Thriving to Struggling Overnight — Need Eyes on My Setup

[logical]

Not exactly sure what’s going on—things were looking great with the plants, and then suddenly… they weren’t. Nothing obvious changed, but here’s a little context. I’m growing Skunk #1 from seed in a 1-gallon fabric nursery pot using a 70/30 coco-perlite mix, feeding with Jack’s 321. Everything was going smooth until I switched from top-feeding to the Tray2Grow AutoPot system. At first, no issues, but then I noticed the plants started looking a bit off—first about an hour before lights out, then it became two, and eventually they just never perked up at all.

Thinking they might’ve been rootbound, I transplanted into 3-gallon square fabric pots about 3–4 days ago, but they still look the same. The pots always feel heavy, so I know they’re getting water—maybe too much? It’s confusing because I figured the AutoPot system and fabric pots would help avoid overwatering. If anyone has any insights, I’d really appreciate it. I’m open to ideas, happy to answer questions, and willing to try different things to figure this out.

 

[mancorn]

Think you answered your own question. Plant is overwatered. Go back to top watering and let the pots dry out. The fabric can fell dry on the top, but still be wet at the bottom - especially if you have the pots on the ground.

Grab a moisture meter.

XLUX Long Probe Deep

 

[logical]

I've already turned off the auto pot valve, I'm gonna let them dry out a bit. I hope they're not too far gone. How was this possible with the auto pot system? I thought it only takes what it needs

 

[mancorn]

Not familiar with the auto pot system. Doesn’t that come with plastic pots?

And just reread your original post and see that you’re in coco, which actually isn’t suppose to dry out. So disregard my earlier post and hopefully a coco grower can help you out.

 

[closettrapper217]

Yeah I grow in coco and it’s basically impossible to overwater your plants as long as they can drain.

Also not familiar with this watering system I would go back to watering from the top and see it changes personally. Maybe with the wicking of the fabric pots they are staying too wet.

Best advice I can give you is post a few more pics of the whole plant and your bottom feeding setup and hopefully someone will chime In That’s used one before.

Also, no your plant is not too far gone. I’ve seen much worse than this in coco get flushed and return to their glory lol

 

[Halloweed]

At first, I thought overwatering. I've never used auto pots either. Sadly know nothing about coco. Might be suffocating being root bound but you transplanted.

I know using soil in an eartbox(which has a reservoir) only sucks up water it needs. It never seems overwatered. Hope someone can help.

 

[logical]

Could a bad Temp/RH/VPD be causing this you think? I just raised my temperature and lowered my RH a little to try to encourage a faster transpiration

 

[dreamnfox]

Looks hungry or possible pH issue affecting uptake of nutes, thar reddish stem and leaf are normally mag issues. Were you checking the pH of the water reservoir? It can change over time

 

[shooter64738]

While on vacation over the winter I had an irrigation malfunction. I ran 36 gallons of nutrient water into my 5 plants in 72 hours. The tank refilled and ran another 36 gallons of clean water over another 72 hours.

My plants were fine even though they had gotten 10 gallons of water per day for 6 days in a row. My grow space was obviously flooded, but plants were fine. Coco is very forgiving of over watering

This looks like phosphorus deficiency to me. Is it possible your nutrients left salts behind from top down, and switching to bottom up watering is leaving those salts right around your root zone?

 

[closettrapper217]

While on vacation over the winter I had an irrigation malfunction. I ran 36 gallons of nutrient water into my 5 plants in 72 hours. The tank refilled and ran another 36 gallons of clean water over another 72 hours.

My plants were fine even though they had gotten 10 gallons of water per day for 6 days in a row. My grow space was obviously flooded, but plants were fine. Coco is very forgiving of over watering

This looks like phosphorus deficiency to me. Is it possible your nutrients left salts behind from top down, and switching to bottom up watering is leaving those salts right around your root zone?

I’ve always thought this to be the problem with bottom feeding coco. Or really anything with salt nutes and bottom feeding.

 

[logical]

Looks hungry or possible pH issue affecting uptake of nutes, thar reddish stem and leaf are normally mag issues. Were you checking the pH of the water reservoir? It can change over time

I check ph every other day and it's always within range. 5.8 - 6.0

 

[mancorn]

Just to be clear - you have experience growing in coco and understand it’s not like using soil? How often are you watering and has/is the coco AWAYS stayed moist or has it dry out recently?

 

[logical]

Just to be clear - you have experience growing in coco and understand it’s not like using soil? How often are you watering and has/is the coco AWAYS stayed moist or has it dry out recently?

Yea, I know that Coco is more like a hydroponic medium. It may have dried out a little bit before I switched to the auto pots. But ever since I've switched to the auto pots they have been drinking like crazy and staying moist.

 

[logical]

For reference, this is my other tent, in week 4 of flower. Running the same setup, Autopots with Coco medium. Even the same nutrient line.

 

[Sunasun]

Not exactly sure what’s going on—things were looking great with the plants, and then suddenly… they weren’t. Nothing obvious changed, but here’s a little context. I’m growing Skunk #1 from seed in a 1-gallon fabric nursery pot using a 70/30 coco-perlite mix, feeding with Jack’s 321. Everything was going smooth until I switched from top-feeding to the Tray2Grow AutoPot system. At first, no issues, but then I noticed the plants started looking a bit off—first about an hour before lights out, then it became two, and eventually they just never perked up at all.

Thinking they might’ve been rootbound, I transplanted into 3-gallon square fabric pots about 3–4 days ago, but they still look the same. The pots always feel heavy, so I know they’re getting water—maybe too much? It’s confusing because I figured the AutoPot system and fabric pots would help avoid overwatering. If anyone has any insights, I’d really appreciate it. I’m open to ideas, happy to answer questions, and willing to try different things to figure this out.

View attachment 2455695

View attachment 2455696

What water source are you using? My plants do this when I try to use tap water. My town's water system is terrible.

 

[logical]

I only use RO water

 

[JIMKSI64]

Do the 2 grows have substantially different growing conditions. You stated that the temp had changed and humidity.
A wacked out vdp from environmental changes can move VDP out of a good transperation range but that should not be showing issues unless it is way out. More important for growth is vdp stability. Diaries that I have read and my own experience showed me that a stable vdp over hours of growing where the vdp stay within a .10 range of minimum and maximum. Most folks run apps. Look at the min-max on your vdp. If you look and you see sat high of 1.24 and a low of 1.18 you have a .06 VDP variance. This is an excellent environment and you will see water pressure rise from transperation in the plant and the leaves will look like tables with a flat to uplifted presentation.
Now if your hourly VDP trace goes from say 1.22 vdp to 1.42 vdp the environment is not controlled. The stoma are opening and closing in a cycle and the transperation goes up and down. The leaf presentation will be droopy and inconsistent where 15 minutes later they look ok then droopy again.
Recently an experienced grower stated they do not do vdp at all. They use whatever nature provides for humidity and temp through and open window. After thinking about it I just realized that it is not really the setting you have your grow at for temp and humidity. It's the fact that massive changes by the hour are almost entirely a condition of inside grows. Nature does not change temp and humidity like a grow tent can. Nature needs a weather system to move in the aeeas to move much. Changes are steady and this more important than the exact setting of temp and humidity.
If you think it is VDP related check your rate of change through vdp information. Look at min max value and if OK it is one more thing you ruled out.

Vdp down to .06 up and down
Notice temp moved 1.4 degrees and humidity almost 3% This did not move VDP around do to the complimentary functions of the relationship of temp and humidity.

 

[Captspaulding]

Def have a slight mag def here.
Some over watering
I doubt it’s transplant stress unless you’ve been tearing out your root ball like a badger with a hate issue….is it all over the plants with this droopiness or is it just towards the top of the plants?
as stated by @JIMKSI64 above, it could definitely be a transpiration issue too if water/feed not released all the moisture through the leaves that’s in the bottom of the pot through uptake then it will definitely cause the same issue as well

 

[logical]

Do the 2 grows have substantially different growing conditions. You stated that the temp had changed and humidity.
A wacked out vdp from environmental changes can move VDP out of a good transperation range but that should not be showing issues unless it is way out. More important for growth is vdp stability. Diaries that I have read and my own experience showed me that a stable vdp over hours of growing where the vdp stay within a .10 range of minimum and maximum. Most folks run apps. Look at the min-max on your vdp. If you look and you see sat high of 1.24 and a low of 1.18 you have a .06 VDP variance. This is an excellent environment and you will see water pressure rise from transperation in the plant and the leaves will look like tables with a flat to uplifted presentation.
Now if your hourly VDP trace goes from say 1.22 vdp to 1.42 vdp the environment is not controlled. The stoma are opening and closing in a cycle and the transperation goes up and down. The leaf presentation will be droopy and inconsistent where 15 minutes later they look ok then droopy again.
Recently an experienced grower stated they do not do vdp at all. They use whatever nature provides for humidity and temp through and open window. After thinking about it I just realized that it is not really the setting you have your grow at for temp and humidity. It's the fact that massive changes by the hour are almost entirely a condition of inside grows. Nature does not change temp and humidity like a grow tent can. Nature needs a weather system to move in the aeeas to move much. Changes are steady and this more important than the exact setting of temp and humidity.
If you think it is VDP related check your rate of change through vdp information. Look at min max value and if OK it is one more thing you ruled out.
View attachment 2456980
Vdp down to .06 up and down
Notice temp moved 1.4 degrees and humidity almost 3% This did not move VDP around do to the complimentary functions of the relationship of temp and humidity.

In the veg tent, I’m still using the older AC hardware, so I’m not able to track historical data the way you are. I do have the newer hardware ready—I just need to set it up and connect it to the network. I recently picked up a BlueLab Pulse and noticed the EC was reading as high as 2.0 at the bottom of the fabric pot. That’s higher than I’ve ever fed them, so it seems like there may be some buildup. I’ve diluted the reservoir down to 1.0 to see if that helps.

 

[logical]

Just a quick update — I ended up taking about half the plants out of the veg tent to give them a proper flush. When I checked the EC at the root zone, it was way too high, so I flushed with pH’d RO water until the Bluelab Pulse showed it down around .5 EC. That part alone took several hours. Afterward, I wrung out the capillary mat and was pretty shocked to see the EC reading at 4.4 — way higher than I expected. I flushed that too, and it took five rounds of soaking and wringing to finally bring it down to 0.3 EC. Right now, I have it soaking in RO water pH’d to 5.8 with some Hydroguard, and I’m planning to leave it for about 8 hours before reconnecting it to the AutoPot system. At this point, I’m starting to think the high EC may have caused a lockout, even though the pH has been consistently on point the entire time.