Dying Plant
 

I have some kind of creeper in my apartment. I don't know what it is; my
ex-girlfriend left it when she moved out. It's been living here for about
three years and has been doing fine. Throughout that time it's lost
leaves occasionally, I'd say at a rate of 1-2 per month. However, now
it's starting to lose leaves quite rapidly, and I'm concerned that it's
dying.

It's never required much care; I just water it regularly, and it's always
been happy. I have a couple of pictures of it; if someone could give me
some pointers on what to look for as far as disease or parasites, I'd
appreciate it.

The first picture shows the pot it's in, and some of the dying leaves.
The second gives some idea of the size of it (ignore the messy kitchen in
the background please :) In the second picture, the branches are resting
on push-pins in the wall; it's not a climber.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02230001.JPG
http://www.holotech.net/images/02230003.JPG

--
Alan Little
"'Be like a duck', my mother used to tell me. 'Remain calm on the surface
and paddle like hell underneath.'"
-- Michael Caine

Alan Little wrote in
:


It's never required much care; I just water it regularly, and it's
always been happy. I have a couple of pictures of it; if someone
could give me some pointers on what to look for as far as disease
or parasites, I'd appreciate it.

The first picture shows the pot it's in, and some of the dying
leaves. The second gives some idea of the size of it (ignore the
messy kitchen in the background please :) In the second picture,
the branches are resting on push-pins in the wall; it's not a
climber.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02230001.JPG
http://www.holotech.net/images/02230003.JPG


Your plant is a Pothos, or Epipremnum aureum. A few suggestions, if
all you have ever done is water it, a light fertilizer might be
advisable. If you have been fertilizing, try flushing salts out of
the pot. You will need to give it enough water at once that a bunch
of it runs out the drainage holes. It would take a dozen people to
haul that beast into the bathroom, so you might want to rig some
sort of tray underneath it to catch the runout.



Sean

Sean Houtman wrote in sci.bio.botany:

Alan Little wrote in
:

It's never required much care; I just water it regularly, and it's
always been happy. I have a couple of pictures of it; if someone
could give me some pointers on what to look for as far as disease
or parasites, I'd appreciate it.

Your plant is a Pothos, or Epipremnum aureum. A few suggestions, if
all you have ever done is water it, a light fertilizer might be
advisable.

Thank you. I haven't been fertilizing it. What kind of fertilizer would you
recommend?

Do you think it might be the same problem with this plant:

http://www.holotech.net/images/02250001.JPG

Same thing: it's been doing fine for years, just yesterday I noticed
several of the stalks sagging. The one on the right there is the most
pronounced.

--
Alan
"I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and
that is the important thing."
-- Kelly, age 10

For both of your plants:

Check for salt buildup in the soil. Water should run clear from the
pot, not colored.

Make sure you are not overwatering and pots are not standing in full
saucers.

Repot, if you can, with fresh potting soil. Potting soil breaks down
over the years--loses texture and nutrients and the ability to hold
air.

Fertilize occasionally with dilute houseplant fertilizer.

M. Reed

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
Monique Reed of sci.bio.botany make plain:

For both of your plants:

Check for salt buildup in the soil. Water should run clear from the
pot, not colored.

Would this apply if I haven't been using any fertilizer?

Make sure you are not overwatering and pots are not standing in full
saucers.

They're OK on that count. They both have been doing fine for several
years, and I haven't changed anything. I give the Pothos 1/2 gal every
two weeks, and 1 qt to 1/2 gal to the other plant.

Repot, if you can, with fresh potting soil. Potting soil breaks down
over the years--loses texture and nutrients and the ability to hold
air.

That sounds like an adventure, especially for the Pothos! Do you think
either of them needs a larger pot?

Fertilize occasionally with dilute houseplant fertilizer.

Thanks so much for your feedback. They're both really nice plants, and
I'd hate to lose them.

--
Alan
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-- Mark Twain

Yes, salt build up can happen very easily if the water you use is high
in dissolved salts. You can salt-poison a plant very easily without a
whiff of fertilizer.

When is it time to repot? If you knock the plant out of the pot and
there are live roots circling the pot and the root ball takes up the
whole pot, time to go up one pot size (ca. 1" all around.) If the
soil is waterlogged and foul and there are dead roots, time to trim up
and repot with good soil in the same size pot. (Wash and sterilize
the pot first.)

M. Reed

Alan Little wrote:

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
Monique Reed of sci.bio.botany make plain:

For both of your plants:

Check for salt buildup in the soil. Water should run clear from the
pot, not colored.

Would this apply if I haven't been using any fertilizer?

Thanks for the replies, everyone. The Pothos seems to have recovered;
it's been a couple of days and no new yellow leaves. I'll definitely give
it some fertilizer though, and if the problem re-occurs, consider re-
potting it. I have a feeling that I may have missed a watering a few
weeks ago, and the plant is just so big that it took this long for the
trauma to propagate.

As for the other plant (does anyone know what it is?) I'm starting to
wonder if its behavior is natural. All of the stalks that sagged have
started curving back upward, making an 'S' shape in the stem. In fact I
discovered one stalk which I hadn't noticed before, which did the 'S'
thing quite some time ago and has been growing upward since; I've
highlighted it in the picture below. The plant is showing no other signs
of distress, so maybe this is what it's supposed to do. It was just
surprising to see it do it after three years of just standing up
straight.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02270001h.JPG

--
Alan
"Failure is impossible for those who refuse to abandon their goals."
-- Mary C. Zornio

Hi Allan

What you have there is a Deffenbachia (sp?). The "behavior" shown in your
picture is in no way unusual.

"If there is no such thing as a stupid question, then every question
deserves an answer." Anon


"Alan Little" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the replies, everyone. The Pothos seems to have recovered;
it's been a couple of days and no new yellow leaves. I'll definitely give
it some fertilizer though, and if the problem re-occurs, consider re-
potting it. I have a feeling that I may have missed a watering a few
weeks ago, and the plant is just so big that it took this long for the
trauma to propagate.

As for the other plant (does anyone know what it is?) I'm starting to
wonder if its behavior is natural. All of the stalks that sagged have
started curving back upward, making an 'S' shape in the stem. In fact I
discovered one stalk which I hadn't noticed before, which did the 'S'
thing quite some time ago and has been growing upward since; I've
highlighted it in the picture below. The plant is showing no other signs
of distress, so maybe this is what it's supposed to do. It was just
surprising to see it do it after three years of just standing up
straight.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02270001h.JPG

--
Alan
"Failure is impossible for those who refuse to abandon their goals."
-- Mary C. Zornio

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
Killey Nelson of sci.bio.botany make plain:

"Alan Little" wrote in message
...

As for the other plant (does anyone know what it is?) I'm starting to
wonder if its behavior is natural.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02270001h.JPG

What you have there is a Deffenbachia (sp?). The "behavior" shown in
your picture is in no way unusual.

Thanks very much. When I first posted, I hadn't seen the larger stem
highlighted above, just the one pictured a few posts back. It had been
standing straight up, and one morning suddenly sagged, so I got
concerned.

Thanks again, everyone.

--
Alan
"Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point." ("The heart has
its reasons that reason cannot know.")
-- Blaise Pascal

Also, perhaps it needs more light.


"Killey Nelson" wrote in message
...
Hi Allan

What you have there is a Deffenbachia (sp?). The "behavior" shown in your
picture is in no way unusual.

"If there is no such thing as a stupid question, then every question
deserves an answer." Anon


"Alan Little" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the replies, everyone. The Pothos seems to have recovered;
it's been a couple of days and no new yellow leaves. I'll definitely give
it some fertilizer though, and if the problem re-occurs, consider re-
potting it. I have a feeling that I may have missed a watering a few
weeks ago, and the plant is just so big that it took this long for the
trauma to propagate.

As for the other plant (does anyone know what it is?) I'm starting to
wonder if its behavior is natural. All of the stalks that sagged have
started curving back upward, making an 'S' shape in the stem. In fact I
discovered one stalk which I hadn't noticed before, which did the 'S'
thing quite some time ago and has been growing upward since; I've
highlighted it in the picture below. The plant is showing no other signs
of distress, so maybe this is what it's supposed to do. It was just
surprising to see it do it after three years of just standing up
straight.

http://www.holotech.net/images/02270001h.JPG

--
Alan
"Failure is impossible for those who refuse to abandon their goals."
-- Mary C. Zornio