okay on my janet craig plat i allowed gallon jugs at least overnight so the excess chlorine can dissipate and so that it can get to room temp. My the leaves are still browning and are falling off!!HELP i dont know what else to do. The plant is in indirect sunlight, so i really dont know what the broblem is....
Please note Chlorine no longer evaporates from city water. It must be treated with chemicals or activated carbon. http://www.harriscountymud23.com/waterwise.html
chlorine is different from chloromine. to find out what your local water company uses, just give a call and ask. or you can look at the yearly report they are required to send out (a requirement in most states here in the us). jessica, can you post a pic of your plant, please???? what kind of soil is it in? what kind of container? when was the last time it was repotted? how much and how frequently do you water it?
I water it every week, the plant is in a container made of steel, the ones they use for offices. They gave it to me as a present so i dont know how long it has been since it was repotted.. Thought it was shedding it leaves it was growing new ones, but because of the browning most are falling off. I dont have a camera now but i'll try to get a picture of it.
normal growth pattern is for the new leaves to come in at the top and the older leaves towards the bottom will die off. so, you may just have the normal situation going and nothing is wrong. is the plant in a plastic insert that is inside the steel container?? if not, and there's no drainage holes in the steel, then you could have root rot going. watering weekly is a bit much - dracs like to dry out a bit before having another drink. and if there's no drainage, then you'd need to spread out watering even longer than usual to allow the soil to completely dry out. what is the diameter of the container? since this is from an office sitation, then i'll assume it's pretty large. probably 12 or 14 inches or larger. for something that size, you should water thoroughly (so that all the soil is moistened) and then allow it to dry out down a few inches (at least 2) before watering again. it's really not the right time of year to repot. although, if there is something going with root rot, you may have to; especially if the container doesn't have drainage in it - that's just asking for trouble (if there wasn't rot going on to begin with, watering weekly may have started it - if there's no drainage).
Here is a picture of my plant. i checked and it is in a plastic contaner and it does have holes in it for drainage. The plant is not in direct sunlight...do i have to put it in front of window? Please help i dont anything about plants. It was a present so i really am intereted in taking care of it.
Might be fluoride damage as tip burn is a common symptom. It can also be from over or under watering as stated above. http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/abiotic/nutrition.html
whew!! glad to hear there's a plastic container with drainage holes inside the decorative pot!! is that sand that it's in??? is there any regular soil mixed in at all? what about small stones?? if it's all sand with nothing added for drainage, even with the holes in the bottom, that's going to stay pretty soggy for a while and that's not good for the roots of this plant. although this is not the right time of year to do it, i think you need to unpot it and take a look at the roots and remove any that are mushy (use a sharp knife to cut them off) and then pot up again in better soil. if the roots are really bound up, you can also move up in size (no more than two inches in diameter wider than the current one) for the container, too. best soil is something that has really good drainage yet retains some bit of moisture for a bit. i use a mix of cactus soil (peat, bark bits and perlite) with additional bark bits added in (they're sold as 'orchid bark') and i also throw in some 'orchid soil' which is a mix of ceramic bits, charcoal bits and bark bits. i know it's a little bit unhelpful to hear it could be under watering, over watering or the water itself (fluoride)...sometimes it's hard to be sure exactly what is the problem since all three situations can cause tip browning. and, then, it could be something as simple as using water straight from the tap, too. that would be too cold and would be full of chlorine and those two things will also cause tip browning. since you do live in/near houston, then the chloramine issue may be at the root of the browning (it does look more like chemical burns rather than the usual browning due to amount of water provided/not provided) and no matter of repotting or allowing water to sit so things dissipate will make any difference. if your water has chloramines in it (call your water company to clarify whether or not it does), you'll need to treat it to remove it or buy bottled water (bottled somewhere other than houston) or collect rain water. the water company should be able to tell you what to use to remove the chloramine.
