Need help tips of new growth drying out.

[NaturesFinest]

I'm in need of some advice, last year the problem was mold/rot that took 50% of my cuttings, this year i dealt with that problem got all cuttings off to a great start, roots everywhere in a matter of 3 tot 6 weeks but now the tips of almost all the new growth is drying out on almost all off the cuttings.

My humidity is around 50-55%, the lux measured at plant level is between 5000-6000 lux, air tempature is between 18-20 degrees celcius, the heat math is set at 26 degrees celcius. I feel like it must be a moisture problem so the action i took so far is to hang the led battens higher, and spray all the leaves with a very fine mist this increaser the moisture level to 70-75% the only problem i see with this is that i'm only able to mist once or twice a day

See pictures for the examples

What would the advice of the experts be?

 

[RosyPosy]

It’s totally fine, that was just the outer cover protecting the bud coming off now that it’s growing.

You don’t have to worry so much about all of those numbers and humidity levels. It’s a lot easier than that.

 

[ktrain]

Looking pretty healthy, I agree with the above statement.

 

[NaturesFinest]

It’s totally fine, that was just the outer cover protecting the bud coming off now that it’s growing.

You don’t have to worry so much about all of those numbers and humidity levels. It’s a lot easier than that.

Thank you, could you explain how that works?

So here is the situation, the cutting makes a bud, the bud opens and grows then leaves form but there is still a tip with more leaves inside those leaves are now falling off to the point the tip is completely gone but there is still the 2 leaves and some new growth, i asssume from the node on the new growth new leaves will form then??

Ps: i did notice 2/3 pictures showed the outer leaves falling off that might have mislead the problem seen on the other photo that is the leaves coming out of the bud falling off before they form leaves.

 

[RosyPosy]

This is what I thought you were referring to in the pictures. Let me know if it’s the wrong thing. The part circled in red.



The part that the yellow arrow is pointing to is healthy and will unfurl as it grows into more leaves and stem.

 

[NaturesFinest]

Yeah the one circled in red indeed is the protection falling off, i ment the leaves drying instantly once they come out of the growing point that you pointed with yellow. This does show on the picture attached but that picture also shows the protection still on the side of the bud and will fall off anytime now. Circled in blue the new leaf that is instantely dry.

 

[RosyPosy]

Yeah the one circled in red indeed is the protection falling off, i ment the leaves drying instantly once they come out of the growing point that you pointed with yellow. This does show on the picture attached but that picture also shows the protection still on the side of the bud and will fall off anytime now. Circled in blue the new leaf that is instantely dry.

That one is harder to say. It just may be a glitch with that one leaf. The rest of the leaves look okay. It shouldn’t be from lights or not enough humidity, as that would affect the other leaves too, but it would be from other things such as a root issue. I would keep an eye on it the next couple of days and see how it progresses. Not too worried about it at this point.

The most you could do now is un-bag it. Make sure the bottom isn’t too warm or wet, smell it to make sure it isn’t building up bacteria. Maybe let it get some air flow.

I usually unbag mine at about this point of growth, but other growers who use this method keep them bagged. It may depend on how much of a worry fungus gnats are for you for what you do with that.

 

[NaturesFinest]

Thank you for the advice, last year i had a massive fungus gnats problem and was unable to control it even with all the bought products that were supposed to get rid of them

But i must add the first 2 months of fig propogation i had 0 gnats, then i started my vegetables in a compost medium and in a matter of weeks a massive invastation happend

2 days ago i checked the weight off all the pots and it was at the same or a bit lower weight then when the cuttings started 6 weeka ago also i had a few dummy pots and checked those the roots seemed very healthy also the soil is moist but definitely not wet in anyway but air ciculation might become a issue. Maybe it is at this point the tempature of the mat should be turned lower from 26 degrees to 23 degrees celcius or even 21?

 

[RosyPosy]

Temperature can be lowered a bit, but 21 is too low. Maybe 23-24?

Not sure if this makes you feel better. But I was just turning the light off of this one and noticed the “dry” leaves on it. Not sure if you can see the crunchy edges on the one leaf and the curled up other leaf? This was caused by a buildup of humidity on the leaves actually. It was in a bag and those leaves were touching the bag. The plant itself is perfectly fine.

 

[NaturesFinest]

Temperature can be lowered a bit, but 21 is too low. Maybe 23-24?

Not sure if this makes you feel better. But I was just turning the light off of this one and noticed the “dry” leaves on it. Not sure if you can see the crunchy edges on the one leaf and the curled up other leaf? This was caused by a buildup of humidity on the leaves actually. It was in a bag and those leaves were touching the bag. The plant itself is perfectly fine.

24 it is yeah i can notice it on the lower leaves. yeah once leaves form inside of the bag that can cause lots of problembs once they come out of the bag or touch the bag, for me however none of the leaves formed inside or touched a bag.

 

[387PETE]

Are you using a liquid fertilizer. Once my original pot weight has gone down I add fertilizer and bottom water them back to original weight. The more leaves the more water I add

 

[NaturesFinest]

Are you using a liquid fertilizer. Once my original pot weight has gone down I add fertilizer and bottom water them back to original weight. The more leaves the more water I add

So far i have not used a fertilizer since the weight has not gone down enough yet for me to water, but when they go down i add fertiliser at 1/4 strenght.

 

[ktrain]

There are indoor fertilizers that do not cause burn, it's like a couple dropper fulls per gallon of water.
I use this on my cuttings.
Not sure of the name, I'm at work right now.

 

[NaturesFinest]

There are indoor fertilizers that do not cause burn, it's like a couple dropper fulls per gallon of water.
I use this on my cuttings.
Not sure of the name, I'm at work right now.

Best of luck at work, i have a 3-2-4 fertilizer for indoor plants it requires 7 ml to 1 L water.

 

[Trustyfarms]

I would avoid spraying the leaves with any water. I've had new leaves emerge then dry out and fall off even on healthy growing rooted cuttings. I've noticed that it's often correlated with the top growth slowing down so the roots can catch up as it's a constant balancing act for a newly rooted cutting. The most apical bud generally has a very tight sheath of bud leaves around it while this is occurring.

 

[NaturesFinest]

I would avoid spraying the leaves with any water. I've had new leaves emerge then dry out and fall off even on healthy growing rooted cuttings. I've noticed that it's often correlated with the top growth slowing down so the roots can catch up as it's a constant balancing act for a newly rooted cutting. The most apical bud generally has a very tight sheath of bud leaves around it while this is occurring.

Thank you that is reassuring, ill probally just have to relax take a step back and accept most of the growth will happen with time and some leaves will dry and fall off but thaths normal then.

 

[NaturesFinest]

Also i saw a video today from a fig grower that showed simular leave problems, he explained that the first leaves from a bud and even a few leaves after are very weak, and that to much light can burn them so i decided to turn 1 led batten off for now and monitor the diffrence for the upcoming days it did make a massive diffrence for my own eyes, 2 led battens was extremely bright

Also attached a few pictures of 6 fig pops that i started 3 weeks ago.

Ps: I wonder has anyone ever tried to root cuttings indoor for like 8-10 weeks to give them a nice root system yet not to much leaves and then move them to a greenhouse even with cold tempatures? Reason i ask is that last year i brought my rooted cuttings to my greenhouse after 14-16 weeks even with some colder nights, the plants stopped growing for a few weeks but then when may came around and i upotted them all grew very well that season

 

[Trustyfarms]

I keep my rooted fig trees as close to LED lights as possible for strong growth I've never had any get burned by them before.

 

[ktrain]

Nice pics, hoping to see mine doing that soon, only been a week so far. lol

 

[NaturesFinest]

Just a small new update, almost all cuttings seem to be fine now, only one cutting and tip dried out completely, i checked the roots and the bottom of the cutting no mold and the roots looked good not sure why it dried out maybe the growth point was to close to the end off the cutting and the end dried because of lack of humidity and light.

Ps: i also opened the bags up now and just keep them around the pots for easy watering from below