Please help... yellow middle leaves!

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RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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Appreciate the feedback. I'll water a lot less.
Don't sweat it. I was a chronic over waterer for longer than I care to admit. If I can be rehabilitated (mostly), then anyone can. Lol

Water a little, wait a little, then proceed. Works for me.

"I used to water at will, now I water at wilt" ~ RootFarmer
 
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Mojomomo

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Just so you know, routine maintenance on your plants promotes the best healthy growth. Your plant will absolutely love when you regularly whack the small stuff and useless leaves near the main branch in the lower region. We call those 'unders".. It will change your entire garden and end product.. Cheers
I wondered why the tallest one is so tall without longer branches up the plant.
 
PooToe

PooToe

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@whatintheweed

One of the biggest issues new growers tend to have is how to water their cannabis properly.

I like to use the light pot method but that is also determinant on the media you use. If you use something like MIracle Gro that has little perlite in it the weight of the pot wet or dry will not be as noticeable.

What I would do is to experiment a little to see how long it takes for your media to dry back then use that time frame as a guideline. If your pot still has a little water in it and you water no big deal. If you miss it by a day or so on the dry side the plant will tell you.

Look up what a perched water table is so that you understand what is happening under the soil. Larger particles in your media mean faster drainage and more O² exchange which is what you want but too much of it and your soil dries too fast meaning your having to water more frequently.
 
RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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@whatintheweed

One of the biggest issues new growers tend to have is how to water their cannabis properly.

I like to use the light pot method but that is also determinant on the media you use. If you use something like MIracle Gro that has little perlite in it the weight of the pot wet or dry will not be as noticeable.

What I would do is to experiment a little to see how long it takes for your media to dry back then use that time frame as a guideline. If your pot still has a little water in it and you water no big deal. If you miss it by a day or so on the dry side the plant will tell you.

Look up what a perched water table is so that you understand what is happening under the soil. Larger particles in your media mean faster drainage and more O² exchange which is what you want but too much of it and your soil dries too fast meaning your having to water more frequently.
Well said! I highly recommend you read about perched water table also. Understanding that took my watering game to a whole new level.
 
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whatintheweed

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Well said! I highly recommend you read about perched water table also. Understanding that took my watering game to a whole new level.
Thank you, I will look into it. From what I'd read, if the first inch of soil is dry, you water. So I watered a little bit, but frequently, because the soil felt dry. Then I thought maybe the water wasn't getting far enough down to the roots, so I watered until there was run off from the bottom of the bag. I could hear the soil almost crackling as the water went in. But now it seems as though too much water is the problem and we're having down pours of rain! I'm growing for pain relief and trying to lift the bags to feel how heavy it is will only exacerbate the issue. Oh well.
 
Galgrows

Galgrows

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Yes please don't lift those bags, when you grow in 3,5 gal. then lift them. Mine are autos are all yellow leaf on the big fans do to watering so much outdoors but i need to. The inner small leaf are deep green so i know they are getting nutrients but as they age your gonna loose those big fans outdoors. Your plants look good otherwise, don't despair.
 
R

RGWD0202

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Thank you, I will look into it. From what I'd read, if the first inch of soil is dry, you water. So I watered a little bit, but frequently, because the soil felt dry. Then I thought maybe the water wasn't getting far enough down to the roots, so I watered until there was run off from the bottom of the bag. I could hear the soil almost crackling as the water went in. But now it seems as though too much water is the problem and we're having down pours of rain! I'm growing for pain relief and trying to lift the bags to feel how heavy it is will only exacerbate the issue. Oh well.
Watering is probably the most difficult part of it all. Cause of most problems… I try to water 15% of my container size and water again when it’s dried back… usually 3-4 days in flower. Outdoor probably a little faster I would assume. If growing organic be careful with runoff, magnesium will leave the soil with the water so could become deficient later down the road.
 
RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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I get that about the pots. A good soil should be light and airy when dry. Even with plants as big as mine they are light when ready to water. Not recommending you risk injury just that if your soil is heavy even when dry it probably is going to add to watering issues. Peat moss expands a lot and it takes time to do it. It's basically a sponge of sorts. Coco coir is similar. If you press down on your soil and it feels a lot like a wet sponge then it's probably got a lot of peat moss. Too much peat moss and not enough perlite is a recipe for watering problems IMO. My philosophy is water a little, wait a little and then proceed as needed. Plants don't always take up water as much or as fast every day. On really hot days I actually dial back the water about 15%. They seem to get less stressed. On a super hot day their main focus is on managing water to retain turgidity and leaf transpiration. Anything else will be secondary. They are a lot like people when it's really hot out. Do as little as possible to conserve energy and pray for sunset. Lol The current temp here is 94° and climbing. I've watered once thus morning. Unless I see a little wilt they won't get watered until tomorrow and if i did decide to water again it would just be a sip. A long time ago someone told me that plants breath through their leaves (CO2) during the day and their roots (O2) at night. Since then I don't water within about 3 hours of sunset and only a sip when i do water later in the day. Seems to work for me.
 
Captspaulding

Captspaulding

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Another tip for you
Your plant has grown a single thick stalk, with little to no subsequent stalks at node points on the plant.
Caused by very high rh the plant is going full yerdle the turtle. You did 3 hours of direct light? And the rest is filtered light by tree line?


Another reason saturation is the issue
 
H

hank12

10
3
Just so you know, routine maintenance on your plants promotes the best healthy growth. Your plant will absolutely love when you regularly whack the small stuff and useless leaves near the main branch in the lower region. We call those 'unders".. It will change your entire garden and end product.. Cheers

Solid advice from this guy here. You need to get in there and trim her up.
It looks like it was going into flower and popped back out or was stressed from being root-bound
 
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whatintheweed

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Thank you, yes and yes. I think it was going into flower slightly but then stopped. I want to trim, I've researched it,
Solid advice from this guy here. You need to get in there and trim her up.
It looks like it was going into flower and popped back out or was stressed from being root-bound

Solid advice from this guy here. You need to get in there and trim her up.
It looks like it was going into flower and popped back out or was stressed from being root-bound
Thank you. It was root bound in the first pot and started to go into flower but stopped. I've wanted to trim, but search results talk about topping and lollipopping, so I wasn't sure what to trim and what to leave.
 
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whatintheweed

20
3
Another tip for you
Your plant has grown a single thick stalk, with little to no subsequent stalks at node points on the plant.
Caused by very high rh the plant is going full yerdle the turtle. You did 3 hours of direct light? And the rest is filtered light by tree line?


Another reason saturation is the issue
The plant gets direct sunlight from 10am - 5/6pm, then filtered light for the rest of the day. The weather has changed here in the last 2-3 weeks, much higher temps and humidity.
 
H

hank12

10
3
Trim everything out on the inside of the plant where the sun does not directly hit it. It will help the plant grow out more and you wont end up with a lot of popcorn buds.
 
Captspaulding

Captspaulding

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I get that about the pots. A good soil should be light and airy when dry. Even with plants as big as mine they are light when ready to water. Not recommending you risk injury just that if your soil is heavy even when dry it probably is going to add to watering issues. Peat moss expands a lot and it takes time to do it. It's basically a sponge of sorts. Coco coir is similar. If you press down on your soil and it feels a lot like a wet sponge then it's probably got a lot of peat moss. Too much peat moss and not enough perlite is a recipe for watering problems IMO. My philosophy is water a little, wait a little and then proceed as needed. Plants don't always take up water as much or as fast every day. On really hot days I actually dial back the water about 15%. They seem to get less stressed. On a super hot day their main focus is on managing water to retain turgidity and leaf transpiration. Anything else will be secondary. They are a lot like people when it's really hot out. Do as little as possible to conserve energy and pray for sunset. Lol The current temp here is 94° and climbing. I've watered once thus morning. Unless I see a little wilt they won't get watered until tomorrow and if i did decide to water again it would just be a sip. A long time ago someone told me that plants breath through their leaves (CO2) during the day and their roots (O2) at night. Since then I don't water within about 3 hours of sunset and only a sip when i do water later in the day. Seems to work for me.
My thing is tiny plant ina giant pot, any time you feed a seedling, or an early veg plant , I will use a hand sprayer and spray water until I see the plant accept the mission. Otherwise all of your feed/water wash’s strait past the undeveloped root zone and settles at the bottom , a few feeds of that miscalculation.c and you now have a dead zone that no root will penetrate.
When you chop you’ll pull a root ball
that is nice, but on the top side only.
 
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RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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That's pretty much what I said to someone the other day. This plant just got its first watering with a can after a few weeks with the spray bottle. It's been healthy and thriving but notice the size of the root mass if you can even call it that yet. Not so big huh. So image what that newborn you have is working with.

20240705 130524
 
M

Mojomomo

51
18
I get that about the pots. A good soil should be light and airy when dry. Even with plants as big as mine they are light when ready to water. Not recommending you risk injury just that if your soil is heavy even when dry it probably is going to add to watering issues. Peat moss expands a lot and it takes time to do it. It's basically a sponge of sorts. Coco coir is similar. If you press down on your soil and it feels a lot like a wet sponge then it's probably got a lot of peat moss. Too much peat moss and not enough perlite is a recipe for watering problems IMO. My philosophy is water a little, wait a little and then proceed as needed. Plants don't always take up water as much or as fast every day. On really hot days I actually dial back the water about 15%. They seem to get less stressed. On a super hot day their main focus is on managing water to retain turgidity and leaf transpiration. Anything else will be secondary. They are a lot like people when it's really hot out. Do as little as possible to conserve energy and pray for sunset. Lol The current temp here is 94° and climbing. I've watered once thus morning. Unless I see a little wilt they won't get watered until tomorrow and if i did decide to water again it would just be a sip. A long time ago someone told me that plants breath through their leaves (CO2) during the day and their roots (O2) at night. Since then I don't water within about 3 hours of sunset and only a sip when i do water later in the day. Seems to work for me.
The wilt you reference, do you mean overall or just the tops?
 
RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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Great question. Just a few tips. If it's a little more I don't sweat it. Just avoid the temptation to give more than a regular watering. It's kinda natural tendncy to overcompensate.
 
PooToe

PooToe

556
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My thing is tiny plant ina giant pot, any time you feed a seedling, or an early veg plant , I will use a hand sprayer and spray water until I see the plant accept the mission. Otherwise all of your feed/water wash’s strait past the undeveloped root zone and settles at the bottom , a few feeds of that miscalculation.c and you now have a dead zone that no root will penetrate.
When you chop you’ll pull a root ball
that is nice, but on the top side only.
I'm not sure I agree with this.

I do agree that a tiny plant should not be in a giant pot. Autos are an exception, at least for me, as they don't like transplantation but, because they are autos and the time window limits their growth development, I usually don't plant them in anything larger than a 5 gallon pot for indoor growing so capillary action should get enough moisture into the root ball if I miss it in general.

What I don't agree with is saturating only in the immediate area that you think there are roots. Maybe I misunderstood the post but that's what I got from it. If you're in a solo then it doesn't matter but for large pots media saturation is much more important. Watering in only the immediate root ball area will certainly feed the plant what it needs and capillary action will spread some of that water to the outer perimeters of your media but whatever it was able to spread out will evaporate quickly limiting root growth.

One of the techniques I've used successfully is to water around the outer half of the media and not over the root ball itself. What happens when I do this is initial capillary action will lightly wet the soil over and around the root ball which will be taken up quickly by the immediate roots but once that water supply has been exhausted the hormones in the plant will signal it to look for more water by shooting new roots. Early root development, IME, is key to a bountiful harvest. Putting emphasis on early root development will power the rest of your plant down the road when it gets bigger and the foliage has outrun the roots access ability. The moment this happens the equilibrium in regard to root/ion accessibility vs plant maintenance will slow down foliage growth while it is trying to expand its root footprint to be able to increase the ion availability to be able to expand foliage growth.

You can also see this happen in nature. When rain falls on a plant the leaves usually direct the water that collects on them to water around the perimeter of the plant and not directly on top of the root ball itself. Different species handle water collection depending on water availability. Succulents are a good example of that.

In short, in seedling/early veg my focus is on root development. After a few weeks I start to transition that focus to still try and promote as much root growth as I can but start putting some of that focus on developing foliage now that I have the nutritional pipeline to do it. For me, this is a crucial time that will essentially dictate your end result so I spend more time setting up the plant so that I have a better chance at maximizing the plants potential when I'm ready to flower it.

Develop your root system and the foliage will follow. Bigger roots, bigger fruits.
 
HashFace

HashFace

2
3
I've been trying to gauge how much water I'm giving. I let the hose run in shower setting for about 15 seconds, morning and evening, just enough to keep them damp, but the soil is dry every time I go back. The water is from a well. As far as I know, the water test said it's very good quality, lots of minerals.
I know this is from 6 months ago, but if no one has told you in the meantime, when you water your plants you don’t just want to wet or dampen them… you should water them until there is “runoff”— essentially until water runs out from the fabric pot or the drainage holes in your pot. And then just check them every few days or so, by sticking your finger about 1-2” deep into the soil; if it’s dry, water them, and if it’s still moist, check again in a day or so.
 
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whatintheweed

20
3
I know this is from 6 months ago, but if no one has told you in the meantime, when you water your plants you don’t just want to wet or dampen them… you should water them until there is “runoff”— essentially until water runs out from the fabric pot or the drainage holes in your pot. And then just check them every few days or so, by sticking your finger about 1-2” deep into the soil; if it’s dry, water them, and if it’s still moist, check again in a day or so.
Thank you HashFace. It's been a learning curve for sure. I was keeping the soil damp daily, but then I did as you said, and watered thoroughly until there was run off. Then I let them dry out before watering again. Thanks again.
 
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