Update - The demise of the Mulanje ME - and more space on the balcony
Greetings 420 enthusiasts! A bit of a sad post this one, but there's a lesson in it. After my last post when I focused on some early bud pics as I felt the plants pics had been getting a bit same-same. I had given all the plants a 'good' watering, some via their down pipes, and some by top watering to help their recent top dressings.
I took those early bud pics, and then I gave another 0.7L of 'top' watering, and I noticed when I finished with the picture taking that the 2 sativas were drooping quite badly. Like suddenly that last application of water caused a collapse of the leaf rigidity.
Immediately after excess watering (L: Mulanje ME; R: Mulanje HP)
Mulanje ME
By the end of the day the Mulanje ME was looking more collapsed and the Mulanje HP was looking like she was recovering.
The next day - Mulanje HP seemed all fine
The next day - Mulanje ME was looking pretty farked unfortunately
I read an article in the UK Guardian newspaper which suggested using cold Camomile tea after overwatering due to its anti fungal properties. I tried this but it didn't have any apparent effect.
And another 2 days later with no more water - still farked
At this point, one branch of the plant had leaves that were trying to stand up and out. The rest of the plant appeared to be a gonna, so as a last ditch effort I decided to prune off everything except the little bit that was trying to survive, just for future shits and giggles.
However today, that remaining branch has had collapsed leaves all day, so I don't think it is going to recover. We have rain currently and more for another day, so if no improvement is seen I'll chop it all and move on with the rest of the grow. I have unfortunately screwed the pooch with the Mulanje ME or to give her full name
the (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje) x Mulanje. Thankfully one of the seedlings of her that I didn't use I gave to a fellow grower who reports his in-the-ground plant is doing great, so hopefully I still get to sample some of her buds.
Anyway, I have gained some useful experience and caution around overwatering, and I now have some lovely extra space on the balcony where I can much more easily attend my plants. It is really great having that space.
What caused it? I think overwatering and...
Last year my number 1 plant, the Mulanje, crapped out in a not dissimiliar manner. At the time the finger was pointed at the top dressing, that somehow the Mulanje was stressed about it and it became a mortal stress. At the time I held some suspicions about the watering, as all 4 plants on that grow were being given similar amounts but yet perhaps the Mulanje was the first to become mortally wounded!
At that time, we had lots of hot days where the stone tiles on the balcony would radiate the heat back to the plants and the thermometer would easily and regularly go over 50C or 120F. So, I convinced myself that as it was very hot, and as my pots were heavily drilled out on the sides and bottoms, that giving extra water would be OK and good.
Now in hindsight, I think perhaps a lot of the overwatering issue is giving them more water 2 - 3 hours after the last watering, instead of just a single good watering once a day that allows them to 'dry out' sufficiently for the next one.
I had thought, that because on most afternoons the top leaves would lose their rigidity and hang upside down in the heat, it was telling me that some more water would be OK. I found I could re-water and yet in another couple of hours the plant's leaves would be drooping again.
So my last year's grow, after the Mulanje's demise I stopped being generous with the watering for the remaining 3 plants.
So why did I take the risk of over watering on this grow?
Well, this grow I have included 'aeration chambers' in my pots. They aren't SIPS because they don't have reservoirs, and yet the SIPS growers are finding their plants drink lots of water and grow a lot. So I thought, the soil of each of my containers has a big bubble of fresh air in it for the roots to still get oxygen, so hopefully the plant finds any excess water to be less of a problem.
Yeah nah, from now on I think I will water once a day only, and if they droop then, that's ok because it's not like they'll die when they'll still get watered again the next day.
Was top dressing an issue?
I'm going to say that I don't think so. They were top dressed 1.5 weeks before this 'event' and I don't think there was any adverse signs from that.
But what about the age of the plants and the training as they approach flowering?
I am a bit suspicious about this. These were started in off as seeds in late September, they are approaching 6 months old now, that is a long time to be in cramped containers with dodgy watering and harsh heat.
The smallest plant, the Mulanje Sherbert, measured over 4 foot across, and the 2 sativas were over 4.5 foot at their widest. I think that is probably stressful for the plant, little feet and a disproportionately wide canopy.
Most of my training was supercropping and LST
My feeling now after doing this training over several grows, is that it is very easy when the plant is in veg mode. I easily did over a 100 supercroppings this grow (with pliers) without breaking one single stem. But once early flowering occurs, the plant's stems get more woody and yes they can bend fine for LST, but there can be a hell of lot of energy/stress stored up in those bends, particularly plants that are bigger, because they have been grown for longer. One plant I think last year, the canopy was holding so much tension from the training, that I accidentally 'bumped' it as I was trying to do something, and at that moment, 'bang' the mainstem just split down the middle from the tension stored in the plant from it's training.
I now have the strong suspicion that the plants do not like strong tension within them. It is possible better to simply supercrop where there is no energy/tension forcibly stored in the plant's stems, and instead with supercropping there is just a crushing injury that the plant will build a knuckle and heal.
With wide canopies at early flowering, I almost always find that I have to do 'canopy reduction' training so there can be some space left for me on the balcony. And each time I do this I 'feel' that the plants don't like it, that they really don't look so happy afterwards, I felt that with the Mulanje ME this time. I bent some of her stems back towards her centre, which allowed more space, but yeah the resulting tension/stored energy in those bent stems I don't think is good.
After I cut off the obviously dying stems from the Mulanje ME, I saw that one had cracked at the base. I can't be sure that it occurred from the training a few days earlier but I guess so, and then the overwatering was the straw that broke the camel's back?
At times like this a 'training mistress' is needed, altho I am not sure if this would help me from doing it again
Anyway, luckily I had a backyard menagerie and support group that I was able to lean on. They were all initially very shocked, stunned, and like me disappointed, but they soon kicked and scratched around at the problem. And unless the wee stem I left on the chopped Mulanje ME survives this present rainy weather bout, then I'll write it off as yet another learning experience ,and hope that I can guide the remaining 2 plants on to a safe harvest.
Cheers for dropping in, these things happen, good to learn from them!
