Why Are Plants Drooping When the Coco Is Still Wet?

A heavy pot and a droopy plant means the plant isn't thirsty. Hold the next feed until the pot dries back toward 50–60% (light, never bone dry), make sure it drains freely, and find out why it stayed wet. Don't add Cal-Mag or cut the nutrients over droop.

The usual causes are a pot that stays wet too long, a pot that can't drain, water that only reaches part of the root zone, or roots that are damaged.

Lift the pot first

• Heavy all over: it's staying wet. Look at drainage, feed volume and frequency, and roots.
• Wet on one side, dry on the other: the water is running down one channel. The plant can droop from the dry part of the root zone even though the pot feels wet.
• Light: it's past due for a feed. See How often should you water coco?

Then compare it with a healthy neighbor. One drooping plant points to that pot: its outlet, its drainage, its roots. A whole bench changing at once points to the schedule or the room. More in Why one plant looks sick while its neighbors look healthy.

What keeps coco too wet

• Standing runoff. A top-fed pot sitting in a saucer of runoff, or blocked drain holes. The runoff needs to leave the pot.
• Too much volume for the plant. Young plants and big pots around small transplants don't use much water yet. Use enough to wet the whole pot, not a fixed amount for the pot size.
• Feeding on the clock. If the pot is still heavy when the timer says feed, push that feed later. The dryback sets the schedule.
• Slow drying room. A cool or humid room pulls less water out of the pots. Check air temperature, RH and leaf temperature; our VPD calculator shows where you are.

Check the roots

If you can look without doing more damage, check the roots. Discolored, weak or foul-smelling roots are a root-health problem, and more water or another supplement won't fix it.

Look at your sanitation. We use regular unscented bleach (6–8.25% sodium hypochlorite) at 0.2 mL per gallon every time we mix a reservoir (skip it if you run microbes). Tell us exactly which sterilizer or microbes you use. Our routine is in Our bleach routine.

Recent transplant? Check that the plant was well rooted when it went in, and how wet the root ball is staying.

Fix it

1. Empty standing runoff and clear the drain holes.
2. Let the pot dry back toward 50–60% before the next feed. Don't let it go bone dry.
3. Make the next feed even. If part of the pot stays dry, move or add outlets and catch-test them.
4. Correct a real temperature or humidity problem in the room.
5. After the next normal feed, test the feed and the last 10% of runoff. In coco we feed about pH 6.2 and look for runoff around 6.0–6.1.

Still stuck? Send us a photo, the pot size and watering schedule, feed and runoff EC and pH, and what sterilizer you're using. We'll work through it with you.