Hardy Tropicals UK

I bought my daughter & her partner the above plant as a present for there new apartment. After only a couple of months they have bought it back looking very ill . I'ts a multi stemmed one & the shorter stem looks ok, but the taller stem's leaves had totally fell off & what was left were limp. I've cut off the remaining leaves on the taller trunk and given it some miricale grow pelletts. Does this sound like they overwatered it?. karl.

Probably yes.

Adrian wrote:Probably yes.

Thanks adrian, my other thought is lack of light?, even though there apartment has loads of natural light they live with the blinds almost closed . What are its recovery chances. karl.

If the stems are still solid then it has a chance, go steady on feeding as over feeding causes more trouble than not feeding at all.
Let the soil all but dry out before watering again, keep it in a light position and hope for the best.

I'm always being given sick plants to nurse back to health and I get more of these and Yuccas than anything. I would say I have a 70% success rate with these.

Ade's suggestions are spot on. You could also check the rootball. If any individual stems want to lift out of the compost you know that overwatering has occurred (or an infestation of vine weevils ) If the temperature varies overwinter because central heating is often switched off then keep watering to an absolute minimum. The more constant the heat then give a little more water. It will then correspondingly need more light.

GREVILLE wrote:I'm always being given sick plants to nurse back to health and I get more of these and Yuccas than anything. I would say I have a 70% success rate with these.

Ade's suggestions are spot on. You could also check the rootball. If any individual stems want to lift out of the compost you know that overwatering has occurred (or an infestation of vine weevils ) If the temperature varies overwinter because central heating is often switched off then keep watering to an absolute minimum. The more constant the heat then give a little more water. It will then correspondingly need more light.

Greville, i've just slightly pulled on the smaller stem & it came out the soil with no effort. The larger stem which lost all the leaves feels fairly well rooted so i'm not going to pull it out. I've buried the smaller one again and will hope for the best. karl.

Karl, were there any live roots with compost attached on the plant you pulled up?

Karl, were there any live roots with compost attached on the plant you pulled up?

GREVILLE wrote:Karl, were there any live roots with compost attached on the plant you pulled up?

Yes there were a few stragglers and 1 larger one. karl.

Seems to have been drowned, then. Treat as for an alcoholic -dry it out

I`ve got a few of these as house plants and surprising as it sounds they seem to do better in very low light and very rarely watered. I went on holiday for 3 weeks a few years ago and they were just left dry the whole time and were just fine.They`re in my hallway which gets very little natural light aswell. I gave my Mum one of these plants last year and she stuck it in her conservatory and watered it every other day and all it`s leaves either turned brown or fell off. I`ve never known a plant that can survive such neglect and still look great.

Andy P wrote:I`ve got a few of these as house plants and surprising as it sounds they seem to do better in very low light and very rarely watered. I went on holiday for 3 weeks a few years ago and they were just left dry the whole time and were just fine.They`re in my hallway which gets very little natural light aswell. I gave my Mum one of these plants last year and she stuck it in her conservatory and watered it every other day and all it`s leaves either turned brown or fell off. I`ve never known a plant that can survive such neglect and still look great.

Decided to bin it last night as the last couple of days its been stinking the kitchen out. I guess the rot had set in to bad. karl.