On 05/03/2015 13:41, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 12:43:54 -0000, Spider wrote:

On 02/03/2015 23:54, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
I have a houseplant which I moved into a larger pot (as it was consuming
the water very rapidly, it had outgrown the small pot). As soon as I
did this, the leaves have shrivelled up. AFAIK I'm not over or under
watering it, and there are no signs of beasties. What's wrong with it?

Could you have over-potted it (to save potting it on next time, perhaps)
which would mean the excess compost would be holding too much moisture,

I didn't know that was possible. Surely in the wild outside, plants
have infinite pot size.

I increased the pot volume by probably double.

or failed to bring the new compost to room temperature so that the roots
had a thermal shock?

I didn't know they were as bad as goldfish! I did the repotting
indoors, but I had brought the compost from outside shortly beforehand.
Mind you the new compost is only on the edges, the roots are in the old
compost which was at room temperature. Wouldn't it get just as much
thermal shock when I put cold water in it to water it?



I've been trying to find out what your plant is and the nearest I can
get to it is Calathea rufibarba. There is a good pic at the link below.

http://www.wellgrowhorti.com/Picture...0Rufibarba.jpg

As far as I can tell (*if* this is indeed your plant), it shouldn't need
a special compost type. It is tropical though, so I've no idea how
you've got away with watering it with cold water for so long. Tepid
water would be better. It can tolerate some bright light, folding its
leaves if it's too bright, but prefers a slightly shadier spot.
The fact that you have over-potted it (just the next size pot up would
have been better) in chilly compost *and* compounded that by giving it a
cold drink is quite enough to make it feel poorly. Then to stick the
poor thing in a bright window above a radiator before its roots have had
chance to recover, was simply adding insult to injury.

The reason over-potting is so different to the wild situation (with
boundless soil) is that the pot holds on to water in a way that the
ground rarely does, so the potted plant is left sitting in a soggy sump,
usually meaning that the roots can't breathe.

It would probably help if you could pot your plant down one size, but
certainly watering with tepid water would be much kinder, as would
keeping it somewhere slightly shadier (not dark) until it recovers.

Hoping the id is a match and, if so, that this has been some help.
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay