bone dry so your pots feel empty but you want the bottom layer of your medium dry out a bit also before you are watering again. You can achieve this by watering less frequently but with more water when you do water. Do you water to runoff at all, Some dripping?

Are they photoperiod plants or autoflowering?

Also I never answered your whole question. Before yesterday I had them sitting on the ground in their grow tent so run off was just all over the ground. I recently built what they are on now and put little tray under to.hopefully catch runoff the next time I do water.

Greengonja · Apr 12, 2026

trygrowup said:
Exactly.
And what i think has happened.
It's both over and under watering. Or wrong watering.
I think what happens is the water runs through the hydrofobtic top soil and get easy absorbed by the moist bottom part.
And on top of that, it can make you think the soil is all wet, when it drips out of the bottom.
Thats why the top soil feels dry quick.

What i would do is what Bearwater said in his first answer.

Gotcha. I will definitely let them dry out for a few extra days this next time. Just to clarify I want the bottom half to be dry as well as the top half? Most the time the bottom feels heavy and wet.

trygrowup · Apr 13, 2026

I suppose you started the plant from seedling in that pot.
You should have started watering around the plant making sure the top soil got saturated.
You can still do that, but i think at the size of your plant you can get all soil wet by watering slowly. A little at a time to prevent the water just running through.
And then dryback to maybe an inch dry on top with your size pot.
I don't like the dry topsoil myself but again i don't grow in fabric pots so maybe someone can help better.
But after doing that two times, the roots should have filled the pot and watering gets more easy.

Edit: If you only use water the runoff is most so you know the soil is wet. I doesn't need to be more than some drops if watered slowly.

lenhug · Apr 13, 2026

I'm with @BearWater and @trygrowup here, it looks incredibly dry at the top and due to size I doubt the roots are that far down.

Don't feed them any more nutes or whatnot at this stage and do the slowly, slowly watering thing. Take a good few mins on each plant and then rotate round them before adding more again. Rest of the details look ok so maybe they just got a bit overwhelmed. Always good to keep it simple first few grows. When I grew/grow autos in soil I would start in a small pot for a week or two to establish them, then in to the bigger/final one but you can try that next time. Have a look through my sig thread to see how I went about and what I did with mine (soil grows are earlier ones).

Would recommend maybe getting some pot saucers and and risers to sit on, like this:

Amazon.com : Plastic Plant Saucer Stand,4-Pack 14 inch, Elevated Plant Saucer Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, Use Nonwoven Grow Bags, Plant Saucers Flower Pot Tray for Indoor-Outdoo and Grow Tents Greenhouses : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Amazon.com : Plastic Plant Saucer Stand,4-Pack 14 inch, Elevated Plant Saucer Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, Use Nonwoven Grow Bags, Plant Saucers Flower Pot Tray for Indoor-Outdoo and Grow Tents Greenhouses : Patio, Lawn & Garden

www.amazon.com

Then maybe get these but let's not get ahead of ourselves yet:

Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, 4-Pack

Simplify your plant hydration utilizing these self-watering fabric pot bases. This 4-pack delivers consistent moisture to roots via an integrated wick system.

acinfinity.com

All is not lost though, you've got this! They'll come back with a bit of careful watering and TLC!

Having some issues. I’m not sure what going on. First grow.

Having some issues. I’m not sure what going on. First grow.

Greengonja

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If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

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Amazon.com : Plastic Plant Saucer Stand,4-Pack 14 inch, Elevated Plant Saucer Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, Use Nonwoven Grow Bags, Plant Saucers Flower Pot Tray for Indoor-Outdoo and Grow Tents Greenhouses : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, 4-Pack

Having some issues. I’m not sure what going on. First grow.

Having some issues. I’m not sure what going on. First grow.

Greengonja

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BearWater

If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

Greengonja

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If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

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If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

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BearWater

If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

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trygrowup

lenhug

Amazon.com : Plastic Plant Saucer Stand,4-Pack 14 inch, Elevated Plant Saucer Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, Use Nonwoven Grow Bags, Plant Saucers Flower Pot Tray for Indoor-Outdoo and Grow Tents Greenhouses : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Self-Watering Fabric Pot Base, 4-Pack

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