August 12, 2020
Have you noticed medicinal plants leaves curling up on your gorgeous green ladies?If so, keep reading to find out the full list of reasons for this unpleasant issue. Nevertheless, you will also find all the best tips on treating the problem with curled up medicinal plants leaves.
Excessive Heat or Cold
One of the issues which can cause your medicinal plants leaves to curl up is due to excessive heat. If your medicinal plants are in a grow room or an environment that is too hot, you will often see the leaves curl up and develop nasty looking brown fringes.
Most medicinal plants require the temperature to be well below 30 degrees Celsius, usually more like 27 or 28 degrees. Anything over 30 degrees Celsius can cause heat stress, which results in curled and yellowing or browning leaves, among a host of other problems. Simply put, your pot plant is burning up due to being too hot.
On the other hand, excessive cold has also been known to cause curly medicinal plants leaves. Pot plants should never be in temperatures below 12 or 10 degrees Celesius at the lowest.
If your pot plant is regularly subjected to excessive cold, the leaves can become very discolored, they can curl up, bud rot may develop, and eventually your plant will just die.
The Solution
The solution to these temperature issues can vary depending on what the exact problem is. Either way, you need to ensure that your grow room is at the right temperature to support healthy medicinal plants growth.
One thing to keep in mind here is that medicinal plants require different temperatures based on the stage of growth they are in, whether this be the seedling, vegetative, or flowering stage.
General speaking, the optimal temperature range for medicinal plants across all of the growth stages is between 10 and 28 degrees Celsius.
Too Much Fertilizer
Giving your green babes an excess amount of nutrients will inevitably cause a number of problems, leaves curling up included. I have noticed this is especially common-spread among newbie medicinal plants growers.
But hey, no need to feel bad about it, buddies! We are all learning during each medicinal plants growing adventure. Just remember – with fertilizers, less is more.
The solution
All you have to do if you think it is the excess fertilization, causing your precious cannabeauies to suffer, is to do a simple flush.
That means stopping to add any fertilizer for about 10 days. Nevertheless, you want to use only plain, distilled water.
Don’t drown your emerald goddesses in too much water at once, though. Start small and build your way up.
Also, don’t expect to see immediate results. A full flush takes place in between 7 to 14 days on an average.
Overwatering the Plant
We often think that when we water the plants, we keep them healthy all the time. Apparently, that is not true. If we are not careful in watering the plants, it will drown the plant’s root. Aside from drowning the plant, it will also rinse helpful microbes. Also, overwatering the plant persistently will attract parasites called Pythium, which can cause root rot. This will cause your plant to have claw-like leaves that will tell you that they are waterlogged.
The solution
To cure this, the first thing that you have to do is to try reducing the volume of water that you are giving your plant. Maintain a wet-dry cycle. You can tell by their weight if they needed to be watered. If you can pick up your pots, then it is good for you. Another method to check if your plants need water is to press the soil and see if it is dry or too moist. If it is dry then try to water them with just the right amount, if it is still too moist, perhaps do it the next day.
Light Burn
Light burn is another thing which can cause your leaves to curl up. This generally happens at the top of your medicinal plants, and the closer to the light the plant is, the worse the problem can get.
Yes, medicinal plants need a lot of light, and some heat too, but once again, here we have the too much of a good thing problem again.
If you have excessively strong grow lights, too many of them, or depending on the type of light, if you have it too close to the pot plant, it can cause the leaves to burn, which is often characterized by the yellowing, drying out, and curling up of the leaves.
The Solution
The solution to this issue comes in a few different forms. If you have a super strong indoor grow light, chances are you need to switch it out for something a bit smaller that does not put out so many lumens and so much heat.
Here, you can also try moving your plants further away from the lights, although this may cause them to stretch. You can also try taking down some of the reflective materials you have outfitted your grow room with, just to cut down on the amount of light reflection taking place.
Whatever you can do to decrease the amount and intensity of light your medicinal plants are getting should be undertaken if light burn is the issue.
Genetics
If you are planning to reproduce or to breed, it is very important to have healthy parent plants. Genetics will tell us that if the parent plants are healthy, it will also produce healthy offspring. In the case of an unhealthy parent plant, it will also pass on some disease to the offspring plant that would cause them to grow unhealthy as well. This may also be one reason why leaves are curling, so to fix the problem, you may need to feed your plant with much-needed nutrients or fertilizer to heal them from any kind of sickness.
Yes, growing medicinal plants can be easy and enjoyable, but it may also require much of your attention, especially in maintaining its health. The quality of yield depends on your plant’s health. If you happen to see that your plant is developing curly leaves, this is a sign that they are under distress. The tips that we have mentioned will help you identify which among the abovementioned factors is causing the leaves of your plants to curl. Though it can be cured, do not disregard the symptoms and do something right away to cure fix them.
Curling in medicinal plants leaves is never a good sign. However, when beginning a medicinal plants garden/indoor grow tent, you should expect and be prepared for these things to happen.
Ultimately as a medicinal plants grower, the best thing you can do is to act quickly and provide the most appropriate solution in order to save your garden/tent and eventually reap high quality yields.