Dear houseplant community,
Like the beginning of any good letter, I should probably have written you sooner.
Anyway, a friend of mine had this beautiful plant that she neglected for months, completely drying it out. At the end there were just a few leaves hanging half a meter from the plant itself, completely dried out.
I cut off a piece, gave it roots, potted it, and it went wild! Explosive growth, every new leaf bigger than the last. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
A few months later, it had had enough. Leaves started curling up and withering. Growth halted. I thought maybe I had forgotten to give it water, but that wasn’t it. Moving it to a sunnier spot didn’t help either. Now it’s almost completely dead, and I miss what we once had.
So, a couple of questions:
- Does anyone have any idea what went wrong? Did I water it too much? Too little?
- What can I do? Can it be saved? Does it need plant nutrition? A bigger pot? I’m afraid of doing anything, as it seems so fragile one bad move would surely be the end of it.
Thank you so much in advance!
Yours truly, Aa
If that baby has dry soil for more then one day it’ll let you know. It’ll also let you know if it doesn’t have dry roots for exactly a day. They’re so temperamental. I water mine literally the day after I go “that’s dry” and it never fails.
I changed the soil and the leaves came back up again after pointing downwards for a long time now, but other than that it looks more dead every day. I’m becoming pretty pessimistic.
Then again, it sounds like I would have killed it eventually anyway. I’m not great with plants, and this one sounds like it’s above my level.
I personally think guides under rate how much sun they need and can tolerate. Try your brightest window that receives only direct sun in the early morning or late evening.
Oh and fertilizer. Just a Little does a lot. Sometimes repotting helps cuz it has a round of nutrients baked in but after the first month or so you should fertilize