Understanding another person's language will always ease communications in a way that can more easily accomplish goals between multiple individuals. This same philosophy applies to plants communing with humans. Plants however are completely non-verbal communicators (obviously, since they are non-lingual), and communicate with 100% body language, which include displays of sickness and health (of both the subtle and obvious natures).
When a plant exhibits sagging/drooping leaves, nine times out of ten it is because the soil has dried up, and now requires more water. When a plant exhibits leaf tip curling however, while it is possible that this can result from lack of water, high-heat, extreme light, or any combination of the three, leaf-tip curling can also be a result of the exact opposite - too much water, over feeding nutrients, a reaction to organic pest treatments, or any combination.
I experienced leaf-tip curling on my plants directly following a feeding (when there was a feeding applied only two days prior), and also directly following spraying my plants with a certified organic pest control spray called Safer Soap.
With today being the first day of August, it seems fitting that the weather report is calling for a 90 degree day. When I woke up to tops sagging to the side again (what I have found previously to be a clear indicator of the plant's need for more water) at 9AM, considering the other factors at play, I decided to play it on that safe side, and not water until about noon. This was precautionary in case the plants had received too much water, instead of not enough. Once I noticed the sun was close to zenith around noon however, I made the call to go ahead and water. This was the right decision, as only an hour later, all the tops had returned to their upright and normal positions.
The leaf-tip curling has also normalized for the most part, even before I watered the plants (even more so afterwards). This leads me to believe that the reaction was caused by a combination of too many nutrient feedings too close together, and the general reaction of this organic aphid-annihilator product know as Safer Soap.
the Size of these Bohemiths!
Being a little too overzealous with your grow feedings at the end of the vegetative cycle is an easy mistake to make when attempting to beef up your plants girth a little more. This is a good move to make before they flip to the flowering stage upon the change in seasonal light cycles, however it still needs to be done with the proper time spacing. In retrospect, I should have done feed-water-feed (since I am watering my potted plants every other day in this heat), instead of feed-feed-forced water flush. This would have spaced out the nutrient feedings enough for the soil to not become over-encumbered with nutrients, and would have likely yielded much less dramatic negative effects of leaf-tip curling from the Safer Soap application (both times I have used this product during the season has caused issues, but both situations also had other factors at play - it seems everything besides the bugs must be ideal to use this product "safely"... ha! - pun intended).
It is also important to note that my plants that are in-ground in the raised bed are on a slightly different watering schedule than the potted plants. The soil is still wet in that area today, and will only require a watering tomorrow at the earliest. This is due to the fact that fabric pots drain much more than the Earth, and plants in such containers go through water more quickly than in-ground plants - even when the in-ground plants are significantly bigger than the potted ones.
Here is the series so far:
Episode 2: Transplanting Cannabis, Organic Pest Control, Strain Varieties
Episode 3: Preparing Your Grow Space, Treating Burnt Plants
Episode 5: Transplanting into Final Grow Space, Topping Plants, & Finishing Animal Fencing
Episode 6: Applying Proper Feedings with Organic Nutrients
Episode 7: Feeding After Topping, Storm Damage, Selective Leaf Removal, & Caging Cannabis
Episode 8: Final Topping, Leaf Removal, & Safely Sacrificing a Male Plant
Please enjoy episode 9 of this year's Backyard Cannabis Farming series. Hopefully we all acquire wisdom for growing cannabis effectively and organically together.
Click pic below to play
YouTube Version
The next episode will outline my multiple week long organic pest control spray treatment formula. I still have to apply lime sulfur to the plants tomorrow night before I can complete that video. I will also be outlining details about flushing your plants of grow (veg) nutrients, before applying bloom nutrients for flowering.
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