Leaves curling up and turning yellow & brown: might be dying

[MrGritz]

Update: I’ve been tracking the new growth and of course not been watering the plant at all. The soil is slowly drying now that it’s had a day and a half of sun so far. The humidity has also been mostly in the 60-70% range during the day, which is great. The weather is supposed to continue like this for the rest of today and tomorrow, but it’s looking like rain on Sunday. I’m thinking I should probably do that aluminum foil dome thing you mentioned to keep the soil dryer.

Here are some pictures of the apical growth from Wednesday evening (first pic) to noon today (second). You were definitely right about the affected leaves looking much worse following the transplant. Many have shriveled and fallen off, and others look like they will soon. There may be a tiny bit of new growth, but it’s been very slow (I’m guessing transplant shock is playing a big role in that). Also, I’ve seen some people online saying that you should keep the plant at least partially shaded for a bit after transplanting. Should I do that too?

Side note: I still haven’t drilled the holes and wrapped the pot in foil but will this weekend definitely. Also, I’m very happy with how airy the soil feels.

 

[Morda Grown]

Looking good but, Yes give it a drink I see the leaves drooping Follow Emilya's water method and you will do fine!

The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot How to Water Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion...

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Just to give you some incentive, the plant I posted on the first page went through several frost freeze events. It is now 5 1/2 ft tall and almost 4 ft across and was almost dead at one point. It took some time to recover but when it decided to take off, it went nuts. LOL

 

[beez0404]

Essex is a pretty area.

 

[MrGritz]

Essex is a pretty area.

Essex, CT?

 

[beez0404]

Yes, Essex, CT

 

[MrGritz]

@Morda Grown thanks for the watering tips! I’ll water like that from now on. I’m a bit worried about watering them yet because I have one of those cheap little 3-way meters that can measure soil moisture and it’s reading 5 or 6/10 in the root ball and deep in the soil. I think it’s still pretty wet, should I still water or hold off? I think it’s supposed to rain tomorrow but I could always cover the soil.

Also, congrats on that beauty of a plant, she looks so healthy. It’s definitely reassuring to hear about its recovery.

 

[MrGritz]

Yes, Essex, CT

Wow, that’s not exactly where I am but you’re not far off. How did you know?

 

[Baker1053]

Thank you ahead of time to anyone who takes time out of their day to help me out!

So I’m in what appears to be a somewhat dire situation with my single purple thai plant. Up until now, things have been going pretty smoothly and consistently. Maybe a bit slow growing, but it’s a strain with a longer cycle so I haven’t been worried. However, within the last day or two, many of her lower leaves have begun to turn a brownish-yellow color towards the tips and along the outer edges. They have also begun to curl up at the tips. Also, one of the lower branches in drooping over and looking pretty awful.

Towards the top, some of the newer fan leaves are developing a darker color (maybe brownish-greyish-purple lol) around the edges. For a couple weeks, I’ve seen some chlorosis in the new growth. But as this is only my second grow, I didn’t know what it was and didn’t think too much of it until the last couple days.

Growing conditions: Outdoors, temps 70-90 F, rh 45-95% (though usually not that high). Soil: 30% Foxfarms Happy Frog, 30% Foxfarms Ocean Forest, 25-30% perlite, 10% peat moss. She’s in a 2.8 L pot with decent drainage. pH has been a bit of trouble, it has floated at about 7, maybe slightly higher like 7.2 at times. I don’t have citric or phosphoric acid yet, so for the last 2-3 days I have used diluted apple cider vinegar because I was panicking a bit about the pH. I think this could maybe be the culprit idk.

I’ve been more careful of pests and fungal infections this year by alternating between neem oil and B. amyloliquefaciens each week (applying one of them once a week). Unfortunately I haven’t gotten myself an organic fertilizer yet so I have been using Jack’s All Purpose (I know, feel free to laugh at me). It’s a 20-20-20 with micros as well but in very small quantities. I feed her once every week or two. I think it may be the most likely culprit because it’s a salt based fert and I’m speculating it may have caused lockout. Also, 2 days ago, I finally upped my fert concentration to the recommended dose for outdoor plants on the package. This was definitely a bit more than I had given her to this point. I know the best move is probably to flush the soil but I’m concerned because it has been raining quite a bit this week and the soil still has some moisture. It didn’t rain the last two days tho, so it hasn’t already naturally flushed that fert.

So I think the issue has gotta be the diluted apple cider vinegar, the consistently slightly high pH, or probably most likely, the recent heavy feeding. I also think maybe a magnesium or potassium deficiency, but that could be caused by the lockout I think. If anyone has any advice for me that would be hugely appreciated, she looks pretty sick and I think she might die if I don’t do something soon. I will try to attach some pics, but I’m posting from my phone so I hope it works. Oh, and this is my first post here, so I apologize for my ignorance but thank you for your patience!

I had this problem last season (Southern Hemisphere), turned out to be spidermites spray with dish washing liquid.in a spray bottle. Very weak. Worked really well for me and no chemicals!!

 

[Phytoplankton]

I had this problem last season (Southern Hemisphere), turned out to be spidermites spray with dish washing liquid.in a spray bottle. Very weak. Worked really well for me and no chemicals!!

Don't think spider mites are the issue, I don't see any evidence of mites, and he's been using Neem oil. There would be tiny yellow spots all over the leaves and you'd see either webs, eggs, or "the Borg" themselves under the leaves.

 

[Sueet]

Every time you guys refer to the spider mites as 'the Borg' it cracks me up.. I suspect if I ever found locutus on one of my plants, I would be pretty stoked

 

[Phytoplankton]

I stole "the Borg" from another site, but it really describes them well, the way they spread and web everything, reminds me of "the collective". Certainly the nastiest critter that most growers ever have to deal with. (Luckily I've never seen a thrip!)

 

[Sueet]

I stole "the Borg" from another site, but it really describes them well, the way they spread and web everything, reminds me of "the collective". Certainly the nastiest critter that most growers ever have to deal with. (Luckily I've never seen a thrip!)

Amen, same here *knock on wood*

 

[Morda Grown]

@MrGritz How are things going with your girl?

 

[MrGritz]

@Morda Grown She seems kinda frozen in time, not much better or worse. There’s maybe a tiny bit of new growth, but I was hoping for more by now. I think there might be slightly more growth in the auxiliary shoots than in the apical, but it’s minimal altogether. I did water them when you recommended it a couple days ago, but I used a very small amount of water and watered like that guide you sent suggested. It also rained a bit this morning.

When I transplanted I did notice a bit of a smell coming from the root ball, but nothing too bad. Probably about 2-3 days after the transplant, I used a soil moisture meter to check the moisture of the original root ball. When I pulled out the meter, the same smell was present on it. Fortunately, though, I did the same thing last night and I could only smell soil on the meter. I’m thinking that’s a good sign, but I’m still a bit worried about the sluggish growth.

Here’s a pic of the apical growth for comparison:

I’m also a little concerned about this burnt tip on one of the youngest fan leaves up top. The burn wasn’t there two days ago, maybe the soil’s just a little hot, I’m not sure. Here’s a pic of what I mean (it’s the leaf in focus):

 

[Morda Grown]

Was it a faint rotten worm smell?

 

[MrGritz]

Honestly, I’m not too sure what that smells like. It might have been, maybe a bit wormy, not sure. It was a little funky-ish, but not very strong.

 

[Morda Grown]

That is a sign of rot and It is a musky type smell. The plant looks very stressed. This is what my spring grow looked like after the heavy rain and frost/freeze. In your case wet soil and high stress. You many want to just keep it indoors until it starts to perk up. Do you have a grow light to keep it under? The plants of mine that looked like that took around 1 to 1 1/2 weeks to really start showing improvement.

This is the new growth area to look at, anything that is below where I circled in red was there when the issue had already started.

 

[MrGritz]

Thanks again for all the awesome advice! It would be kinda tough to keep her inside. The closest thing I have to a grow light is simply a skylight in the kitchen that faces east. So light would definitely be limited, and the kitchen is pretty small so the plant would be in a terrible spot haha.

Honestly, the old growth hasn’t really looked much worse than it did like 4 days ago or so. Now that I’m comparing some of the pics from just after the transplant to now side by side, I can see there definitely is new growth, though it’s just a little bit. The next three days are supposed to be sunny and mild. Do you think she might be ok if I leave her outside?

Here’s a zoomed out picture of the whole plant:

 

[Morda Grown]

Most of the dark brown leaves are spent you could just touch them and will fall off. I had to leave mine outside, they were planted in the ground. Some in 5gal buckets but, even those I left out. Survival of the fittest kinda thing.

It looks like she it trying hard to come back. Just keep it on a tight water schedule. Make sure and cover the soil during the rain too. When a plant is stressed it will slow down the growth.

Example: This is the area on this plant where the frost freeze happened. Notice how tight the 3 nodes are compared to the one above and below. That was the slowed growth.

 

[Virgin Ground]

Normal treatment for root rot is a diluted h202 treatment. Roots would have felt slimy and looked translucent. If they felt dry and tough they were probably burned from the vinegar.
Should have had a soil pH slurry test done after the vinegar addition. You may have acidified your soil.
White pots won't hurt anything. If they did my tomatoes would have died long ago.
Looks like a starving plant with wonky pH. If you are using Jacks and are in a buffered soil you don't need to PH your nutes. Your water is in the low 7s and that is fine. The nutes will lower the pH and the buffers will protect the plant.