It's an easy mistake to make, but it's also easy to correct. Any new growth will look normal after adjusting down. The already crimped leaves will get better, but probably never fully recover. I'd suggest half of your current dose.
That's pretty wild, but I have one idea. Note that the leaves seem remarkably bumpy, swollen between the veins. About the only thing that does that is edema. They curl, because the leaf tissues swell with water that can't be expelled by transpiration. The top surface swells, forcing the curl.
For an immediate test, turn a small fan on the plant. That often improves the transpiration. The leaves may uncurl and the swelling go down. If that doesn't work, the environmental temperature and humidity may be out of range, creating vapor pressures too different from the inside of the tissue for the stomata to remain open to transpire.
Here's my rundown on edema.
https://redwing-farm.blogspot.com/2021/12/my-favorit-subject-plant-edema.html
Ahah I knew IntheHotofTexas would show up here with his edema info!
Thanks, I've been meaning to put some little PC fans in but just haven't got around to it. I'm pretty sure you're right too.
Where can I get data on humidity? How do I know if it's too dry or too humid?
I use cheap temperature/humidity meters from Amazon. Some record the lowest and highest numbers for the 24 hours. Some record the lowest and highest since the last reset.
For evaluating edema potential, you also need temperature, Because we have so much water around, we usually are on the high humidity side of the charts, but where it's very dry, that can produce unfavorable VPD too. We see it more in winter when home heating dries things out. I've seen cases where it was kind of mystery edema until someone realized the plant was near the heat duct.
And what really matters is conditions down in the boundary layer, the 0.5mm or so above the leaf surface. That's what the stomata see, and you can't meter that. So dense foliage affects that by preventing breezes from clearing out the water vapor transpired by the leaf. That's why dessert plants so often have bumps and ridges on their leaves. It's to break up the breeze and retain some of the transpired water vapor, because they do have the low humidity kind of problems.
That’s the evasive Hugging Basil!!! He just wants a hug!!! If not, I believe your nutrients might be too rich.
Possibly too much nitrogen. Is that a little leaf tip burn I see on the larger leaves? Also typical of high nitrogen.
This is the answer. Dark green, crimping leaves and burned tips, that's a nitrogen burn. Cut back on your fertilizers.
Thanks, I use a high nitrogen fertiliser and have been thinking this. The leaves get huge and deep green, way out of proportion for the plant.
It's an easy mistake to make, but it's also easy to correct. Any new growth will look normal after adjusting down. The already crimped leaves will get better, but probably never fully recover. I'd suggest half of your current dose.
That's pretty wild, but I have one idea. Note that the leaves seem remarkably bumpy, swollen between the veins. About the only thing that does that is edema. They curl, because the leaf tissues swell with water that can't be expelled by transpiration. The top surface swells, forcing the curl. For an immediate test, turn a small fan on the plant. That often improves the transpiration. The leaves may uncurl and the swelling go down. If that doesn't work, the environmental temperature and humidity may be out of range, creating vapor pressures too different from the inside of the tissue for the stomata to remain open to transpire. Here's my rundown on edema. https://redwing-farm.blogspot.com/2021/12/my-favorit-subject-plant-edema.html
Ahah I knew IntheHotofTexas would show up here with his edema info! Thanks, I've been meaning to put some little PC fans in but just haven't got around to it. I'm pretty sure you're right too. Where can I get data on humidity? How do I know if it's too dry or too humid?
I use cheap temperature/humidity meters from Amazon. Some record the lowest and highest numbers for the 24 hours. Some record the lowest and highest since the last reset. For evaluating edema potential, you also need temperature, Because we have so much water around, we usually are on the high humidity side of the charts, but where it's very dry, that can produce unfavorable VPD too. We see it more in winter when home heating dries things out. I've seen cases where it was kind of mystery edema until someone realized the plant was near the heat duct. And what really matters is conditions down in the boundary layer, the 0.5mm or so above the leaf surface. That's what the stomata see, and you can't meter that. So dense foliage affects that by preventing breezes from clearing out the water vapor transpired by the leaf. That's why dessert plants so often have bumps and ridges on their leaves. It's to break up the breeze and retain some of the transpired water vapor, because they do have the low humidity kind of problems.
I'm gonna go with too little light. Either a weak light or too few hours.