Moisture Matters: Extreme Low Humidity and/or High Winds = "burn" or desiccation ?

[thedudefresco]

Moisture Matters: Extreme Low Humidity and/or High Winds = "burn" or desiccation ?

Greetings Fellow Growers.

I'm noticing what looks like "bud rot" on some plants, but I don't think it is bud rot. I think it is from abnormally low humidity and high winds outdoors.

Let me elaborate:

Several sugar leaves, the trichome laden ones, close to the tops of some of my buds, have become crispy, almost over night.

They are normal colored, not yellow like sometimes seen in Bud rot, but they fall or peel away from the stem in a similar way to bud rot.

Inspection of the stem and the point where the break occurs reveals no mold; however near some of these dried sugar leaves, some of the bud itself looks dry and crumbly too.

No mold though, to my eye. Humidity is in the single digits here and winds are dry.

Have other outdoor growers noticed ill effects when windy, dry weather hits late in flower and "shocks" the plants? If its caused by low humidity and wind, could it be desiccation?


I'm contemplating misting down the plant, but decided to leave her with a slow drip of several gallons of h2O.

I'm open to other possibilities, and if none of you have experienced this problem with wind and low humidity, I'll know to look for other possible reasons.

Those of you who might have experienced this issue. How do you cope?

 

[thedudefresco]

I'm finding portions of the bud and leaves which are dry, and seem to fall off the stem easily.

No mold tho...

No black poop

 

[Teddybrae]

Mate are you growing in pots? If so are your pots sitting in saucers of water (say 1" deep) during your hot weather? And you need to replenish hourly if it's really hot. I 've never hurt my plants by misting in hot weather but I found it wasn't much use because the mist evaporated almost immediately. Limited benefit.

 

[thedudefresco]

Mate are you growing in pots? If so are your pots sitting in saucers of water (say 1" deep) during your hot weather? And you need to replenish hourly if it's really hot. I 've never hurt my plants by misting in hot weather but I found it wasn't much use because the mist evaporated almost immediately. Limited benefit.

Thanks for the response, Teddybrae !

I am growing in pots, but the weather hasn't been too hot. It has been very, very dry and windy though. I did notice the pot seemed rather dry a day before this happened (low humidity and winds overnight) but there was no visible wilting or anything.

You have got me thinking though. My plant is close to finish, so she that overnight dryness I supposed could be the culprit.

Its a sativa with looser buds, so I doubt it is true budrot, but its defnitely got me feeling a bit paranoid.


EDIT:

Found this after some more searching:

Careful to not overwater them, wind is more damaging than heat. When the wind comes it closes the stomata as you have lost the microclimate around the leaf tissue so the stomata close to preserve water. If you over water to compensate the droopiness then you run the risk of creating root pressure and guttation which would give you higher amounts of water and if in flower could lead to mold, if not flowering you could lead to mildew. The tissue has become beat up and sounds like it's just your newer soft growth. Silica foliar or drenches could help toughen the cells a bit but blocking the wind would do the best, especially if your soil moisture is fine. The leaf should return rougher than before after several days but I would caution to not over water, if your soil moisture is good don't add more water to perk them back up from wind damage, if the soil is dry, the advice the other fellows gave you should help a bit as well.

I have definitely been watering more to compensate for the low humidity, maybe that caused some issues.

 

[Teddybrae]

Y'know ... if it is a Sativa and the soil is well drained ... I mean water flows straight thru ... it would not hurt to give the plant a soak ... you might not be watering enuf if yr cautious ... small waterings are a no no ... but I can entirely understand why so.

And if the humidity is very low there's not much chance of mould.

I have a kitchen 'weather station' that tells me Humidity. More accurate than how sweaty you feel! Good luck!