Sick Plants Part 2: hoya, sansevieria & tradescantia

As I mentioned in Part 1, my house is very dry.

hoya: hanging in west facing window. Water approx once a week. Adopted from work and initially wasn't doing great. Nursed it back, but it still has the corky brown spots, is it scale? In my absence it started to grow these warped/deformed leaves.

Sansevieria:
birds nest: eat facing window, no direct sunlight. No idea how often I water, very rarely. Also adopted from work. It's very wrinkly, I think maybe it used to be overwatered? It's never recovered. After I got it, the little baby started to grow, but as you can see the tips have now turned brown and crispy.

mother in law's tongue: East facing window. Grows in clay pellet/hydroculture. LOVES it, as long as there's minimal water in the pot. I think my "plant babysitter" was a little enthusiastic with the watering. Will a gentle application of rubbing alcohol with a q-tip take care of this?

moses in the cradle: East facing window. Also grows in clay pellets/hydroculture. Used to be lush and absolutely amazing. I pulled out about 7 dead vines and only have this pathetic one left. It feels very weak.

 

Your Moses in the cradle looks extremely light starved.

That guy can take full day sun in Texas in August and not flinch.
Your house is like a cave by comparison. At this point if it's salvageable
you'll need to very gradually expose it to more sun.
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/12/120206bl.jpg

 

I'm really sorry to hear about your plants!

If you can cut off a stem/vine on your plants and suggest putting them in some "Gel2Root" from Planter's Pride. Gel2Root is a gel (lol) that provides all the nutrients the plants need. I don't recommend with the Sansevieria or mother in law's, but you can try. I tried with an aloe plant but only got a good growth of fungus. Your aglaonema should take really well to the gel.

Gel2Root only works for soft wood. Gel4Plugs are for semi hardwood - I have not seen nor use the Gel4Plugs. Canadian Tire sells the Gel2Root as does Home Hardware. It comes in a pack of six cups that look like Jello or pudding cups. It's $9.99 at both stores. If Canadian Tires does not have any, as it is seasonal, I've had excellent success in having Home Hardware order some in form me. At Home Hardware, the code to order in is Item # 5121-502


If you go this route, take a few cuttings from the tip of your vine and maybe a leaf stem from the first plant you have pictures of. Cut a hole in the foil of the Gel2Root and put the plant in. You can do multiple plants per cup. Make the hole as small as possible or the gel will evaporate/get hard and not be as effective. If I made a hole too big, I would just put some Scotch tape around it.


I drove across Canada with my plants. My boyfriend didn't want to take them into the hotel each night and in Manitoba, we were hit by a frost. By the time we got to Ottawa, my plants looked like this. I saw the Gel2Root at Canadian tire and bought it and the tropical plants in it. The Monstera and pothos came back and are healthy as can be. My Monstera was gone except for a green root no bigger than two centimetres. I stuck it in the gel and put it on a window sill (just ensure it doesn't get too hot) and a few weeks I had a new root and then a few more weeks a new stem with a leaf. When we moved back to BC, our car caught on fire with the plants inside. I bought some more Gel2Root and put the plants back in there and most survived. (Monstera, pothos, Maranta.)

Here's a video of it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PLpeYFXx8w

Let me know if you have any questions and the most best of luck to you.

 

The moses in the cradle is against a wall between two east facing windows (still like a cave, you're right, especially because my house is very dark), BUT it is also sitting under a grow light