Grow Fail: My SS100 won’t spring back…

(Sorry the actual Supersweet 100 plant might be hard to see due to the big squash leaves)

Reason for death: I was too lazy with my watering. I should be topping up at least every 3 days when the plant's this size and my bucket's only 20L, but didn't bother for 5 days lol. The other plants still had 1-2 inches of water, but I guess this one was drinking faster. It was droopy for <24 hours, no dead leaves, but by the time I refilled the bucket, it was too late. This picture is another 24 hours after I had refilled the bucket — no perking up, leaves turning black.

Fruit set rate was dismal so far as trees block a lot of sunlight to this spot this time of year, but since the plant was getting taller than 6ft., it was just about to get more sun. No chance now. It would have been 3 months old tomorrow. 😭

This is actually something I keep seeing with Kratky hydroponics in undersized containers. I still love not having to water very often (in a 20L soil pot, at this point I would have been watering 1-2 times every day). The plants would look absolutely fine even if there's only like some moisture droplets left in the bucket. But then when the water actually runs out, the plant's health falls off a freaking cliff. There's almost no warning, so you have be diligent about checking under the lid. When plants are seedlings you could go 3-4 weeks without watering, but once they get big, you can really see how thirsty these plants get.