Can someone please help a novice?

Shahpor

Hello all.

Can someone please help me with my Carmona Macrophylla?

I have had her about a year and a half now and up until now everything was fine. I then changed her pot since she had outgrown her last one and it now seems like she is dying. I think pictures are better than words at this point, so please have a look at these:

3 weeks ago:




Today:





Can anyone give me any tips as to why this might be happening?

Thanks.

Shahpor

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ElGringo

Hi Shapor,


can you provide additional information, such as how and when you water? Did you remove many roots when you repotted?

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Richard


If I was a lady, would I be 'LaGringa'?

RonMartin(deceased)

Wish I could be more positive but, I have seen this happen many times before.
You might scratch the bark to see if the cambium layer beneath is still green. If so then you have a chance . If it's brown then all is lost.

Shahpor

Thank you both for your replies.


The compost I am using says it is free draining loam based, if that means anything to you. I have been using it for quite some time.

As for watering, at the moment I am spraying the leaves and putting some water in the bowl every 2 days or so.

For the roots, yeah they were pretty much spread over the entire bottom half of the old pot, so I couldn't help by trim them back to the main root structure only.

I think maybe I have overwatered her after changing the pot.

I have scratched the bark like you suggested Ron and it is green underneath, so maybe there is something I can do?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Shahpor

One other thing I have noticed after reading some of the info on here.

I think I have been overwatering my plant because I have just put my finger about an inch into the soil and it is soaking.

I think what has happened is that I have not taken into account the extra size of the new pot and how much water it can retain. So I have carried on watering it the same amount as the old, much smaller pot.

Do you guys think that that is the cause of my problems?

And if so, is there anything that can be done?

Thanks.

ElGringo

thats sounds like it. A friend once recommended, in this case, to remove the rootball and pad it on a piece of kitchen roll to remove excess water, then place back in the pot, and water less in future. Whether thats a good idea or not, perhaps first you should smell some of the soil, if it smells like mushrooms then the roots could be rotten. This might further indicate its chances of survival.

__________________
Richard


If I was a lady, would I be 'LaGringa'?

Shahpor

Thanks ElGringo.

Kitchen roll you say? Might be worth a try. Although I would hate to have to remove her from the soil again. But if that is the only way, then I suppose it must be done.

As for the soil, I have smelt it and it smells like.......soil!

I hope this, in combination with the green bark are an indication that she can be saved.

Obviously, I will now stop watering her until the soil drys out a bit, but any other suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks again.

Shahpor

sauce

I would agree that the soil appears to be too compact and dense and a repot will help, if it is still alive. The thing that stumps me is that the leaves look dried out and not overwatered. I have no experience with Fukiens but most tropical tree leaves will turn yellow and drop when the roots are too wet, this one looks like it got a blast of hot desert wind. You should definitely repot it into a free draining soil and let the roots dry out. But at the same time I wonder if there might be something else that caused this, such as too much sun or heat. I don't mean to sound harsh but you really should have noticed and acted on the trees decline much sooner than this. If it is still green hopefully you can save it.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that's why they call it the present." Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) Thanks for the flag Zen!

Shahpor

Thanks Sauce.

The soil I used is free draining, but I have some more, so I could repot it. Any suggestions on what I should do when I take it out of the pot?

As for noticing it, I noticed earlier, but I tried a few things over the past week or so to see if it would help. First I thought it had dried out since, like you say, it looks dried out. Now I have moved its location since it did occur that maybe it was getting too much sun.

It is now that I have tried those and it is still dying that I have come on here to ask you helpful people if you can think of anything else I can do.

So it looks like I will be repotting it tomorrow. Again, any suggestion on what I should and shouldn't do would be very helpful.

Thanks again Sauce.

Shahpor