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sun why do my plants wilt so bad in the sun? [help]

A

amirborna

So I just went outside, and in a matter of less than a couple hours, my plants went from beautiful green glowing and shiney to this




I took this picture today, the same exact day just a little bit earlier

they are always doing this wilting now, this time this one is wilting A LOT and got me worried to post here

What's the reason for it? It's like 5-6pm sunshine, in houston tx... they aren't dry of water either

Could bugs have anything to do with this? There are these little tiny ant bug looking things in the soil, maybe that has to do with it?
 
Dude your in H-town...Its like elevendy billion degrees down there lol

Don't worry,up here in FTW mine wilt. I try and water in the morning and after the sun goes down. 30 mins after either water....They are back to Raising Da Roooooof!
 
Just think of them as going into "shut down mode" in the direct sun..you see how they recover in a short period of time, right? It's normal for them...
 
Do an experiment. Add a cup of water to one and wait 1/2 hour. If it is drooping less you are not watering enough. In high temperatures soil that is merely moist may not be allowing the plant to pump it as fast as it's losing it.
 
Are they sitting on concrete or is that carpet? If concrete I can imagine the heat transfer is making it much hotter and putting them into overdrive. I have a few plants that do that daily but they are loaded with pods.
 
Dave2000 said:
Do an experiment. Add a cup of water to one and wait 1/2 hour. If it is drooping less you are not watering enough. In high temperatures soil that is merely moist may not be allowing the plant to pump it as fast as it's losing it.
Click to expand...

agree with Dave on the may be not enough water, and I will add that one of the reasons the plants wilt is they stop pumping water up the leaves. The stomata on the underside of the leaves close up in order for the plant to conserve water...this in effect is like you holding your breath...it is a normal occurrence during extreme weather....when the temperature drops a bit, the stomata open back up and the plant "unwilts"....
 
spongey600 said:
^^^^^ WOW look what you get when you read all the post............the reason for what i said.
hsi pic was them in the shade, but plants wilt in the sun.
Click to expand...

My point was that there may be no need to use the cloth if they can simply be moved to an area that's more shaded in the late afternoon to evening and left there. Sorry I did not add enough text to make this obvious.
 
One thing that occurs to me is that your plants are extremely small, so they're going to be more sensitive to the heat and sun. Did you just recently purchase them, or start them from seed rather late? Ultimately, you likely need to go through a hardening off period - back off the direct sun more than anything, then start to re-expose them a bit at a time over an extended period.

I grew up in Houston, and always had a garden when there, so I am familiar with your growing conditions. I'm in northern Ohio now, where our season is MUCH shorter than yours. I was surprised to see you are in Houston, given the small size of your plants - all of mine except the ones that received some damage are much larger than that, and I just moved them to big pots a couple weeks ago.
 
FWIW - I would move them all up to much larger pots. It will make the roots cooler during the day, speed up the growth rate and
provide a greater volume of moisture to buffer between 'soaked' and 'parched' extremes. Placing the pots on a wood plank or blocks of scrap 6x6 or 8x8 lumber will help prevent heat transfer.
 
Plants seem to shutdown if you will, during that extreme heat and sun blaring on em. And once the sun goes down, they perk right back up UNLESS they need water. Wilting is normal in every way during the heat and hot sun. In your case everything is potted and you are able to lift and feel the weight of the pot. If it feels light, water it.
 
Also if they have been putting out more foliage growth and the roots have not had time to catch up to the amount of foliage they will wilt more than normal - so the above suggestion to pot them up would probably help as it would get the plant to put out more roots so they can keep up the water distribution better and will help them wilt less and recover faster.
 
This is the same plant, impressive recovery :D
I would say it is 100% heat related because they were watered before this happened
but I woke up this morning and MYYYYY did they visible grow, they are soooo green!!!

it almost seems they grow more when they are in more of a shade than direct sunlight
but thats probably because they are still babies ^^

 
seem's like I read some research some time ago that said that plants get a "growth spurt" sometime between 2 and 4 am....don't quote me on that...I will try and find the article...
 
I'd believe that, AJ, without doing any technical research. I usually check out the plants in the evening before it gets dark, mostly with an eye towards whether they need watered at that point or not. Then I usually check them out in the morning, more with an eye towards looking for bug damage, or to see if any pods are developing/ripening yet. Especially with the newer plants, any number of mornings I go out and am surprised by the amount of change that occurred just since the prior evening. They seem to either go more up or more out over any given night. It's probably more noticeable with plants in pots vs. plants in the ground, because the change in distance from the edge of the plant to the rim of the pot is readily discernible.
 
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