Leaves drooping and growth stunted!

[Handyandy]

Greetings AFN community.
First time grower and complete noob hoping to get some advice and info.
Small closet autoflower grow in 15L fabric pot and coco perlite (70/30) under V450 Viparspectra LED (200w actual draw) - started at 24” and gradually lowered to 18” (~450mm) to top of canopy.
Week 1 just PH’d water. Started nutes at 1/4 strength on day 10 and gradually increased to the recommend dosage after no signs of nute burn.
All was going great till about day 25. But for the last 5 days, plant has slowed growth (almost stunted) and leaves drooping. They perk up after a feed but droop back down 10-12 hours later even though the medium is still wet. I tried daily feeds and every second day but no improvements. I did start some LST few days ago but nothing drastic to shock the plant to this extend. I’m still on veg nutes.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Citadel]

Do you have a fair few purple stems? Because I can see one or two could have been too cold maybe?

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[karlkutta]

How much water are you giving them, you are watering every other day? That's pretty frequent in my opinion, I water mine every 4, maybe 5 days, they are in 12L pots. Watering about 3L each.

 

[Handyandy]

Do you have a fair few purple stems? Because I can see one or two could have been too cold maybe?

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Thanks for the reply.
Night time and lights off temp around 21C (~70F). Yes there are a few purple stems but mainly the thinner ones for fan leaves. Main cola and thicker stems are green. Also this is the Red Poison strain so thought perhaps could be genetic??

 

[Handyandy]

How much water are you giving them, you are watering every other day? That's pretty frequent in my opinion, I water mine every 4, maybe 5 days, they are in 12L pots. Watering about 3L each.

Yes watering every other as I thought plant may need the nutes during this late stage of veg?
Wow every 5 days... Are you growing in Coco? How far into grow? Do you go by feel, look, weight? I’m still getting the feel for the weight method.

 

[karlkutta]

I'm in soil so things are different. Sticking my finger in the soil or uncovering the top layer layer to get a feel. 5 days may be a bit too much, but every other day is probably not needed. Go with 3-4 days. My thought.

 

[Arthur]

What's your light cycle? I run 18-6 and at about 14 hrs most plants will droop slightly as they enter their resting phase, and a couple hrs later are back to praying.
Betting your not seeing anything abnormal.

 

[Handyandy]

I’m also running 18/6 cycle. The photos attached at the beginning of this post are from 3-4hrs before lights going off (and not sure how long it’s been drooping for before that).
I’m now allowing the coco to dry bit more between feeds and the drooping seems to have improved but growth still very slow. Thinking now it’s time to switch to bloom nutes next feed (day 32 or so...)

 

[Waira]

-- this wouldn't happen to coincide with at or near the time lights go out, then perk back up after soon lights go on? If so, this is a normal physiological reaction,.. not all do it, but it's pretty common,... some of my outdoor girls can practically tell you the time! about 1/2 hour before sunset, the petioles take on a relaxed posture, not saggy/bowing type droop's BTW,... that's more of a over/underwatering symptom.....
Coco is meant to be run nicely moist all the time, and with lots of run-off; it breathes better drain better than soil/soilless.... hard to overwater is the point! (Coco is a specialized medium, lots of do's and don't's; treat it like true soil and problem will come sooner or later = ).....
Was there ever a bad dry-out? root damage can make a plant do this too,....

Color is likely normal expression, and RP can really deepen up, super lovely plants!

 

[Handyandy]

Thanks for the info. She has bounced back and now going strong (see pic).
I do however have one concern. Last 2 watering/feeds, the run-off PPM has been 450 higher than going in. Last time I had this happen few weeks ago, I flushed the coco (even though plant was looking ok) and that seemed to start a few issues for me. Now I’m reluctant to read too much into this as she’s not showing any negative signs. So I’m just monitoring things rather than risking anything??? Any advice?