Leaves curling up and cupping - w/ pics

First of all, I live in a high altitude, relatively dry climate in the Canadian Rockies, as a result I have been unable to grow a seedling without a humidity dome. I have bought a humidifier to compensate, and have been maintaining the room at at least 50% humidity.

Now, I am trying to ease the plants (the largest in particular) out of the humidity dome, but when I take it off, the plants leaf tips point up, and the leaves curl and cup. Here's what I mean,

I took these immediately after taking off the saran wrap humidity dome:


This is 1 minute later, you can start to notice the leaf tips pointing and and curling:


This is only 4 minutes after taking off the cover. The leaves are extremely curled (especially the youngest in the middle) and the biggest are starting to look like bowls:


After seeing this happen, I freaked out and put on the dome after snapping a couple quick shots. Not even 5 minutes later they looked just as they did in the original couple pics.

I think it might be reacting to such a drastic change in humidity. I've been thinking of maybe poking a few holes in the dome everyday until condensation no longer forms on the saran wrap. What does everyone else think?

bump. anyone?

Looks like a healthy plant to me.

I cant think of anything

the humidity dome will slow transpiration and photosynthesis, so taking the dome off will result in the plant suddenly starting to transpire again.

is it too warm in your space? are you in soil and have you fed any nutrients yet?

Rather than letting them out of the dome during the day cycle try removing it for the night as RH is higher during the dark cycle.

Another thing you could try is making some holes in your dome to allow the air into the dome but not too much so as to harden them off to your environment.

If it were me i would remove the domes during the dark cycle

Then make holes in the dome for the day cycle

Proceed to do this for approx 7days and see how they go completely out of the domes after this period.

Other than this those seedlings look absolutley fine and healthy.


J

It has been pretty hot the last few days, getting up to 85 under the lights during the afternoons, but usually it sits around 75-80. It is in soil (cactus mix w/ extra perlite) and I've given it some all purpose ferts (12-4-8 ) at half strength once. Because of the domes, I only have to water them once a week.

Another thing is that they are under lights 24/7, so there is no 'night' for them. What I will do is poke a few holes in it everyday until water no longer condenses on dome, then try taking the dome off at night when it's a bit cooler.

The problem that I have also had, which necessitated the domes to begin with, is that when they are removed, or when there are a lot of holes in it, the new leaves come out very light green and curls inward. Also, growth stagnates to an extreme degree. Is the air too dry in my environment?

Here's an example of what I mean: this is another of my plants. You can see that on one pair of leaves, the ends are curled. The leaves did not really start to grow until I put a dome over it, and the tips never fully straightened out.

something is off in your soil.

you're either keeping them too wet or there are no nutrients at all... or there are way too many.

Well, they improve when I put the domes on which keep the soil more moist. They also improved when I gave them all purpose ferts. But nutrients don't explain why removing the humidity dome makes the leaves light green and growth to stagnate.

aguro said:

Well, they improve when I put the domes on which keep the soil more moist. They also improved when I gave them all purpose ferts. But nutrients don't explain why removing the humidity dome makes the leaves light green and growth to stagnate.

Click to expand...

the dome slows transpiration and therefore growth. removing the dome encourages the plant to grow again. so it will need to draw water and nutrients from the soil it is obviously having difficulty with that.

skunkushybrid01 said:

something is off in your soil.

you're either keeping them too wet or there are no nutrients at all... or there are way too many.

Click to expand...

Don't say stuff like this! They'd droop if it was too wet, and they'd show a deficiency pretty predominantly.


I wouldn't worry about it all, it looks great.

Plant moisture stress. Your plant is overwatered.

Removing the dome removes the h20 equilibrium within the plant tissue. The lost moisture causes the cupping of the leaves.

This is a sign that the root zone has far too much moisture. The extra humidity in the dome causes the plant to "puff up" a little, and appear healthy.

This can also compensate for an underdeveloped root system, resulting from overwatering.

I seriously think the plant is just respirating.

Wait a little longer and see what happens.

Agreed.

Waiting is all you should do.

The foliage was spoiled a bit from the free humidity. The drop to low air pressure made it deflate a little bit, as a balloon would.

Give it a few days, and it will appear as though nothing had happened, once the plant reaches osmotic equilibrium again, and the soil has time to dry out a little bit.