Plants wilting and yellowing, not sure if over watering

Hello, first off, here are my grow specs

-32"x32"x63" YieldLab grow tent
-Advanced Platinum Series P450 450w 12-band LED Grow Light - DUAL VEG/FLOWER FULL -SPECTRUM
-3 gallon smart pots
-Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed with 30% perlite
-Decent carbon filter/fan combo
-3 KC 45 autoflower seeds (not feminized)
-1 Automazing autoflower seed (feminized)

Have been watering whenever the soil is dry an inch deep. Started the autoflowers in the 3 gallon pots and started with small circles and have been widening the circles and watering more as they grow. All the plants looked to be healthy until I watered them and left them for the weekend. When I got back, my tallest plant had wilted considerably and the bottom leaves were yellowing.

They are on week 5 now of veg, never given any nutes. Was planning to switch my light to bloom and feed small amounts of flowering nutes this week, until I saw what was happening.

All the symptoms seemed like a case of overwatering, but ever after no watering it for a few days, it is getting worse, and now my other 3 plants seem to be starting to get affected as well. Could someone tell me if this picture indicates over watering, or what other issues it may be?

Under watered! I've had plants do this, I just fed mine and they bounced back.

Thank you for your quick reply. This has been pretty disappointing after seeing them look healthy for the first 4 weeks. I just fed them a decent amount of water. I did lower my light about an inch before I left, maybe that caused the water to dry out way faster than I thought it would.

Are they looking any better?

That plant can take a gallon of water no problem. Pop your index finger in the soil just over the first knuckle. If its dry, water.

Yep, thanks so much. Huge turnaround in a short time.

Underwatered. I'm new to this as well and was paranoid that I would give em to much water so I neglected them. Got on a decent water schedule and they bounced back

haloman420 said:

That plant can take a gallon of water no problem. Pop your index finger in the soil just over the first knuckle. If its dry, water.

Click to expand...

Hmmm...good call...plus rep

So the the leaves have perked up but there are still the yellow, dead looking leaves at the bottom of this plant and another that was suffering from underwatering as well. Are these leaves useless now? And if so, should I remove them? At work right now, will post pic when i get home if there isnt an easy answer. Once again, appreciate all the help.

If the whole plant was yellowing it probably had a nitrogen deficiency.
The plant should respond in hours to treatment if that is the case.

It is not going to make it 100% in the long term. Many annuals take up nearly all the nitrogen they will use for the season, right at the beginning.

When your plant was wilting it pulles nutes from the lower leaves as well as water. Thats why you have yellowing necrotic leaves. When it fully rehydrates you will have some striped leaves

Sometimes if the affected leaves are really low down the plant I mean like first node or 2 I'll take them off and fill the pot in with coco/soil whatever your using. In theory (i may be wrong) the plant will start rooting from them sites. Or if your going to lollipop down the line you'll prob end up taking them off anyway.

Dont burry the plant more that 1/2 inch. Soil stays damp under the top half inch crust much longer. What happens to cuttings that dont root? They turn black and die. Dont give your stem the chance to mold