Hi, everyone! I'm really hoping someone can help me here, I bought a Dracaena Fragrans (corn plant) two days ago from Walmart (so it's not like the poor thing gwas getting the best care.) It had a few browned tips here and there, nothing major, the soil was damp but not waterlogged (though I am assuming it was getting overwatered.) There are two canes, one is about 2 feet and one is slightly under 3 feet. The leaves were/are what I think looks like a healthy dark green. I brought it home to my apartment (which is generally about 20-25 °C and fairly humid) I looked up everything I could find about how to keep my new plant healthy, and read that it likes direct sun, so I placed it in my living room window, I'm not sure which compass direction it faces, but it gets bright afternoon sunshine in the heat of the day. After the first day it seemed to be losing the little bit of droop that it had and was perking up some. By this evening it very quickly started getting worse and worse. There were a few minor brown tips when I brought it home, but I clipped them (leaving about 1/8 of an inch) and in a few hours since id last examined it I noticed many new brown tips, the leaves are curling under at the tips pretty drastically (i think) the ends of the leaves the last few inches, feel pretty dry to me, though th e colour till a very nice looking green. . There are some brown holeswhat look like sluces dEveloping along the middle of the leaves, which spread very rapidly and in some places have even separated thr leaves into two strips, The canes feel firm to me, though as I have no experience I cannot be sure. I have not watered the plant as it came to me with damp soil and I read dracaena likes to fully dry out between waterings. I have left it in it's original container, as I was waiting for it to acclimate to its new environment for awhile before repotting. The pot it is currently in has drainage holes on the sides nearly against the bottom edge and the soil seems very loose, so I thought it had adequate drainage for the time being. I am not sure ifthis is a problem bfrom former overwatering at the store, or if it is scorched from too much sun. This is my first plant and I read they were hard to kill, I've only had "him" for two days but I have named him Bob and become very attached to him already. I really hope that someone can give me some help to save my new roommate. I have taken pictures to show you but I don't seem to be able to get them to upload, I will keep trying and update with pictures when I find a way to make it work. I saw a post where someone suggested to someone with a roughly similar problem draining the soil. I feel pretty stupid right now but I have no idea what that means exactly, like I said, the soil in mine is not waterlogged at all, is thus relevant only if the soil is waterlogged and can be poured out? Or should I attempt to add some drainage holes in the very bottom of the pot? Maybe move it more out of the light? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated, I've given as much information as I can think of that might be helpful, but if thered any information I can give you that will help please let me know. Oh! There is also a white powdery substance he tr e and there on the surface on some of the leaves, kind of hard to see, not much of it, I wiped the leaves yesterday with a damp cloth gently, and it seems to be back already in some places, I have photos of this as well. I will try to get these uploaded as soon as possible. Thank you in advance, as you can probably tell I'm freaking out for my poor plant, and feeling pretty much like the worst plant caretaker in the world, anf I was trying so hard to not do anything wrong. I really hope this is not something I did to him.
Photos would help a lot. As would a paragraph break from time to time :) First, I would put it in bright, indirect light. Plants grown in stores like this are very rarely acclimated to full sunlight. Acclimating a plant to new lighting conditions is best done gradually over about a two week span. If it could be in a bit warmer area I think that might help as well- wet and cold is not a situation most tropicals appreciate. From what I can decipher of the description it sounds as if the plant was simply not well grown or cared for previous to your bringing it home. If the soil stays soggy despite your not watering, I suspect it is loaded with water retention crystals or too dense a mix. It likely has time release fertilizer in the pot that could be burning an already stressed plant. The leaf residue could be an anti-transpiration product that they use to keep plants going under poor shipping and staging conditions, which would further impair its ability to soak up the moisture in the soil. If the leaves are indeed coated with something I might advise washing them off with a mild detergent and rinsing well (if this becomes necessary, I would do it with a cloth so as not to add to the moisture in the pot). Lots of "could be's" up there, I know. That is where a photo would help a lot. Get a good look at the underneaths of the leaves and the stem junctions just to rule out insect activity. If it was me the very first thing I would do would be to pull the plant out of the pot and look at the rootball. Look for brown roots, slimey roots, circled roots, too many roots, etc. A photo of this could be very telling. If there are brown roots, slimey roots, or nothing but roots I would likely go ahead and repot it in a better draining media- if you use a commercial bagged potting mix then add 40% or so perlite. Trim off any rotty bits and open up the rootball a bit with your fingers. You were right to avoid further stressing the plant by repotting but if the situation is truly dire it may be your best chance. Other than that, staying away from it, providing warmer conditions, and letting it heal itself may be best. If it is waterlogged, increased humidity is not necessary or even helpful right now. Time for that later. Not saying to put it in an arid environment, just don't try and add humidity until we rule out waterlogged or poor drainage conditions. Tropical areas generally are drier during the cooler portions of their year. So... awaiting photos! Good luck!
Yes, I've been trying to get some photos up, but I only have internet on my phone at the moment and it has been a bit problematic for some reason (that's what's causing the paragraph break problem as well :P Silly smartphones aren't always so smart.) Firstly, I want to thank you for your suggestions, it means a lot to have someone try to help. Figured out the paragraph break :) I had a theory that too much sunlight after being in the store might be one issue, so I've since moved it to somewhere else in the room, where it's still getting good light but not quite so much or for as long. It's doing a little better, but I've tried a few theories so I'm not sure which is doing the most help. At the moment the leaves are still curled under on the last 2 inxhes or so, but less severely. As well, the brown tips are still spreading some, but much less slowly it seems to me. I was concerned with the whitish residue and the possibility of some sort of insect activity as well so yesterday I mixed a bucket of warm water with 2 spoons of dish detergent wand gently wiped the leaves with a clean cloth, especially on the bottom sides. The leaves are still droopy, theres a bit of a lack of turgor pressure (nice, I remember something from Gr. 11 Biology) But as far as I can tell they have perked up slightly. I'm not sure if I can raise they temperature in here any, it's already pretty hot! :) People coming to mu apartment dress for the beach and refer to my place as "the bahamas." I like it warm :) My temps at 25 ° right now, I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit, but it's about that temperature of those hot summer days in Ontario. I'll have to look up the conversion. I may try to look at the roots during the weekend and repot if necessary now that I know what to look for, (its scary taking the plant out of it's pot when you don't know what to look for! the description sgould give me a little bravery. ) I'm going to try adding those photos to photobucket again and try getting them on here that way. I know it'd be a lot more helpful to you if you could actually see whats going on. I'm dirty for any spelling or grammatical stuff, half the time on a site with no mobile version I can't even see what I just typed, and my cell autocorrects like crazy. If I do end up repotting, do you think the addition of a small amount of sand to the mix could help with drainage as well? Thanks again! Laura
Eight pictures on here, full shots, closeups of leaves and trunk. Hope this helps. http://s266.photobucket.com/user/sxedog_69/profile Sorry I couldn't link to the individual photos, it wad alreadu a fight with the photobucket website as it was, but there's only three other pictures on there from the one day I used photobucket when I was a kid and decided I didn't like it, so it should be easy to find the pictures on a actual computer. I looked up the conversion, 25° C is 77° F. Huh, never needed to know imperial measurements before! :) By the time I was in school they didn't even teach us the conversions anymore. Every once in awhile I'll have to figure out how to explain something in inches to my dad, but cms and dms sewm so much easier.
It doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would- just a tad beat up from being in a retail store for so long. I think you are worrying too much :) I can just about guarantee that it is rootbound, though, and so would benefit from repotting. I don't think adding sand helps drainage. Think of it this way- if you add rocks to pudding, it still has the texture and drainage capability of pudding. The perlite I suggested allow roots to access air, which they need in order to survive, so that IMO is way better than sand. I only mentioned the temps because you said 20-25º and the 20º portion of that worried me.
Ah, I see what you mean, I thought that you thought I meant 20-25 F, which would be pretty cold I think! Thanks for explaining about the perlite, I wasn't sure exactly what it was, I was planning to just ask at the garden centre when I went to pick up the soil and such. Today I got about a fingernail thickness of fuzzy mould I'm seeing forming over the surface of some of the soil, (maybe 15% coverage?) So theres definitely some kind of dampness problem going on there, I'm going to hopefully be able to repot tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to do what you suggested about how to check the roots and what to do with them and completely change out the soil, I found a pot for it today thats just an inch or two taller and maybe 2 or 2 1/2 inches bigger in diameter, and I'm getting it scrubbed really well. I'll keep you updated with how that goes and try to get some decent pictures of the root system. Thanks for giving me so much help and info, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all, . Laura
Hello, again. I repotted my corn plant yesterday to a pot that's 2 inches bigger. I checked the roots and they were circling the bottom of the old pot, the roots were a darkish colour, but I wouldn't describe them as exactly quite brown. They were damp because the soil was pretty wet, but I wouldn't say they were actually slimy. As well, I didn't notice any sort of odd smell to them. Therefore, I decided they would be fine without any trimming. I did, however, loosen them up a bit as gently as I could, but I didnt get too much of them loosened because the soil on the top half was starting to fall apart, only maybe the bottom inch/ inch and a half of roots, I wanted to get it in the new pot pretty quickly before any more crumbled away and I wouldnt be able to tell how high the new soil should be filled in to them. Giving it that extra space put the stalks a little further apart and less squished, which right away gave it the illusion of looking better. There was a lot of old damp soil still to put in, which is surrounded by and sitting on top of some black earth with no slow release fertilizers mixed in or anything like that, and about 40% perlite, plus somealmost dry "pro mix." I don't know, my dad told me to mix it with that because the black earth out of the bag was pretty damp. He said it was basically black earth, peat moss and perlite. There's really no arguing with him. He told me that the wetter soil around the roots and the new mix would even off moisture levels with each other at the same time that it was drying and speed up the process. I don't have any pictures of the root portion because my Dad came by to help me move it over and bring me a bigger pot. He has a tendency to rush me through things and I get all agitated and forget thing. I did take a few pictures in the new pot to show how that looks. http://s266.photobucket.com/user/sxedog_69/profile
