Plant Moisture Stress - Symptoms and Solutions

[Onegaes]

When I lived in the desert, my son came to visit and he found a seed in one of his buds. He gave it to me; I merely put it in my sandy garden and I swear, in prob. less than 2 weeks that plant was 4 feet tall. All I did was water it, No nutes, nada. It was a beautiful green, healthy as all get out. Time of year was spring. Unfortunately, I had a gopher that was digging holes all over my lawn, and one day I was standing in my kitchen, marvelling at the the plant from my window when suddenly it starts shaking, then dissapears into the ground. I couldn't believe it. Moral of my story?: don't stress; plant it and it will grow; keep gophers away, BTW: never saw the gopher again. It musta passed out for the summer. I'm not being glib but honestly this is a weed. Weeds are stroooong. Every gardner knows that. Meaning: they bounce back easily and survive all sorts of conditions if not too harsh (such as pothead gophers). I bet that gopher IS STILL passed out, enjoying his gopher dreams

 

[Roseman]

Uncle Ben can help you, look here:

Leaf Curling

also read up on this:

Temps, Humidity

 

[Uncle Ben]

Good story Onegaes! You're right. I've never seen so many people screw up growing such an easy to grow plant in my life. Ya might say they push them to death.

 

[Roseman]

I've seen plants that were 4 or 5 feet tall, ran over by a four-wheeler, and tore up and squashed flat, and it continued to grow along the ground, like a vine.
I've pulled up males growing outdoors in the woods,, and threw them far away, in a pile to come back in a few days and see it took root into the hard ground, just to stay alive. They are very hardy.

 

[Chumlie]

my problem is the only soil mixes you can find, or I've found on here and other tutorials either have potting soils(foxfarms,promix,etc) that can not be bought in my location, or the rest of them are way to strong to start out in. This last soil mix I made was soiles with 5% worm castings, 10%was to strong. With my experience marijuana is a very tender plant. Right now it seems everything is alright.

 

[lostcompass3]

I was just wondering how often you suggest flushing my medium to get rid of excess salt build up. What steps are involved in flushing my soil? What is the best ph to have the water at when i am doing this?

thanks for the great post

 

[Uncle Ben]

I was just wondering how often you suggest flushing my medium to get rid of excess salt build up.

Depends on the amount of salts (plant food) you're giving them and your water source's quality. If you use little plant food and rainwater, not very often. If you're heavy handed on the salts and your water is hard, then perhaps every third fertilizing. Depends on the organics in your soil too. Your call.

What steps are involved in flushing my soil?

Water until you get a good runoff from the drain holes.

What is the best ph to have the water at when i am doing this?

thanks for the great post

Don't worry about it. Soil is a powerful buffer. The pH of your water source will have little to NO long term effect.

 

[homegrow101]

A question if I may can you please look at my attached pic and tell me if it looks like overwatering/co2 problem? I am using a producer and hand watering I am thinking of filling the res and firing up the airstones to give the plants more co2.......any input?

And yes I am new to this we all were at one time I am just trying to learn......

thanks.

 

[orzz]

A question if I may can you please look at my attached pic and tell me if it looks like overwatering/co2 problem? I am using a producer and hand watering I am thinking of filling the res and firing up the airstones to give the plants more co2.......any input?

And yes I am new to this we all were at one time I am just trying to learn......

thanks.

Airstones in the res are for O2 not Co2.

 

[BLUNTED4REAL]

UB, are you saying ph is not that important when watering your plants on a regular basis?

 

[Uncle Ben]

UB, are you saying ph is not that important when watering your plants on a regular basis?

I'm saying that soil is a powerful buffer and folks fritter over pH values too much, especially when it comes to their water's pH value.

I have heard this pH bullshit for 10 years, so I decided years ago I was going to conduct my own experiment. I took water adjusted to values of say.....4.5 and 9.2 and drenched pots of typical organic soil. Let it sit, and then tested the runoff. The only affect was short term. The long term affect, like an hour after watering, was negligible. This doesn't even address the baloney "lockouts" folk talk about.

Bottom line? Folks need to learn what makes a plant tick and stop placing blame on insignificant crap like pH. Cannabis is a pH tolerant plant when it comes to nutrient uptake. Wean yourself off the charts, and grow some plants people.

UB

 

[BLUNTED4REAL]

thanks for your reply UB

 

[wyteboi]

" Wean yourself off the charts, and grow some plants people." <<<< this is some of the best shit i ever seen on RIU, along with some of your other posts uncle! you trully are the man!!!!

I have NEVER HEARD such a thing as too much light.......EVER! and i bet 9 outta 10 folks on here will disagree, but i seen it with my own eyes.........."bleaching" is all i can say. I pulled the light up some, and dropped the plants some and magiclly i have new growth now...... now the ph thing just puts you over the top! you know this already but somtimes it helps to hear it from someone new.......you are the man , uncle ben.

 

[swordfish192007]

im a new grower, my plant appears to be female, hairs are starting to appear. i have it in a 1ft high pot,it is about 3.5ft tall,if anyone has any growing tips id highly appreciate it,will it bud soon?,how often should i water the plant?

 

[Uncle Ben]

" Wean yourself off the charts, and grow some plants people." <<<< this is some of the best shit i ever seen on RIU, along with some of your other posts uncle! you trully are the man!!!!

I have NEVER HEARD such a thing as too much light.......EVER! and i bet 9 outta 10 folks on here will disagree, but i seen it with my own eyes.........."bleaching" is all i can say.

Thanks for the kind words.

Folks try too hard. They give their plants too much of everything usually. Less is more.

I addressed the light issue because I was tired of hearing folks telling other folks that "you can't give a plant too much light"....as they sat there and watched the very element for photosynthesis being bleached/destroyed, chlorophyll.

3. High Light - yes, it&#8217;s true, you can give our faves too much light. Cannabis does not receive full sun from sunrise to sunset in its natural state. It is shaded or given reduced light levels because of adjacent plant material, cloudy conditions, rain, debris and dust collection on the leaf surface, twilight periods of early morning and late afternoon, and light intensity changes caused by a change in the seasons. Too much light mainly serves to bleach out and destroy chlorophyll as opposed to causing leaf cupping, but it often goes hand-in-hand with high heat for indoor growers. Again, back off on the light and concentrate on developing/maintaining an efficient and robust root system. Keep in mind that all but equatorial material receive less light during flowering than during the vegetative stage.

And this may come as a shock to some, while folks are giving their plants MORE light during flowering (again pushing them when they should not be), they should be backing off. It's all about keeping the plant green until harvest. Think of cannabis under natural conditions. When does the plant receive the least total daily photon accumulation? That's right, during flowering, especially mid to late term.

UB

 

[The Stig]

hey ub. i've got a problem with a few of my plants and was hoping u could diagnose it for me. i suffered root rot last grow. i sterilized and started over from seed. i'm growing in pots with perlite with a pump feeding them twice a day. i regularly check ph and nutes. temps are 15c-26c. reservoir temp was 17c but i've just (today) installed heaters to keep it around 22c. humidity varies from 25-65%. heaps of fresh air. lights about 50cm from canopy. i've been using same nutes as always but started using dr hornbys big bud and hygrozime this grow. i am using cooltubes for the first time which has cooled the room considerably. outside temps have been very cold lately. i had a big bud plant with a few curled under shade leaves. suddenly one day all the leaves were cupped. i hacked it because i found a few suspicious looking balls on it earlier. suddenly a few other plants (all different strains) have begun doing the same thing. these plants seem to be growing more vertical than the others. the buds aren't fattening or as smelly either. i've read up on ur causes of this problem (leaf curl) but i don't seem to have any of these causes. i use polycarbonate roof sheeting as my drainage tray. a mate suggested this may be breaking down and poisoning the plants. another mate (a plastic injection moulder) said this was improbable because its u.v stabilised. its stressing me out. i've been growing for many years without a problem suddenly i cant seem to get it right. i am hoping it is just cold reservoir temps and i've already fixed the problem. please help. i've attached photos of healthy and affected plants. i've posted in this thread because moisture stress seems like the most common cause. cheers

that's interesting, I'm kinda having the same problem (not that bad now) and at my grow it begin after I added some "BigBud" from Dr.Horby and my bigbud Plants were getting like that that crispy felling on the leafs.


I notice the change on the plants 24-48 hours after using bigbud...
However this is the first time I have that problem and I have used Dr.Horby BigBud before, with great results.

Maybe an overdose of Dr.Horby Bugbud and nuts

In my case changing the reservoir seems to had stop the problem from getting worse

 

[East]

Hey UB, nice thread. Okay well I have big problems with my plants right now. I just transplanted them from a clay soil(in the ground) into pots with fox farm soil because I have to move them somewhere. I watered them once the night I transplanted them, and twice the next day. Day 2 the bottom fan leaves begin yellowing and having a crispy feel to the leaves so I know its bad. I also noticed that the top of the plants like to hang once the sun comes out and the wind starts getting stronger, but at night they rise back up. Heres some pictures of them Day 3 of the transplant: http://img37.imageshack.us/i/001vhc.jpg/ http://img20.imageshack.us/i/002ytx.jpg/ http://img34.imageshack.us/i/003hmk.jpg/ http://img106.imageshack.us/i/005i.jpg/

Now im into Day 5 and they still arent looking good, it seems as though the tops are growing okay..but the yellow just keeps coming to the next set of leaves!

 

[Uncle Ben]

Hey UB, nice thread. Okay well I have big problems with my plants right now. I just transplanted them from a clay soil(in the ground) into pots with fox farm soil because I have to move them somewhere. I watered them once the night I transplanted them, and twice the next day. Day 2 the bottom fan leaves begin yellowing and having a crispy feel to the leaves so I know its bad. I also noticed that the top of the plants like to hang once the sun comes out and the wind starts getting stronger, but at night they rise back up. Heres some pictures of them Day 3 of the transplant: http://img37.imageshack.us/i/001vhc.jpg/ http://img20.imageshack.us/i/002ytx.jpg/ http://img34.imageshack.us/i/003hmk.jpg/ http://img106.imageshack.us/i/005i.jpg/

Now im into Day 5 and they still arent looking good, it seems as though the tops are growing okay..but the yellow just keeps coming to the next set of leaves!

Sounds like a case of transplant shock due to a loss of root mass. Being taken out of the ground, especially clay, is gonna really rip the root system, especially the root hairs which is the plant's main unit for the uptake of water and salts. The leaves are "rising back up" at night because they are no longer losing alot of water thru heavy leaf transpiration induced by the sun and wind. The leaves are yellowing because there is no longer the root mass to transfer sufficient NPK. They'll recover but you need to baby them (keep them shaded from west sun and mist them) and if you put them back in the ground, bury the trunk up to first healthy leafsets. Pinch off everything below that point.

Good luck,
UB

 

[East]

Sounds like a case of transplant shock due to a loss of root mass. The leaves are "rising back up" at night because they are no longer losing alot of water thru leaf transpiration. The leaves are yellowing because there is no longer the root mass to transfer sufficient NPK. They'll recover but you need to baby them (keep them shaded from west sun and mist them) and if you put them back in the ground, bury the trunk up to first healthy leafsets. Pinch off everything below that point.

Good luck,
UB

http://img9.imageshack.us/i/001fpw.jpg/
http://img188.imageshack.us/i/002zce.jpg/
http://img125.imageshack.us/i/003icc.jpg/
http://img195.imageshack.us/i/004mdh.jpg/

Look how bad my ladies look. I ripped off several leaves...and Im bringing them in the shed for now since its sunny and hot out. Yeah, im gunna bring them down to my regular spot and bury them up to the first good set of leaves...Im probably gunna end up messing up more roots by taking them out of these pots but ill do my best.

 

[Uncle Ben]

What are you doing? Did you yank out your plants, put them in a potting soil with the intent to put them back in the ground at a different site?