Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).
After a while, its leaves started curling. I found one discussion
of the problem online that said it could be a buildup of salts;
the plant was in a painted ceramic planter, so I took it out of
there, put it back in its original nursery container, and gave
it a few deep soakings over a period of weeks. No change. :-(

Here's a photo from someone on a hummingbird forum who had the
same problem:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...urlyleaves.jpg

(I found some other photos of the leaves turning upwards, but
mine are curling under just like that one.)

The folks on that forum told her not to worry about it because
shrimp plants do that a lot, but it wasn't like that when I
bought it, so I don't think it's normal. Any suggestions?

Thanks!


Patty

On 11 Feb 2012 21:54:35 GMT, Patty Winter wrote:
Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...urlyleaves.jpg

I take it that the leaf is turgid, and not just limp from lack of water.

Patty, turn the leaves over and inspect the underside carefully for signs of
infestation. I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics. High N can do it, too,
as can some viral infections.

Monrovia is the name of a giant nursery company... not part of the plant's
name, fwiw.

Kay

In article ,
Kay Lancaster wrote:
On 11 Feb 2012 21:54:35 GMT, Patty Winter wrote:
Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).

Patty, turn the leaves over and inspect the underside carefully for signs of
infestation. I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics. High N can do it, too,
as can some viral infections.

I checked it for bugs when this first happened, but never found
anything. I'll get out a magnifying glass, but there's certainly
no visible infestation.

I assume that, unlike salts, nitrogen would not be washed away with
deep watering, so I would deal with that with the proper food?


Monrovia is the name of a giant nursery company... not part of the plant's
name, fwiw.

?? I didn't say it was part of the name. I was indicating who
had bred the plant, in case people wanted to know whether it
was from a reputable source.


Patty

On 12 Feb 2012 03:01:03 GMT, Kay Lancaster wrote:
infestation. I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics. High N can do it, too,

Grr. Aphids, not aphics.

On 12 Feb 2012 10:42:03 GMT, Kay Lancaster wrote:

On 12 Feb 2012 03:01:03 GMT, Kay Lancaster wrote:
infestation. I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics. High N can do it, too,

Grr. Aphids, not aphics.

Don't be so anal... it couldn't be more obviously a typo... look at
your keyboard. DUH

On 12 Feb 2012 04:49:38 GMT, Patty Winter wrote:

In article ,
Kay Lancaster wrote:
On 11 Feb 2012 21:54:35 GMT, Patty Winter wrote:
Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).

Patty, turn the leaves over and inspect the underside carefully for signs of
infestation. I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics. High N can do it, too,
as can some viral infections.

I checked it for bugs when this first happened, but never found
anything. I'll get out a magnifying glass, but there's certainly
no visible infestation.

I assume that, unlike salts, nitrogen would not be washed away with
deep watering, so I would deal with that with the proper food?

Actually, most of the N salts are quite soluble. But without knowledge
of your soil analysis and fertilizer use, and how you've treated it
since it came from the nursery, I threw that out as a possibility.

Still, you might consider rooting a cutting, growing it in plain sand with a
low N fertilizer, and seeing if that straightens new growth.


Monrovia is the name of a giant nursery company... not part of the plant's
name, fwiw.

?? I didn't say it was part of the name. I was indicating who
had bred the plant, in case people wanted to know whether it
was from a reputable source.

My misunderstanding. Since the capitalization and spelling of the binomial was
wrong, I didn't know if you knew it was a nursery as opposed to part
of the common name.

Kay

Patty Winter wrote:

Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).

Repot into an adequately sized porous (unglazed) clay pot with new
high quality potting mix, a mix with no added fertilizer. Place in
good light in a warm draught free location. Water regularly,
sparingly, do not over water. Over watering and fertilizing are the
most common causes of house plant demise. Repot into a clean pot with
new potting mix every six months, never fertilize.

Thank you, Kay and "Brooklyn," I'll try your recommendations!


Patty

On Feb 11, 4:54*pm, (Patty Winter) wrote:
Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).
After a while, its leaves started curling. I found one discussion
of the problem online that said it could be a buildup of salts;
the plant was in a painted ceramic planter, so I took it out of
there, put it back in its original nursery container, and gave
it a few deep soakings over a period of weeks. No change. :-(

Here's a photo from someone on a hummingbird forum who had the
same problem:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...07%20Hummers%2...

(I found some other photos of the leaves turning upwards, but
mine are curling under just like that one.)

The folks on that forum told her not to worry about it because
shrimp plants do that a lot, but it wasn't like that when I
bought it, so I don't think it's normal. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Patty

Patty,

I did a little research , mainly just images of the shrimp plant on
google, and found that most of the pictures (a good 90%) had the
curling leaves. I'm thinking maybe that's why it could have been
dubbed the shrimp plant, because of the way the pattern of the leaves
are which resembles a curling shrimp's tail......I could be wrong,
just a suggestion

Duane

In article ,
RhodeD wrote:
On Feb 11, 4:54*pm, (Patty Winter) wrote:

The folks on that forum told her not to worry about it because
shrimp plants do that a lot, but it wasn't like that when I
bought it, so I don't think it's normal. Any suggestions?

I did a little research , mainly just images of the shrimp plant on
google, and found that most of the pictures (a good 90%) had the
curling leaves. I'm thinking maybe that's why it could have been
dubbed the shrimp plant, because of the way the pattern of the leaves
are which resembles a curling shrimp's tail......I could be wrong,
just a suggestion

:-) I think it's because of the flowers, but yes, the curling
does seem to happen a lot. As I mentioned, though, the plant
wasn't like that when it came from the nursery, so I think it
must be a nutrient problem. Evidently I'm not the only one to
screw that up. :-)


Patty

replying to Patty Winter, Lindabubba wrote:
Mine is doing the same thing! The leaves were not curled when I bought it
last year either. No bugs or signs of bug damage. It’s kept in a pot outside
and bloomed profusely. Now starting to go dormant but looks healthy. I will
have to check the amount of nitrogen too!

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/garden...ant-99757-.htm

On Sun, 07 Oct 2018 Lindabubba wrote:

replying to Patty Winter, Lindabubba wrote:
Mine is doing the same thing! The leaves were not curled when I bought it
last year either. No bugs or signs of bug damage. It’s kept in a pot outside
and bloomed profusely. Now starting to go dormant but looks healthy. I will
have to check the amount of nitrogen too!

Here in the US north east it's the time of year when the shrimp plant
goes dorment and if the winter is too cold it will die... to survive
the winter bring it into a green house or indoors.
https://postimg.cc/cKVR8S30