On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 22:31:11 -0000, Spider wrote:

On 07/03/2015 13:47, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 13:17:16 -0000, Spider wrote:

On 06/03/2015 23:11, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:45:12 -0000, Spider wrote:

On 06/03/2015 13:25, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 12:30:42 -0000, Spider wrote:

On 05/03/2015 22:34, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 22:30:40 -0000, Spider
wrote:

On 05/03/2015 20:54, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:01:28 -0000, Spider
wrote:

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.

That looks exactly like it.

Great.

I've never head of anyone warming water up for plants before!
Must be
just a few that are that fussy.

I do it all the time for my orchids. A mixer tap makes it
easier, but
any hot and cold tap plus a little finger dipped in to make sure
it's
not too warm:~). It's worth the extra trouble. Hope you can nurse
your
Calathea back to health.

It's Winter in Scotland, and shit weather, so I doubt it's
getting too
much bright light.


No, not in a normal situation, I'm sure, but your plant has just
suffered a minor trauma and would probably appreciate a shady rest
until
it picks up. Good luck.

I'll give it room temperature water, but I'm not sure about taking
light
away from it. Doesn't it need that to photosynthesise?



It certainly does need to photosynthesise, and normally your plant
can
tolerate good light levels (not full summer sun), but at the
moment it
would certainly appreciate partial or dappled shade and it will
probably
help it recover.

Ok, I've put it away from the window and radiator, and will give it
room
temperature water. Should I also spray the leaves as they are
dried up?

Good. You could spray the leaves or use a pebble tray as David Hill
has
suggested. However, if you spray, don't use cold water and don't spray
at night when it may sit in a cold room and succumb to fungal attack.

I don't have my heating on a timer. It's the same temperature 24/7.

Neither spray nor pebble tray will improve the browned leaves, but
should help to perk up the droopy leaves.

As long as it survives.


Quite. Fingers crossed.

The leaves have opened out a bit now.



That's great news. I hope it continues improving.

No matter what I did, it just shrivelled more and more, and almost all the leaves are now dead. However without warning a week ago, it produced a few new leaves from nowhere. It would appear to have been reborn!

--
8 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of control Scalextric cars.