How many of you have ever had the problem where your cannabis curls up or down? Cannabis can be a tricky plant to grow even if you filter by growing difficulty, and one of the most common issues California cannabis growers have to handle is leaf curling.
This blog post explores how you can identify if your cannabis plants are curling up or down, what causes it in certain cases, and ways to fix the issue so that you get more even growth on your next harvest! Keep reading to learn how to fix this problem!
What Causes Curling Cannabis Leaves?
Overwatered
Cannabis can curl for a number of reasons, but in most cases, it’s because the plant was overwatered during cultivation. This causes the stem to snap and then curve when drying out afterward.
Overwatered plants will display symptoms such as curling or cupping of the leaves and buds, brown spots on leaves, and unusual leaf discolorations. This is a common problem in a lot of commonly grown herbal crops, such as moringa, as well, and it one of the main reasons you’ll see leaves yellowing and curling on any plant.
Nitrogen deficiency
Cannabis curling up or down can also be a result of a nitrogen deficiency in young leaves, but this is much less common than overwatering being responsible for. How much nitrogen your cannabis needs changes depending on its size, light exposure, humidity levels, and growing medium.
How can you tell which problem a curvy cannabis plant has when the symptoms are one and the same? In general, if your plant is young or hasn’t been flowering for long, chances are it’s a nitrogen deficiency causing the problem.
Age
With age, there’s a natural process that comes into play where the leaves start to curl inwards. If the leaf tips are turning up but aren’t curling inwards toward each other it’s not age-related.
Moisture Content
Let’s take a look at each one in turn. How long cannabis has been left out in light can cause it to become dry and brittle, which will lead to a folding of the leaves when touched. Cannabis needs proper moisture content so that it doesn’t die or get crispy.
How To Fix Curling Marijuana Leaves?
In order to stop your cannabis from curving up or down, you need to address whichever issue is responsible (overwatering vs. under-fertilizing).
If there are leaves curling up at their tips and yellowing between the veins, the plants are probably not getting enough nitrogen. In this case, you might need to add some organic fertilizer for cannabis nitrogen deficiency.
If they tend to curl up from the stem and have brown tips, it’s probably over-watering that is causing the problem. If this happens all you need to do is stop watering for a couple of days until the plant recovers.
How much water your cannabis needs changes depending on its size, light exposure, humidity levels, and growing medium. While there are no hard-and-fast rules about how much water you should give your plants per day if they are wilting from over-watering at any point during their life cycle you need to cut back on the amount of water given every day until they stop wilting altogether.
If your cannabis is curling down, however, you may have under-watered it. How can you tell? If your plants are drooping more than usual and they don’t perk up when watered but instead stay even worse after watering then this could be a sign of an over-drafted plant. How can you fix this? Stop watering for a couple of days and give it some time to recover!
Concluding on Curled Cannabis Leaves
If you notice the leaves on your marijuana plants are curling, it’s best to solve this issue before it becomes a real problem. Now that you know what to do, you should have no trouble handling curled cannabis leaves fast.
Do you know another way to stop your marijuana leaves from curling? Let us know with a comment below!
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