On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 13:56:30 +0100, Carl Warnell
wrote:

Just came back from a week's holiday to find one of the overflow pipes
(central heating or hot water tank, I don't know which) dripping into
a potted rhododendron.

I suspect the water's got a lot of lime in it because there's white
stains all over an adjacent window, and the rhododendron's looking
very sick now -- all dried out, with all the leaves either curling
outwards or yellow.

I've put some coffee grounds around it and watered it with a solution
containing a couple of teaspoons of vinegar, to try to get the acidity
back up. Any other ideas? The plant must be at least 10 years old (I
acquired it from a relative) and is about 5 feet tall.

Much depends on where the water came from. I don't think the coffee
grounds or the vinegar will help much.

If it's central heating water, there's every possibility that there's
a corrosion inhibitor in the water which may well be poisonous to
plants. If it were mine I'd make serious efforts to flush the root
system to clear it out. Unpot it, wash off as much of the old soil as
possible and re-pot into fresh ericaceous compost, working it well
into the root structure, and say a prayer. But it sounds terminal to
me.

If it were just alkaline tap water the effect wouldn't have happened
so quickly. Nor would it be looking 'all dried out' as you say, as the
root ball would be moist. Unless of course it's drowned, but I'd have
thought that unlikely.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net