Hello I bought a beautiful Portulacaria plant two months ago. It is 4 feet tall and was very bushy. It is in a large pot. I have it in a window where it gets morning sun for a few hours and then light indirectly all day. I was told to give it about 2 cups of water a week. The trouble is that it's leaves are shrivelling up and dropping off in buckets. It is still growing new leaves, but eventually every branch has leaves that are turning brown, shrivelling and dropping off, even the new ones. It has lost a lot of its leaves this way. My florist tells me that I may have over watered in the beginning, but now I worry that I am not watering it enough. It has several branches that have very few leaves left. Should I trim it? Could I be giving it too little water? Help!
If the roots have succumbed to rot, your plant may need to be repotted once the root base is healed. Have a look at what is going on in the rootball....mold? fungus? rot?
this plant is a succulent and doesn't need much watering at all - whoever told you to water it weekly was very, very, very wrong! what kind of soil is it in? does the container have drainage holes? you could just let the soil dry out very, very well and see how it goes...without a pic to see the condition, and just going by what you're saying, it sounds like that isn't a feasible thing to do at the moment - sounds like it's in very bad shape. i would definitely unpot it and take a look at the roots - if they are brown/black and mushy, then cut them off and any portion of the base of the trunk(s) until you get to firm/solid material. let them sit for a week or so to dry out and callous over and then repot into a mix of cactus soil with lots of perlite or small rocks/gravel (use anything that is 'natural' ie, no dye added). i'd also keep it in an unglazed clay pot. if the roots look good - ie, are white and a bit fleshy - then i would just repot in the correct type of soil and don't water it for at least two weeks. these come from southern africa and in habitat are in dry and rocky soil in a hot climate. they don't need watering any more often than every 2-3 weeks as they store moisture in their leaves and can pull from what is stored when it's needed. these are very drought tolerant plants. post a pic if you can and good luck with it! they're absolutely beautiful and i hope you can save it!!
