What it is
Health is how the plant is doing: firm green leaves, even growth. Stress is the sum of the blows it has been taking: a day without water, a heat wave, a pest, a prune, a transplant. Each blow alone does not kill it, but they add up.
Why it matters
A stressed plant spends its energy defending itself instead of growing. It grows slower, gets sick more easily (pests and calcium and magnesium deficiencies go for weak plants) and, in flowering, it can grow male flowers to secure seeds: it turns hermaphrodite. All of that is paid for in grams and quality.
What causes it
Thirst or too much water (drowned roots), heat above 30 °C, cold, pH out of range, too much or too little nutrients, pests and mold, heavy rain and hail, and everything you do to it: pruning, defoliation, transplants, sudden changes of light or place.
How you can tell
Drooping or curled leaves, burnt tips, spots, yellowing, a plant that stops stretching. In flowering, little yellow bananas among the buds (male flowers).
How it goes down
By removing the cause and leaving it alone: not too little or too much water, the climate of its stage and no pruning or training until it recovers. Curing a pest stops the damage, but eaten leaves do not come back: the plant recovers on its own, little by little.
Common mistakes
- Trying to fix everything at once (watering, feeding, pruning and moving it the same day): each thing is another blow. Pruning or defoliating a plant that is still weak. And letting a pest go "because there are only a few".
▲ Pros
- It goes down if you leave it alone
▼ Cons
- The health it loses is paid for in the harvest
🎮 Practice it in UnderGrow
The plant has a health bar and a stress bar. The stress bar drops 1 % per game hour, only in hours without any blow, and health only rises with the stress bar below 20 %: above that, it drops. With high stress it grows slower, gets more pests and deficiencies, and the hermaphrodite chance rises up to 20 times. The average health of its whole life decides how much it yields. Hover over (or tap) the stress bar to see what it is causing; the numbers are in rules › health and stress.
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