What to do after plants almost dried out?

Indoor Growing Hydroponics
#1

Already the second time I almost killed my plants. One time I accidently pushed a switch which turned off the pump. Then the second time the pump failed.

I noticed that when I give the plants water again that the big fan leavs start to get damaged and brown. It worries me because it happens with some plants which didn’t seem to be dried out too much in the first place. I wonder what is the problem with them. I thought give them water and all good again…

I am thinking that maybe they are overwatered now. Could it be that if you give the plants water after they almost dried out, they instantly get overwatered??? It seems a bit weird to me…

Also how can you prevent the plants to dry out? Is there maybe a sensor set out there which will alarm you when the medium is getting to dry?

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#2

I hand water explicitly so I know what’s happening all the time.
If plants get to dry the capillaries will close up, just like closing up your own veins
If they get to dry there is a chance they may never come back.

I myself hate depending on mechanical means, I’d either go to hand water or them Octopots

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#3

This happened to me several times myself. In my situation even though the plants were able to perk up after being watered again they were never quite the same. The drying out had started their senescence phase which is the process by which the plants prepare for their deaths. This threw everything out of whack as some buds starting growing again and some did not. But my watering failure happened mid flower phase so take that into consideration.

There are automation systems that include moisture sensors for your medium. Some can be rather expensive but a good value one would be a TrolMaster Aqua-X with the Water content sensor.

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#4

When they dry out give straight water initially then go back after they have perked up with feed water, reason they burn is they are so deprived of water that they uptake everything they are given and if that happens to be full strength feed water usually ends up burning them.

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#5

This has happened to me. I have been surprised that they can come back from being so dry but wish I had known about the no nutes when it happened but makes sense.

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#6

Many plants which seemed to be ok first, started to get problems and never recovered. They seemed to very slowly die :smiley: Probably it was a mix of nute problems and root pathogen susceptibility.

All the other plants which came after the drought do very good.