Help! Drying out soil to prevent botrytis(bud rot) *Thanks

chronicvanisland

chronicvanisland

Active Member
I have a theory that drying out your medium, in my case soil, will prevent over humid flowers/plant, I strongly believe high humidity atmosphere allows plants to take in water through foliage(foliar feeding), this is called "osmosis", and in turn dont use as much water from medium. Ive been trying this technique and seems to be working, its obvious the strain is resistant but i feel its helping. She is still looking happy:) The soil is moist about 3 inches down, going to water a bit soon but wanting to wait til starts to wilt also, so, looking for advice:)

Photos were taken Oct.3

Thoughts? Thanks everyone
 

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dubekoms

dubekoms

Well-Known Member
Most plants need to lose water to the atmosphere, in order to get water from the ground. They do this by opening stomata on the underside of their leaves. That lets water evaporate, making the leaf drier. Because the leaf is a little drier, it absorbs water from the leaf xylem, which absorbs water from the stem xylem, which absorbs water from the roots, which absorbs water from the ground. There isn't a net gain of water, but the stomata need to exchange O2 for CO2, which can't be done without losing water. Only non vascular plants like epiphytes can absorb water from the atmosphere through use of special capillaries. Not watering the plant might actually make things worse because it will stress the plant out allowing it to be more susceptible to mold.
 
chronicvanisland

chronicvanisland

Active Member
Oh okay thanks for knowledge, very good to know. But second part sounds like a theory. Have any experience with drying it out a bit? Its definately not making it worse cause i have removed some rot so far but havent seen any in a week
 
dubekoms

dubekoms

Well-Known Member
chronicvanisland said:
Also if a plant is wilted, and you add humidity i think it will absorb water from the air through the process of osmosis;)
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If the water condenses on the leaf then yes it can absorb some of it but it's not as efficient compared to the roots. If the humidity is high enough to condense on your buds then no amount of underwatering will help prevent mold loss. That is when strain choice, structure, and fungicides come into play to help keep mold loss minimal.
 
ganga gurl420

ganga gurl420

Well-Known Member
My 2 cents...
First If you live where it gets cold and has frosts then you are screwing yourself by having dry soil. Water helps insulate the roots keeping them from freezing. The plant can take frosts but if it hits the roots then the plant dies.

Second bud rot forms from a cold wet acidic enviroment. We cant help the cold or wet when we grow outdoors but we can help the ph of the leaves. That is why so many anti fungal remedies are so high in ph. This is also why I like to spray silica as a foliar feed. Very high ph. Of course I do use actinovate as well.

I do not think that keeping your soil dry will help.. but hey If it works for you......
 
Werp

Werp

Well-Known Member
ganga gurl420 said:
My 2 cents...
First If you live where it gets cold and has frosts then you are screwing yourself by having dry soil. Water helps insulate the roots keeping them from freezing. The plant can take frosts but if it hits the roots then the plant dies.

Second bud rot forms from a cold wet acidic enviroment. We cant help the cold or wet when we grow outdoors but we can help the ph of the leaves. That is why so many anti fungal remedies are so high in ph. This is also why I like to spray silica as a foliar feed. Very high ph. Of course I do use actinovate as well.

I do not think that keeping your soil dry will help.. but hey If it works for you......
Click to expand...
No personal experience with this here, but a light frost isn't going to penetrate that far down into the soil to effect the roots, dry or wet.... imo.
 
ganga gurl420

ganga gurl420

Well-Known Member
Werp said:
No personal experience with this here, but a light frost isn't going to penetrate that far down into the soil to effect the roots, dry or wet.... imo.
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I'm not talking about a light frost but a hard one. This I'm very very familiar with. I've had them as low as 22 degrees before.
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
chronicvanisland said:
I have a theory that drying out your medium, in my case soil, will prevent over humid flowers/plant, I strongly believe high humidity atmosphere allows plants to take in water through foliage(foliar feeding), this is called "osmosis", and in turn dont use as much water from medium. Ive been trying this technique and seems to be working, its obvious the strain is resistant but i feel its helping. She is still looking happy:) The soil is moist about 3 inches down, going to water a bit soon but wanting to wait til starts to wilt also, so, looking for advice:)

Photos were taken Oct.3

Thoughts? Thanks everyone
Click to expand...
if the soil is moist three inches down then you are doing a great job of watering properly (IMO). I'd worry about high humidity, above 75%. A lot depends on the size of your root ball. I grow directly in loose and deep garden bed so my roots are way deep. I water when I can't find moisture more than 5 inches down and I've never seen my leaves wilt due to that. My main problem in Oregon at this time of the year is rain and cold with occasional light frosts. I tarp up with greenhouse plastic to keep rain away from the buds and put 5 gal jugs of warm water into the tent with a fan running low at night to keep air temp and air movement up, which also keeps humidity down. It's not always a recipe for success against bud rot but I think keeping the soil dry like you do is a good strategy. Not high humidity if by high you mean greater than 75%. By your photos it looks like you are doing pretty good though.
 
chronicvanisland

chronicvanisland

Active Member
Fogdog said:
if the soil is moist three inches down then you are doing a great job of watering properly (IMO). I'd worry about high humidity, above 75%. A lot depends on the size of your root ball. I grow directly in loose and deep garden bed so my roots are way deep. I water when I can't find moisture more than 5 inches down and I've never seen my leaves wilt due to that. My main problem in Oregon at this time of the year is rain and cold with occasional light frosts. I tarp up with greenhouse plastic to keep rain away from the buds and put 5 gal jugs of warm water into the tent with a fan running low at night to keep air temp and air movement up, which also keeps humidity down. It's not always a recipe for success against bud rot but I think keeping the soil dry like you do is a good strategy. Not high humidity if by high you mean greater than 75%. By your photos it looks like you are doing pretty good though.
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Thanks for your input buddy, were on the same page, i will post final pics before harvest.
 
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