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luv_figs

droopy leaves for cutting

luv_figs
13 years ago

my cutting has 6 medium sized leaves. i put it on a window sill and it gets light from 8am till 1pm. i notice that around 11am the leaves are really droopy.

i then watered it, and not sure if i was supposed to. the last time i watered that cutting was 11 days ago. i could still see a tiny bit of condensation in the container which is why i didn't water it.

why do the leaves droop, and is it because i underwater? i recently posted a thread about watering cuttings, and i have been monitoring the moisture level of the cutting closely, basically not watering for as long as i can. if i can still see condensation, then i don't water.

Comments (4)

  • tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
    13 years ago

    You can take a completely empty jar and put a lid on it and as soon as the temperature drops there will be moisture collecting on the inside surface of the jar, so that there is condensation visible on the inside of a clear container shouldn't be all the evidence you need to decide there is adequate soil moisture. If the loss of turgidity is from under-watering, you should see the plant start to regain turgidity only a few minutes after watering. If that doesn't happen, you need to look to a different cause. One thing that comes to mind: If you can SEE condensation in the container, the wilting may be due to high soil temperatures. If you're using clear or translucent containers, they allow sun to pass through and warm the soil directly, resulting in much higher soil temperatures than if you were using even black containers. If you were using a black container, light would be absorbed at the container's surface and turned to heat, where the lions share would be dissipated into surrounding air. As noted, this doesn't happen with clear/translucent containers. Then, after the sunlight warms the soil directly, the container and small air spaces at the perimeter of the soil mass serve as insulation, helping to trap heat in the soil where it can dissipate only slowly. White (or pastel) opaque containers are the best choice for plants in containers because they are most resistant to relative heat gain.

    Other possibilities (though there isn't enough info to favor any one over another): Not enough roots developed to furnish adequate volume of water to the leaves (keep out of hot sun). It could be a drought response from too high a level of soluble salts in the soil inhibiting water uptake, the soil being too dry, or the soil being too wet.

    Al


  • dieseler
    13 years ago

    luv_figs
    try moving it from window sill before leaves droop and see if they do the same it may be the sun or may not be but it might rule the sun out.
    Martin

  • luv_figs
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    thanks for the tips! my cutting's pot is wrapped in foil, so hopefully that is good for the roots. i don't think there is a ton of roots, so maybe it is the sun. i have noticed that the leaves get droopy in the sun, i think that is the correlation. other times, like before the sun hits it, or in the evening, the cutting is fine.

    so now i don't what to do. should i not give it any sun, or less sun? the sun its getting now is behind a window screen. maybe i'll pull the window down, so there's another layer for the sun to go through.

  • satellitehead
    13 years ago

    did you put it directly in the sun directly from a container? if yes, i would never shock a plant like that - i always move to indirect light, then to filtered light, then to direct sunlight.

    evaporation happens much more quickly when a cup is in direct sunlight, especially one as small as 160z-18oz. I find I need to water (literally) nearly daily. I need to water to the point of what feels like overwatering, or what would be overwatering in any other case.

    i agree with Al's advice and observations.

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