Please help

Discussion in 'Indoor and Greenhouse Plants' started by Aubs, Dec 8, 2011.

  1. Aubs

    Aubs Member

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    Utah, United States
    I adopted my Dragon Tree a few months ago from Harmon's, a local grocery store, It was full and leafy for a while but then started to appear sick, I trimmed the heads like I was told and it said new ones would grow within weeks, the stalks started to shrivel up and I became very worried, I checked the soil and noticed that though it was repotted, someone had mixed several different soils including 1/3 of tulip soil or something like that, I know it needs to be repotted into all one soil, but I also noticed the smell of Cat urine. I found out that while I've been away, two cats had been openly using the plant to pee in, This tree is so precious to me I even meditate with it, now all the heads have been trimmed and all that remains is half a foot of stalk, and there are three stalks. I notice the center of the stalks were black, I figured the tree was dead and there was nothing I could do. It's been sitting in the same soil for a month with no sun and no water, just now I had a feeling I should trim the stalks one more time to see if they were black all the way down, and they are white! in the center it still appears to be fighting for life! I know I must get new soil and a mesh wire cover to keep cats out but is there anyway I can bring it back to health from all of this turmoil? I'll do anything for this poor tree. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. Fen Sandar

    Fen Sandar Active Member

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    Nylons work really well for keeping pets out of plant pots. My cats will stand on wire mesh (they are old and sneaky and bend the wire so that it is flat on the dirt in a few days) but they hate nylons because they spring right back. The beauty of it is that the nylons, once cut into a tube to fit your plant pot, will stretch to fit most pots (biggest plant pot personally tested so far had a 24" diameter and used about half of one leg), only has to suspend over enough of the dirt that the cats find it to be an unsteady surface, and is readily available in most stores.

    Also you should post a picture of it how it is and if you have it, a picture of it before it got to this point. This will help some of the more experienced plant growers in determining exactly what you have so that they can give the best advice possible. It still may or may not make it, so don't get your hopes up too much.

    So in the meantime I would post pictures, soak the roots to get most of the dirt off and make sure you don't have too much cat residue on the roots while you are sterilizing your pot and putting new soil in it. While you're at it, look for roots that are squishy and don't re-pot those with the plant. You can leave the plant in the water mixture for a few hours if you want to check the roots before going off to get new soil, so if all the roots are squishy you may not want to buy the soil just yet. When buying the pre-made soil mixes sometimes using more than one type can get you the nutrient mix that you are looking for, so the person who mixed the soil for yours may have been either very good at their job or simply using whatever was on hand - most probably the latter but you never know, pretty much everyone has to have a day job after all!

    -Fen
     
  3. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    Don't know if it's too late at this point but you may want to apply some wax to seal the cut stems to prevent dessication. After changing the soil withhold fertilizing and minimize watering until new growth takes place.
     

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